Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,394

on him. He stood up, his clothing sweaty. “What time is it?”

“Midday,” she said.

“My schedule is completely off.” He tried to pull himself together as he stepped over to get a drink, but he stumbled and caught himself on the ledge. He had to grip it tightly as the nightmare threatened to resurface. Stormfather. This was the most oppressive one yet.

“Kaladin…” Syl said.

He took a long drink, then froze.

His spear was gone from beside the door.

“What happened?” he demanded, slamming the tin cup down harder than he’d intended. “Where is my spear!”

“The Sibling contacted us,” she said, still sitting on the floor. “That’s why Dabbid tried to wake you. Another node has been found—inside the well in the market. The enemy is there already.”

“Storms!” Kaladin said. “We need to go.” He reached for Navani’s fabrial and his pouch of gems. He found the latter, but the fabrial was gone.

“Dabbid?” Kaladin demanded.

“You were huddled there muttering,” Syl said, finally lifting into the air. “And you didn’t seem to be able to see me. The Sibling is terrified. I could hear them while sitting on Dabbid’s shoulder. And so…”

Kaladin grabbed the bag of gems and dashed out of the room, Syl following as a ribbon of light. He caught up with Dabbid at the first stairwell—just two hallways over. The shorter bridgeman stood with the spear and fabrial held close to his chest, staring down with a panicked expression.

He jumped as he saw Kaladin, then let out a loud relieved sigh. Kaladin took the fabrial.

“You were going to go try to stop the Fused,” Kaladin said. “Because I didn’t get up.”

Dabbid nodded.

“Dabbid, you barely know how to use a spear,” Kaladin said, quickly strapping on the fabrial. He’d had only four days of practice with the device. It would have to be enough.

Dabbid didn’t respond, of course. He helped Kaladin strap the fabrial on, then held out the spear.

Kaladin took it, then gave the Bridge Four salute.

Dabbid returned it. Then, remarkably, said something, in a voice soft and gravelly. “Life. Before. Death.”

Storms. Those were the first words Kaladin had ever heard from the man. He grinned, gripping Dabbid by the shoulder. “Life before death, Dabbid.”

Dabbid nodded. There wasn’t time for more; Kaladin turned away from the stairwell and began running again. Screams from the nightmare echoed in his head, but he didn’t have time for weakness. He had to stop the corruption of that gemstone—and barring that, he had to destroy the node. That was the only way to buy Navani the time she needed.

He had to get there quickly, which meant he couldn’t use the stairs. He’d have to go straight down through the atrium.

* * *

“I need to see the Lady of Wishes immediately!” Navani proclaimed to the guard. “I’ve made a discovery of incalculable value! It cannot wait for—”

The guard—a Regal stormform—simply started walking and gestured for her to follow. He didn’t even need the full explanation.

“Excellent,” Navani said, joining him in the hallway. “I’m glad you see the urgency.”

The guard walked her to the large stairwell that led up to the ground floor. A Deepest One stood here, her fingers laced before her. “What is it?” she asked in heavily accented Alethi. “A sudden illness?”

“No,” Navani said, taken aback. “A discovery. I think I’ve found what the Lady of Wishes was searching for.”

“But of course you can’t share it with anyone but Raboniel herself,” the Fused said, a faintly amused rhythm to her voice.

“Well, I mean…” Navani trailed off.

“I’ll see if I can reach her via spanreed,” the Fused said. “I’ll tell her it is most urgent.”

Storms. They were expecting an attempted distraction from Navani. That thought was reinforced as the Fused glided to a cabinet that had been set up by the wall. She carefully, but slowly, selected a spanreed from the collection stored there.

It was a reverse distraction. They’d known Navani would attempt something like this. But how had they known that she would know that …

She stepped back, her eyes widening as the terrible implications struck her. Kaladin was in serious danger.

* * *

Barefoot and armed with a spear, Kaladin burst out onto the walkway around the atrium, then hurled himself out into the open space eleven stories in the air. Full of Stormlight—hoping it would save him in case this didn’t work—he pointed his hand directly beneath him and engaged Navani’s fabrial.

As soon as it was activated, he lurched to a halt in the air, hovering—his muscles straining as he was basically doing a