Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,302

the binding of that Unmade, which made the singers lose their forms?”

Yes. That terrible act touched the souls of all who belong to Roshar. Spren too.

“How have no spren mentioned this?”

I don’t know. But I lost the rhythm of my Light that day. The tower stopped working. My father, Honor, should have been able to help me, but he was losing his mind. And he soon died …

There was enough sorrow in the Sibling’s voice that Navani didn’t push them for answers. This changed everything.

When that Fused touched me, the Sibling continued, she corrupted part of me to the tone of Odium. This wouldn’t have been possible, once—but it is now. She fills my system with his Light, ruining me. Corrupting me.

“So…” Navani said. “If we could find a way to destroy the Voidlight inside you, or somehow recover the rhythm you lost, you could reactivate the tower to our defense?”

I suppose. It doesn’t seem possible. I feel … like we’re doomed.

The mood shift seemed familiarly human. Indeed, Navani felt a little of the same. She rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes.

Break it down into little pieces, she reminded herself. Protect the Sibling long enough to figure out the other problems. That’s your first task.

You didn’t fill out a map all at once. You did it one line at a time. That was the soul of discovery.

But … the Sibling said.

“But?” Navani said, opening her eyes. “But what?”

But we might not need to wake up any Radiants. There are two in the tower who are still awake.

Again Navani nearly broke her calm facade. Why hadn’t the Sibling mentioned this immediately? “How?”

One makes sense to me, the Sibling said. She is awake because she was created oddly, to use Light differently from others. She was made by my mother for this purpose. But I have lost track of her, and I do not know where she is. A young woman. Edgedancer.

“Lift,” Navani said. That one always had been strange. “You can’t see her anymore?”

No. I think one reason I can see parts of the tower has to do with Radiants, who are Connected to me. I caught glimmers of this Edgedancer girl for a while, but she vanished yesterday. She was in a cage, and I suspect they surrounded her with ralkalest.

But there is one other. A man. He must be of the Fourth Ideal, but he has no armor. So … maybe of the Third, but close to the Fourth? Perhaps it is something about his closeness to my father—and his closeness to the Surge of Adhesion—that keeps him conscious. His power is that of bonds. This man is a Windrunner, but no longer wears a uniform.

Kaladin. “Can you contact him?”

* * *

Kaladin’s first goal was Stormlight. Fortunately, he knew exactly where to find some infused spheres. Workers frequently erected gemstone lanterns in busier corridors, pushing away the darkness and making the interior more welcoming and comfortable. One such project had been happening on the sixth floor, far enough from his family’s clinic that he felt it wasn’t too dangerous to try approaching.

He started by feeling his way through the darkened hallways near his hiding place on the eleventh floor. Together with Syl, he made a mental map of the area, then inched to the perimeter. Kaladin felt like he was leaving a slaver’s cage when he saw that first glimmer of sunlight in the distance, and had to keep himself from running all-out to reach it.

Slow, steady, careful. He let Syl explore on ahead. She snuck up to the balcony, then peeked out. Kaladin crouched in the darkness waiting, watching, listening. Finally she darted back and made a swirl in the air, the signal that she hadn’t seen anything suspicious.

He emerged into the light. He tried to memorize the strata here in this outermost hallway, then glanced over his shoulder back into the bowels of the eleventh floor. That corridor was basically a straight shot to his hiding place. His stupid brain imagined forgetting the way and leaving Teft to die, wasting away, perhaps waking at the end. Alone, trapped, terrified …

Kaladin shook his head, then inched out into a balcony room where he could survey the exterior of the tower. They hadn’t seen a single guard while walking here. Glancing out, he didn’t see a single Heavenly One flying. What was happening? Had they retreated for some reason?

No. He still felt the oppressive dullness, the sign of whatever they’d done to suppress the Radiants. Kaladin