the assassin, in case he does come today.”
Kaladin nodded, leaving the highprince behind. He’d heard about Dalinar’s visions before—and had had an inkling of their contents. He didn’t know what he thought, but he intended to get a copy of the vision records in their entirety so he could have Ka read it to him.
Perhaps these visions were why Syl was always so determined to trust Dalinar.
As the day passed, the army moved across the Plains like the flow of some viscous liquid—mud dribbling down a shallow incline. All of this so Shallan could see a chasmfiend chrysalis. Kaladin shook his head, crossing a plateau. Adolin was certainly smitten; he’d managed to roll out an entire strike force, his father included, just to sate the girl’s whims.
“Walking, Kaladin?” Adolin said, trotting up. The prince rode that white beast of a horse, the thing with the hooves like hammers. Adolin wore his full suit of blue Shardplate, helm tied to a knob on the back of the saddle. “I thought you had full requisition right from my father’s stables.”
“I have full requisition right from the quartermasters too,” Kaladin said, “but you don’t see me hiking out here with a cauldron on my back just because I can.”
Adolin chuckled. “You should try riding more. You have to admit that there are advantages. The speed of the gallop, the height of attack.” He patted his horse on the neck.
“I guess I just trust my own feet too much.”
Adolin nodded, as if that had been the wisest thing a man had ever said, before riding back to check on Shallan in her palanquin. Feeling a little fatigued, Kaladin fished in his pocket for another sphere, just a diamond chip this time, and held it to his chest. He breathed in.
Again, nothing happened. Storm it! He looked about for Syl, but couldn’t find her. She’d been so playful lately, he was starting to wonder if this was all some kind of trick. He actually hoped it was that, and not something more. Despite his inward grousing and complaints, he desperately wanted this power. He had claimed the sky, the winds themselves. Giving them up would be like giving up his own hands.
He eventually reached the edge of their current plateau, where Dalinar’s mechanical bridge was setting up. Here, blessedly, he found Syl inspecting a cremling crawling across the rocks toward the safety of a nearby crack.
Kaladin sat down on a rock beside her. “So you’re punishing me,” he said. “For agreeing to help Moash. That’s why I’m having trouble with the Stormlight.”
Syl followed along behind the cremling, which was a kind of beetle with a round, iridescent shell.
“Syl?” Kaladin asked. “Are you all right? You seem . . .”
Like you were before. When we first met. It made a feeling of dread rise within him to acknowledge it. If his powers were withdrawing, was it because the bond itself was weakening?
She looked up at him, and her eyes became more focused, her expression like that of her normal self. “You have to decide what you want, Kaladin,” she said.
“You don’t like Moash’s plan,” Kaladin said. “Are you trying to force me to change my mind regarding him?”
She scrunched up her face. “I don’t want to force you to do anything. You have to do what you think is right.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do!”
“No. I don’t think you are.”
“Fine. I’ll tell Moash and his friends that I’m out, that I’m not going to help them.”
“But you gave Moash your word!”
“I gave my word to Dalinar too. . . .”
She drew her lips to a line, meeting his eyes.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it,” Kaladin whispered. “I’ve made two promises, and I can’t keep my word to both.” Oh, storms. Was this the sort of thing that had destroyed the Knights Radiant?
What happened to your honorspren when you confronted them with a choice like this? A broken vow either way.
Idiot, Kaladin thought at himself. It seemed he couldn’t make any right choices these days.
“What do I do, Syl?” he whispered.
She flitted up until she was standing in the air just before him, eyes meeting his. “You must speak the Words.”
“I don’t know them.”
“Find them.” She looked toward the sky. “Find them soon, Kaladin. And no, simply telling Moash you won’t help isn’t going to work. We’ve gone too far for that. You need to do what your heart needs to do.” She rose upward toward the sky.
“Stay with me, Syl,” he whispered after her, standing. “I’ll figure