The Way of Kings | Chapter Summary

Below is a chapter summary of The Way of Kings, the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. 

Prelude

A man named Kalak rounds a rocky stone ridge and stumbles upon a dying beast called a thunderclast. He is walking through the aftermath of a battle, where the bodies of humans and beasts alike are lying around.

Kalak notes that he has already died and has been sent back to this place against his own volition. He had also survived an event called the Desolation, where he had to return to a similar place as this as well, and he wonders if he could simply decide not to come back. 

Nine other survivors are supposed to join him here, but only a man named Jezrien has shown up, and Kalak wonders if the others have died. He finds seven swords planted into the base of a spire, and notes that since the swords are still there, their masters are likely still alive. These swords are known as Shardblades, and they are unique and precious. 

Jezrein tells Kalak that they will have to go their separate ways, and that the other shardbearers are not to seek one another out. He announces that something called the “Oathpact” has ended. 

Kalak notes that there is an open spot where a tenth sword should have been placed in the spire. This sword belongs to one of the others who Kalak thinks they have abandoned.  

Prologue

4500 years after the events of the Prelude, a man named Szeth-son-son-Vallano has been sent to kill a king named Gavilar Kholin. He has to wear white clothing, because he must be seen by his victim as he assassinates him. This was ordered by his masters, who are Parshendi men. The Parshendi are cousins to a more docile, servant people called the parshmen. They have black skin marbled with red. 

Szeth begins to work his way through a room which holds several key people that are close to the king he is to kill. The king’s brother, Dalinark Kholin, for example, is here, as is the king’s son, Elhokar. He wonders where Jasnah Kholin is, who is the king’s daughter.

Szeth walks down a hallway directly to the king’s chambers. He is stopped by a pair of guards. He uses a skill called Lashing to fight them – this skill allows him to bind people or objects to different surfaces or in different directions. This skill, along with his Shardblade, allows him to easily kill these guards. He plunges it into one guard’s neck, which causes the man’s eyes to smoke and burn and blacken, shriveling up in his head. This is because a Shardblade does not cut living flesh, but severs the soul itself. He impales the second guard with a spear to the chest, but not before he calls out to the other guards that a shardbeareer is among them. 

Szeth then fights off several soldiers, killing them easily using his Lashing skill to move objects against them and finish them off with his Shardblade. 

The guards, however, have their own Shardbearer among them, whom Szeth engages with in combat. He is wearing Shardplate, which is difficult for his Shardblade to penetrate. Szeth notes that he will have to strike the Shardbearer in the same location several times to break through it.

He is able to defeat the Shardbearer in combat, but doesn’t bother killing him, as he is looking to kill the king instead. But pretty quickly, Szeth realizes that the king is likely hiding in plain sight, and that he is, in fact, the warrior who he just fought that was wearing the Shardplate. 

Szeth runs past him and into the king’s chambers. They duel in the chambers, and the Shardbearer punches Szeth hard in the face, knocking him over onto a wooden balcony. Szeth Lashes the balcony downwards, and its supports shatter as the structure breaks free from the building. He falls over to the side, watching as the Shardbearer—the king—-falls with the balcony to his death. The king is impaled with a piece of wood, piercing him where Szeth had broken his shardplate earlier. 

The king requests that Szeth tell his brother that “he must find the most important words a man could say.” To Szeth’s people, the Shinovar, a dying request is sacred, and so he takes the king’s hand and dips it in his own blood to write his final words on the wood. He then escapes into the night.

Chapter 1

Five years after King Gavilar’s assassination, a man named Cenn worries that he is going to die on a battlefield. A veteran in his squadron named Dallet reassures him that he is going to be fine because he is in Kaladin Stormblessed’s squad. Kaladin arrives a few minutes later, claiming that he paid good money to get Cenn away from another man named Gare, whom he claims is incompetent. 

The man named Dallet tells Cenn that most of the men in their squad don’t have much more training than himself, because those who can fight well end up getting sent to the Shattered Plans to fight the Parshendi. He claims that Kaladin is trying to get them into shape to go there and to fight for the king. Ostensibly, the battle that Cenn is fighting in is relatively unimportant.

Cenn doesn’t even know who the enemy is, in fact. He assumes it is a landlord who was encroaching on Brightlord Amaram’s territory, which is ultimately owned by a high-prince by the name of Sedeas. To Cenn, this is nothing more than a border skirmish with another Alethi princedom, and he wonders why they are even fighting each other. He notes that the king could put a stop to it, but he is busy fighting the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains, and getting vengeance for the murder of his brother, King Gavilar, from five years earlier.

During the battle, a volley of arrows fly past Cenn’s squadron. The squad then engages in a fight, where they handily win. Then, the battlefield erupts into chaos, and Cenn’s squad abandons the hill they were defending. They retreat past several dead bodies. Cenn mistakes a group of soldiers for his allies during his retreat and has to fight them. A man drives a spear into his thigh. Just when he is about to be killed, Kaladin comes in out of nowhere and saves him. 

Later, a Shardbearer appears on the enemy side. Kaladin wants to kill him, because if they kill an officer that high, they will be guaranteed to be in the next group that fights on the Shattered Plains. But Cenn loses all hope at this point, believing they stand no chance fighting against such a powerful foe.

Chapter 2

Eight months later, Kaladin is riding through the coast of the Unclaimed Hills in a wagon as a captured slave. It is being driven by a large, cretaceous creature called a Chull by a slaver named Tvlakv and a couple of mercenaries.

He now wears three brands on his forehead to mark his slave status, one of which claims him to be dangerous. Another slave remarks to him that he has escaped before, and begs him to take him with the next time he does. Kaladin claims he’s escaped ten times in the past eight months, fleeing from five different masters, and that none of his escape attempts have worked. The slave asks him how he got the first brand on his forehead, and Kaladin tells him it’s because he has killed a lighteyes.

Hours later, the slaver calls the wagon to a halt. Kaladin absentmindedly rubs a couple of leaves, which apparently are poisonous, in between his palms. He wonders about using them on Tvlakv, or possibly even himself.

Then, a translucent figure called a Spren appears in front of him. The spren are common in this world, floating around everywhere, and ignored mostly by everyone. This spren—a windspren in particular—is acting odd, and it knows Kaladin’s name, which isn’t usual for a spren. Kaladin asks how it knows his name, but the spren doesn’t know. The spren asks Kaladin why he doesn’t fight back against his captors. 

Later, another slave is having coughing fits, and Kaladin requests that the slavors and the mercenaries give him extra water with sugar every couple of hours for a few days. Instead of helping the slave, however, one of the mercenaries kills the coughing slave.

While this is happening, Kaladin accidentally drops his poisonous leaves, which he can no longer use because he no longer has enough of them for them to be potent.

Chapter 3

A young woman named Shallan is traveling on a ship to a city called Kharbranth, known as the City of Bells. She is sailing with a man named Captain Tozbek, who is apparently a pagan, and his crew. 

Shallan is quite nervous, for she has concocted a duplicitous plan with her brothers. She has been chasing Jasnah Kholin, the sister of the king, from town to town for the better part of six months now.

When they arrive at the city, the captain tells Shallan that Jasnah is likely at the Conclave, staying in the Palanaeum, which is the center of the city, with the king of the city. He tells her that a man named Yalb will show her the way. While she waits for Yalb, she begins sketching a skyeel in her portfolio. The man named Yalnb then returns with  a strange contraption with two large wheels and a canopy-covered seat to carry her into the city. 

Once they reach the center of the city, Shallan pays the man with some glass spheres, which contain gemstones at their center. The gemstones can absorb Stormlight, making them glow. Each gemstone is made out of shards of either ruby, emerald, diamond, or sapphire. The emeralds are the most valuable, because they can be used by Soulcasters to create food. She gives the man three diamond chips, the smallest denomination.

Later, we learn that Shallan is chasing Jasnah because her father is dead and her family’s house was bankrupt, indebted to several people, and that the first step to avoid her family being worked to the bone as punishment or assassinated by disgruntled creditors is to find Jasnah.

Chapter 4

Kaladin is still rolling along in the slave wagon in the afternoon on a sunny day, and the strange spren he had met earlier is asking him why he doesn’t cry at night like the others. He tells her to Ask the Almighty why men cry, because he doesn’t.

The slaver Tvlakv gets lost, and he asks Kaladin if the knows anything of the area, handing him a map. Kaladin takes it from him and rips it up. The slaver tells him that he is a clever deserter, and that since he is from this area (unlike the other slaves), he can bargain. He offers him an extra meal a day in exchange for directions. Kaladin tells him to find a cliff so he can throw him off of it. 

The slaver reveals that he knows Kaladin was in Highlord Amaram’s army, and likely wants revenge on him, and that he knows Kaladin didn’t get one of the marks on his head for deserting. Kaladin is surprised he knows about Lord Amaram. The slaver tells him that with that one particular mark on his head—the sash glyph—it will be difficult for him to fetch a good price for Kaladin, so he will go on pretending that Kaladin is a deserter, while Kaladin is to say nothing. 

Later, the wagon is stopped to shelter through a highstorm, which is one of the unique features of Roshar – it is prone to highly intense storms that can kill people if they are not careful. The storm eventually clears, and the wagon continues on.

They roll into an encampment flying the banners of House Kholin—they have reached the Shattered Plains, where House Kholin and several other high princes are waging war against the Parshendi for killing King Gavilar five years ago. Kaladin can’t believe his luck, because he had spent years trying to get to the shattered plains with his brother Tien to be able to fight in this war.

The slaves, likewise, are relieved to be here, because they’ve heard the king’s household servants live as well as the finest merchants, and so they assume the slaves are better off as well.

Chapter 5

Shallan is taken by Jasnah Kholin’s beauty. She is listening to King Taravangian, the King of Kharbranth, while Shallan watches her. She notices that Jasnah has a distinctive piece of jewelry on her free hand—a Soulcaster—the word used for both the people who performed the process of Soulcasting and the fabrial that made it possible. 

Jasnah leaves the king to attend to Shallan. Jasnah is impressed with Shallan’s tenacity in following her, and says that she will allow her to petition her for a place as her ward. Jasnah then grills her in her knowledge of various subjects—music, languages, writing, logic, history, and science—but is unimpressed. She tells Shallan that she has already had eleven other women petition to be her ward this year alone.

They reach the end of a hallway, where a large chunk of rock has fallen from the ceiling, while a dozen or so attendants look on anxiously. Apparently, King Taravangian’s daughter is trapped beneath the rock. Jasnah uses her Soulcaster on the rock, which causes it to vanish entirely in wisps of smoke. Shallan realizes this is a particularly powerful Soulcaster, because it can effectuate any transformation, while other soulcasters are limited to certain transformations, like creating water or grain from stone, for example. 

Shallan tells Jasnah she could still make a good ward for her because of her skills in the feminine arts—the visual arts, in particular. Jasnah tells her the visual arts are a frivolity, however, and that she cannot accept her.

But Shallan is still determined to become her ward, because she wants to steal her Soulcaster. 

Chapter 6

Tvlakv releases all the slaves from their cage and lines them up for a light-eyed woman to observe. She notices the sash glyph on Kaladin’s forehead, and asks Kaladin how he ended up here. Kaladin says that he had killed someone, and lies, saying that he got drunk and made some mistakes. He tells her to give him a spear and let him fight again. Tvalvk tells the woman not to trust him, because he is known to disobey and lead rebellions against his masters. He says he couldn’t sell him to her as a bonded soldier, because his conscience wouldn’t allow it. The woman says to have Kaladin and nine other slaves join the bridge crews.

Kaladin is now under the care of a man named Gaz in one of the bridge crews—Bridge Four. He is placed at the back of the bridge as he and several of the other bridgemen lift a large, wooden bridge into the air and carry it across the shattered plains, crossing bridge after bridge, plateau after plateau. He is barefoot and without much clothing.

They lay the bridge across one of the chasms, and the army’s cavalry crosses it. A shardbearer is among them, and Kaladin asks if that is the king’s uncle, Dalinar. An old man in his crew responds that it is not, because Dalinar doesn’t use bridgemen in his army. Rather, they are in Sadeas’s army.

They jog across the plateau and lower the bridge across another chasm, and go back to carrying the bridge again, repeating the process a good dozen times. They approach the battlefield, where Kaladin is placed at the front of the bridge. Kaladin can see the Parshendi across the chasm, and notes how much stronger and bigger they are than their cousins, the parshmen. 

A wave of arrows showers over them, and the old man next to Kaladin is killed. Several around Kaladin fall with each volley of arrows, and one of the arrows slices open the skin of his cheek. They drop the bridge and push the bridge across the chasm. Kaladin nearly falls over the chasm and manages to catch himself. Then, he passes out.

Kaladin awakes to the spren from earlier telling him to get up or he is going to die. Hours have passed, and he is surrounded by dead bodies. They’ve come upon a plateau where an enormous, dead crustacean lay. Kaladin finds the old man who had died earlier, taking his leather vest, sandals, and lacing shirt. The spren tells him that her name is Sylphrena, or Syl, for short.

Gaz tells Kaladin to return to carrying the bridge. Exhausted and angry at Gaz for having expected him to die, he continues on.

Chapter 7

Shallan hurries down the hallway after Jasnah, determined to change her mind about taking her on as a ward. She thinks about her father, revealing that he had been using a forbidden Soulcaster to give him the money he needed to further his political goals. She carries that Soulcaster with her now—which had been damaged and is unusable—and plans to replace the one she steals from Jasnah with the broken one.

Shallan finds a servant who takes her to the Planaeum. She waits in one of the reading alcoves for Jasnah, who is spending time in another alcove.  While she waits, Shallan sketches several drawings in her portfolio, one of which is a brilliant sketch of Jasnah herself. She writes a letter to Jasnah on the back of it, arguing that she would make a great ward because she has had to struggle and fight for everything she has learned, rather than being a ward who would simply repeat correct answers back to her because an overpriced tutor had taught them.

An ardent (who is a type of religious servant) named Brother Kasbal finds her and strikes up a conversation. He lacquers her artwork for her skillfully. He asks Shallan to let Jasnah know he has called on her, for he has been trying to convert her to his religion. He asks Shallan what she is fond of, and he tells him that she is fond of jam.

Shallan leaves her letter to Jasnah on a desk and waits for her. Jasnah appears moments later, looking angry and surrounded by servants.

Chapter 8

Jasnah tells Shallan she has wasted enough of her time already and asks her to withdraw from trying to be her ward. She then returns Shallan’s spheres to her. Shallan tells her that Brother Kabsal had come to see her, to which Jasnah says she isn’t surprised. She shows Jasnah her letter, and Jasnah admits it was a clever maneuver, noting the skill that Shallan has with words and rhetoric. 

Jasnah lightens up, saying that she will allow Shallan to petition her again at a later date. She says that once Shalland has had sufficient groundwork in history and philosophy, she may come to Jasnah again. If she has improved suitably, Jasnah will accept her.

Shallan then finds Yalb outside the Planaeum’s entrance and asks him to take her to a book merchant. 

They arrive at a merchant’s shop by the name of Artemyrn. Shallan requests an extensive set of books on history and three on philosophy, naming off the authors Jasnah had mentioned when she was grilling Shallan on her knowledge of various subjects. 

The man is skeptical of her request, thinking she should be looking for easier books to read. He tries to charge her a hefty sum for the books, but Yalb steps in, claiming that he has a master that will sell her much finer books at a better price. After haggling a little bit, Shallan is able to get the books at a price she can afford. 

She then returned to the alcoves to read. She joins Jasnah in her alcove and sets to work, planning to learn everything she can to present herself again to Jasnah when she is ready to leave Kharbranth. 

Jasnah speaks with her, and she believes that Shallan has come to build a tactically sound alliance so that she could marry. Shallan goes along with the misinterpretation of her motives. Jasnah then looks at her sketchbook, wondering why she has made them. Shallan responds it was because she had wanted to. Because Shallan seeks scholarship in her free time for its own sake, Jasnah decides to take her on as a ward.

Chapter 9

Kaladin realizes that he has not been assigned to Bridge Four by chance—he has been assigned there because it has the highest casualty rate. This is particularly notable, because the average bridge crews often lost one-third to one-half of their number on a single run. He wonders how long he had been here, thinking it had been somewhere between two to three weeks, but it had felt like an eternity.

Syl talks to him, and he tells her that he is neither a person who takes lives or saves them, but that he is only a victim. He thinks about how the armies waste resources and bridgemen lives and realizes that they don’t seem to care about pushing inward and assaulting the Parshendi. Instead, they only fight pitched battles on plateaus. A voice inside him tells him that this is wrong, but he ignores it. 

He goes off on afternoon duty, lifting logs into piles with the bridge crew. A handful of new bridgemen show up, ten of which had been caught smuggling. One of them is a young boy, and Kaladin feels an instinct to protect him. Syl announces she is leaving.

The young boy that had shown up in Kaladin’s bridge crew dies during their next run. He finds the boy’s body, and thinks about the time Tien had died.

That night, Kaladin huddles in the barrack, listening to a highstorm buffet the wall. For the first time in over eight months, he finds himself crying.

Chapter 10

It is nine years prior to the current events of the novel, and Kaladin is assisting his father in surgery at just ten years old. They are working on a patient named Sani who has injured her hand. They are able to repair the hand, although they are unable to save one of her fingers. Despite this, Kaladin still thinks that Sani’s parents will make a small donation to Kaladin’s family as a token of thanks. Kaladin’s father, Lirin, doesn’t charge for his services—instead, he relies on small donations from the families of the patients he tends to.

Kaladin’s father asks him why he was late to this particular surgery, and Kaladin tells him he was with a boy named Jam, whose father has trained him in using the quarterstaff. He and his brother Tien had gone to see what he had learned. Kaladin’s father argues that their society needs surgeons more than they need soldiers. Later, he tells Kaladin that he would like to send him to Kharbranth when he turns sixteen to train with real surgeons. Kaladin is excited at the prospect of this.

Chapter 11

It is present-day again, and Kaladin walks through a crowded barrack after a highstorm. He runs into Gaz on his way out, who is retrieving his spheres from the storm. He tells Gaz that he is heading to the Honor Chasm. Gaz tells him to leave his sandals and vest behind because he doesn’t want to fetch them. This is because the Honor Chasm is the place where bridgement like Kaladin go to take their lives.

Just as Kaladin is about to step over the chasm to plunge to his death, Syl calls out for him. She has brought him the poisonous leaf that he had lost in Tvlakv’s wagon. She tells him that she used to watch him when he fought in the army and that she had observed him protecting the young, untrained men. Kaladin says that he has failed them, to which Syl responds that they would have died more quickly without him, and that they were grateful for him. This sways Kaladin to keep living. He feels a flame of determination come alight inside of him.

He returns to Gaz and strangles him. He tells him that Bridge Four is his now, and that he is going to be the bridge leader. He then bribes Gax with one fifth of his wages to keep him honest. He asks one of the bridgemen what his name is, and the man responds that his name is Teft. Kaladin introduces himself as the new bridgeleader.

He then moves down the line of bridgemen, prodding or threatening them until each man gives him his name. He vows to himself that he will find a way to protect them.

I-1

A man named Ishikk splashes his way through a lake with pole buckets of fish on his shoulders. He is on his way to meet with some foreigners in a village called Fu Abra. 

He goes to a home owned by a woman named Maib, who has apparently been courting him. He meets with the foreigners in there, whom he names Grump, Blunt, and Thinker, based on their personalities. He reports to them that has been unable to find the foreigner that they are seeking, who is a man with white hair, a clever tongue, and an arrow-like face that goes by the name of Hoid.

I-2

A man named Nan Balat sits on the porch of his mansion, pulling the legs off a small crab one at a time, relishing in the process. He stands up, leaning on his cane, looking out over the Davar gardens. He thinks about his sister, Shallan. It has been nearly six months since her departure, and just this morning, he received word from her via a spanreed that she had succeeded in the first part of her plan, becoming Jasnah Kholin’s ward. 

He approaches his Axehound, Scrak, who has managed to catch a songling bird in its mouth. He tells Scrak that he couldn’t have gone to chase Jasnah, that only a woman could get close enough to her to steal the Soulcaster. He worries about Shallan and thinks about how his family is broken, recalling how his father’s brutal temper had driven his siblings Asha Jushu and Tet Wikim to despair. He also thinks of his oldest brother, Nan Helaran, who is dead now. He notes that both he and his deceased father had left behind a family of cripples. 

Wikim approaches him, telling him that they have a big problem.

I-3

Szeth-son-son-Vallano sits in a wooden tavern in the company of some mine workers, one of whom—Took—is his current master. Took shows the others how obedient Szeth is to him, commanding him to do several things, including cutting himself with a blade. He then tells Szeth to cut his own throat, to which Szeth responds that he is forbidden to take his own life because he is Truthless.

The miners ask Took how he had come by Szeth, to which he tells them a fabricated tale. In reality, Szethe’s previous master was a farmer in a nearby village who had traded Szeth to Took for a sack of seeds. He had had dozens of masters before him, going all the way back to the night he had killed King Gavilar five years prior. The Parshendi had tossed his Oathstone away as they fled Kholinar, and Szeth had been required to recover it and stand there beside the road, where his first master—-a merchant by the name of Avado—had found him. That merchant had made his way back to Jah Keved with Szeth. None of his masters since had realized what a dangerous weapon Szeth truly was.

Eventually, Took leaves the tavern and has Szeth follow him through the poor districts of a town called Ironsway. Took is suddenly killed in the streets and dies with a knife lodged into his neck. The men who killed Took debate what to do with Szeth, noting that he is Shin and is likely harmless. One of them is holding his Oathstone, and so Szeth tells him that as long as he possesses it, he is his master and that he must obey him in all things aside from an order to kill himself. The man is intrigued by the opportunity.

Chapter 12

Adolin, cousin to King Elhokar and son of highprince Dalinar Kholin, rides in a grand procession with his brother Renarin along with thousands of soldiers, servants, and scribes. 

Adolin thinks about his father and the visions he has been having lately. He tells Renarin that he had another vision the previous night during a highstorm. He wonders what visions his father has been having and why he had so often mentioned the Knights Radiant after his episodes.

He then overhears High Prince Sadeas boasting about a recent victory where he had won another gemheart two days back. He worries that Sadeas is preparing to strike against his father since he knows that Dalinar is weakening. He and Renarin talk about the women who have been courting him and how they are upset with him for his exploits with other women.

The chapter then shifts to Dalinar’s point of view. He and his nephew, King Elhokar, are riding up in the front of the procession. Elhokar bets him five full broams that he can beat him to the top of a towering rock. They ride out away from the procession and hop off their horses at the base of the rock, racing each other to the top of it as they climb at impressive speeds in their shardplate, which allows them to propel themselves quickly up the formation.

Dalinar pulls ahead of his nephew and is about to win the race to the top of the rock when he hears a voice in his head saying to “Unite them.” This causes him to pause for a moment and allows for Elhokar to beat him to the top. Dalinar notes how paranoid Elhokar’s been about being assassinated lately, and tells that he could find no trace of trespassers on his balcony the other night. 

Later, the chapter returns to Adolin’s POV. He has managed to get his mind off his father and Sadeas, and is instead contemplating just how he was going to explain his falling out with a woman named Rilla in a way that would earn him some sympathy with a woman named Janala.

He takes some reports from the scouts of the army, then passes by some of Sadeas’s men, overhearing them talking about Dalinar’s weaknesses. He worries that they view him as nothing more than Elhokar’s glorified bodyguard. He notes that Dalinar had once been feared, and that men didn’t used to whisper such things about him. 

He then goes to give the king his scouting report. He notes Sadeas’s jealousy of his Shardblade, as he has coveted one for years now.  He gives the scouting report to his father, saying that no Parshendi have been seen nearby. 

He wonders why they are going on this hunt, and Dalinar tells him that the king is learning to lead, and that he needs this hunt that they are about to embark upon, which could bolster his reputation and confidence. He tells Adolin that he wants to convince the king to leave the shattered plains altogether. Adolin tells him not to tell the king about this, as he fears his father will look weak for it.

The King’s Wit—-a jester that insults people for him—then approaches. He is new at the position, and Adolin notes that there is something different about him and that he seems to know things that he shouldn’t know. The King’s Wit pokes fun at Renarin, much to Dalinar’s chagrin. 

Dalinar and his sons rejoin the king, who is approached by the day’s huntmaster. The huntmaster explains that they are using hog carcasses as bait to catch a beast known as a chasmfiend, who has been spotted nearby. The bait, which is supposed to be tied to a chull, is completely gone, however.

The chasmfiend then rises out of the chasm onto the plateau they are standing upon. 

Chapter 13

Dalinar summons a Shardblade in the timespan of roughly ten heartbeats. In the meantime, the chasmfiend slams an arm down, smashing a bridge filled with attendants and soldiers, sending them to their deaths in the chasm below.

At last, Dalinar’s Shardblade, Oathbringer, forms in his hand. Adolin charges past him on his horse. Moments later, Dalinars horse arrives, and Dalinar rides him to face off with the chasmfiend. He and Adolin each take different sides, slicing off the chasmfiend’s limbs with their Shardblades as they ride by.

Meanwhile, Elhokar charges directly for the beast’s chest, and Dalinar saves his life just in the nick of time, before the chasmfiend’s claw comes crashing down upon him. Elhokar then distracts the monster while Dalinar slices more of its limbs off. 

The chasmfiend nearly kills Elhokar with its claw again, but Sadeas is able to strike it in the head with an arrow. In its weakened state, Elhokar is then able to drive his Shardblade into its heart. The chasmfiend’s tail then swings into Dalinar, tossing him backwards.

Renarin runs into the fray, and Dalinar yells at him to retreat, for he is wearing no armor nor is he armed. Adolin then catachs the beast’s claws and is flung backward. However, he is okay because of his Shardplate. Elhokar, meanwhile, is in danger. Another claw is coming for him, and Dalinar saves him again just in the nick of time, this time catching the beast’s claw in his hands and holding it off with his own strength. 

By this point, the chasmfiend has lost all of its legs on one side, and the beast topples to its side, finally defeated. Elhokar rams its blade into its neck, and it dies. Then, he rips free the beast’s gemheart, which is an enormous gemstone that grows within all chasmfiends. It is the largest gemheart Adolin has ever seen, and is therefore worth a fortune.

Chapter 14

Kaladin rises before the others in the barracks and awakens them, commanding them to organize. 

A bridgemen named Moash tells him off, but Kaladin punches him in the gut. He claims he will do the same to the rest of them if he has to. The shocked bridgemen get up and file out into the sunlight. 

Kaladin tells them they are going to train each morning before their daily chores, that they will run the bridge in practice to build up their endurance. He says it is to make them stronger, so that when they charge the last leg of a bridge run—where the arrows fly at them—they can run away quickly.

Moash asks Gaz if they have to do what Kaladin says. Gaz says that they don’t because bridgeleaders only have authority in the field. The men break apart, refusing to do the extra training.

Kaladin then confronts Gaz, telling him to remember their bargain and to stay out of his way. He then asks Syl to watch over him at night and to make sure that Gaz doesn’t try to sneak in and kill him while he is sleeping.

Later, Kaladin asks to borrow a plank from a carpenter that is waiting to be fitted into a new portable bridge. He then practices running, walking, and jogging with it, carrying the plank on his shoulders, working himself ragged. He draws a small crowd of workers, soldiers, and bridgemen in the lumberyard.

A man named Rock approaches him, and says he bet the others that the bridge he was using was a lightweight one. Kaladin hands him the bridge, showing to him that it is heavy, forcing Rock to pay out his bets. 

He tells the bridgemen they are dismissed for lunch, and that they have afternoon bridge duty, so they must be back in an hour. He tells them to assemble at the mess hall at the last meal before sundown, and that their camp chore for the day is to clean up after supper. 

Later, Syl tells Kaladin that she is changing and that she knows things she didn’t just a few days ago. She tells him that she can’t remember anything farther back than about a year ago when she first saw him.

Chapter 15

For hours after the chasmfiend attack, Adolin is still overseeing the cleanup. Nearly fifty men have died in the attack, and twice as many are wounded.

After witnessing Dalinar’s strength in catching the chasmiend’s claw in his own hands, the other lighteyes in camp step more lightly around him now, and Adolin hasn’t heard a single mention of his weakness, not even from Sadeas’s men, which he fears won’t last.

He leaves to give the final casualty report to the king in hopes that he will be able to eavesdrop on Sadeas. 

The chapter switches to Dalinar’s POV, where we learn that he remembers nothing of his late wife. She has been excised from his memory, and is nothing but a blur. He cannot even remember her name, not even when others speak it. 

He leaves Adolin to make his report and walks up to the chasm fiend’s carcass, feeling a strange melancholy after having killed it. He notes that the gemhearts have changed everything for the war. The Parshendi had wanted them just as badly as the Alethi, extending themselves to get them. This is because the gemheart’s were worth enough to cover a highprince’s expenses for months. And the larger a gemstone, the more likely it could be used by a Soulcaster, which could help feed an army and build structures for them.

Later, he seeks out a man named Vamah in the king’s pavilion, and Elhokar interrupts him. He asks Dalinar how many gemhearts he has won, which Dalinar admits he hasn’t won any, saying that he has been busy with other important things. Sadeas asks him what is more important than the war. Elhokar tells him he should switch to bridges like Sadeas. Dalinar says that his bridges waste many lives, and that he would not have his bridgemen do anything he wouldn’t, like run out into battle without armor or arms. Sadeas tells him he doesn’t arm his bridgemen because it distracts the Parshendi from firing at his soldiers.

Dalinar reminds Sadeas that they are in a war, not a contest, to which Sadeas responds that he is failing this contest spectacularly. Adolin interjects, nearly calling Sadeas a coward. Dalinar rebukes Adolin for his outburst. Sadeas then insults both Dalinar’s children, saying that Renarin is incompetent. Renarin flushes at the insult. Dailnar says the insult would require him to challenge Sadeas to a duel, to which Sadeas backs down.

Later, Wit shows up and begins insulting Sadeas, much to his chagrin. Sadeas leaves, and Dalinar has Renarin go and get a report on the wounded. Meanwhile, he has Adolin come with him on a request Elhokar has made of him. 

They investigate a long leather strap, which is the girth to King Elhokar’s saddle. The king suspects it was cut before the battle with the chasmfiend, which had thrown him off his horse. Dalinar notes that the break in the strap is smoother on one side, indicating that it could’ve been sliced so that it would rip when it was stressed. Dalinar asks Adolin to see if he can backtrack the girth’s history, and to have a leatherworker look at it and tell him what he thinks of the rip. He also tells him to ask the grooms if they noticed anything, and to watch and see if any have received any suspicious windfalls of spheres lately.

Later, Dalinar finds Vamah and tells him to be certain to tell His Majesty that he’ll be wanting to purchase extra access to Soulcasters for lumber. He does this to remind Vamah of how much he relies on the king. He then approaches Sadeas, who says that Vamah will see that it’s better to use Soulcasters than to spend a fortune running a supply line back to Alethkar. Sadeas’s province has plenty of lumber, which he doesn’t want to waste on Vamah. Adolin is surprised at how the two men, who seem to hate each other, are working together to manipulate Vamah for Elhokar’s benefit. 

Shades tells Dalinar that he is not going to find the answer to why Gaviler had written what he did before his death. He tells Adolin that Gaviler’s final words to him were to “follow the Codes tonight,” and that “there is something strange upon the winds.” He tells Adolin that the Codes are important and that he needs to understand them. He then asks Adolin if he knows Sadeas’s part in Gaviler’s death. Adolin responds that he was the decoy for the assassin. Dalinar tells him that he and Sadeas both failed in protecting Gaviler that night, and that they both share in the responsibility in protecting Elhokar. Therefore, he is not their enemy.

He tells Adolin that when Sadeas discovered the king’s body, he found the words, “Brother, you must find the most important words a man can say,” written in blood. Dalinar tells him it’s a quote from an ancient book called The Way of Kings, and that Gaviler had read it often before the end of his life.

Dalinar then reports back to Elhokar about the strap on his horse. He warns him to avoid leaping to any conclusions. He then tells Adolin to go gather his men.

He finds his stallion, Gallant, and tells the grooms to give it extra feed that night. He thinks about a passage from The Way of Kings, which suggests that perhaps a king and his poorest of men should switch roles more often to see from one another’s perspective. The book, for controversial statements like these, does not have a good reputation. He observes the bridgemen, noting how they are the lowest in the army, yet bear the weight of kings.

Chapter 16

It’s seven and a half years prior to the events of the novel, and Kaladin is spending time with his brother Tien and a lighteyes girl named Laral on a ridge near his hometown of Hearthstone. He tells Laral about his father wanting to send him to Kharbranth to become a surgeon. She wonders if he should be a soldier instead, potentially winning a Shardblade and becoming a lighteyes. He is not sure what he wants to do himself. A part of him wants to become a soldier to change things, to go to war and protect Alethkar, and fight alongside heroic lighteyes. 

Tien brings him a rock he finds, which inexplicably makes Kal feel better about his predicament. He sends Tien off to go see if he can find more.

Then, he and Laral notice a group of boys gathering at the foot of one of the hills. They approach them, and Kal asks why they’re not currently “worming,” which is a farming-like profession for them. The boys don’t respond kindly to this question, resenting Kaladan for never having to do hard, physical labor like them.

The boys say that he is not a real dark-eyes like them, because Kal is of a different “nahn,” or class, than they are. Kal tells them a darkeyes can become a lighteyes, however, by winning a Shardblade on the battlefield. 

One of the boys, Jost, claims that his father had a Shardblade stolen from him on the battlefield. Kaladin says that this isn’t possible, because there were not any Shardbearers in the skirmishes his father had fought in up north. Jost takes offense to this, and challenges Kaladin to a fight with quarterstaffs. 

Kaladin accepts the challenge, and they fight. He takes some blows from Jost, but is able to counter back and injure Jost’s hand, feeling an excitement overcome him as he fights. One of the other boys takes out Kal’s legs, and as he is getting up to fight back, they take his quarterstaff away from him, effectively ending the fight. Laral leaves them.

Before the boys leave, however, Kal begs Jost to teach him how to fight. He tells him that he will worm for him with the two hours he gets off from working with his father every afternoon. Jost refuses, however, saying Kaladin’s father wouldn’t be happy about that.

Kaladin returns home, and his father is distraught. He has just learned that Hearthstone’s citylord, Brightlord Wistiow, has died, and that those in Kholinar will appoint them a new citylord. He tells Kaladin that he is to be sent to Kharbranth when he turns sixteen, as Brightlord Wistiow had requested it done as a last act to care for his people.

Chapter 17

It’s present day again, and Kaladin seeks out an apothecary, asking for some bandages, a flask of lister’s oil or knobweed sap, and a needle and gut. He haggles with the apothecary for the various items, and is able to attain them despite having to give the apothecary a dead sphere (which can later be recharged in a storm).

He returns to the lumberyard, and a horn for battle summons his bridge crew to the fray. He rounds up the bridgemen and they rush out to the Shattered Plains to get there before the Parshendi do. They lay their bridge across a chasm, and rather than resting, Kaladin ands tall as the soldiers in the army cross it, bowing to Sadeas, despite his disdain for the man.

The Parshendi arrive, working quickly to break open the chrysalis of a chasmfiend to get its gemheart. Sadeas rushes out to battle, and the bridgemen have to move again. 

Although it’s his turn at the back of the bridge, Kaladin takes position in the front in place of Rock. They raise the bridge and are met with a volley of arrows. Several of the men around Kaladin fall immediately, but Kaladin survives, and they are able to lay the bridge across the chasm for the cavalry to cross.

After this happens, Kaladin rushes out to retrieve the wounded bridgemen around him. He pulls several men away to safety.

He is unable to save a man namedGadol, but he begins to work on the other wounded men, cauterizing and washing out wounds, sewing up gashes, and setting limbs, much to his fellow bridgemen’s amazement. He is able to save a man named Leyten and another man named Hobber. He decides that they will tie these men to the top of the bridge and carry them, since they can no longer walk themselves.

Gaz opposes this, however, claiming that his immediate superior, Lamaril, won’t stand for it. Kaladin tells him to send Bridge Four in last to lead the wounded soldiers back to camp, since Lamaril won’t go with that troop. Gaz still protests, but Kaladin threatens to kill him, and gives him a sphere, reminding him of their agreement. Gaz asks him why he cares, to which Kaladin responds, “they’re my men.” He counts on Gaz’s greed to keep him in line.

Chapter 18

Adolin speaks with the leatherworkers who are examining King Elhokar’s strap. They seem to think it was cut, but they are not sure if the cut was intentional, so he is unable to make a determination if foul play was involved. A girl named Janala accompanies him in this errand, unhappy with the activity Adolin has involved her in. Adolin hears the horns for battle, but his father does not call his army forth, much to his disappointment. 

Meanwhile, Dalinar and Renarin climb a hill to King Elhokar’s compound. Teshav, a wife of one of Elhokar’s officers, greets him, updating him on Adolin’s saddle girth investigation, saying that nobody has witnessed any interference with the saddle or Elhokar’s horse. He tells Teshav to draft a missive in the king’s name, decreasing Soulcasting costs for those who have made payments to the king on time. He is hoping that this will help to keep the highprinces of Alethkar more united. 

He speaks with Renarin about the hunt the week prior, telling him that he shouldn’t have rushed into battle as he did, asking him what would have happened if he had had one of his fits. He tells Renarin that fighting is not the only thing of value a man can do. He thinks about how one could pick a profession and an attribute of the Almighty to emulate—A Calling and a Glory. He notes how his Calling was to be a leader, and his chosen Glory was determination.

He speaks to Renarin again, saying that perhaps it’s time again to try training him in the sword. Renarin protests this, based on his blood weakness, but Dalinar says this won’t matter as much with a Shardplate and a Shardblade. He promises him that if he captures another Blade and Plate, he will give them both to Renarin.

Adolin, meanwhile, meets up with one of the religious ardents at camp, a man named Kadash. Kadash asks him if he has come to speak about his Calling, of which Adolin has made little progress lately. Adolin notes how his chosen Calling is dueling, and resents the fact that the Codes say he is supposed to limit his dueling, as frivolous dueling could wound officers who might be needed in battle. 

Instead, Adolin asks Kadash if it’s possible his father is really seeing visions sent by the Almighty. Kadash explains to Adolin that his father is the Almighty’s guardian of his people, set to watch him and make certain he doesn’t rise above his station. He asks him if he knows of the Hierocracy, the War of Loss. Adolin says that the church had tried to seize control and that the priests had tried to conquer the world. Kadash explains that the priests had made false prophecies to gain power. He does not accuse Adolin’s father of fabricating his visions, but he tells him that his religion does not allow him to condone mysticism or prophecy in any form because of what happened in the War of Loss. Instead, he suggests that Dalinar’s visions are a product of his own mind. 

Later, Dalinar finally speaks to Elhokar. Elhokar wonders at why the Parshendi would’ve killed his father, claiming them to be primitive brutes. Dalinar asks him how much longer they should continue this war. He points out that their resources are strained, and that word from home is that the Reshi border encroachments are growing bolder. He says they are still fragmented as a people, and that the long, drawn out nature of this war is not helping with that. Elhokar argues that they are winning, however, and claims that Dalinar is sounding like his father near the end, when he began to act erratically. 

Worried about the squabbling highprinces, Dalinar comes up with an idea. He suggests to Elhokar that he names him Highprince of War. The King says that if he can show him that the highprinces are willing to work with him on this, then he will consider doing this.

Dalinar then leaves with Renarin. As they ride out back to Dalinar’s warcamp, they are caught up in a sudden highstorm. They have to take shelter in a stone-walled barrack with the common soldiers.

Chapter 19

Dalinar awakens during one of his visions, the twelfth one he has had so far. He finds himself in a dark room, with a terrified little girl clutching onto him who thinks he is her father. 

A dark creature with soft skin bursts through the walls and into the room. Dalinar throws a sack of sand at it, distracting it. He then throws the girl over his shoulder and dashes past the creature, barreling through the hole the dark creature had created in the wall. 

He then finds himself in a small lait. He brings the girl to a barn, where a middle-aged woman stands inside, looking terrified. She slams the doors behind them, and is relieved that Dalinar, who she believes is her husband, Heb, has returned. 

Another one of these dark creatures crashed through the window of the barn. Dalinar grabs a fire poker as a second creature enters the room. The beasts attack him, and he is able to fend them off with the poker, the old thrill of battle overcoming him. 

The woman, named Taffa, collects her daughter, Seeli, and follows Dalinar out of the barn and into the night. They witness a dozen of the dark creatures creeping up the hillside below them. Dalinar attempts to fend them off to let the woman and her child get away, but they close in on them. Dalinar grabs Seeli again and flees with her mother. 

Out of the sky, a female Shardbearer descends to protect them. She heals their wounds, and a male shardbearer joins them. With two shardbearers at his side now, Dalinar is able to fight off the small army of dark creatures. When the fight is over, Dalinar notices that the Shardbearers are wearing the symbol of the Lost Radiants, back then they’d been called the Knights Radiant.

The male shardbearer is impressed by Dalinar’s fighting skill, and tells him to bring his skills to a place called Urithiru. He ascends into the sky and leaves them.

Dalinar asks the female shardbearer what year it is, to which she tells him it’s the Eighth Epoch of year 337, and that they are in the town of Natanatan.

Dalinar asks if the dark creatures that attacked them are Voidbringers, to which she responds that they are not. The creatures are called Midnight Essence. She claims the Desolation (where the Voidbringers will come), is close, however. She tells him to wait here and to call out if the Essence returns, and flees into the darkness.

The woman named Taffa enters into a trance, and tells Dalinar, with a different voice than her own, that he has to unite them. Dalinar asks if he should continue to trust Sadeas, to which she tells him that he must not let strife consume him. She doesn’t answer any of his other questions, much to Dalinar’s frustration. 

Dalinar wakes up back in the army barracks, with Renarin watching him in concern. He now believes he has to find a way to get the highprinces to work together, since the vision had told him to trust Sadeas.

Chapter 20

It is seven years prior to the novel’s events, and Kaladin is desperately trying to save a five year old girl that had taken a big fall in his hometown. A crowd gathers around him as he tries to save her. He uses his shirt to tie a tourniquet around her leg, where one of her arteries has been severed. He is able to stop the bleeding and cauterize the wound, but not before the young girl passes away.

An hour later, Kaladin’s father is trying to console him. He tells him that he couldn’t have done anything more to save the little girl. He tells Kal that he has to learn when to care and when to let go.

Chapter 21

It is present day again, and Kaladin is tending to the wounded men in Bridge Four. Once he is done with that, he crosses the lumber grounds and finds the plank he’d carried the day before. He picks it up and walks back to the barracks, practicing running with it as he had before.

He hopes that the bridgemen will join him in the routine, but none of them partake in it. Syl flits down to him, asking him about madness and why men lie. She tells him that she’s heard men talk about a time when there were no lies between men. Kaladin tells her that there are stories about the times of the Heraldic Epochs, when men were bound by honor, but that men always talk of better times in the past regardless.

Later, Gaz approaches Kaladin, saying that his superior, Birghtlord Lamaril, heard about what he had done with the wounded men. He says that Brightlord Sadeas had told Lamaril to let him keep the soldiers, but to forbid them food or pay while they were unable to work. 

Kaladin returns to the bridgemen, asking them to pool their resources to buy medicine and get food for the wounded. But the bridgemen dismiss his request. Only Rock offers assistance, saying he can give up some of his food for the wounded men. He reassures Kaladin of his heroic efforts, saying that Bridge Four had lost the fewest men in the last bridge run, which almost never happens. 

Kaladin then comes up with an idea for how to take care of the wounded bridgemen with such low food rations. He approaches Gaz, asking him to have Bridge Four tend to the stone-gathering duties at camp. Gaz complies.

Kaladin and Rock then approach the old man named Teft for his help, asking for his allegiance. Teft is hesitant at first, but he eventually agrees. Kaladin tells them they need to gather a certain kind of plant while they are on stone-gathering duty. It’s a reed that grows in small patches outside of camp.

Chapter 22

It’s two days after Dalinar’s incident with the highstorm. He walks with his sons to join the king’s feasting basin. Adolin tells him that he’s been to three more leatherworkers, all of whom have different opinions on King Elhokar’s strap. They all seem to think that the strap was sliced, however, but not by a knife. Rather, it was cut by natural wear-and-tear.

At the feast, Wit approaches them, asking Dalinar if he had really spoken of abandoning the Vengeance Pact. Dalinar is surprised to learn that his private words with Elhokar have already spread around the camp.

Later, a woman named Navani shows up to the feast. She was Gaviler’s wife, and Dalinar has a shameful attraction towards her. He watches as she places a complex fabrial down on a table for the women around her to observe. He notes that she is a renowned artifabrian.

Adolin asks him if he had really abandoned the Vengeance Pact, and worries about Dalinar’s visions. Dalinar tells him that they need to finish this war, once and for all. He says that they need to find a way to lure a large number of Parshendi onto the Plains, and execute an ambush. He says that they will get the highprinces to work together first, and that they are closer than they had ever been, noting that the highprinces could’ve turned on one another by now, but haven’t yet. 

He tells Adolin that he will release an official refutation regarding the king’s decision to appoint him as Highprince of War. Adolin thinks he should duel for the position instead, to which Dalinar responds that there’s a difference in forcing people to follow you as opposed to letting them follow you. 

While Dalinar is eating at the feast, Navani approaches him. She tells him there are three reasons she has returned. The first of which is that she had wanted to bring word that the Vedens had perfected their own ‘half-shards,” claiming the shields can stop blows from a Shardblade. This is troubling news for Dalinar. 

Her second reason is that she needs to protect Elhokar. She doesn’t tell him her third reason, however, only saying that they should talk sometime in private. She suggests they meet a week from now.

Later, Elhokar announces that Brightlord Sadeas will be appointed the Highprince of Information, charging him to unearth the truth regarding the attempt on his life. He then tells Dalinar that he and Sadeas had spoken about this, and they had come to an agreement that the highprinces would never stand for someone being put over them in war. 

Sadeas had suggested that if he started with something less threatening, like appointing someone to Highprince of Information, it might prepare the others for what Dalinar wanted to do. This worries Dalinar greatly.

Chapter 23

Kaladin, Rock, and Teft scour the landscape for tufts of knobweed. Syl is able to locate a large swathe of them, and Kaladin ties them in a bundle underneath a wagon, which is used for rock collecting duties. 

Kaladin notes to Syl that the men are still indifferent to his efforts to inspire them, despite saving several of the bridgemen’s lives. He says that he has shown them that they can survive, but it doesn’t mean anything if they don’t have something to live for.

That night, he, Teft, and Rock walk the makeshift streets of Sadeas’s warcamp. They reach the wagon yard, and Kaladin sneaks in and retrieves the knobweed from underneath the wagon. They find a tavern and grab several empty liquor bottles and go to the chasm where Kaladin had nearly taken his life. They squeeze the sap out of the knobweed, which makes for a powerful antiseptic. Kaladin plans on using it to fight the infection in Leyten’s wounds.

As they are working on this, Kaladin asks Rock how he became a bridgeman. Teft protests this, saying bridgemen don’t normally talk about their pasts, but Rock doesn’t mind.

He says that his people do not have Shardblades, and they see that as a great shame. So, Rock’s leader, or his nautoma, decided to come down to the Shattered Plains to find and kill one of the Shardbearers. 

His nautoma challenged Highprince Sadeas for his shardplate first, thinking this would make it easier to win a blade, but he lost. In losing that fight, Rock and all of the nautoma’s servants became Sadeas’s servants. Rock also notes that his nautama was his cousin. Teft is shocked that Rock would be a servant to one of his own family members, but to Rock, this is normal. 

Rock also tells of how he was a cook for his nautoma, and Teft notes that his people are called Horneaters because they eat the horns and shells of the things they catch. Rock says he became a cook for Sadeas, but was sent to the bridge crews after putting Chull dung in his meal. 

Teft explodes with laughter at this, and Kaladin exclaims that this is the thing his bridgemen have been needing, apparently referring to the connection they share in laughing at Rock’s antics.

Rock and Teft ask Kaladin how he had become a bridgemen, and Kaladin simply tells them that he killed a man. They don’t question him any further on it.

Chapter 24

Dalinar speaks with a Highprince Roion in the king’s Gallery of Maps. Roion has won the fewest gemhearts out of any highprince, so Dalinar sees him as a prime target to join him in a joint plateau assault. 

He tells Roion that his army has the best archers; combined with Dalinar’s strong infantry, they could try letting Parshendi arrive at the plateau first, and assault them on their own terms. Dalinar promises him that if he were to win a Shardblade or Plate, Roion would get to keep the first set, while Dalinar gets to keep the second. Roion says he will think on his proposal further.

Later, Adolin joins his father in the Gallery of Maps. He tells Dalinar that Sadeas has asked for permission to enter their warcamp. He wants to interview the grooms who cared for King Elhokar’s horse during the hunt. 

Dalinar maintains that he should trust Sadeas because the visions told him to. Adolin reacts angrily to this, suggesting that Dalinar is getting old, and that possibly his guilt over Galinar’s death is causing him to act irrational. Dalinar dismisses him.

Chapter 25

It is seven years prior to the novel’s events, and Kaladin overhears some women gossiping in the streets of Hearthstone. They claim that his father, Lirin, had stolen an entire goblet full of spheres when the citylord had died. 

Kaladin stews in anger over this, and finds his mother standing on a stepladder in the town hall, carefully chipping away at the eaves of the building. His mother, Hesina, asks if Kaladin’s father had dismissed him from his lessons already. 

Kaladin replies that everyone hates his father. She tells Kaladin that people don’t hate his father, but that he does make people uncomfortable because he is a learned man and that they are frightened of knowledge. 

Kaladin then thinks about how he hasn’t been allowed to see Laral since her father died. The last few months have been strange for him. While his father had forced him into his studies, he’d spent time in secret training with a staff. He has been conflicted about which path he should take in life—that of a surgeon, or that of a warrior.

Later, Brightlord Roshone shows up in town, Hearthstone’s new appointed citylord. He rides in on a procession of a dozen wagons in a carriage pulled by several horses. Lirin asks the Brightlord if his trip was pleasant and if they can show him the town. Roshone replies that he is the one who let old Wistiow die, and that in a way, it is Lirin’s fault that he is in this pitiful, miserable quarter of a kingdom.

Chapter 26

One of Dalinar’s scribes reads passages from The Way of Kings to him in his sitting room. He is reminded of Adolin’s arguments against him, and finds that being confronted by someone he trusts has shaken him.

Renarin shows up, and Dalinar tells him that Highprince Aladar has refused the same offer of alliance he had given to Roion. He wonders who he should approach next. Renarin replies that Adolin believes they should be more worried about Sadeas’s ploy to destroy them. Dalinar says that moving against him would undermine Aelthkar as a kingdom, and for that reason, Sadeas won’t risk acting against them.

A high officer of Dalinar’s army shows up, announcing that a chasmfiend has crawled atop a plateau less than an hour ago. The officer tells him that his army has the best shot at getting to the beast before the other highprinces’ armies. Dalinar, thinking that winning a plateau skirmish will do much for his troop’s morale, decides to march.

As the army gathers, Adolin finds Dalinar and apologizes for having yelled at him, but not for what he had said. However, before they march, Sadeas shows up, and says that he cannot stop his investigation, not even for a plateau assault. He says he will interview some of Dalinar’s soldiers on the way out. Although he is worried of Sadeas distracting his soldiers, Dalinar allows this.

Dalinar’s force reaches the end of the permanent bridges, and begin waiting for the chull bridges to be lowered across the chasms. While this is happening, Sadeas rides up to Dalinar and begins taunting him. Dalinar tells him off.

Dalinar then summons his Shardblade, and he and Adolin burst out from behind the massive bridge that has been laid down. Dalinar cuts down several of the Parshendi gathered on the other side, but he has a moment on the battlefield where he is haunted by the death and destruction he is causing. He is able to shake it off for a moment, but the sick feeling returns, and he hears the words Life before death in his head. 

Later, after the battle is won, Dalinar watches as Adolin does the honors of harvesting the chasmfiend’s gemheart. He notices a group of Parshendi on a nearby plateau, noting how although they had killed a lot of Parshendi that day, the vast majority of them had still escaped. He notices what looks like a Shardbearer among their ranks.

Chapter 27

Kaladin returns to the apothecary with the knobweed sap. He had used the first of what they’d harvested to treat some of his fellow bridgeman at camp. The rest, he tries to sell back to the apothecary. The apothecary claims that the knobweed is worthless because the wild weeds aren’t strong enough. 

Kaladin threatens to take the knobweed directly to the healing tent instead, and the apothecary offers him a better price for it. They strike a deal where Kaladin will provide him the sap, charging one skymark each time, and the apothecary can claim ignorance if the lighteyes ever discover that the apothecaries have been fixing the knobweed prices.

Syl then finds Kaladin, and Kaladin wonders aloud if he should run away. But he decides against it because he can’t leave Rock, Teft, and the others.

Later, Gaz assigns the bridge crew to chasm duty. Kaladin leads them down into the chasm, where they search corpses that have fallen in to recover lost equipment. They are able to salvage a few items as they move through it. Kaladin leads the way with Rock and Teft at his side, and some of the bridgemen are interested in joining in on their conversation.

A boy named Dunny joins them, and they learn that he can sing. Rock commands Dunny to sing for them, and before long, he is laughing and talking with Teft and Rock. 

As the men search the chasm, Kaladin notices the end of a spear poking out of a nearby pool. He picks it up and performs several moves with it in what’s known as a kata. The bridgemen are left in stunned amazement at his skill with the spear, but Kaladin downplays this and commands them to get back to work.

Eventually, they find some dead Parshendi around a bend. They come to learn that the Parshendi actually grow their armor on their skin.

As they finish up their duty, Kaladin remarks to Rock that they urgently need to win over the men, otherwise, many of them won’t survive. When they return to camp, Kaladin has Rock cook up a stew over a fire. Gradually, the bridgemen come out to the fire and share the stew, laughing and singing together.

The next morning, when Kaladin calls for the bridgemen to rise, three-quarters of them pile out of the barrack, looking surprisingly refreshed and enthusiastic to join him in practicing carrying the bridges.

Chapter 28

Adolin stands on a staging ground while two chulls follow their handler, pulling a massive siege bridge behind them. He and Dalinar then leave the staging area and enter the warcamp proper, where Dalinar has gathered the soldiers that Sadeas had interviewed on their way to the plateau assault the other day. 

The soldiers claim that they hadn’t said anything to Sadeas that would get Dalinar into any trouble. Dalinar asks them if any of them had seen a cut strap on the king’s saddle, and they respond that they haven’t. 

Later, Dalinar learns that the last highprince he had approached with an alliance for a joint assault on the Parshendi has failed. He tells Adolin that he would like him to continue inspections for him, and that he has some work to attend to.

As he leaves, Dalinar thinks about how he wants to step aside and have his son take his place as highprince. He strides back out to the staging field, dressed in full shardplate, and grabs a hammer from his men, and begins to work on excavating a rocky ditch. In full shardplate, he is easily able to do the work of twenty men. The work sets his mind at ease somewhat, and the men leave him to work alone.

Eventually, Navani finds him, telling him that he has missed their appointment that she had set for them a week prior during Elhokar’s feast. She tells Dalinar that Jasnah is trying to communicate to him via a spanreed, a device in which handwritten messages can be communicated across large distances.

Jasnah tells them that she is growing increasingly concerned by the secrets she is finding in the Palanaeum. She asks Dalinar about what happened when she met that first Parshendi patrol seven years ago when Gavilar was killed. 

Dalinar responds that the first meeting happened when he and Gavilar were exploring a forest that wasn’t on the maps, which was south of the Shattered Plains. They had found Parshendi camped on the other side of the Deathbend River. They were shocked to find that these parshmen weren’t servants, but warriors.

Dalinar wonders if his brother could have known that the Parshendi had access to Shardblades and had tried to make a treaty with them hoping to find out where they’d found the weapons. Jasnah asks him what the very first questions that the Parshendi had asked of them were. Dalinar responds that they had wanted to see their maps. Jasnah asks if they had mentioned Voidbringers.

Then, Jasnah has Shallan draw a chasmfiend via spandreed, saying that The Way of Kings had described this as a picture of a Voidbringer. She doesn’t imply that the Voidbringers are the same thing as cash chasmfiends, believing that the ancient artist didn’t know what a Voidbringer looked like, so she had simply drawn the most horrific thing she knew of. 

After the conversation, Dalinar comes to the decision that he must let Adolin succeed him as highprince. He tells Navani this, and she responds that this is a terrible mistake.

I-4

A woman named Rysn steps down from the lead wagon of a caravan. She remarks to a man named Vstim about how strange the grass is here in Shinovar. The other wagons in their caravan form a loose circle around them. She pulls out a tripod from the lead wagon and carries it to the center of this grassy circle. She then fetches her fabrial and places it on the tripod.

In the distance, a group of horsemen approach. They are shin, and Vstim has great respect for them, even though many consider them to be savages. He tells Rysn that the Shin are a curious folk, stating that their warriors are the lowliest of men—kind of like slaves, and that farmers are treated with great attention and respect. 

A Shin man named Thresh approaches Vstim. He claims that the others who visit them all seem to care only about horses, but not him. He asks him why, and Vstim tells him that horses are too hard to care for and a poor return on investment. So, Thresh offers to trade him chickens for the metal he has. They both downplay the goods they are trading, much to Rsyn’s surprise. 

Vstim explains to her that the Shin value modesty, and to never try to cheat them. If anything, you should undervalue your goods, because they will love you for it and pay you well. He then tells her to cut out some of the grass so she can learn to care for it as a plant and stop thinking of it as odd, because it will make Rysn a better merchant.

I-5

A man named Axies the Collector wakes up naked in an alley in a city called Kasitor after a night of drinking. He had supposedly destroyed several homes and a temple the night before.

A beggar claims he owes him rent for sleeping in the alley and for all the destruction he’s caused. He asks Axies if he is a Voidbringer or a Herald, to which Axies supposed he is a Voidbringer for having destroyed a temple.

The beggar throws a blanket on him and Axies walks into town, drawing stares because he is an Aimian, which is rare. Part of his strangeness is that he casts shadows the wrong way. He can also change the color and markings of his skin at will. Furthermore, he keeps notes on his skin since he is often robbed and can’t keep a proper notebook. 

Axies has made it his life’s work to observe, catalogue and study every single type of spren in Roshar. He observes a spren that surges out of the waters of the bay and takes note of it, fascinated by its appearance. 

Then, four guards approach him and take him off to the city dungeons. He doesn’t mind this because it will give him the chance to study captivityspren. He thinks about how it might only take a few more centuries for him to complete his research.

I-6

Szeth-son-son-Vallano crouches on a high stone ledge at the side of a gambling den. His new master, Makkek, has had him kill all of his companions so as to keep the secret of the Oathstone hidden. 

A man named Gavashaw has challenged Makkek by opening up his own gambling den that competes with Makkek’s. Szeth leaves the gambling den and makes his way to a different part of town called Bornwater.

There, he finds Gavashaw’s mansion and infiltrates it using his stormlight abilities. However, when he enters the citylord’s room, he finds his severed head lying on a table. A voice calls to him in the room, telling Szeth that his talent is being squandered and that he was meant for more than just petty extortions and murders. 

The voice then forms into a dark figure, and another head hits the floor—Makkek’s. The figure then opens his hand to reveal Szeth’s oathstone. Szeth asks what his orders are, and the figure reveals a list of people for him to assassinate on the table, saying it details their master’s wishes. 

Szeth observes the list, noting that some of the most powerful people in the world are on it, including six highprinces and the king of Jah Keved. Szeth is appalled by the chaos this will cause. The figure tells him he will receive further instructions when he is done.

Chapter 29

Shallan’s three surviving brothers and her sister-in-law, Eylita, write to her via spanreed, asking how long it will be before she can switch out Jasnah’s real fabrial for the fake one. Shallan says she may be able to do it when Jasnah is bathing. However, she struggles with what she has to do, as she has come to enjoy studying under Jasnah in Kharbranth.

Her brother, Nan Balat, then tells her that their father’s steward, Luesh, is dead. A few weeks after his passing, some men visited Shallan’s brothers, saying they knew of their father’s soulcaster and strongly suggesting that they return it to them. 

He then asks Shallan about a symbol that Luesh wore on a pendant around his neck, as one of the men who came searching for the Soulcaster had it tattooed on his hand. Her brother claims that Luesh was involved with the Soulcaster, perhaps as a liaison between their father and the people backing him. He suggests the men wouldn’t be happy with a fake soulcaster. This puts more pressure on Shallan to successfully steal the real one from Jasnah.

Later, Shallan returns to her studies. Jasnah has her studying the history of the Alethi monarchy, which she finds rather boring. She remarks that she hates studying the Alethi monarchy, explaining to Jasnah that she finds the writers of the history to be ‘errogant,’ meaning they are twice as certain as someone who is merely arrogant while possessing only one-tenth the requisite facts.

As they chat, Jasnah warns her to apply her wit with care, and to not quip back at her with the first thing that enters her mind. They talk of the Assassin in White, and Shallan is perplexed by why they would hire an outside assassin to do the job of killing Gaviler. Jasnah asks her what she thinks really happened that night, and Shallan says she cannot draw a conclusion. Jasnah remarks that the point of scholarship is to interpret information and to draw conclusions.

Later, King Taravangian joins them, and he asks Shallan to draw his likeness. When Shallan finishes his sketch, she is shocked to realize that she has drawn two tall, cloaked creatures with bizarre heads standing behind the king. She refuses to let the king see her drawing, telling him that she will have another ready for him by the end of the day.  

Chapter 30

Bridge Four follows Kaladin as he guides them through the morning exercises he’d learned his very first day in the military. 

Meanwhile, Gaz wonders if he can get used to having just one eye, as an arrow has taken out his other one. He talks with his superior officer, Lamaril, who is concerned that Bridge Four has become insubordinate. He tells Gaz to make sure that Kaladin falls on the battlefield.

At the same time, Kaladin is training his bridgemen to carry the bridge over their heads rather than resting it on their shoulders, which they are getting quite good at. He dismisses them for stone-gathering duty, taking a few men with him to gather knobweed to help supply his crew with extra food and medical supplies.

Later, Syl visits Kaladin, warning him of Gaz’s conversation with Lamaril, saying that they had dark expressions as they spoke, which worries her. Kaladin says he cannot do anything about it until they have done something to him.

Afterwards, Kaladin shows Rock, Teft, Skar and Moash how to hold a bridge on its side and use it as a shield, rather than carry it over their heads. Gaz is watching them intently. Moash asks Kaladin why he made him leader of one of the subsquads of the bridgemen, to which Kaladin replies that he had resisted his leadership longer than almost any of the others, and that he was more vocal than the other bridgemen.

Gaz asks Kaladin why they are carrying the bridge the way they are. Kaladin claims it is a way to use different muscles. He also says that carrying the bridge this way is easier if only half the bridge crew survives. Gaz seems pleased by this response and tells Kaladin to carry on.

Chapter 31

It’s six years ago, and Kaladin watches on as his father drinks violet wine, the strongest of liquors. Lirin tells him to stay at Kharbranth once he gets there, advising Kaladin to not get sucked back into their backward and foolish hometown.

At this point in time, the townspeople have stopped donating their spheres to Lirin, despite him continuing his healing and surgical work. This was at Roshone’s implication that if Kal’s father was too foolish to charge for his services, then he shouldn’t be paid.

Later, several of the townspeople who have donated spheres to Lirin approach the door of his operating room, admonishing him to give them the spheres, claiming they aren’t his. Lirin grabs the spheres and opens the door, daring the people to come and take the spheres from him, all the while knowing that he has healed their children. The men back down and slink back off into the night.

Chapter 32

New recruits arrive at the warcamp, and Gaz assigns them to all of the bridge crews except for Bridge Four, despite them being the lowest in numbers. Kaladin objects to this, so Gaz allows him to pick out one man from the recruits.

Kaladin picks a short, one-armed Herdazian man named Lopen because he believes he will be used as arrow fodder in the other bridge crews.

Later, the bridge crews are summoned to the shattered plains for battle. Bridge Four is exceptional among the bridge crews for having more stamina and energy. They approach an enormous plateau on the Shattered Plains known as the Tower, carrying the bridge sideways to use it as a shield to block arrows.

The movement is successful, and nobody from their bridge crew dies. The Parshendi end up ignoring Bridge Four and turn their arrows on other, more vulnerable bridge crews. Once they lay their bridge down, the men retreat to an outcropping nearby for safety.

It’s here that Kaladin realizes that their maneuver has caused other crews to emulate what Bridge Four had done, causing them to run at different speeds, which results in the Alethi archers not knowing where to focus their volleys to soften the Parshendi for the bridge landings. Effectively, Kaladin has cost Sadeas the battle. 

Kaladin tells Rock and Teft to stand down, gather the bridgemen, and bring them back to the lumberyard safely. Gaz and Lamaril then approach him, and Kaladin tells them that if they let him live, he will tell their superiors that they had nothing to do with the bridge maneuver they executed that day. He says that if they kill him, however, then it will look like they are trying to hide something.

Lamaril orders his soldiers to beat Kaladin but not to kill him.

Chapter 33

Shallan walks into the Palanaeum. Jasnah has begun allowing her to spend some of her study time on topics of her own choosing. Shallan is struggling to stay focused on stealing her fabrial now, because the more she studies, the more she has a hunger for knowledge. However, Jasnah has begun using her as a bathing attendant, allowing her the potential opportunity to steal the fabrial.

She opens her portfolio and studies the drawings she’s made of Jasnah using the Soulcaster. She notes how casual Jasnah has been about Soulcasting, using one of the most powerful artifacts in all of Roshar to create paperweights, for example.

She then observes a book called Shadows Remembered—the same book Jasnah was reading when King Taravangian had visited. She skims the book, noting that most of its stories are about spirits or Voidbringers.

A short time later, Shallan returns to the alcove and finds Kabsal there. The youthful ardent has a bread basket with him as a gift for Jasnah. Shallan is doubtful that will get Jasnah to convert to Vorinism, and she recommends he at least include jam. She notes that he already knows Jasnah doesn’t like jam, but that she does, however. 

Kabsal admits that he is concerned that Jasnah’s heretical ideas are infecting Shallan, and tries to persuade her to join the ardents’ devotary. Shallan says that she already has a devotary—that of Purity. Kabsal tells her the Devotary of Purity isn’t the place for a scholar and that switching devotaries is allowed. 

Later, Kabsal claims to have a proof for why the Almighty exists. He shows Shallan various drawings of cities as seen from above. He then uses cymatics—the study of the patterns that sounds make when interacting with a physical medium—to compare the symmetry of the cities to the symmetry of the sound. Shallan notes that they look exactly alike. 

Jasnah barges in and debunks his theory, saying that he has no cymatic pattern corresponding to the fabled city of Urithiru. She is angry that Kabsal is trying to turn her ward against her. She asks Shallan if he has asked her to try to steal her Soulcaster yet. Shallan is shocked by the question, and Jasnah tells her that he will eventually ask her to do it.

Chapter 34

Kaladin awakens after his beating and is tied by his ankles to a rope affixed to a roof. Syl finds him, and tells him that Lamaril was executed for what happened out on the plateaus. 

Later, Rock, Teft, and Moash find him. Kaladin asks them if everyone got back from the battle alright. Teft tells him that everyone in their bridge crew survived, but that the battle was a disaster and that over two hundred bridgemen died. 

Rock tells him that they will show the new bridgemen Kaladin’s ways after he dies—that they will preserve the traditions of fires at night, of laughter and living. Kaladin tells them to let the other bridgemen know that his journey won’t end here, and that he did not choose to take his own life, so there is no way he is going to give it up to Sadeas. Teft hands him a dun sphere for luck. 

The stormwall approaches, slamming into him.

Chapter 35

Kaladin becomes conscious again as he is being blown around in the storm, still strung up by a rope tied to the barracks. As he is lying facedown on the roof, he notices Syl’s presence near him. In the darkness, an enormous face appears in the thunderclouds of the storm, smiling at him. Shortly after, he falls unconscious again.

Later, Rock, and Teft come and find him, expecting him to be dead. They can see that Kaladin’s skin has been sliced in a hundred of places. His body is still hung up by his ankles, and his clothes are ripped and ragged. 

To their surprise, Kaladin’s eyes snap open. The sphere that Teft had given him earlier drops out of his hands, and it is dun. Teft is surprised that it has not been infused with stormlight after the storm has passed. He tells Kaladin that he better survive, because he wants some answers.

Chapter 36

Shallan waits on Jasnah as she bathes. She reads an account from Jasnah of when Gavilar had met the Parshendi so many years ago. In it, she describes their appearance, and says that in exchange for gifts of food, the Parshendi would point the Alethi people to the hunting grounds of their greatshells. Jasnah notes how Gaviler had originally ignored the Parshendi, and it was only after the explanation by his scholars and scribes that he understood the importance of what he had discovered in the Parshendi—-their access to shards.

They talk about Gavilar’s discovery. Jasnah tells her that Gaviler had intended to broker a deal in which Alethkar got favored trade status with the Parshendi. This would have prevented the Parshendi from trading their Shards to other kingdoms without coming to them first. As they are talking Sallan notices Jasnah’s Soulcaster nearby, and how easy it would be to make the swap, but she is unable to do it.

Jasnah notices how perturbed Shallan is, and tells her that they should shift her training from history to something more hands-on, like philosophy. She summons Shallan to join her in a field exercise outside of the Palaneaum. 

That night, they walk the main thoroughfare in town alone. They stop in a dangerous part of town, and Jasnah reveals her Soulcaster, releasing its blinding light. Several men come to attack her, and, using the Soulcaster, she is able to incinerate one of them and turn the other into crystal with nothing more than the touch of her hand. As the other men flee, she shoots them down with stormlight from her fingertips. Then, she calmly calls for a palanquin and they leave.

Jasnah then tells Shallan that the streets of the city are safer now that she has killed those men. She asks Shallan how many lives she had just saved by doing that. Shallan argues that she shouldn’t have killed those men to simply prove a point. Jasnah asks if she had just slaughtered four men, or stopped four murderers from walking the streets. She then tells Shallan that she will spend the next week researching what she had done and to think on it, saying that true scholarship requires one to face questions like these. 

Afterwards, once they are inside their rooms again, Shallan helps Jasnah undress. It’s in this moment that she decides to finally make the switch, and steals Jasnah’s Soulcaster, replacing it with the fake one.

Chapter 37

It’s five and a half years ago, and Kaladin is having dinner with Tien and his mother. He tels them he is going to wash off some roots and escapes from the dinner table. He then goes into town and finds his father, saying that he is joining him on his way to Brightlord Roshone’s mansion.

They join the Brightlord for dinner. Roshone asks how long Lirin thinks he can defy him. Lirin says they can still live, and if not, then they can leave. Roshone says that if he leaves, he will contact Lirin’s new citylord and tell him that he has been stealing spheres from him. Lirin tells him that every month they resist him is a blow to his authority, and that he can’t have him arrested, since he would win an inquest. He says that Roshone has tried to turn the other people against him, but they know that deep down, they need him. 

Roshone then offers him an accommodation. He will take nine-tenths of the spheres, while Lirin can have the rest. At this moment, Lirin sends Kaladin to the kitchens. 

While in the kitchens, Roshone’s son, Rillir, saunters in, with Laral in tow. Rillir mistakes Kaladin for a servant, and tells him to fetch them super. Kaladin responds that he is not a servant, and asks Laral to tell him so. But Laral goes along with Rillir, ordering Kaladin around. Rillir eventually learns that Kaladin is Lirin’s son. 

After belittling Kaladin, Rillir leaves with Laral. Lirin returns, and he and Kaladin leave Roshone’s mansion. Kaladin tells Lirin that he wants to be a surgeon now. He says it’s because he wants to know how people like Rillir and Roshone think. 

Lirin tells Kaladin that he didn’t give Roshone anything, and that the citylord has to think that he is willing to bend to him. He says that their meeting that night was to give Roshone the appearance of him bending to him, but that he has no plans to give Roshone any of the spheres. It’s here that Kaladin realizes that Lirin had stolen the spheres from Lord Wistiow. Lirin admits to this, saying that he had to make certain that promises were kept, and that he couldn’t trust the generosity of a new citylord. 

Kaladin tells Lirin that he wants to learn to face lighteyes like he does, so that they can’t make a fool of him. He wants to learn to talk like them and think like them. It’s here that he tells his father that he wants to go by his real name—Kaladin—instead of just Kal.

Chapter 38

It is present-day again, and Kaladin is floating through his fever dreams and memories. At one point, he is back in Hearthstone with his family, only he is a grown man and a soldier, and he doesn’t fit with them anymore. The next moment, he awakens in a warehouse full of corpses. He then sees several deathspren floating towards him. Standing among the deathspren is a tiny figure of light. It is Syl, standing guard on his chest, holding a sword made of light.

The chapter then switches to Teft’s POV, and he notes how they had been allowed to cut Kaladin down from the roof and that so far nobody had tried to stop them from caring for him. A bridgeman named Skar is caring for Kaladin, and he says that Kaladin seems to be getting worse, and that he had been muttering to himself and had opened his eyes and had apparently seen something.

Teft then presses some spheres into Kaladin’s hand, wrapping his limp fingers around them as he lays them on Kaladin’s abdomen. Kaladin then gasps suddenly and awakens as the glow in the spheres fades away. 

After seeing what the stormlight has done to Kaladin, Teft thinks that he needs to tell some people called the Envisagers about this. But he realizes that the Envisagers are dead and gone because of something he had done. And if there were others, he has no idea how to locate them. He will keep this quiet until he can figure out what to do about it. 

Chapter 39

Shallan sketches in her portfolio, drawing a picture of the men Jasnah had killed with her Soulcaster. It is one of dozens of drawings like this that she has done in the past few days. As she continues to sketch, she gets lost in her thoughts. To her horror, she realizes she has drawn a scene with a dead man in fine clothing, lying face-first on the floor with blood pooling around him. 

A servant interrupts her, telling her that someone is messaging her via spanreed. It is her brother, Nan Balat. Shallan tells him that she has stolen the Soulcaster. Nan Balat urges her to come home, but Shallan says that she must wait instead. 

She says that if Jasnah tries the Soulcaster and finds it broken, she might not immediately decide that Shallan was responsible. But if she suddenly left for home, Jasnah would suspect it was her. Shallan claims that she can deflect the suspicion onto other culprits, especially because Jasnah is already suspicious of the ardentia. Shallan asks her brother to give her a few more weeks to see what Jasnah does before she leaves. During that time, she claims she can look into the Soulcaster to see how it works.

She then takes the Soulcaster with her to the palace gardens. She tries to emulate what Jasnah had done with the Soulcaster, attempting to turn a piece of broken shalebark into smoke, crystal, or fire, but to no avail. She slides the soulcaster back into her pouch, and decides that she must either search the Planaeum for answers on how to use it, or ask Kabsal without raising suspicion. 

Chapter 40

Kaladin gets up and walks outside the barracks, still recovering his strength from his injuries during the highstorm. He finds the bridgemen doing their daily practice. They stare at Kaladin, incredulous, and he smiles back at him. They laugh together and thump him on the back. Moash tells him it’s been ten days since he was in the highstorm. This surprises Kaladin, whose wounds should’ve taken much longer to heal. 

Later, the horns sound and the bridgemen are summoned for battle. Kaladin wants to join, but Rock tells him to rest. He agrees to stay back and carry water with the Herdazian man, Lopen. 

During the battle, the Alethi soldiers arrive at the same time as the Parshendi. Instead of bothering to kill bridgemen, the Parshendi have taken a defensive position in the center of the plateau, around the chrysalis. Kaladin then comes to the realization of why Sadeas forbids the bridgemen to use shields on the battlefield—it’s because it would make them less tempting for the Parshendi. So long as bridgemen were dying, and the Parshendi didn’t spend their time firing on soldiers, Sadeas had a reason to keep bridgemen vulnerable. 

A few hours later, Kaladin and the bridgemen sit by their nightly fire. Kaladin struggles with thoughts of doom as he muses about how a bridgeman who survived was, by definition, a bridgeman who had failed, and that they would never be seen as real soldiers.

Later, a bridgeman named Maps announces that they have a gift for Rock. They thank him for making them stew every night by the fire and for serving everyone else first. The gift is a straight razor made of steel, along with a piece of polished steel for him to use as a mirror. Rock thanks them for the gift, full of emotion.

Meanwhile, Kaladin strikes up a conversation with Sigzil. They remark on how they are both educated, and Sigzil comments that the men think Kaladin must secretly be a lighteyes of very high rank. He says the men think he must have been raised outside of Alethkar as a leader because of the way he leads so naturally. Kaladin asks Sigzil about his background, and Sigzil claims to be a murderer who hadn’t succeeded in killing his victim. 

Sigzil then tells Kaladin a story about the Marabethians, who allow condemned criminals the option of execution, or to be dangled over a seaside cliff with their cheeks cut for a week. If they are not eaten by a greatshell species during that time, they are free to go. These people see only red and blue, due to the blood in their eyes and the ocean below them. Because these prisoners prefer the false hope of potentially surviving this ordeal to being executed, there is a saying for someone who refuses to see the truth of a situation—You have eyes of red and blue. Sigzil tells Kaladin that he appreciates the false hope he gives the men. He claims it is like giving medicine to a sick man to ease his pain before he dies, and calls Kaladin a healer for this.

After this conversation, Kaladin feels a crushing weight of despair, and that he is falling back to the wretch that he once was, thinking that he can’t carry the hopes of all the bridgemen.

Chapter 41

It is five and a half years ago, and Kaladin bursts into his father’s surgery room, a gory scene before him. Birghtlord Roshone’s son, Rillir, has suffered a gruesome injury, with a tusklike object jutting forth from his abdomen, and his lower right leg being crushed, hanging on by only a few tendons. On another table, Brightlord Rosone lays with his own injury, as his leg is pierced by a bony spear. 

Kaladin’s father sets to work and directs his son in the surgery room. He says that the men have suffered an injury from a whitespine tusk. As Lirin works on Roshone, the citylord asks him what he is doing and that he should be working on his son instead. Lirin tells him that his son is already dead, and that he is essentially going to put him out of his misery. They administer a dazewater bandage to the both of them, which likely acts as an anesthetic to dull the pain. 

During their operations, there is a moment as Lirin is cutting the tusk out of Roshone’s leg where he hovers over the man’s femoral artery with his surgical knife. If he were to cut it, Roshone would be dead in minutes. Lirin’s hand quivers for a moment, and he glances up at Kaladin. However, he withdraws the knife and instead elects to pull the sliver of tusk free from Roshone’s leg and keep him alive.

Kaladin asks Lirin why he didn’t just kill Roshone then and there, as it would have solved a lot of their problems. Lirin tells him it’s because he is not a killer, and that somebody has to step forward and do what is right, simply because it is right. 

Kaladin realizes that he would have let Roshone die on that table because it would have been better for his family and his town. It’s at this moment that Kaladin knows that he can kill, if needed to, as some people just needed to be removed from the world. 

Chapter 42

Shallan tells Jasnah that she has come to a decision on what she thinks of her killing those criminals on the streets of Kharbranth a few weeks ago. She says that what Jasnah did was both legal and right, but it was not moral and it certainly wasn’t ethical. She says that one can do legal things and be immoral, and that they can do the right thing, but it can still not be moral if it’s done with bad intent.

Jasnah is pleased with this answer. She tells Shallan that she is free to spend the day doing what she pleases. So, Shallan hurries back to her own chamber, and attempts to make the Soulcaster work. It’s been nearly two weeks and she’s had no success with it so far. She even tries humming, as she had found a book that claimed humming makes Soulcasters more effective. But this, like everything else, does not work. 

Meanwhile, she observes the beautiful rock patterns on the stone ceiling of her room and begins to sketch them. While she is doing this, she hears a voice, asking “what are you?” Startled, Shallan looks around for the source of the noise, finding a maid outside her room. The maid had been cleaning Jasnah’s room, which she was not supposed to do. Shallan tells the maid to go and tell Jasnah what she’s done since she always notices if her things are moved.

Once the maid is gone, Shallan searches through Jasnah’s room for hints on how to make the Soulcaster work. She looks through Jasnah’s piles of notes, but only finds entries about the fabled city of Urithiru and the Voidbringers. This is surprising, because Jasnah is normally a skeptic about the existence of mythological beings. 

Kabsal knocks at the door, startling her. He knows she has the day off, and offers her some jam. Shallan accepts, thrilled at the prospect of finally relaxing.

They go outside to the Conclave gardens, not far from where Shallan had first experimented with the Soulcaster. Kabsal offers her Truthberry jam, a substance said to make people honest. They flirt together in the gardens, and Shallan enjoys talking and listening with him. As things start to heat up, she tells Kabsal that Jasnah thinks he’s getting close to her only because he wants her Soulcaster. Kanbsal says that the devotary would very much like to get the fabrial and that he had planned to ask her help eventually. However, his superiors thought it was a terrible idea. 

Shallan asks him if he’s ever heard about anyone ever using a Soulcaster, hoping to get information about how to use Jasnah’s. He says that there’s not much to them, and that if you use one long enough, you supposedly learn how to control them better. He claims he doesn’t like the mystery that has grown up around them, saying that the principles and gifts of the Almighty are often simple and not shrouded in mysticism. 

Later, King Taravangian strolls around the gardens nearby. Kabsal ducks away, because the king is keeping careful track of his ardents, and that he and Brother Ixil should be on cataloging duty for the day. He bids Shallan goodbye, saying that he will come see her tomorrow if he doesn’t get punished. 

Shallan then picks up Kabsal’s bread and jam and makes her way back to the Conclave to Jasnah’s suite. She finds a letter waiting for her there from Captain Tozbek. He says that they got her message and that they will be back in Kharbranth in one week to pick her up. Apparently, Shallan had written him wanting to know where he was and when he was planning on returning, but he’d taken her letter as a request to come pick her up. 

Eventually, Shallan returns to Jasnah’s alcove. Jasnah tells her that she can do whatever she wants today, and Shallan tells her that what she wants to do is study. She decides she will soak up this last week in Kharbranth as much as she can before she has to leave.

Chapter 43

Kaladin awakens to dread, feeling that there is no hope for his men. He leaves the barracks to find the men waiting for him, all freshly shaven because of Rock’s gift. They are waiting for him to lead practice.

Lamaril’s replacement shows up, along with his wife, Brightness Hashal. His replacement—Brightlord Matal—is their new captain. Brightness Hashal claims her husband will run the bridge crew better than his predecessor, and that he is well-respected. Kaladin asks how he ended up with this terrible job, then, to which Hashal orders one of her soldiers to ram the butt of a spear into Kaladin’s stomach. Rather than fighting back, Kaladin merely blocks the blow and allows the soldier to slam the spear into the side of his head. Then, Brightness Hashal announces that her husband wishes for Bridge Foyr to be assigned chasm duty permanently. 

Glumly, Kaladin descends into the chasms. He and the other bridgemen find a pile of bodies and get to work. Teft approaches him, saying the men are confused and wanting to know what they’re going to do next. He says they should keep fighting, that they shouldn’t give up. He tells Kaladin it’s about ‘journey before destination.’ Sigzil chimes in, saying that it’s something the Lost Radiants used to say – ‘Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.’

The words speak to Kaladin. He thinks about how death comes to all, but that life comes first and that he should cherish it. Then, he announces to the men that they have to try to escape. He suggests that he train the bridgemen so that they can attack a guard post at night and have a chance to get away. The men agree to this, and Kaladin begins to outline a plan.

Chapter 44

It’s five years ago, and Kaladin lies on the sloped roof of his house in Hearthstone. It is the Weeping season, where a light, drizzling rain and cloudy skies last for several weeks. Another army is passing through the town, one of many that has come through to resupply and move to new battlefields. 

Roshone has made a rare appearance to welcome the warlord Highmarshal Amaram, who is a distant cousin and one of the most renowned soldiers still in Alethkar. Few people have seen much of Roshone since the ill-fated whitespine hunt and the death of his son.

Tien finds Kaladin on the roof and shows him a small wooden horse he has carved, much to Kaladin’s amazement. Their mother then finds them, wondering what they are talking about. Tien tells her that Kaladin’s worried about their father spending the spheres that he has stolen from Wistiow. Their mother says that Lirin had resisted spending them for a long time, only to break when he needed some new cloth bandages after Roshone and Rillir’s hunting accident. 

Kaladin notices that his father is letting Roshone think he is winning by spending the spheres. Hesina says they will keep spending the spheres, one every few weeks to keep Roshone thinking that they’re bending. Then, they will send Kaladin away to Kharbranth to become a surgeon. 

Later, Lirin shows up, saying that Roshone is putting on an appearance in a town meeting. They go to the town meeting to find Roshone, Highmarshal Amaram, and Laral there. Kaladin notices Laral is wearing a white cloth with its blue glyphair sewn onto the sleeve of her dress—this indicates that she is engaged. To his horror, it appears that she is engaged to Roshone, now that his son, Rillir, is dead. 

Highmarshal Amram announces that he is in town for recruitment, saying that his forces are undermanned now that the king has taken most of their armies with him to fulfill the Vengeance Pact. He says it has become necessary to recruit young men from each town or village they pass. He will take volunteers first, but that the army must be replenished. Along with volunteers, his cousin, Roshone, will have the honor of deciding which men to send off. Tien is selected.

Lirin argues that Tien is too young to fight, but Roshone insists that he goes. Amaram promises to make him a runner boy for a year or two, but will honor Roshone’s decision. Kaladin tries to take Tien’s place, but this is not allowed. Instead, he volunteers to come along as well and join the army. He promises his father that he will bring Tien home safely in four years.

Chapter 45

Shallan reads King Gavilar’s account again, recorded a year before his murder. He says that the Parshendi promise to lead him on a hunt for a great-shelled beast known as the “Monster of the Chasms.” He notes that the Parshendi are welcoming, and is amazed to find they have religion. He is also impressed by their uncanny ability to make music together, noting how they hum and chant and play crudely made drums. 

She asks Jasnah why he was so interested in the Parshendi if he wasn’t a scholar. Jasnah admits she has wondered this, too, noting Gavilar’s obsession and how it was one of the only times they connected before he died. Shallan asks her why Jasnah is having her research this, if she has already lived it. Jasnah says she hopes that Shallan will find details that she may have missed. 

Shallan also wonders why Jasnah spends so much time studying folktales and looking for evil spirits if history is her specialty. She thinks about how Tozbek’s ship will be arriving the next morning, and suddenly asks Jasnah what Urithiru is. She also asks about the Voidbringers. Jasnah claims that most scholars insist that both the Voidbringers and Urithiru are myths. 

Shallan tells Jasnah that she needs a copy of Tinfandor’s biography of Jasnah’s father and that she will go look up the book in the Palanaeum. She is going to use this time away from Jasnah to see what she can discover about the Voidbringers on her own. However, she is unsuccessful in finding anything solid on the Voidbringers.

Kabsal then finds her in the library. Shallan tells him to come with her as she goes to fetch Tinfador’s biography. They talk of the Voidbringers, and Kabsal says that the ardents believe the Voidbringers are real, and that they were a scourge and a plague on mankind. 

He says that the Voidbringers were an embodiment of evil, that mankind had fought them off ninety-nine times, led by the Heralds and their chosen knights, the ten orders they call the Knights Radiant. Then, the Last Desolation came, and the Voidbringers were cast back into the Tranquiline Halls. The Heralds followed to force them out of heaven as well, and Roshar’s Heraldic Epochs ended as mankind entered the modern era. 

Shallan wonders why Jasnah is studying the Voidbringers, and Kabsal claims that it is to prove the Voidbringers weren’t real and prove that Vorinisma and the devotaries are frauds.

She then tells Kabsal that she is leaving. He asks her if she can sketch his likeness before she goes. She brings him to the alcove where her drawing materials are. Kabsal suggests that he comes with her to Jah Keved, but Shallan rejects him. As she is sketching him, she feels guilty for rejecting Kabsal’s advance. 

Shallan continues to sketch, drawing herself in beside him. She wonders if she should send the Soulcaster back to Jah Keved with Tozbek while she stays with Jasnah. As she is drawing, she realizes she has sketched creatures standing behind Kabsal,with sharp, angular symbols where their heads should be, wearing metallic robes. 

She rushes away from the alcove, and sees more of these figures as she is running away, looking like predators. When she returns to her room, she sketches her surroundings, and draws more of the beings surrounding her. In a panic, she tries to use the fabrial to defend herself. A voice calls out, asking what she is. 

Then, the bedroom transforms around her. Everything turns into tiny, dark glass spheres. She finds herself in a place with a black sky and a strange, small white sun that hangs on the horizon, too far away. When her room reforms around her, she notices that she has changed the goblet on her nightstand into blood, effectively soulcasting it. 

Jasnah knocks at her door. Shallan realizes she will know that she has soulcasted, so she takes a shard of glass and cuts a gash into her skin, and pretends to be unconscious. Jasnah finds her and calls for help. Shallan fears that they may search her safepouch while she pretends to be injured. 

Chapter 46

Kaladin dreams he is the storm, rolling far and wide over the shattered plains. He witnesses Szeth standing over two corpses, not knowing who he is. Then, he hears a voice booming through the air, saying “Child of Tanavast. Child of Honor. Child of one long since departed…the oathpact was shattered.” The voice then warns that Odium is coming, who is the “most dangerous of all the sixteen,” and that “Odium reigns.”

Kaladin wakes up to his fellow bridgemen holding him down against the floor, claiming that he had tried to go out into the storm, effectively acting out his dreams. He goes out to wash himself in the rain, and has Rock shave his face clean. He feels much better after this. He talks to Moash, Sigzil, and Rock for a time, and then, about an hour into their morning activities, new slaves are led into the camp. 

Gaz approaches them, saying that Brigthness Hashal is assigning the slaves to bridges now. She has given Bridge Four a parshman as a slave. Kaladin pities the parshman, while the others do not trust him. He names him Shen and says that Shen is one of them now. 

An hour later, Kaladin wanders Sadeas’s warcamp, using his free time to care for equipment. Syl follows him around, and he asks her if she has heard of something called Odium.  She hisses at the mention of Odium and zips away.

Then, Kaladin witnesses a man getting into an argument with a whore, kicking the woman in the belly. An officer in blue approaches the man to diffuse the situation. He says that whatever problem he is having can be resolved without anger and violence. He offers out a hand to the man, which he spits in. Then, Adolin summons his Shardblade, and the man cowers away in fear. 

The officer helps the woman to her feet, and he asks her what she did to the man. She says that he had refused to pay her, claiming his reputation had made it a pleasure for her. She had made a comment about his ‘reputation,’ and had been kicked for it. 

The officer then turns toward Kaladin and tells him to run and give word to someone named Brightlord Reral Makoram. He says to tell him that Adolin Kholin won’t make their meeting today, and that he’ll send word to reschedule another time. He gives Kaladin a sphere and leaves. But Kaladin refuses to bow to his orders, telling Syl that he is done running at their whims just because they expect him to do so. 

Chapter 47

It is a year ago, and all around Kaladin, Highmarshal Amaram’s army prepares for battle. He had decided months ago that he wouldn’t return home. His enlistment would be up in a few weeks, and he would sign on again. He cannot face his parents after having broken his promise to protect Tien.

He had joined Amaram’s army expecting to defend the Alethi borders, only he was defending them from other Alethi, rather than foreign armies. They have been fighting lesser landlords who   have sought to slice off bits of Highprince Sadeas’s lands. 

Kaladin tells a man named Gare that he wants one of his new recruits, a boy named Cenn. Gare complains, but Kaladin has bribed him for the recruit. Gare wonders why Kaladin recruits so many young boys to his squad that are too small to fight properly, but Kaladin ignores him. 

He passes through the camp, noting how everyone keeps out of his way, likely due to his reputation—-he is the youngest squadron leader in the army, with only four years of experience and is already in command. 

He joins the line for battle, observing how much the new recruit looks like Tien. Eventually, the horns blow, and Kaladin’s squad charges.

In the middle of the battle, Kaladin realizes Cenn is in trouble. He rushes over to him, and fends off six spearmen to rescue him. He then binds his leg while keeping watch for enemy soldiers nearby. He notices a high-ranking lighteyes in the distance, and summons the soldiers to him, saying that they’re going to take a brightlord off his throne. They are easily able to pull off a maneuver and take the brightlord down. 

However, a Shardbearer appears on the battlefield, breaking out of Amaram’s lines. He rides through his forces, cutting down men as he passes. He kills a boy named Dallet, who is one of Kaladin’s soldiers. He cuts down several more of Kaladin’s men as he passes through, killing many with his Shardblade. 

Kaladin chases after the Shardbearer. The Shardbearer rides past Amaram, slashing through the neck of his mount. Amaram falls, his horse’s body pinning him to the ground. 

Once Kaladin catches up to the Shardbearer, he strikes his plate from behind, but is unable to do any damage. The rest of Kaladin’s squadron arrives, and the shardbearer easily cuts through ten of his spearmen. Kaladin attacks the shardbearer again, unable to do any damage against his shardplate. 

Finally, Kaladin realizes that the only way he can defeat the shardbearer is through the slits in his helmet visor. He throws a knife unsuccessfully at the visor. Then, he grabs a spearhead from the ground and slams it right into the Shardbearer’s visor slit. The Shardbearer crashes to the ground, defeated. His blade drops from his fingers. 

For having defeated a Shardbearer, the Shardblade should now belong to Kaladin. But the thought of touching the blade sickens him, because it represents everything he’d come to hate about the lighteyes. He tells one of his spearmen, Coreb, that the Shardblade is his. Amaram is incredulous at this, and Kaladin says he doesn’t want it, that he is giving it to his men, and walks away. 

Chapter 48

Shallan sits in the hospital, her arm wrapped in a neat bandage. The nurses have reluctantly allowed her to sketch, so long as she does not “stress herself.” They think that her injury was a suicide attempt, so they are very cautious about Shallan’s wellbeing. 

She has sketched several drawings of the hospital room, and the same creatures from before lurk in her sketches, staying at the distant edges of the room. She also sketches the strange place she visited before she Soulcasted, as well as a picture of her lying on the ground amid the blood. Thankfully, no one has looked into her safepouch yet.

King Taravangian pays her a visit. Shallan asks if he can end her stay in the hospital, to which Taravangian says that he can’t allow that. He must defer to the wisdom of his surgeons and nurses, who say that Shallan is still at risk due to her mental health. She then asks if she can have visitors, to which Taravangian agrees. She also says that she has been missing her family greatly and that perhaps she should return home to them. Taravngain thinks this is a good idea, and says the ardents will be more likely to release her if they know she is going home. 

Later, Jasnah pays her a visit, apologizing for overworking Shallan, which is the apparent cause for her suicide attempt. She gives Shallan a blank book called the Book of Endless Pages, and advises her to seek out the Devotary of Sincerity, because Shallan searches for truth yet holds to her faith at the same time. 

She says that the Devotary of Sincerity are guided by the belief that there are always more answers to be found,and that the The Book of Endless Pages cannot be filled, as there is always something to learn. This devotary is a place where one is never penalized for questions, nor for challenging Vorinism’s own tenets. 

Kabsal then shows up to the room, pulling out a jar of jam, saying it will make Shallan feel better. He is very insistent that she eats the jam, but it smells terrible. Kabsal tries to show them the jam is fine, sticking a finger into it and shoving a large glob in his mouth. Then, he rushes away from the room, making it only halfway before crashing to the floor.

Jasnah kneels above Shallan, saying that she has been poisoned and that she needs a garnet. She says she will have to Soulcast Shallan’s blood to purify it. Since Jasnah has the fake Soulcaster, Shallan tells her that she can’t Soulcast, and pulls the ties of her pouch open to reveal Jasnah’s real soulcaster. Shallan then fades in and out of consciousness. A flash of warmth burns through her, and everything goes black.

Chapter 49

Kaladin walks through the chasms with the bridgeman. Teft asks him if he has felt any odd surges of strength or if he is feeling that he is light. Kaladin remarks that he is surprisingly fine, to which Teft notes is odd. 

Kaladin begins to wonder if he is cursed, because he kills everyone that he tries to help. He shakes it off, thinking that superstition is useless. He then prepares the bridgemen for their first training lesson with the spear. He tells them that he intends to have them fully trained in less than six weeks. 

The first lesson he gives them is that it’s all right to care. He says that if you fight passionless and cold and don’t care about anything, then you are only an animal, driven to kill. He says their passion is what makes them human, and that they have to fight for a reason, so, it is all right to care.

His second lesson is on the importance of stances when fighting. He has several of the bridgemen try to throw him off balance, demonstrating the power of a good stance. He tells them that combat begins with the legs and that if your opponent can trip you or make you stumble, you will lose and die on the battlefield.  He then tells the bridgemen that they are going to spend each day that week working on stances.

During this process, Kaladin learns that Teft is already an army veteran, and that Rock cannot fight because it is against his culture. Because he is a third son, he must be a craftsman. The first and second sons in his culture are needed for making food, and only the fourth son can be a warrior.

Kaladin then sends the nonfighters—Rock, Lopen, Dabbid, and Shen—to bring back salvage as part of their chasm duties. Rock says they alone cannot do the work of thirty men. Kaladin has Syl reveal herself to the men, and he tells them that Syl can move far more quickly than a bridgeman, so she can search out places for them to gather valuable items from the chasms. 

Later, Kaladi wonders to Rock if there is a way for the bridgemen to escape through the chasms, thinking about how the eastern edge is open. Rock laughs about this, saying it is unlikely they could travel that far without being eaten by a chasmfiend or killed in floods.

Kaladin asks Rock to see if he can memorize the chasms or perhaps make a map of some kind. He says that they are most likely to find more salvage down side passages than established routes. 

Meanwhile, the bridgemen are catching on quickly to doing the proper stances, and Kaladin notes how quickly Moash, Drehy, and Skar are learning. He regards the bridgemen highly, thinking of how they have remarkable resolve and that they never complained. He notices that the bridgemen, for all the work they do and the extra food Kaladin was able to get them, were the most fit, training-ready recruits he’d ever been given. 

Chapter 50

Shallan awakes in a hospital room in good health. She is alone, aside from a soldier who is guarding her room. 

Jasnah comes in, demanding to know who she is working with. Shallan tells her that she wasn’t working with anyone, and that she stole her Soulcaster because her father is dead and her family is bankrupt. She tells Jasnah that they needed a way to create money quickly. She doesn’t tell Jasnah that her father had already possessed a Soulcaster beforehand, however.

Jasnah tells her that she has arranged passage for her back to Jah Keved, and that she will leave in the morning. She also says that Kabsal is dead. The bread he had been offering Shallan was poisoned with a powder, but the jam had the antidote. He had apparently used much more of the powder during his last attempt, more than he’d ever used before, perhaps hoping to get Jasnah to breathe it in. But the poison had worked more quickly than he had anticipated, ultimately killing him and nearly killing Shallan. 

Jasnah admonishes Shallan for her actions, telling her that she has thrown away a promising career and that this foolish scheme will stain her life for decades, because no woman will take her as a ward now. 

Chapter 51

Kaladin sits quietly in the waiting room of Amaram’s wooden warcenter. Amaram enters, walking on a crutch. He is talking to one of his stormwardens, who tells him that the Shardbearer Kaladin had killed was Veden, but they don’t know much more about him. Amaram seems to think a group called the Ghostbloods is responsible. They are followed in by four surviving members of Kaladin’s squad.

Amaram demands to know why Kaladin rejected the Shardblade, and Kaladin says he doesn’t really have a good answer, but the Shards are his. Amaram has his soldiers promptly execute the surviving members of Kaladin’s squad, including Coreb, the man he had promised the Shardblade to. 

Amaram says he killed Kaladin’s fellow soldiers because he couldn’t risk them telling what they saw. He says the rest of the soldiers are going to be told that Kaladin’s squad helped the Shardbearer, and that Amaram had killed the Shardbearer. He says it is for the good of the army and for the good of Alethkar.

Then, Amaram’s stormwarden steps up to Kaladin, positioning a branding iron. Amaram tells Kaladin that he is being discharged as a deserter and branded as a slave, but spared death by his mercy, mainly because Kaladin had saved his life. The branding iron falls and Kaladin’s fate has been sealed.

I-7

A man named Baxil hastens down a lavish palace corridor, clutching a bulky bag of tools. He jumps at what sounds like footfalls behind him, startling a man named Av walking beside him, while their mistress walks ahead of them. They are walking in the home of Ashno of Sages, one of the richest and holiest men in all of Emul.

The mistress asks for her tools from Baxil, and proceeds to slash a painting and destroy several other items in the hallway. Baxil then tells Av that he has been thinking of seeking Old Magic. He says that every man gets one chance to ask a boon of the Nightwatcher. He wonders if he should ask for courage as a boon. Av warns him that he will inevitably end up with a curse if he does this, no matter how he phrases his request. His brother had received a boon, for example, and came back with two numb hands. 

Baxil then wonders why the mistress destroyed artifacts of rich men. Av says that he should ask her, but only if he isn’t attached to his own limbs. Baxil says nothing further, thinking of the Old Magic and how he will go looking for it.

I-8

A man named Ashir tells a woman named Geranid that he has been thinking of changing his Calling. Geranid nods absently as she works on some equations. They are cooking in a small, stone room. Ahsir says that he is tired of cooking, and wonders what good a cook would be in the Spiritual Realm. 

The two of them are ardents, and they are on a tiny Reshi island, technically sent to provide for the religious needs of any Vorin visitors. But they are really there to be able to get away and focus on their experiments.

Geranid says that she thinks she has had a breakthrough. She is studying the flamespren from their fire, saying that she can predict when they will or won’t be erratic. She says that the spren change when she measures them—before she measures them, they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when she makes a notation, they immediately freeze in their current state, and remain that way permanently. 

Ashir tells her that he is going to take three measurements of the spren, and for Geranid to only write down one of the three measurements. As she does this, one of the spren stops changing sizes, taking on a stable shape, proving that the spren seem to know that they are being measured, and that merely defining its form traps them somehow.

Geranid says she needs to research this more, measuring for luminosity and comparing that to her general equation of flamespren luminosity as compared to the fire they’re drawn to dance around. 

I-9

Szeth-son-son-Vallano takes out a couple of guards and arrives at a large feasting hall filled with many people. He dashes in and begins to slaughter them, being very sorry for the actions he must take. 

He finds himself crying as he kills men and women alike. His orders are simple—to kill as he has never killed before, and to lay the innocent screaming at his feet as he makes the lighteyes weep. He must do so wearing white, so that all know who he is. 

Before he even targets the king he is to assassinate, he has killed thirty people. Several of the king’s Shardbearers attack Szeth as the king cowers behind his high table. The king claims to have been ready for Szeth, saying that he expected him to come after he had killed three of his highprinces. 

Szeth is able to kill off several of the king’s soldiers, using his Lashing abilities and Stormlight. He then defeats the king’s Shardbearers with his Shardblade. He Lashes atop the king, breaking his arm and pinning the man to the ground. He sweeps his blade through the remaining soldiers, killing them. 

The king asks him who he is, and Szeth says that he is death as he drives his Shardblade through the king’s face.

Chapter 52

Dalinar and his sons await the day’s highstorm in Dalinar’s sitting room. It has been one week since Dalinar informed them of his intention to step down as highprince. 

Adolin protests, saying that just because he might have some problems doesn’t mean he has to abdicate, and that they can contain his visions. Dalinar tells Adolin that their enemies will use his weakness against them, and that if he doesn’t give up the princedom now, matters could grow much worse. He says he will return to Kholinar and aid the queen, making himself useful in fighting against border incursions. 

Distant thunder rumbles outside, and Dalinar has his sons tie him down to a chair, saying they will continue their discussion afterward.

Then, Dalinar awakes in one of his visions. He is on the battlements of a single-walled fortress. He feels that he needs to live these visions now, rather than ignore them. He is going to treat the visions as real as he is a part of it, because if there are secrets to be found in them, he can only find them by playing along. 

He comes to find that he is a man named Leef, and he is keeping watch with several other soldiers atop the battlements he is on, which is called Feverstone Keep. He chides the other men to stay alert. 

Before long, Dalinar notices people marching on the battlements. One of the soldiers mutters that this has to be a rear defense force, and that it can’t be an enemy force that had gotten through their lines—not with the Radiants fighting. Dalinar says they need to be alert for a trap. 

They soon discover that the approaching force is the Radiants. They form a distinct line, charging forward in full Shardplate, but without their Shardblades. There are around two-hundred shardbearers present, several times more than in Dalinar’s present-day world.

Dalinar charges out of a sally port, rushing toward the Radiants, stopping about a hundred feet away. One of the Radiants pulls out his Shardblade and drives it into the ground. He then casts his Shardplate off and begins to walk away. The other Radiants follow suit. 

Dalinar calls after them, asking them why they are doing this. He recalls how the people spoke of this incident, also known as the Day of Recreance. It is the day in history when the Knights Radiant turned their backs on their fellow men. He continues to ask why they are doing this, but no one answers him.

Finally, a voice speaks to Dalinar, the same one from his previous visions. It takes on the figure of an Alethi man. Referring to the Radiants, the figure says that they “were the first, and they were also the last.” Dalinar asks why they abandoned their duty, but the figure says he cannot be of much help to Dalinar. It says the Night of Sorrows will come, also known as the True Desolation, or The Everstorm. It tells Dalinar to “Read the book” and to “unite them.” 

As the figure walks away from him, Dalinar turns around to find that all the men have begun fighting violently over the Shardblades. He watches this until he finds himself back in his quarters once more, tied to his chair, surrounded by Adolin and Renarin.

Dalinar tells his sons that he is no longer reliable, that there is a chance that he might be going mad. He says that when he first began seeing the visions, he believed them to be from the Almighty. But Adolin convinced him that he could be mad, or that the visions could be supernatural without being from the Almighty.

Renarin says it could be the Old Magic. He says that for the Old Magic to have affected Dalinar, he would have had to travel West to seek it. Dalinar confirms this, and recalls the empty place in his memories where his wife had once existed. Adolin maintains that they can contain these visions, but Dalinar says they can’t, and that’s why he is not fit to be in command. 

Renarin suggests that they look through history for proof that the keep Dalinar had envisioned was real or that the Radiants didn’t do what he saw there. That way, they could verify if the dreams are delusions or truth. He suggests they ask Jasnah about this. Dalinar agrees, suggesting he dictate the vision to Navani while his memory of it is still fresh. He sends Renarin off to fetch her.

Adolin brings up Sadeas again, saying that he seems to be nearing the completion of his investigation into Elhokar’s strap. Dalinar gives him leave to prepare for the worst, just in case Sadeas moves against them. He says to prepare their officers and call back the companies sent to patrol for bandits. If Sadeas denounces him as having tried to kill Elhokar, they will lock down their warcamp and go on alert; he doesn’t intend to let Sadeas bring him in for execution.

Later, Dalinar dictates his vision to Navani. She scribes it very professionally for him. Adolin asks her if she has an analysis of the vision, but she says they should wait to see what Jasnah says. Navani sends Adolin off so that she can be alone with Dalinar.

Dalinar worries that people will think them being alone together is inappropriate. Navani, however, is excited at the prospect that something inappropriate could happen. Dalinar declares that he cannot abandon his principles, otherwise he would be a hypocrite, and that he cannot be like everyone else, and sends her off.

Chapter 53

Kaladin and the bridgemen are on another bridge run, taking on Parshendi arrows as they rush out onto the battlefield. They lay their bridge down and retreat. Dunny takes an arrow in the process and dies.

Kaladin breaks parade rest and stalks away from the chasm, and Bridge Four follows him. He finds a man from Bridge Eight crawling towards his own bridge crew with an arrow through his thigh. Kaladin walks up to him, telling him to hold still as he gets a look at his wound. He tells Teft to start a fire and for Rock to fetch his needle and thread. 

The bridgemen protest this, saying that they don’t have any money left to take care of men from other bridge crews. Kaladin admonishes them, saying that they are not going to be like the lighteyes who talk about honor but don’t act honorably. He references his father, who was the one true man of honor in his life. The bridgemen are effectively shamed into doing as Kaladin bids them.

Teft comes up to him, asking if he has been carrying a full pouch of spheres with him like he had told him. He tells him that those spheres are luck, and to keep them with him and to always keep them infused. Kaladin notes that they don’t hold their Stormlight, falling dun after just a few days. Teft says that is odd, and Kaladin notes that Teft has been acting strangely as of late. 

As he works on the wound of the man from Bridge Eight, Kaladin begins to understand the sense of futility he had seen in Lirin’s eyes on those occasional darkened nights when he had turned to his wine in solitude. He thinks that he is just trying to make up for failing Dunny, and that helping these men won’t bring him back. He notes, however, that he had saved four other men from Bridge Eight, even though he had lost Dunny.

Later, he notices that a wound he had taken from an arrow to his cheek has completely healed. 

Chapter 54

Dalinar steps onto the king’s feasting island on a cold night. Wit finds him, telling him that he is leaving soon. He tells him that his real name is Hoid, and he warns Dalinar to watch himself. Dalinar takes this to mean that Sadeas is planning a revelation at the feast that night. He fetches for Adolin, telling him to stay close and to prepare his personal guard to be ready at the feast in case something happens to him.

A man named Hatham then approaches Dalinar, asking him if he has been paying much attention to the conflict between the Tukari and Emuli. He has four companions with him, one of which is an ardent. He and a man named Au-nak argue about whether the conflict is economic or religious in nature. 

Once Hatham leaves, the ardent tells him that Hatham had asked him to insult his guest, Au-nak, so that Au-nak would think that he is shamed, so that when Hatham quickly agrees to his demands, the foreigner will assume it’s because of this and it won’t arouse any suspicion. The ardent says he wishes Dalinar to know his goodwill toward him, and that they will speak again soon.

Dalinar then approaches Sadeas, asking him about the status of his investigation of the cut girth strap. The feast quiets down, the two of them being the center of attention. Sadeas announces to everyone that King Elhokar’s strap was deliberately cut. He also points out that eight of the ten sapphires used to infuse King Eholkar’s shardplate were cracked following the battle. He says that this had to have been intentional, because usually only one or two of these sapphires might crack during a battle.

He then brings out one of the groom’s in the king’s employ. The groom says that he was the one who prepared the king’s horse before he turned it over to Dalinar’s men. He says that when the king’s head grooms took the horse to Dalinar’s camp, it was wearing a different saddle than the one he had put on it. 

Sadeas then announces that whoever attempted to kill the king had planted in his Shardplate flawed gemstones that would crack when strained, losing their stormlight, and that they had weakened the saddle girth with a careful slit, hoping that the king would fall while fighting a greatshell, allowing it to attack him. He then says that for these reasons, Dalinar is very unlikely to be a suspect, and that the culprit is likely someone that Dalinar may have offended. In essence, he clears Dalinar of any guilt of the crime.

Dalinar approaches him afterwards. Sadeas tells him that he had asked Elhokar for the position of investigating the incident so that he could prove Dalinar innocent. Dalinar tells him that he owes him a debt, and that he shouldn’t have treated him as he has these past six years. Sadeas says he hasn’t given up on Daliar yet.

Dalinar then suggests that they jointly assault the plateaus together. He says that Sadeas needs a Shardblade to be more effective against the Parshendi, and that he can win him one. He says that if they find a Shardbearer, he and Adolin will fight him, and that Sadeas will win the blade, but Renarin will get the plate. Sadeas is interested, and tells him to send him the details via a messenger. 

Chapter 55

One week after losing Dunny, Kaladin stands atop another plateau, watching a battle proceed. This time, they have arrived before the Parshendi to the battlefield, so he doesn’t have to save any wounded men.

To everyone’s surprise, Dalinar’s army approaches from an adjacent plateau. Kaladin notes that they brought with them enormous, siege-tower-like bridges pulled by chulls, and that this is how they cross the chasms, as opposed to Sadeas’s use of the bridgemen. 

The fighting grows brutal for a short time, but the Parshendi become overwhelmed, being smashed between the opposing forces of Dalinar and Sadeas’s armies. It’s not long before Kaladin’s team leads a victorious group of soldiers back to the camps for celebration.

Back at camp, Kaladin and the bridgemen are on chasm scavenging duty again. He has found an emerald gemstone, which is quite valuable in comparison to other gemstones. The bridgemen discuss ways to sneak the gemstone out of the chasm without the guards noticing, suggesting they swallow it. Kaladin tells them they will give the gemstone to the guards, because they would raise too much suspicion if they keep it.

However, they have also found a bag of smaller gemstones, which they decide they will sneak out instead, because if they give the guards the emerald gemstone, it will make them look honest.

Later, they find a group of Parshendi bodies in the chasm. They try to raid the corpses, but Shen, the parshmen, becomes aggressive when they do this. Sigzil explains that Parshmen workers are passionate about caring for their own dead, growing irate if anyone else handles the bodies. Kaladin has the men hold Shen down, and says that they will be respectful of the dead Parshendi bodies. They find a shortbow underneath one of the bodies.

Kaladin suggests they tie the bag of gemstones to the arrow and launch it at the bottom of one of the bridges over the chasm. Then, when they’re on their next bridge run, Lopen and Dabbid can hang back and retrieve the spheres. 

Rock points out that the scouts might see the arrow sticking out of the bridge, so Teft suggests they tie a rope to the bridge and toss the bag over so that it cannot be seen easily. Lopen says that his cousin works for a place that sells rope, and that he could get some easily with a bit of money.

Then, Rock takes the bow and fires a test shot at the bridge. He says they can only fill the bag with five spheres. The men then worry that someone might betray them to Gaz, so they suggest keeping a post watch to make sure this doesn’t happen. Kaladin tells them they have to trust each other, however. Still, he has Syl keep watch just in case.

Rock then looses the arrow with the bag attached. It sticks into the bridge, the bag attached to it. Kaladin tells Lopen to go buy the rope, and that he will give him the money for it.

Chapter 56

Dalinar fights the Parshendi, the Thrill pulsing within him. He hasn’t experienced the weakness or nausea he had had on the battlefield weeks ago. 

As he is fighting, he notices that some of the Parshendi on the battlefield appear to be women, much to his amazement. He also notes how well his plan has been working—his and Sadeas’s armies complement one another quite well. Dalinar’s assaults had been too slow, and Sadeas’s men had moved too fast. But together, with Sadeas arriving first and holding out for Dalinar’s men, his superior army and his Shards worked like a hammer against the Parshendi, smashing them against Sadeas’s anvil. 

As he is fighting, the nausea briefly returns to Dalinar, but is quickly replaced by the Thrill once again. Before long, a second Parshendi army approaches. Dalinar finds a rock formation and climbs atop it to get a better view of the battlefield.

He sees that Sadeas’s army is directly in the path of an oncoming Parshendi force, and he doesn’t have any support. He hops down from the rocks onto his mount and strikes into the middle of the Parshendi force. He tears into them, and lets the Blackthorn loose, striking down Parshendi soldiers left and right.

After a while, he notices that the Parshendi are distracted, attacking elsewhere. It’s here he realizes that Sadeas has fallen, and grabs a hammer, smashing through the Parshendi to get to Sadeas. 

While he is fighting, he notices a breeze through the back of his breastplate. The cracks in his Shardblade are widening, and if the breastplate bursts, he will be in trouble. As he is in danger of falling, Adolin storms into the fray, fighting off Parshendi with his Shardblade. His Cobalt Guard rushes through the gap he creates, and the Parshendi are pushed back, and Dalinar is saved. They find Sadeas uninjured, and that the Parshendi army has been routed.

Sadeas is grateful for Dalinar having saved his life, and asks him why he took such a risk to rescue him. Dalinar says that you do not abandon your allies on the battlefield because it is one of the Codes. He recites something from The Way of Kings, saying that it is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there. Sadeas says that he’d like to understand Dalinar again, wondering if he ever really did. 

Meanwhile, the nausea returns to Dalinar after seeing the sheer number of people he has killed on the battlefield. He thinks that Sadeas will need luck trying to understand him, because he is having trouble understanding himself.

Chapter 57

Kaladin watches on as Maps dies on the battlefield. He and a bridgemen named Arik have both perished, leaving Bridge Four with only twenty-six members now, which is barely enough to carry a bridge. The greater heaviness of the bridge is noticeable now, and they are having difficulty keeping up with the other bridge crews.

Kaladin sends out the majority of the bridgemen to look for fallen bridgemen from other crews. The remaining bridgemen fall into a battlestance around him. Lopen returns with the newest pouch of spheres he has recovered from the ones they’d stuck to the bridge with an arrow. This is the fourth retrieval they have been able to make, and so far, no incidents have occurred. 

Eventually, the Alethi win the battle. Before long, Kaladin and his team are slogging back across the plateau, carrying their bridge with three wounded men from other bridgecews lashed to the top. They have already rescued some fifteen men from other bridge crews, which is straining their resources.

On their way back to camp, Teft approaches him, asking him again if he has had any odd experiences lately. Suddenly, he throws a punch at him. Kaladin feels a powerful wave pulse through his body, filling him with energy, strength, and awareness as he reacts to Teft’s blow. 

Kaladin asks what Teft has done to him. Teft says he hasn’t done anything, but that Kaladin has been feeding off Stormlight ever since he’d been strung up out in the highstorm. Kaladin then asks Syl if she has done something to him. She responds that she and the other spren are responsible. She tells him that she is not a windspren, but that she binds things. Kaladin notes how she has played pranks, making items stick together, like shoes stuck to the ground to make men trip. 

Kaladin tests this “binding” out, grabbing a stone off the ground and pressing it against the wall of the barack as he wills Light into the stone. The stone clings to the side of the building for a moment before it falls. It is Bindspren that are holding the rock in place, or perhaps being attracted to what he has done in affixing the stone there. 

Syl notes that he is doing what the Radiants did. Kaladin wonders if he is cursed like the Radiants were by the Almighty for betraying mankind. Syl asks him if he thinks she is a curse. Kaladin doesn’t respond, and Syl zips away, upset. He then runs out of the alley and across the lumberyard, fleeing from watching eyes. 

By the time night draws close, the light has stopped streaming from Kaladin’s body. He walks out to the edge of a peninsula, finding Wit sitting on a boulder next to a tiny campfire, playing a flute.

Wit tells him the story about Derethil and the Wandersail, playing his flute as he tells the tale. He tells him that Derethil was a king during the shadowdays, the time before memory. He was a commander and leader of thousands of people, and fought the Voidbringers during the days of the Heralds and the Radiants. When he finally achieved peace, he found he was not content. So, he commissioned the finest ship men had ever known, calling it the Wandersail, and sailed it westward, seeking the origin of the Voidbringers, the place where they had been spawned. 

His ship ran aground and was nearly destroyed, but Derethil and most of his sailors survived. They found themselves on a ring of small islands surrounding an enormous whirlpool. They were greeted by a strange people with long, limber bodies called the Uvara. The Uvara feed them and nurse them back to health. 

Derethil and the men soon realized, however, that the Uvara were prone to astonishing cruelty. If any of their members did something wrong, the others would slaughter him or her, saying that their ‘emperor will not suffer failure.’

Derethil then gathered his sailors to confront the cruel emperor, but found him dead in the top room of his tower. When they revealed this to the Uvara, they descended into chaos and began to riot. 

Derethil and his men left, and one of the Uvara women joined them. Derethil asked her the reason for the terrible riots, and she responded that if the emperor had been dead all these years, then the murders they had committed were not his responsibility, but their own.

Kaladin asks Wit what the story means, and Wit responds that it means what you want it to mean. Kaladin says the Uvara were happy to kill and murder, so long as they could blame the emperor, and that it wasn’t until they realized there was nobody to take the responsibility that they showed grief.

Wit commends his interpretation of the story as a fine one, and gives him his flute. He then says to take good care of his apprentice, who is apparently Sigzil. 

Syl then returns, telling Kaladin that she is behind what is happening to him, and that she is taking something from him and giving something in return. She says it’s the way it used to work, but she can’t remember how or when. She says she is willing to stop it, if Kaladin wants, but she will return to what she was before—never remembering anything for longer than a few minutes.

Kaladin asks her to come with him, and he thinks about what responsibility he might be avoiding. He notes that he clings to an excuse, like the dead emperor, and that excuse is apathy. If he believes that nothing is his fault, and that he cannot change anything, then he believes he doesn’t have to care, and therefore doesn’t need to hurt when he fails. He wonders if what makes he and Syl stronger together can make him strong enough to help the others. Syl says that maybe it can.

He runs back to the bridgemen, and he realizes that if it’s not about him—-if he isn’t helping the bridgemen because he loathes failure or fears the pain of watching them die, then it has to be about them. 

He finds the bridgemen making a stew, chatting and laughing. He asks Teft what he knows about his newfound powers, and how he knows it. Teft says when he was young, his family belonged to a secret sect that awaited the return of the Radiants. 

He asks him how much he know s about what he can do. Teft says he only knows legends and stories, and that nobody really knows what the Radiants could do. Kaladin tells him they are going to find out.

Chapter 58

Adolin sits with a group of other young lighteyes at the outdoor tables of an Outer Market wineshop. He talks with a boy named Toral, trying to figure out why Sadeas hadn’t moved against his father. During their conversation, Toral mentions that the warcamps are saying Dalinar should abdicate because of what happens to him during the highstorms. A gril named Danlan says that stepping down would be an overreaction, but that she wishes Dalinar would relax all of the foolish restrictions his warcamp is under. 

As Adolin leaves the wineshop to prepare for an upcoming duel, he thinks about the restrictions Dalinar has placed on his warcamp and the Codes he lives by. He thinks that maybe the Codes weren’t just about protecting against the Parshendi, but about giving the men commanders they could respect and rely on, and treating war with the gravity it deserved.

The chapter then switches to Dalinar’s POV. He sits with Sadeas and Elhokar as they watch duels in the warcamps’ dueling arena. He quotes a passage from The Way of Kings to Sadeas. Sadeas asks who wrote the book, and Dalinar tells him it was a man named Nohadon. The passage he quotes refers to when Nohadon decided to walk from Ambamabar to Urithiru, covering a great distance, walking as a beggar would, without possessions or attendants. 

Sadeas thinks it’s ridiculous that Nohadon had walked all that distance just to make the point that kings should consider the consequences of their commands. But Dalinar said that he walked because he wanted to experience the things his people did. 

During the dueling, Dalinar’s eyes linger on Navani for a brief moment. She’s been recording his visions, seemingly having forgiven him for throwing her out of his rooms so sharply the last time. 

Sadeas, Elhokar, and Dalinar then discuss fashion in the warcamp, commenting on the style of a highprince named Vamah. Sadeas argues that highprinces should properly present themselves to the world, while Dalinar says that you shouldn’t judge people based on how they look. He claims that Sadeas dresses too flamboyantly for wartime. 

Adolin’s duel comes up. He is fighting a man named Resi, whose highprince, a man named Thanadal, had recently been vocal about Dalinar’s faults. So, Adolin had challenged the highprinces’s star Shardbearer in a friendly bout. Dalinar notes how Adolin had refused to become a dueling champion, likely to stick to the Codes, as Dueling championships and tournaments weren’t appropriate during wartime.

Adolin quickly wins the duel, and Dalinar says that he wishes there was peace so that his son could dedicate himself to dueling. Sadeas criticizes him for wanting to abandon the war. Dalinar speaks up for himself, saying that if he could make the order, he would take all ten armies and return to Alethkar. He would do this because leaving this war would help secure their homeland and the loyalty of the highprinces. 

He would also send more envoys and scholars to find out why the Parshendi killed Gaviler. He would discover what their culture is, and he would demand restitution. He wouldn’t abandon vengeance, but he would approach it more thoughtfully. 

Elhokar says this makes sense, wondering why Dalinar hadn’t explained that perspective before. Dalinar simply says that he has had trouble explaining his own thoughts recently. Elhokar then talks about his fear of being assassinated like his father, saying he sees faces in his mirrors which are symbols, twisted, and inhuman.

They then discuss their battle tactics, Sadeas complaining that Dalinar’s army is too slow in getting to him while he fights off multiple Parshendi armies. Dalinar, however, refuses to use bridgemen to move more quickly, saying it’s a waste of life. 

Elhokar suggests a compromise, having Dalinar let Sadeas’s bridgemen help him for the initial march to the plateau to arrive more quickly, so that he doesn’t have to use his own bridgemen. They agree to the compromise for their next assault, and Sadeas requests a copy of The Way of Kings from Dalinar.

Chapter 59

Kaladin sits with Teft in the barracks, trying to will Stormlight into three little spheres on the ground, but nothing happens. He grows frustrated with Teft, saying that he doesn’t know anything more than he does about what should happen with the Stormlight. Teft says he knows what should happen, that Radiants could fly and walk on walls, that they could move great distances in a single heartbeat, and command the sunlight.

Teft then tells him that being a Radiant is more than drinking in Stormlight and commanding it. He says they lived their lives based on The Immortal Words—Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destinations. This was their motto, the First Ideal of the Immortal Words. He says there were four other ideals, but he doesn’t know what they are. He knows that the other four ideals were different for every order of Radiants, but the First Ideal was always the same.

Later, Hashal and her husband approach the Barracks. Hashal tells them that Kaladin’s men will be on bridge duty every day from now on. Kaladin asks about scavenging duty, and she says there will still be time for them to do that at night. 

He, Teft, and Lopen worry about going into the chasms at night and about their bridecrew getting decimated from having to do bridge runs every day. As this is happening, Stormlight leaks out of Kaladin and into the spheres. 

Syl shows up, telling Kaladin he had drawn in breath and that’s how the Light had come into his body. Kaladin then tells Teft to gather the men for chasm duty. He tells Syl to find them a place where some Parshendi corpses had fallen.

As he walks through the chasm, Kaladin holds a sphere in his hand, and stops when his hand feels warm. He breathes in deeply, and the light transfers from the sphere into his arm. 

He asks Syl to bring Lopen to him. Then, he takes out his knife, and begins to cut through one of the Parshendi bodies, removing the breastplate armor that grew from the corpse’s chest. 

Lopen returns with a sack, pulling out an armored leather vest and cap, along with some thin leather straps and a spearmen’s shield, as well as a series of Parshendi bones. Kaladin ties the severed Parshendi breastplate over the leather vest, and does the same with the cap and helm. He also attaches the bones to the front of the round wooden shield. He then stuffs them back into the sack Lopen has brought. He tells Syl to lead them to a shallow chasm, where one bridge they often cross is located. 

On their way, they hear the sounds of a chasmfiend nearby, which thankfully moves away from them. When they get to the bridge, Kaladin has them gather fist-sized stones. Using Stormlight, he binds the rocks to the edge of the chasm wall, using the rocks to scale up the wall. 

He is able to climb up to the bridge and secure the sack to it with a rope. He also puts the dun spheres into the sack. Then, he drops down from the bridge, falling forty feet. He lands safely with the help of the Stormlight. 

He then asks Lopen to get the bundle of armor he has placed under the bridge during their next bridge run. He tells him to get it, hide it, and give it to him right before the final plateau assault.

Chapter 60 

Adolin walks with Dalinar to his chambers. He tells his father that he cannot abdicate, and, much to his surprise, Dalinar agrees. However, Dalinar says he will draft an order that gives Adolin the right to depose him, should he grow too mentally unstable. 

They find Renarin and Navain in Dalinar’s chamber. Dalinar tells Kaladin to take extra care with the King’s Guard, saying that if there are soldiers they know for certain are loyal to him, to put them in charge of guarding Elhokar’s rooms. 

Meanwhile, Navani shows them a fabrial called a painrial she has designed. They test it out on Adolin’s wrist, and it relieves the pain he had had there. As they are discussing fabrials, a highstorm hits, and Dalinar is thrown into one of his visions again.

He is in a large, open room with pillars running along the sides. A youthful, regal man is speaking to him, saying that they are never ready for the Desolations, and that they should be getting better at resisting, but each time they step closer to destruction instead. 

They step out onto a balcony, where thousands of corpses lay. Among the corpses are massive creatures, easily five or six times the size of a person, their skin dull and grey like granite. As Dalinar talks to the young man, he realizes that it’s Noahdon himself. 

Nohadon is thinking of giving up his throne, and is surprisingly worried, rather than stoic. Dalinar advises him not to give up his throne, and instead, that he should dictate a book. To his surprise, Nohadon rejects the idea, thinking it ridiculous. 

Nohadon then leaves him, and Dalinar asks the voice from the visions what Nohadon ultimately decides. He asks if he unites them, but the voice doesn’t respond. He then says that Nohadon was right about one thing, that to be human is to want that which they cannot have.

Abruptly, Dalinar comes to from the vision, surrounded by Adolin, Renarin, and Navani. Navani says that the last thing Dalinar had said in his vision was the line from a song, and that he wasn’t just speaking gibberish in his visions, as they had all thought. The song was the Dawnchant by the Heralds themselves. The words of the songs had been recorded by a people called the Vanrial, but they have only been words, as the meanings of the songs had been lost over the years. 

In effect, Dalinar has translated the Dawnchant song for them during his vision. She says that the one sentence he uttered could give them the key to translating the ancient language of the Heralds. She says that they now have proof that Dalinar’s visions are real, and not simply delusions, because there was no way Dalinar could have learned to speak a dead language.

She asks Dalinar to describe his vision as accurately as possible, getting the exact words he spoke, if he can recall them, so her scholars can sort through them.

Chapter 61

It has been several hours since the end of Dalinar’s vision. Navani and Renarin sit with Dalinar in his chambers, while Adolin has left to get the highstorm damage report. Navani asks Dalinar how he can be so sure it was Nohadon he had seen in his visions. Dalinar claims there was an aura of command about the man he saw, and a weight of great responsibilities upon him, and that’s why he believes it was Nohadon.

Dalinar asks Navani if she knows of any references to the Desolations, saying he thinks he saw the aftermath of one in his vision, and that the corpses he saw there were that of the Voidbringers. He wonders if this could give them more proof that the visions are real, but Navani maintains that translating the Dawnchant will be the best proof they can get.

Navani then asks him about when he had once sought the Old Magic, wanting to know what he had asked of the Nightwatcher and what curse did he get in return. Dalinar refuses to talk on the subject, but affirms the Old Magic is unlikely to blame for the vision. He says that they don’t have any proof the visions came from the Almighty either, but that something wants him to know of the Desolations and the Knights Radiant.

He wonders if the Voidbringers are behind the visions, worrying that they could possess him to make him do evil. He dismisses Navani and Renarin from the room so that he can think, but Navani stays behind. 

Navani tells Dalinar that the visions are a blessing. She closes the door behind them, and Dalinar accuses her of trying to seduce him again. He says it’s not proper, referencing his dead brother, to which Navani bursts out in anger, saying it has been six years since Gavilar died, and that all anyone can see her as is the wife of a dead man. She begins to cry, and Dalinar kisses her. 

They continue to kiss for some time, and Dalinar holds her. She tells him that something is going wrong in the world, that the king of Jah Keved has been assassinated, and that something bigger than Gavilar is going on. She says that men say twisted things when they die, and that the highstorms are going more powerful. 

Dalinar asks Navani how this thing can work between them. She says that they will find a way. Navani worries that Dalinar will abandon her, but he reassures her that he won’t.

Chapter 62

Kaladin watches as Sadeas’s soldiers cross their bridge. He has tied a prayer to his arm—one to Jezerezeh, the Stormfather, to protect loved ones and friends. Moash is skeptical, doubting that the prayer will save the men today.

The bridgemen around Kaladin are exhausted. They had been forced to work the chasms all night because Hashal had been demanding an increased amount of salvage from them. They had then been awakened for a morning chasm assault after only three hours of sleep.

As he and the bridgemen await the army to cross their bridge, a soldier approaches Kaladin, demanding some of his water. Kaladin worries that if the soldiers swarm around their litter to get water, they will discover his sack full of armor. So, he tells the soldier off. The soldier then threatens to fight him, but within seconds, Kaladin’s entire bridge crew surrounds him in an organized formation. The soldier backs down, walking away.

Before long, the time comes for the bridgemen to pull their bridge up for the assault. Kaladin puts on the armor from Lopen’s sack, sucks in stormlight, and charges out ahead of the bridgemen onto the battlefield. 

His carapace armor immediately draws the ire of the Parshendi archers, taking offense to Kaladin wearing the desecrated corpses of their fellow soldiers. They unleash a fury of arrows upon Kaladin, but he is able to dodge them all with the help of his stormlight, which allows him to react more quickly. 

As this is happening, the other bridge crews come into range of the archers, but are ignored because the Parshendi are focused on Kaladin. Bridge Four is easily able to set their bridge down, and Sadeas’s soldiers cut through the Parshendi soldiers that are focused on Kaladin.

After the Assault, Sadeas and Matal (the officer in charge of Bridge Four), approach Kaladin. Sadeas recognizes Kaladin as ‘the miracle’ who survived the Highstorm. Matal takes full responsibility for what had happened on the battlefield, but Sadeas commends him, saying that the Parshendi practically ignored his assault force, allowing his army to set down all the bridges with almost no casualties. He says that he should have to promote Matal now. Matal says that Kaladin could have gotten him executed, and Kaladin points out that he got him promoted instead.

Later, Kaladin returns to find Shen visibly upset at him for having worn the Parshendi armor. Kaladin sets a man to watch over him while he sends the rest of the men off to search for the wounded from other bridge crews. 

Teft approaches him, reminding Kaladin that he isn’t immortal, that even the Radiants could be killed, just like any man. He advises that Kaladin lets a few of the bridgemen go out with him next time to draw the Parshendi arrows away. Kaladin agrees, and Teft joins the others to recover the wounded.

Syl then finds Kaladin, asking him if he still thinks he is cursed. Kaladin says that he knows he isn’t now, but that means that his failures were all just him, that he had let Tien die, and failed the spearmen and the slaves he had tried to rescue, mentioning someone named Tarah that he hadn’t thought about in a long time. 

Syl tells him that those things weren’t his fault. Kaladin gets frustrated, because she sounds like his father, telling him to overcome his guilt and to care, but not too much, and to take responsibility, but not to blame himself. 

Some of his men return with a wounded man, and Kaladin begins to work on him, explaining to the others how to treat a patient like this. While this is happening, a group of Parshendi have punched through Sadeas’s line, nocking several arrows towards Kaladin’s crew.

Before they can loose their arrows, however, Dalinar storms across the battlefield in his Shardplate. The arrows still fly towards Kaladin’s team, but they are loosed too early and are poorly aimed, and none of the bridgemen are hit.

Kaladin tells the bridgement that they will pull back farther after the soldiers cross from now on, since the Parshendi will no longer ignore them after a battle begins.

Moash approaches him afterwards, saying that maybe he should get a prayer armband, too. Kaladin tells him to wait to see if they escape, because that will be the real test.

Chapter 63

One of the bridgemen, Leyten has carved into Kaladin’s armor, putting in holes for leather straps to affix the jerkin. Kaladin tells Leyten he wants the armor carved like this for all the men in the crew.

His recent success has translated into an easier time for Bridge Four. Kaladin had pleaded that his men needed time to find carapace, so Hashal had reduced the scavenging quota for them. She had already been pretending that the armor had been her idea the entire time. 

Later, he speaks with Moash, who he’s noticed is one of his best fighters and has been training extra hard. He tells Moash that dedication is good, but not to work himself ragged, as he wants him to be one of his decoys. He asks Moash why he works so hard, and Moash says it’s because he wants vengeance, that he wants to kill somebody, but he won’t say who. 

Rock then approaches Kaladin, noticing that he looks worried. Kaladin says that Sadeas will never let them go, now that they’re so prominent, which makes their escape plans rather difficult. 

Even though they have slowed the death toll to two or three men a month, Bridge Four as it was currently composed would be gone within a year. Kaladin says they need a plan, otherwise they will be forced to stay there as bridgemen. Rock says he will talk with Sigzil to figure out a plan to escape, suggesting that they maybe set a false trail or a distraction or perhaps convince Sadeas that they have died during a bridge run. 

Skar then asks Kaladin to come spar with them, but Kaladin refuses. Teft pleads with him to do it, saying it will raise the men’s morale. He tells Teft that if he lets himself get back into fighting again, he will be too eager, and will push to attack now. He worries that he will have trouble waiting until the men are ready. Teft accepts this, and gives the men an explanation to mollify them.

On a deeper level, Kaladin knows that when he fights again, he will have to become the same man he was long ago, the man who had been called Stormblessed, a man with confidence and strength. He is not certain he can be that man any longer, and it scares him. 

Chapter 64

Dalinar and Navani take a leisurely stroll up a hillside, being followed by his honor guard and Navani’s clerks. They talk about their past, and how Dalinar had let Gavilar court Navani instead of himself. 

Navani recalls when Dalinar’s wife had come along, whom Dalinar still doesn’t know the name of, even when it is spoken to him. Navani says she changed everything, and that Dalinar had truly seemed to love her. She recalls being jealous of her because of how well she fit Dalinar. She then tells Dalinar that he is prone to indulging in his guilt, especially now that he is courting her. 

Dalinar recalls how he had contemplated murdering Gavilar for the throne and for Navani, but he cannot explain this to her, not daring to let her know what his desire for her had once almost driven him to do. 

Since that day, Dalinar had sworn he would never hold the throne himself. It was one of his restraints. He worries about Elhokar finding out about their relationship and thinking it may be another conspiracy against him. But Navani doubts he will notice due to his fixation on the Parshendi. 

Meanwhile, the battle horns sound out, and Dalinar notes it’s coming from the Tower itself, where a chasmfiend has been seen. He grows in excitement at potentially winning a decisive victory there.

The chapter then switches to Kaladin’s POV. As the horns are blaring, a frenzy erupts in the lumberyard, and he prepares the bridgemen to march out to the tower, where before, he had caused a disaster by having his bridgemen run out early with their bridge as a shield.

All of his men are outfitted in armor now, and for the past ten days, he had allowed small handfuls of men to be decoys, perfecting their method. Their numbers had also grown with the wounded they’d saved from other crews, who were now strong enough to help carry their bridge. As they march out onto the battlefield, the other bridge crews cheer them on. Kaladin says that they are their champions. 

The chapter then switches to Adolin’s POV. Adolin realizes that he is glad to have been wrong about Dalinar’s visions, happy that his father is not growing senile and that the visions are actually real. 

He and Dalinar notice that Sadeas has hung back for the assault, wondering if he has called it off. Sadeas says they need to confer first, since it’s the Tower they are assaulting, and that this could be the turning point in the war.

Sadeas says that they will need a lot of troops, and tells Dalinar that they will march together with some 15,000 men. He says that if they get there fast enough, they can corner the Parshendi on the plateau. Dalinar worries, however, about risking lives on Sadeas’s bridges, saying he doesn’t know if he can agree to a completely joint assault. 

Saadaes assures him he has a new way of using bridgemen that doesn’t cost nearly as many lives. He says that he can attack first and gain a foothold, then let Dalinar cross without having to risk any bridgemen lives. Dalinar agrees. 

Chapter 65

Several hours later, Dalinar stands with Sadeas on a rock formation overlooking the Tower. Dalinar tells Sadeas that he will attack, but only after Sadeas has made a landing point for his bridge crews. Sadeas agrees, telling Dalinar that he will see him out on the battlefield.

Dalinar watches over the battlefield, noticing Kaladin’s armored bridgemen, wondering why they are allowed armor while the other bridge crews are not. The assault begins as the bridge crews run out ahead of Sadeas’s army. Dalinar tells Adolin to get the men ready.

Meanwhile, Kaladin rushes out onto the plateau, dodging several arrows, trying to make the Parshendi feel that they are near to killing him. Despite the other bridgemen drawing Parshendi attention with their armor, the Parshendi seem to focus on Kaladin, as he has become a symbol for them to destroy.

During the battle, he finds Skar on the ground, wounded with an arrow through his foot. Moash then brings Teft over to Kaladin, who has taken an arrow to the shoulder. Kaladin reluctantly uses a heated knife to work on Teft’s wound, knowing it will leave the aging bridgeman with a stiffness that would hurt his ability to wield a spear.

At the same time, Dalinar waits beside his men, watching Sadeas’s soldiers fight as he watches for an opening. Sadeas is able to quickly gain his footing on the Tower and send a flanking force over to carve out a section of land for Dalinar. Dalinar begins to move, bringing one of Sadeas’s bridge teams with him.

He crashes into a surging Parshendi line with his Shardblade. Within minutes, his soldiers surge around him, and with the Cobalt Guard watching his back, he wades into battle, tearing pockets through the Parshendi front lines. The Thrill rises within him, and he carefully lets the Blackthorn free. He is disappointed, however, that he does not find any Parshendi Shardbearers, like the one he thought he had in battle weeks ago.

He is suddenly hit by a projectile rock from a group of Parshendi. He rushes up to them, grabbing their stones and flinging them back at them, tossing the slingmen off their formation and crushing them with the stones. 

He then calls for all his companies of soldiers to go up the side of the Tower to press the Parshendi. To the north, Sadeas’s forces are stalled. He plans to crush one side of the Parshendi against Sadeas and another side against a cliff edge. He and his men crush into the Parshendi line, sending them fleeing. 

As he is about to kill one of the Parshendi soldiers, he notices that he is a youth, paralyzed by fear. He lets up, but not before one of his guardsmen slays him. Several dying Parshendi lay around him, singing their haunting death chant. Dalinar suddenly feels sick, thinking there was nothing glorious about what they were doing here. He reminds himself that they had killed Gavilar, and thinks about the voice from his visions telling him to “Unite them.” He wonders, briefly, if he is supposed to unite the Parshendi as well as the rest of Alethkar. 

Adolin then finds him, pointing out a massive second army of Parshendi that is approaching. Dalinar climbs atop a rock formation, and to his horror, he sees that Sadeas’s army is retreating across the chasm—-they are abandoning Dalinar and his troops, leaving them surrounded on three sides by the Parshendi, alone on the shattered plains, as they take their bridges with them.

Chapter 66

Kaladin inspects the wound on Skar’s foot. He tells Skar that he will be able to walk on his foot again as long as he doesn’t put weight on it until it’s healed. Behind them, the battle against the Parshendi rages on. 

Kaladin scans the battlefield and realizes that Sadeas is retreating. He has some of the men take the wounded Skar and injured Teft to the western side of the plateau in preparation to flee. To his horror, Kaladin realizes that Sadeas has fully abandoned Dalinar.

Meanwhile, Dalinar is cutting down Parshendi soldiers on the battlefield, holding his little rise in the hillside. He fights alongside Adolin, asking him to admit that it’s his own fault for the position they are in. Adolin tells him it’s not his fault, that there was nothing he should’ve done differently, that he was right to follow the Codes and try to unite Alethkar.

Dalinar then makes a speech to his Cobalt Guard, saying that they fight because they understand that their end is the same as other men, and it is their path that separates them. He declares that he is not ashamed of what he has become, and that other men may debase themselves to destroy him, but he will retain his glory. 

He charges back into battle, his only regret being that he will leave Renarin as the lone highprince of his house, surrounded by enemies and without any Shardplate.

Chapter 67

Bridge Four lags behind the rest of the army. With two wounded and four men needed to carry them, their bridge weighs them down. Matal urges them forward, but Kaladin says they need to sit for a few minutes. He warns Matal how Sadeas might react if he delays the bridgemen’s advance because of one bridge crew. 

Matal asks what would happen if the Parshendi come after his bridge crew while they rest, and Kaladin shrugs. Satisfied with the possibility of Kaladin’s bridgemen perishing at the hands of the Parshendi, Matal moves ahead.

Kaladin then tells his bridgemen that they will follow for a short while, and Matal will assume they are coming. Then, they will then fall farther and farther behind the army, until they are out of sight and can escape. He says that everyone will just assume that the Parshendi caught them and slaughtered them.

He then thinks of the wounded bridgemen back at camp, and says that he will have to stay behind for them. The bridgemen argue that they won’t leave without him. But Kaladin says that he’ll go with them for now, and return to camp later to rescue the wounded. He orders the bridgemen to salvage from the dead bodies on the battlefield. 

He is alone now, and Syl appears before him, as he’s never seen her before. She is the size of an ordinary person now, and looks horrified and sorrowful at the sight of Dalinar’s surrounded army. He looks on, too, and is disturbed to see that they’ve been left alone to die. He tries to remind himself that Dalinar is just as corrupt as the other lighteyes, but he notes that he has thousands of darkeyed soldiers with him that don’t deserve this terrible fate. 

Syl then tells him that she is an honorspren. Kaladin tries to remind himself that he has been in this situation before with Amaram’s army, and that he won’t make the same mistake again. But he remembers his father’s words, about how somebody has to step forward and do what is right, simply because it is right. Finally, Kaladin decides they have to go back and help Dalinar’s men.

Meanwhile, Dalinar is struggling to fight off the Parshendi. They have focused on him and Adolin, trying to take out the Shardbearers of their army. As he is fighting, he notices Kaladin’s bridge crew moving toward them. Adolin calls for the men to form up and get ready to move. They are going to punch through the Parshendi to get to the bridgemen. Dalinar raises his Shardblade high and charges forward ahead of his men.

At the same time, Kaladin notices that the Parshendi have seen his bridge crew and have formed up their archers. He also notices Dalinar’s force coming towards them. He reminds himself that this is his choice, and that no angry gods are watching him, nor are spren playing tricks on him. He chose to follow Tien, to save Amaram, to escape the slave pits, and now, he is choosing to rescue the men before him, even though it will probably fail.

The Parshendi loose their arrows at his exposed bridge crew, and Kaladin lets out a large burst of Stormlight. Over a hundred arrows are pulled into his shield, protecting his bridge crew, but some of the arrows make it through and hit his forearm. The Parshendi archers are stunned, and they begin to call the words “Neshua Kadal!” to each other.

Teft and Lopen pull Kaladin away into a sheltered hollow with the other injured bridgemen. He lays on his side, nearly going into shock, as he watches Bridge Four arrive at the chasm and set down their bridge. The Parshendi teams get out their weapons and approach the bridgemen, easily outnumbering them. As Kaladin watches on, he feels that something horrible is about to happen again, and is reminded of the day Tien dies. He slips back into his memory of what happened that day.

He is on the battlefield again, this time with Amaram’s army. It’s only his third battle, and he has only been in Amaram’s army for a few months. He knows that Tien’s stint as a messenger boy hasn’t lasted long, and that he had likely been recruited as a reserve in Amaram’s fighting force. 

He searches through the battlefield for Tien, asking an officer where the messenger boys are. He goes to the place the officer says they are, and stops when he sees Tien with the other younger boys, holding spears to fight. 

As he makes his way toward Tien, Kaladin is stabbed with a spear in the leg, and he kills his first man in battle. But before he can get to Tien, the enemy soldiers descend upon his brother and the other reserves. An armored lighteyes swings a sword and strikes Tien down.

Kaladin finally reaches Tien and the other reserves who have been killed. Kaladin kneels beside Tien’s body, numb. He cries, telling the deceased Tien that he will protect him and bring him back. He holds Tien’s body into the evening, clinging to it as it slowly grows cold.

When he blinks his eyes, he is no longer in that hollow with Tien, but on the plateau again. Syl whispers to him, asking if he “knows the Words.” He seizes his spear, holding one again for the first time since he had displayed his skills in the chasm so long ago. He screams, reaching the end of the bridge, and raises his spear as he throws himself off the bridge and over the chasm.

He jumps over several Parshendi soldiers, breathing in stormlight from the gemstones woven into their beards. Stormlight explodes from the gemstones, surging through the air, pulled into visible streams like columns of luminescent smoke. 

He feels a newfound sense of energy, and the Stormlight heals the wounds on his arm. He remembers the Words Syl had mentioned, and says that he “will protect those who cannot protect themselves.” Kaladin has just said the words of the Second Ideal of the Knights Radiant.

From afar, Teft witnesses all of this, noticing how a burst of witness washes out from Kaladin as he slams into the first rank of Parshendi, tossing them backward. Moash whispers next to him that something important has changed. Meanwhile, Kaladin fights the Parshendi who haven’t fled upon his arrival. 

Chapter 68

Adolin and Dalinar shatter the Parshendi defenses, creating a rift for their men to use. The men form a wedge behind them, prying the Parshendi armies open. 

Meanwhile, Teft watches on as Kaladin fights the Parshendi. He believes it’s more than just Stormlight that aids Kaladin in his fighting, noting how he is a master of the spear, with his capacity enhanced to astonishing levels. He tells the other bridgemen that Kaladin needs their help, and orders them into the fray, telling them not to attack, but to stay alive and keep the Parshendi back from Kaladin.

At the same time, Dalinar strikes down a group of Parshendi swordsmen. He notices the bridgemen fighting, much to his surprise. The Parshendi begin to part, and, standing among them, is a seven-foot tall Parshendi in Shardplate with a Shardblade. He challenges Dalinar.

They parry against one another, and Dalinar cuts through the rock shelf underneath his opponent’s feet. The entire section of rock breaks free, sending the Shardbearer tumbling toward the ground. Dalinar climbs down, trying to get to the Parshendi while he is still, but his right leg has been injured in the fight, and he is only able to limp toward him. The Parshendi raises his Shardblade toward Dalinar, and they fight again. 

The POV then switches to Kaladin, and for the first time in many months, he feels fully awake and alive as he fights. The Parshendi attack in waves, fervently trying to get to the bridge and knock it free, but his bridgemen are able to hold. As Kaladin fights, he finds himself respecting the Parshendi as he kills them. 

A figure in Plate breaks through the Parshendi ranks, releasing a flood of soldiers in blue. Alethi soldiers take up perimeter defenses on both sides of the bridge, offering his bridgemen relief. The exhausted bridgemen fall back, and Kaladin hurries over to them. Rock tells him that three of their men have died. Kaladin tells the bridgemen to pull back across the plateau, leaving Teft in command. He summons Moash to come with him. 

He looks around for a commander in Dalinar’s army. He finds a man named Nacomb Gaval and tells him to get the men across the bridge as quickly as possible. Dalinar’s soldiers cross the bridge, falling into marching formations.

Trailed by Moash, Kaladin hurries to the central front line of Dalinar’s army, where the Alethi seem to be holding the best. He finds a commander, and asks why his men aren’t moving across the bridge with the others. 

The commander says he is a part of the Cobalt Guard, and their duty is to protect Adolin. Kaladin asks where the highprince is, and the commander is unsure, saying his guardsmen have vanished. Kaladin tells the commander they have to pull back, but he says he will not leave Brightlord Adolin.

Finally, Kaladin finds Adolin, and tells him he has to retreat and get his men out. Adolin doesn’t want to leave his father, however. They spot him out in the distance, and Kaladin says that he will go for his father while Adolin retreats. With his armor giving out, Adolin reluctantly agrees to this.

Kaladin then moves quickly toward Dalinar, scrambling around the Parshendi who try to engage him. He reaches the place where Dalinar had been fighting. 

Meanwhile, Dalinar is on one knee, beaten down by the Parshendi Shardbearer. He takes several blows to the helm, leaving him dazed. The Shardbearer leans down toward Dalinar, saying that “it is you, I have found you at last.” Just then, Kaladin arrives.

Kaladin lands in the open circle where the Parshendi are watching their Shardbearer fight Dalinar. He notices the Shardbearer’s Plate is leaking stormlight through a large fissure in the leg. So, Kaladin slams his spear into the crack, and the Shardbearer screams and drops his Blade in surprise. He tries to fight Kaladin, but Kaladin rams his spear into the cracked leg armor again. The Shardbearer falls to his knees.

The Parshendi surrounding them speak the words “Neshua Kadal!” again, whispering and looking confused. They don’t attack. Kaladin takes the reins of Dalinar’s stallion and brings it over to him.

Dalinar eyes the kneeling Parshendi, wanting to take his Shardplate and Blade back to Renarin. Kaladin tells him to get up on the horse, but Dalinar wants to finish off the Parshendi Shardbearer. Kaladin says that Dalinar’s men won’t leave without him, and that his own men won’t leave without them. So he tells Dalinar to get on his horse so they can escape this death trap. Dalinar agrees, and gets on his horse. The Parshendi do not give chase. In fact, the Shardbearer salutes Dalinar with his Shardblade as he leaves, and Dalinar salutes back. 

Dalinar then asks Kaladin why Sadeas had sent his bridge crew back. Kaladin tells him they had come of their own accord. Dalinar asks Kaladin what he can do to repay him. Kaladin says he doesn’t know, but that he worries that Sadeas will hunt his bridgemen down and kill them. Dalinar says he could take his men to his camp and make Sadeas free them from their bondage. Kaladin still worries that Dalinar’s camp will offer them no safety at all, and that this move today by Sadeas will mean war between him and Dalinar.

Dalinar wonders at the prospect of war, but reassures Kaladin that he will not turn to war, not yet at least. He tells Kaladin that he will take care of Sadeas, and to return with him. He vows that Kaladin will be safe with every shred of honor he has. Although he will not turn to war, Dalinar notes that Sadeas has upset the balance, and it could never be regained, not in the same way.

Chapter 69

Navani pushes her way past several guards, worried about Dalinar. She knows that there has been talk of a rout, and that Sadeas’s army has returned without Dalinar’s army. She notices that Sadeas’s soldiers back at camp do not seem like a force that has just suffered a disaster. This makes her anxious.

Renarin finds her, and together, they approach Sadeas. Sadeas tells them that Adolin has perished on the battlefield. He explains that the Parshendi overwhelmed Adolin’s army, bringing every soldier they could to this battle and surrounding them. He says that he had fought hard to reach Dalinar, but the Parshendi numbers were simply overwhelming. 

Navani, at first, refuses to believe what she is hearing. She begins to cry as she accepts the news, however, painting a prayer onto the stones before her, her tears mixing with the ink. When she finishes the drawing, she lights the ink on fire. She has drawn a character called Thath, which represents justice.

A messenger interrupts, calling for Sadeas. He shows them to the rim of the staging field, pointing out Dalinar’s army on the Shattered Plains. They are returning.

Dalinar rides Gallant at the head of 2,653 men, the only remaining soldiers of his 8,000 fighting force. He commands one of his officers to take the wounded to his warcamp, and to have the entire camp be alert while mobilizing the remaining companies. He tells him that they should be prepared for anything.

Dalinar then marches over to the bridgemen, who are still following Kaladin. He tells Kaladin that he will buy his freedom when he confronts Sadeas. Kaladin says he is going to stay with him. All the bridgemen demand to stay with Dalinar as well, and he agrees to let them come with. A small crowd has gathered at the final chasm, and there he finds Renarin and Navani. 

He embraces Navani, telling her that he’s spent too much of his time worrying about what people think, and that when he was about to die, he realized all that worry had been wasted, and that he had actually been pleased with how he lived his life. He says that his only regrets were for her and Renarin. 

He, Navani, his sons, the bridgemen and the soldiers all march into Sadeas’s camp. Dalinar confronts Sadeas, asking him why he had betrayed him. Sadeas explains it was because of his oath to protect Elhokar. He says that Gavilar had died because of his weakness, that he had wanted to attack the Parshendi from the start, but that Gavilar had insisted on a treaty, which led to his death. He says that now Dalinar is starting to act just like Gavilar, having the same ideas and ways of speaking, which are beginning to infect Elhokar. 

Dalinar asks if he insists this is an act of honor. Sadeas says it’s not, that he had struggled for years to become Elhokar’s most trusted advisor, but that Dalinar had always held his ear. He says that in the end, he had just wanted Dalinar gone. He also says that Dalinar is going insane, and that what he has done today was an act of mercy, a way of letting Dalinar die with glory. He says that his death could have turned Dalinar into a symbol to help unite the other highprinces.

Dalinar then asks Sadeas why he hadn’t pinned the assassination attempt on him. Sadeas says that nobody would have really believed that Dlinar had tried to kill the king, and that blaming him too quickly would have risked implicating himself. However, he thinks that Elhokar knows who had tried to kill him. Dalinar says that Sadeas has shown him that he is still a threat by trying to remove him.

The chapter then switches to Kaladin’s POV. He watches on as the highprinces continue in their low-pitched conversation, standing to the side of Dalinar’s soldiers, exhausted, with the members of Bridge Four.

He doesn’t quite know what had happened to him out on the battlefield, and what had gone on with Syl and the words in his head. It seems like the Stormlight had been working better for him, that it had been more potent, more powerful, out on the battlefield. However, now that it’s gone, he is tired and drained.. 

He watches on as Dalinar tries to take the bridgemen with him back to his camp. Sadeas denies him that, and Dalinar says that he will pay sixty emerald broams per man. Still, Sadeas refuses, saying the bridgemen are not for sale. Then, to everyone’s astonishment, Dalinar offers up his Shardblade for the bridgemen. Sadeas is shocked at the offer, but agrees. The bridgemen are now Dalinar’s. He tells Kaladin to go and lead his men to safety, and that later that night, he will have questions for him.

The chapter switches back to Dalinar’s POV. He finds King Elhokar in his palace sitting room. He promptly kicks him in the chest, and begins to roughs him up. Elhokar tries several times to summon his Shardblade, but Dalinar simply kicks his hand away as he gives him a beating. 

Elhokar calls for his guards to come save him, saying there is an assassin in his chamber. But Dalinar tells him that they won’t come, because they are Dalinar’s men, and he has told them not to enter, no matter what they hear. 

He then accuses Elhokar of cutting his own strap to create a visible, obvious attempt on his life, something that would get him or Sadeas to investigate. Elhokar admits to this, and Dalinar chastises him for bringing suspicion down on him from across the camps and giving Sadeas the opportunity to destroy him.

Dalinar then asks him if he had cracked the gemstones in his Shardplate in addition to the cut strap, which Elhokar denies. It therefore seems that someone still is trying to kill Elhokar. Regardless of whether or not his paranoia is founded, Dalinar reminds him that he is not his enemy. He tells Elhokar that if he had wanted to kill him, he could have done it a hundred times over. 

Then, he tells Elhokar that tomorrow he will name Dalinar Highprince of War. He reveals that Sadeas had betrayed him that day. 

He says he intends to find a way to unite the highprinces in more than just name. He says that once he names Dalinar Highprince of War, he will give his plate to Renarin. And, as Highprince of War, he will enforce the Codes in all ten camps, and will coordinate the war effort directly, determining which armies get to go on which plateau assaults. He says all gemhearts will be won by the Throne, then distributed as spoils by Elhokar. He says he will change this from a competition to a real war, and turn the armies and their leaders into real soldiers. He also tells Elhokar that Nohadon had written The Way of Kings at the end of his life, after he had created order, and that’s what Dalinar needs to do here first before uniting anyone.

He says he was trying to be Nohadon the peacemaker, but he is not—-he is the Blackthorn, a general and a warlord. He has no talent for backroom politicking, but he is very good at training troops. Starting tomorrow, every man in each of the camps will be his. In return for Elhokar proclaiming him Highprince of War, Dalinar will find out who is trying to kill him. 

Before he leaves him, Dalinar tells Elhokar he and his mother are now courting, and that he will have to grow accustomed to it.

Chapter 70

Shallan lays quietly in the bed of her little hospital room, having cried herself dry. She laments having betrayed Jasnah and mourns Kabsal’s death, despite him being an assassin. She wonders why the jam antidote hadn’t saved Kabsal, and she remembers that Jasnah had also eaten the bread herself. 

She finds the garnet sphere that Jasnah had used to save her, sketching underneath the glow of its light. She draws a picture of Jasnah that day in the hospital. She remembers Jasnah having stuck her fingers into the jam, rather than just having smelled it, and hadn’t mentioned that the jam had spoiled.

Seeking answers, she crosses through the city and makes her way to the Conclave. She confronts Jasnah, telling her that the Soulcaster she wears is a fake, and that it has been a fake the entire time, even before she had made the swap. She then shows Jasnah the sketch she had made of the strange place with the sea of beads.

Jasnah is taken aback, demanding to know what book had described that scene to Shallan. Shallan says that she had visited the place the night when she had accidentally Soulcast the goblet in her room to blood, covering it up by faking a suicide attempt .

She tells Jasnah that there is no fabrial, that Jasnah had used the fake ‘fabrial’ to distract people from the fact that she has the power to Soulcast on her own. She says that she did it too, that what she had done with the goblet had been done without a Soulcaster. 

She then accuses Jasnah of having suspected Kabsal of being an assassin. She says that Jasnah knew immediately what had happened when Sallan fell. She says that Jasnah thought the poison was in the jam, and that she Soulcast it when she opened the lid and pretended to smell it. She then says Jasnah didn’t know how to recreate strawberry jam, and that when she tried, she had made a vile concoction. Jasnah had thought to get rid of the poison, but had inadvertently Soulcast away the antidote. 

She says that Jasnah didn’t want to eat the bread either, just in case there was something in it. When she had convinced Jasnah to take a bite, Jasnah had Soulcast it into something else as she put it in her mouth. In this way, Jasnah had gotten rid of the poison, which is why she hadn’t succumbed to it. 

Jasnah claims that Shallan is delusional from fatigue and stress. To show Jasnah the truth of what she’s saying, Shallan grabs the garnet sphere and asks the creatures in her visions to return her to the place with the beads. They demand a strong truth from Shallan. Shallan tells them that she had killed her father. 

The creatures then take both her and Jasnah to the place with the dark glass beads. She sinks beneath them, and Jasnah pulls her up with an outstretched hands, pulling her onto a raft made from the beads. Jasnah is able to wave off the vision, and they are back in the alcove again. She tells Shallan she is an idiot girl for trying to visit Shadesmar with only a single, dim sphere. 

Shallan tells Jasnah that she wants to be her ward in truth. That whatever the source is of this thing she can do, she can do it too. She wants Jasnah to train her and let her be a part of her work. Jasnah says that Shallan will never lie to her again, and will never steal from her, or anyone, again. She says that if Shallandwants to be a part of what she’s doing, then she will need to read her notes about the Voidbringers. 

Chapter 71

Szeth-son-son-Vallano walks the docks of Kharbranth. He has reached the last name on his assassination list: Taravangian, the king of Kharbranth. 

He had come to the city and taken a job as a porter to research and study, for his instructions had commanded him not to kill anyone else in performing the assassination, and that Taravangian’s murder was to be done quietly. This time, he is not required to wear white as he assassinates Taravangian. 

He kills some guards outside of Taravangian’s study, and finds him inside. Taravagian reveals Szeth’s oathstone, and Szeth realizes that Taravangian has been his unseen master all along. He asks why Taravagian put his own name on the assassination list. Taravangian says that the best defense against suspicion is to be grouped with the victims. 

Szeth asks why he was ordered to kill all the names on the list, wondering if it was for vengeance. Taravagian tells him that some of the names on his list were his dear friends. He explains that their deaths were necessary to create stability in Roshar. He says that sometimes you must tear down a structure to build a new one with stronger walls. 

Taravangian then leads him to a door set into the side of his study. Szeth follows him down into a large, white room. It’s filled with hundreds of beds, occupied with sickly people whose blood is being drained. 

Taravagian explains that draining the blood is merely a way to kill these people slowly and easily. He says that sometimes they need more bodies than the terminally sick can provide, and so they bring in the forgotten and the lowly to be killed, those who will not be missed.

As a boy is dying, he cries out “the day was ours, but they took it…Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather!” Taravangian says they do not know why some speak when others do not. But this type of speaking began around the time King Gavilar was investigating the Shattered Plains for the first time. He says that something is coming, and these people see it as they are on the bridge between life and death—-they view something, and their words might save them all. 

He then tells Szeth he has added a name to the list, hoping to have avoided doing it, but that recent events have made it inevitable. He says that he cannot let this man seize control, because he will undermine everything. Szeth asks who the man is. Taravangian says it is Dalinar Kholin.

Chapter 72

Before Shallan reads through Jasnah’s notes, she asks her if she had Soulcast her blood. Jasnah says she did it to remove the poison, and that she had to Soulcast Shallan’s blood several times as they got her to vomit up the poison. 

Shallan is confused, because Jasnah had said she wasn’t good with soulcasting organics, pointing out that she had turned the strawberry jam into somethin inedible. Jasnah tells her that blood isn’t the same—it’s one of the Essences. She says that the pure form of an Essence is quite easy to make, and that the eight kinds of blood are easier to create than water, for instance. 

Shallan then asks Jasnah about the creatures with the symbol heads she has been drawing. Jasnah tells her they are a type of spren, related to what she does. She says that each Radiant’s abilities are tied to the spren, and will explain more about that to her later. First, they must speak of the Voidbringers.

She tells Shallan that the Voidbringers had a natural, real-world correlate. She explains that the Voidbringers are the Parshmen, and that humanity had not destroyed them, but enslaved them.

Chapter 73

Kaladin stands on Dalinar’s staging ground, looking eastward over the shattered plains. He asks Syl if he dares trust Dalinar. She says that he is a good man, despite the Shardblade he carries, not knowing why the Shardblade feels wrong to her. Kaladin tells her that she acted strangely in the battle, that she had swirled around him, but after that, she had left and he didn’t see much of her. Syl says that the killing hurt her and that she had had to go.

Later, Dalinar meets with Kaladin. He asks Kaladin how many of his men he suspects will take the offer of purse and freedom he has given them. Kaladin says a fair number of men from the other bridge crews likely will take his offer, but an even larger number won’t. He says bridgemen don’t think of escape or freedom, and wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. He says his own crew will likely insist on doing whatever he does. If he stays, they will stay. If he goes, they will go. Dalinar asks him what he will do, and Kaladin says he hasn’t decided yet.

Dalinar then offers Kaladin that he and his bridgemen become his bodyguard. He says that his honor guard has nearly been wiped out, and that he needs people he can trust. Kaladin agrees, saying that he will augment Bridge Four to become Dalinar’s honor guard. He says he will train the rest as a spearmen company, and that those in the honor guard will get paid like it. He asks for space to train, and the ability to set his men’s schedule. He says they will appoint their own sergeants and squad leaders, and that they wont answer to any lighteyes but Dalinar, his sons, and the king. He also asks that they be patrolmen, rather than being sent out onto plateau assaults.

Dalinar appoints Kaladin to the rank of captain, and agrees that he will be outside the chain of command. Kaladin won’t order around lighteyes of lesser rank than him, and lighteyes of higher rank will have no authority over him. He will be in charge of a thousand former bridgemen, a full battalion. He then offers up Kaladin the cloak he had worn on the battle that day, because each man who wears his colors is of his family.

Kaladin accepts the cloak, and returns to camp. He finds the men of his bridge crew sitting around a fire and eating a stew Rock has cooked for them. He shows them his stormlight abilities and the darkness. The men ask him if they can teach him what he does with the Stormlight. Kaladin says that he doesn’t know if he can teach it, but that he will try. However, they cannot tell anyone about it, because the other men will be frightened of him, and will maybe think he is related to the Voidbringers or the Radiants. He asks for their oaths on this.

Despite the three men that had died that day, Kaladin realizes that he and Bridge Four had protected hundreds of others who would never have to run a bridge again, nor face Parshendi arrows. Twenty seven of his close friends lived that day because of his heroism. He realizes that he has finally managed to save someone, and for now, that is enough for him.

Chapter 74

Shallan reads through Jasnah’s notes on the Voidbringers. Jasnah tells her that the Parshendi of the Shattered Plains are the key to understanding the Voidbringers. She says that there is a disaster awaiting them, considering how pervasive the parshmen are—they serve the people of Roshar their food, work in their storehouses, and tend their children, among other things. 

Jasnah then references the Parshendi, pointing out how one group suddenly turned from peaceful friends into ferocious warriors. She says that something has set them off, just as it did hundreds of years ago, during the days known as the Heraldic Epochs. There would be a period of peace, followed by an invasion of parshmen who—for reasons nobody understood—had suddenly gone mad with rage. 

She says that this is what was behind mankind’s fight to keep from being banished to Damnation and nearly ended their civilization. That these were the terrible, repeated cataclysms known as the Desolations. She says that the Parshmen’s minds are connected, like spanreeds, and that they can communicate over great distances through songs, making them all the more threatening.

She also points out that the histories have tales of creatures fighting alongside the parshmen, beasts of stone that might be some kind of greatshell, and other oddities that she thinks may have truth to them.  She tells Shallan that they need to get to the center of it all and go to the Shattered Plains. They need to find out if the Parshendi were ever ordinary parshmen, and if so, what set them off.                             

Jasnah also says that there are others looking to figure this out, and that a group called the Ghostbloods are trying to do just this. She says that Kanbsal was a Ghostblood, and that they have their symbol tattooed on the inside of their arms.

Shallan recognizes this as the same symbol Nan Balat had showed her weeks ago, and that it was the same symbol worn by Luesh, her father’s steward, the man who had known how to use the Soulcaster. It’s the same symbol worn by the men who had come pressuring her family to return the Soulcaster, the men who had been financing Shallan’s father in his bid to become highprince. 

Shallan tells Jasnah that she thinks her father may have been a member of this group.

Chapter 75

Navani holds Dalinar as a powerful highstorm blows against his complex. As it hits, Dalinar falls into one of his visions again. As he falls into his vision, he recognizes that he has seen this place before, in the first of his visions. 

The powerful voice returns, telling Dalinar again that he must “unite them.” Dalinar asks why the vision had lied to him, because he had tried to untie the highprinces, but had been betrayed instead. 

The vision tells him that the Everstorm comes, otherwise known as the True Desolation or The Night of Sorrows. The vision tells him that he must prepare, and build of his people a fortress of strength and peace, a wall to resist the wind, that they must cease squabbling and unite.

The vision changes, and Dalinr is in Kholinar, his home, the capital city of Alethkar. It has been destroyed. A man stands next to him, saying that he “cannot fight him any longer.” Dalinar asks him who he is, and demands to know why he is showing him his visions. He also asks if this is the future he is seeing. 

The figure says that he cannot see the future completely, and that Cultivation is better at it than him. He says the near future can be anticipated, but the distant future can only be guessed at. It’s at this moment Dalinar realizes the voice cannot hear him, and that the person in the vision cannot see him. He realizes the voice had never told him to trust Sadeas, and that he had just assumed this. 

The figure points to Kholinar, saying that this is what he fears could happen, that it’s what ‘he’ wants, the True Desolation.

The voice tells Dalinar that he doesn’t know who he is, but that most of what he has shown him are scenes he has seen directly. This vision, however, is one born of his fears. A dust wall begins to approach them. Kholinar disappears, and he and the figure stand on a solitary pinnacle of rock, which, for some reason, had been protected from the dust storm.

The voice tells Dalinar that someone must lead them, unite them, and protect them, to fight ‘him.’ He then recites the First Ideal of the Immortal Words: “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.” He turns to Dalinr, telling him that the Knights Radiant must stand again. Dalinar says that he will try.

The figure tells Dalinar that he might be able to get ‘him’ to choose a champion. That he is bound by some rules, that all of them are. He says a champion could work well for Dalinar. 

Dalinar asks once again who the figure is. The figure says that he is, or was, God. The one they call the Almighty, the creator of mankind. He says he is dead now, and that Odium has killed him.

Epilogue

Wit approaches a few guards just inside the gates of Kholinar. He asks them if they can feel it, saying that something in the world has just changed. The guards ask him what he is doing here, and Wit tells them he is waiting for the storm to arrive.

He says they should have a conversation to pass the time, playing the enthir as he asks them what men value in others. One of the men answers music. 

Wit says this is a common answer, along with great intellect, or the ability to invent. But he says that men claim to value these things, but actually value more base talents, like gathering coin or charming women. He then points out that men truly value novelty above all else.

Suddenly, a massive Shardblade rams through the gates of Kholinar. A solitary man with dark skin holds it, his hair long and matted. Wit welcomes him, calling him a “lost one.” The guards ask the man who he is, and he says that he is Talenel’Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of the Almighty. He says the Desolation has come, and that he has failed.