Brandon Sanderson - [Stormlight Archive 01]
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Jasnah’s stomach twisted. “Yes.”
“I cannot give myself over to your command,” Taln said. “I need to seek
my brethren.”
“What will be faster?” Jasnah asked. “Seeking them on your own, without
having touched your Blade, or seeking them with both your Blade and the
messengers of a grateful king to serve you? Protect me now, during our
time of need, and I will see that you have the resources of Alethkar at your disposal.”
She was making many promises—difficult promises. It was only after she
was done, Taln and Meridas considering their separate rewards, that
she realized she was doing it again. Protecting Elhokar. It had proven her folly once before, and because of her oversight, Nelshenden and Shinri
were dead.
No, she told herself forcefully. This is for Alethkar, not my brother. I will not see the kingdom of my fathers fall to invasion.
“Very well,” Meridas suddenly declared, stabbing his Blade point first
into the stone ground. In the distance, the peasants were resting from
their journey, Brother Lhan distributing the evening rations, Kemnar’s
soldiers at his side. Kemnar himself had edged closer to Jasnah’s conference, eyes glittering with curiosity. He stood, Jasnah noted, within distance of striking at Meridas, should the man prove dangerous.
“I will give you a hundred days,” Taln finally decided. “If we have no
success by that time, then I must seek my brethren alone.”
It was the best she was going to get. “Very well,” Jasnah said. “Swear to
obey my will, swear it by the Tenth Name.”
“Kevahin,” Meridas whispered.
“Kevahin,” Taln said.
Jasnah nodded, and Meridas turned, leaving his Blade in the stone.
“One hundred heartbeats,” he said. “You need not take his own Blade
away. I . . . trust him.” His eyes said he believed nothing of the sort, yet he walked away anyway, back turned to Taln—as if daring the madman
to strike against him.
Taln ignored the retreating noblemen. The false Herald rammed his Blade
in the ground, then grabbed Meridas’s abandoned weapon with a reverent
touch. She heard him whisper something under his breath—a single word
that sounded like a name. Then he grew apprehensive, almost uncertain.
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His grip stiffened with determination, and he raised the Blade in two
hands.
There was a pause. Finally, he exhaled in relief. “It works,” he said. “The Blade’s powers remain, even if mine do not.” He raised the point of the
Blade, turning it to the northwest. “There. That direction.”
Jasnah frowned. “Taln, there’s nothing but wilderness to the west.”
Taln glanced up, judging the position of the stars as they began to appear.
“Riemak,” he said.
“The Kingdom of Riemak fell hundreds of years ago,” Jasnah said. “That
land is nothing more than a back country of despots and isolated villages.
You know that.” You came from Riemak. She left the last part off.
“That is where they are nonetheless,” Taln said. “Jorevan. They must have
gathered there.”
Jasnah frowned. Jorevan, the Holy City, had once been the center of
Vorin power. “It was sacked soon after Riemak fell. A local tyrant now
controls the Oathgate.”
“Why would my brethren gather there?” Taln asked, as if her comments
were made in line with his own strange reasonings. “And send me no word?
What do they know that I do not? Could they have foreseen that Ral Eram
was doomed? Balear’Elin is an Onyxseer. If his powers still work, then
perhaps . . .”
Taln looked over at her, then jammed the sword back into the ground.
“We must go there, to Jorevan. We must know what they know.”
“Taln, I . . .”
He held up a hand. “I know. You do not believe me. We must go there
nonetheless—besides, where else would we go?”
“That, we must decide,” Jasnah said. “Go and get your monk friend. I
will return Meridas’s Blade to him.”
“If Taln speaks correctly, then we are here,” Kemnar said, placing a
small rock on the map he had scratched into the stone ground.
Firelight illuminated the white scrapings. Across the short plateau,
Jasnah’s people had been arranged into a tenset different camps, each
with their own fire. Their wood—taken from water barrels and boxes of
food—would not last long, but they deserved a warm meal following the
extended trek through darkness. They would worry about supplies later.
Around the fire with Jasnah sat Taln, Lhan, Meridas, Kemnar, and—at
Taln’s suggestion—a broad-figured palace maid named Denia. Jasnah
vaguely knew the woman for her gossipy ways and reputed firmness with
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her undermaids. During their journey, Denia had somehow become the
unofficial leader of the citizens.
Jasnah studied the map. The Mount of Ancestors was represented by a
massive circle drawn at the bottom. A rock on its eastern side represented Ral Eram. Taln placed their group directly on the other side of the mountain, on its western side. She found it amazing that they had traveled so
far, bypassing the entire mountain. If it were known that such a direct path lay beneath Ral Eram . . .
A short distance to their west lay the border between Alethkar and the
Riemak wilds. The demarcation ran directly to the north. Crossguard,
Jezenrosh’s palace and the probable location of Elhokar’s army, lay on the far eastern side of the country. It would take weeks to reach it.
“We can’t make directly for Crossguard,” Kemnar said, voicing her
own thoughts. “Not only is it too far, but we can probably assume that
King Ahven plans to do more than simply take Ral Eram. If he strikes
at Elhokar now, he could take the entire country. The Vedens will likely
be moving toward Crossguard in an attempt to strike at Elhokar’s forces
from behind. If we go directly east, we have a good chance of broadsiding
their army—and their scouts will undoubtedly see us before we see them.”
“Agreed,” Meridas said. “The battle at Crossguard is probably already
finished. His majesty planned to strike quickly and efficiently. However,
such a plan likely cost him considerable troops. If the Vedens take him in the open, with Crossguard destroyed . . .”
“We have to get him word,” Jasnah agreed. “Suggestions?”
“Kholinar,” Kemnar said, placing a rock along the curving lait he had
drawn. “It’s almost directly north of us, and Lord Dalenar has considerable forces at his command—forces that are rested and well-equipped. If we
can alert him, his messengers could probably get word to King Elhokar
in time.”
“That’s still several weeks’ march, my lords,” Lhan noted. “The people
are tired. Could we find nothing closer?”
“We should go to the first vil age we can find,” Jasnah said. “We can drop off the peasants there, appropriate some horses, and then ride for Kholinar.”
Taln shook his head. “Dangerous,” he said.
“Why?” Jasnah asked.
“This Veden, King Ahven,” Taln said. “He was clever enough to get
access to the Oathgates, then strategic enough to capture the palace quietly.
We c
an assume he holds the city now, and he will be very disappointed to
find that you, my lady, and Lord Meridas are missing. His soldiers know
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someone was in the cellars, and that they disappeared. We didn’t have
time to mask our presence there. They will see the dust scuffed where we
removed barrels and boxes. They know we escaped.”
The group fell quiet, the maid Denia’s face paling slightly. “You . . . think we’re being followed, Lord Talenel?”
“I know it,” Taln said. “I heard echoes in the caverns. We lost them early, but they will eventually find their way through the maze. There are few
exits, and all of them come out on this side of the mountain. If the Veden King is half as clever as his attack implies, he will have spies watching this side of Alethkar to make certain that his surprise attack on King Elhokar
is not spoiled.”
Taln bent down, pointing at the map. “He’ll expect us to head north to
Kholinar. That, then, is the thing we absolutely cannot do. If the situation is as you imply, then he will be less worried about warning the king and
more worried about warning the surrounding lords who did not ride to war
against Jezenrosh. Elhokar will know of Ahven’s force soon enough. King
Ahven’s task will be to force a battle with Elhokar before Alethkar can
gather reinforcements. In order to succeed, he must control the information between Elhokar and his allies.”
Kemnar rubbed his chin. “He has a point, my lady,” he said. “The Vedens
will probably strike quickly at King Elhokar, then move on to take the
separate lords one at a time. They’ll probably lay siege to some of the larger lait cities and spend considerable time hunting scouts and messengers.”
“Then that means we have to get word to Kholinar all the more quickly,”
Jasnah pointed out.
“No,” Taln said. “It means we need to be careful. We crossed the moun-
tain quickly, but the invaders have horses. They will have riders watching for refugees all across Alethkar, and those riders will have orders to kill.
Elhokar himself sealed the Oathgates, and since he is probably using
Awakeners to supply food, he won’t need a supply line, and information
from the capital will not be a priority. The rivers do not flow during the Searing. The invaders will probably allow visitors into Ral Eram; they will just stop traffic from going out. Information will be slow to spread. By
the time anyone hears that the Oathgates have fallen, your king will be
dead.”
“What, then, do you suggest, madman?” Meridas said with a snort. “You
say we need to inform the king’s allies, but you claim we cannot ride to
them, lest we reveal ourselves.”
Taln moved his finger a few inches, crossing the border into Riemak.
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“These are wilds,” he said, “poorly inhabited and solitary. If we head
northward through them instead of up through Alethkar proper, we have
a much greater chance of remaining unseen. We can still send messengers
to Elhokar from the villages we pass, but we must do so quietly, without
telling the city inhabitants of our identities. Then we can cut back into
Alethkar and travel to Kholinar from the west, instead of the south. It loses us a week’s travel, perhaps, but the gain in safety is far greater than the loss.”
Jasnah narrowed her eyes. “That path takes us conveniently close to the
ruins of the Holy City, Taln,” she said.
Taln shrugged. “Does that make it any worse a plan?”
Kemnar looked up. “It does seem sound, my lady.”
She knew it did. There was a reason Elhokar had trusted her with his
army’s tactics—she saw Taln’s explanations, and knew that they were
right. King Ahven’s army would act as Taln suggested, being careful to
isolate Elhokar from his allies. Ahven would have scouts on the major
roads, watching for refugees or for messengers. They would kill any riders they saw, trying to sow confusion and keep his secrets as long as possible.
Jasnah’s troop was hardly inconspicuous. Even once they abandoned the
peasants, Taln and Kemnar had Shardblades that could not be dismissed,
and Meridas carried himself too much like a nobleman. Riding through
Alethkar, it would take a miracle for them to reach Kholinar safely. Riemak, however, with its unkempt roads and sparse population, would mask their
travel quite well.
Jasnah nodded. “I will consider it,” Jasnah said. “First, we need to find a village and some horses. Then we can decide upon a final path.”
Jasnah huddled on the frigid stones, her back to a boulder, watching
the pitiful remnants of the once-fire smolder before her. The wood hadn’t
lasted long—barely long enough to give a reminder of warmth, something
near-forgotten during their ten days in the dank mountain confines. Her
wedding slippers were in tatters, and the once-beautiful dress had fared
little better. She’d been forced to allow Kemnar to rip it up the side, so that she could walk with a masculine stride, and the fine tassels and frills had not been designed for extended use. She was cold, sore, and hungry.
The night was cool—they were still at a relatively high elevation, and the mountainside provided little shelter from the wind. The people lay huddled together, clothed only in what they had been wearing when they escaped.
Several of the women, like Jasnah, didn’t even have cloaks.
Yet, her personal problems were secondary to those facing the group as a
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whole. The coals couldn’t help but remind her of the difficulties to come. So much wood to burn bespoke empty food stores, more than half depleted.
They were horribly low on water, and this was the Searing—rain wouldn’t
fall for another two weeks. Even then, it would come with the most furious tempest of the year—the Almighty’s Bellow. She had to find the people
shelter by then. Being caught on the stormlands during the Bellow would
certainly bring death to the weakened and young in the troop.
Footsteps scuffed rocks behind her. “It’s an odd place, our Roshar,” Taln’s voice noted. “Even during the Searing, the hottest month of the summer,
the night winds chill to the soul. Perhaps it’s the lack of vegetation—there’s no humidity, nothing to keep the heat in. This is such a lonely, barren rock of a world.”
Jasnah frowned as the madman crouched beside the coals, stirring them
with a half-charred piece of wood. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
Taln shook his head. “Nothing that matters any more, I suppose.”
Jasnah eyed him for a moment, his broad form illuminated only slightly
by starlight and the weak coals. “Tell me,” she finally asked. “How did you remember your way through those caves? I presumed us lost a tenset times
over. Yet you found the exit. You must have traveled its depths many times.”
Taln shook his head. “Only once,” he said quietly.
Jasnah raised an eyebrow. “You memorized a map, then? Even still,
navigating that well from memory was quite a feat. I should like to see the map itself sometime.”
“There is no map. As far as I know, I’m the only one to ever travel
through those caverns and see the other side. The passage we went through
wasn’t really meant to be an escape from the palace—it was built to . . . hide things. The last time I traveled those tunnels, I did so by chance, tracking a traitor w
ho is now centuries dead. I followed him for seven days, and
when the trail ended, I found only a corpse dead of thirst.”
Jasnah frowned. “That’s a ridiculous story, Taln. How could you possibly
find your way out of those caverns after wandering them for seven days?”
“It’s a hard thing to explain,” he said quietly. “A Stoneward can feel the rocks, much like a Windrunner can sense movements in the air, or an
Onyxseer can see the patterns of time itself. Fortunately, I remember the
path I once took, for the stones are silent to me now.”
Jasnah sat incredulously, trying to comprehend how a man could say such
words and sound so believing. And yet, Taln offered no further explanation, and she knew by now that confronting him about his madness was useless.
She settled back against her boulder, but it was impossible to find a
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comfortable position. The quiet sounds of laughter floated over the plateau, and Jasnah glanced to the side. Only one fire still burned; Meridas had
appropriated the last of their wood for his own needs, and now sat presiding over a small gathering of nobility. Tenin and Chathan, the two palace
couriers, and Jasnah’s three ladies-in-waiting sat around his flames, as
did one of Kemnar’s soldiers. Meridas held himself slightly aloof, seated
munificently beside the fire, directing the conversation.
Jasnah shook her head. “We sit without provisions, hunted and exposed
to the weather, and he acts as if he were a feasting king.”
“He gives them comfort,” Taln said with a shrug. “He reminds them
that they’re special—for here, away from courts and balls, they have little else to give them strength.”
Jasnah snorted. She suspected that comfort or no, both the citizens and
nobility of their group would be better off without Meridas to remind them of their differences.
“You would really marry him?” Taln asked.
The question caught her off-guard. She masked her instant revulsion
to the concept, turning back to Taln with a calm expression. “To save
Alethkar? Yes. Besides, I could hardly ask for a better union—though
he needn’t be informed of that fact.”
“Ah,” Taln said, nodding with the expression of one who thought he
understood things.