Rhythm of War (9781429952040)

by Brandon Sanderson

  The next set weren’t so easily defeated. He found them organizing hastily at an intersection—one he had to pass through, or endure a long detour. Kaladin slowed in the corridor, watching them form up with nets in hand. His first instinct was to take to the walls and disorient them. But of course he didn’t have access to that ability—he suspected it would be a long time before he internalized that gravitational Lashings didn’t work.

  He took his spear in a one-handed grip, the butt tucked under his arm, then nodded to Syl. Together, they rushed the blockade. A few soldiers had crossbows, so he infused the wall with his free hand. When those loosed, the bolts swerved toward the stone.

  The group with the nets hung back behind singers with axes. The weapons reminded him of the Parshendi, but the singers were dressed like the Azish, with colorful coats, no gemstones woven into the malens’ beards.

  They knew how to fight Radiants. The axe wielders came in quickly, forcing him to engage, and then the nets started flying. Kaladin swiped one away with his spear, but that exposed him, and an axe bit him in the side—the kind of wound that would spell death for an ordinary soldier.

  Kaladin pulled himself free of the axe, the biting pain fading as his Stormlight healed him, but another net came soaring overhead. They wouldn’t mind if they caught some of their number in it, so long as they tangled Kaladin long enough for them to start hacking at him.

  Feeling his solitude more than ever, Kaladin dodged the net by retreating. He wanted to infuse one of the nets and stick it to the floor so it couldn’t be recovered, but he couldn’t bend over to touch it.

  Maybe I should remove my boots, he thought. That idea flew counter to all of his training, but he didn’t fight like he once had. These days, a stubbed toe would be healed instantly—while being able to infuse the ground he walked on would be a huge advantage.

  He kept the singers at bay with some careful lunges, then backed up before a net could catch him. Unfortunately, this group was probably meant to stall him while Regals and Fused could be mustered. It was working perfectly. Without a Shardblade, Kaladin was far from unstoppable. He was forced away until he reached another intersection.

  “Kaladin,” Syl said, hovering beside his head as a ribbon of light. “To your left.”

  He spared a glance to see a flashing garnet light on the wall farther down the left-hand corridor. Well, he certainly wasn’t going to push through these soldiers anytime soon. He took off in a dash toward the light, and the soldiers—rightly timid when facing a Radiant—followed more cautiously. That gave Kaladin time to kick open a door, following the light, and enter an upscale glassmaker’s shop.

  It seemed like a dead end until he spotted the hint of a gemstone set into the wall behind the counter. He leaped over it and infused the stone, and was rewarded as the wall parted. He slipped through the opening, then set the thing closing behind him.

  This put him in a second, larger shop, filled with half-finished dressing dummies. He startled a late-night worker, a human with a Thaylen naval mustache and curled eyebrows. He dropped his adze and leaped to his feet, then clapped his hands.

  “Brightlord Stormblessed!” he exclaimed.

  “Quietly,” Kaladin said, crossing the room and cracking the door to peek out. “You need to hide. When they come asking, you didn’t see me.”

  The hallway outside was clear, and Kaladin was pretty sure he knew where he was. This shortcut had completely circumvented the blockade. Hopefully that would confuse the soldiers as they tried to track him. Kaladin moved to sneak out the door, but the woodworker caught him by the arm.

  “Radiant,” he said. “How? How do you still fight?”

  “The same way you do,” Kaladin said. “One day at a time, always taking the next step.” He took the man’s wrist with his hand. “Don’t get yourself killed. But also don’t give up hope.”

  The man nodded.

  “Hide,” Kaladin said. “They’ll come searching for me.”

  He pulled free and joined Syl. After about ten minutes of jogging, he heard shouting to his right, but nobody came running—and he realized where they thought he was heading: to a set of stairs that led directly toward the larger stairwell, which in turn led to the basement. They thought he was trying to rescue the queen, or maybe reach the crystal pillar.

  Their error let him follow some back pathways without meeting any patrols, until he finally drew near the atrium. He’d managed to cross the entire floor, but he was now so deeply embedded within the tower that he was essentially surrounded.

  The light led him around to the northern side of the tower, through some residential hallways, with lights under the doors. Rooms near the atrium and its grand window were popular—here, people could still see sunlight, but the atrium was generally warmer than the perimeter, with easy access to lifts.

  The area was unnaturally silent, perhaps under curfew. He was used to the atrium region being alive with the sound of people talking all hours of the day, the lifts clanking faintly as they moved. Tonight it was hushed. He crept along the tower spren’s path, wondering when he’d find resistance. Surely someone would have put together what he was doing. Surely they would …

  He stopped in the hallway as he saw bright light ahead. He could have sworn he’d reached the furthermost edge of the tower, the place near the enormous glass window that looked out to the east. There shouldn’t be any more rooms here, but ahead and to his right, moonlight spilled through an opening.

  He inched up to find the area strewn with rubble. A secret door in the wall had been broken open; when he peeked through, he saw a short tunnel that ended at open air. This was the eastern wall of the tower, the flat side of Urithiru. The secret tunnel here was old, not newly cut, and had been created open to the air of the mountains.

  The Pursuer was here, standing with another Fused and inspecting a strange device at the end of the short tunnel, right where it ended and opened to the air. A glowing sapphire, easily as large as a chasmfiend’s gemheart, had been set into a built-in stand rising from the floor. The entire mechanism was covered over in crem, so it had been here a while, and the Fused had needed to break off a crem crust to reach the gemstone.

  The implication struck Kaladin immediately. As the Sibling had hinted, a node to defend the tower had been placed where it could draw in Stormlight naturally from the storms, when they reached this high. The unfamiliar Fused was a tall femalen with a topknot of red-orange hair. She wore practical battle gear, leather and cloth, and stood with her hands clasped behind her back as she inspected the sapphire.

  The other was, as he’d noted earlier, the Pursuer. A hulking mountain of chitin and dark brown cloth, with eyes glowing a deep red. All of the spheres had been removed from the lanterns in the hallway behind Kaladin, so the only light came from the sapphire.

  “See?” the femalen said in Alethi as they spotted Kaladin. “I told you he’d come. I keep my promises, Pursuer. He’s yours.”

  The red eyes focused on Kaladin, then went dark as a ribbon of crimson light burst from the center of the Pursuer’s mass. The body—a discarded husk—collapsed to the floor. Kaladin raised his spear, gauging where the Pursuer would land. He thrust on instinct, hoping to catch the Fused as he materialized.

  This time, however, the Pursuer’s ribbon jogged and looped a few times, disorienting Kaladin. He thrust again, missing the mark as the Pursuer coalesced to the side of Kaladin’s spear. The creature lunged for Kaladin, who danced backward into the darkened hallway outside the tunnel.

  The creature stepped into the broken doorway. So, Kaladin infused his spear and tossed it at the Pursuer—who reflexively caught it. That stuck his hands to the spear, and Kaladin leaped forward and shoved himself against the Fused, getting him to step backward. The two ends of the spear stuck to the walls on either side of the opening.

  Kaladin leaped away, leaving the creature partially immobilized, awkwardly trying to move with both hands locked into place. Then, of course, the Pursuer just dro
pped that body as a husk and launched out as a ribbon of light. Kaladin cursed. He was too unpracticed with this kind of fighting—and this kind of opponent. What had worked on the soldiers was a foolish move here. He lunged to grab his spear, but it fell beneath the collapsing husk.

  The Pursuer materialized directly behind Kaladin, grabbing him with powerful hands, preventing him from reaching the spear. It was a poor weapon for this fight anyway. The Pursuer obviously excelled at getting in close.

  Kaladin twisted, trying to wrench free, but the Pursuer gripped him in a precise hold, executed perfectly, immobilizing both of Kaladin’s arms. The creature then pushed, using his superior weight to knock Kaladin to his knees.

  The Pursuer didn’t try to choke Kaladin. The creature didn’t even release him with one hand to grab a knife, as he had during their previous fight. All the Pursuer had to do was hold Kaladin still until his Stormlight ran out. They were deep within the tower, surrounded by other singers and Fused. The longer this fight lasted, the worse it would go for Kaladin.

  He struggled, trying to pull free. In response, the Pursuer leaned in and spoke with a thick accent. “I will kill you. It is my right. I have killed every person—human or singer—who has ever killed me.”

  Kaladin tried to roll them both to the side, but the Pursuer held them stable.

  “No one has ever defeated me twice,” the creature whispered. “But if you somehow managed such a feat, I would keep coming. We are no longer confined to Braize at the end of the war, and I am immortal. I can follow you forever. I am the spren of vengeance.”

  Kaladin tried to infuse his opponent, as he might have with a gravitational Lashing. The Light resisted, but that wasn’t surprising. Fused had powers of their own, and for some reason that made them difficult to infuse.

  So he instead stretched and brushed the floor with one hand, infusing the stone. It trapped the Pursuer’s feet, but it also stuck to Kaladin’s boots, locking them together.

  “Let go now,” the Pursuer said. “Die, as is your right. You will never be able to sleep soundly again, little Radiant. I will always come, always hunt you. As sure as the storms. I will—”

  “Put him down!” a stern voice said as a red spren strode across the floor. “Right now! We need him. You can kill him after!”

  The Pursuer relaxed his grip, perhaps stunned to be given an order by a Voidspren. Kaladin elbowed the Pursuer in the chin—which hurt like a hammer to the elbow—forcing the creature to let go. That let Kaladin lunge forward and recover some Stormlight by brushing the floor, which in turn set his feet free. He scrambled away, leaving enough Stormlight infused in the floor to keep the Pursuer planted in place.

  The creature focused on Syl. “You lie well, for an honorspren,” he said. His body crumbled, his ribbon vanishing around a corner. As before, he seemed to need a break after abandoning a third body.

  Kaladin suspected that if the Pursuer made a fourth body, he wouldn’t have enough Voidlight left to escape it. That might be how you killed him: trap him in the fourth body. Either that, or catch him by surprise and kill him before he could eject, which was what Kaladin had done before.

  “Thanks,” Kaladin said as Syl turned blue again. He grabbed his spear, then glanced over his shoulder and saw some humans peeking out of their rooms, watching the fight. He waved for them to close their doors, then hopped through the rubble and dashed toward the Fused at the end of the secret tunnel.

  As he approached, he spotted a glass globe, perhaps six inches in diameter, set into a small alcove in the wall near the gemstone. At first he thought it was some kind of lighting fixture, but it was wrapped in metal wires like a fabrial. What on Roshar?

  He didn’t have time to inspect it further, for the Fused was pressing her hand against the sapphire. The gemstone’s light had started to fade.

  She’s corrupting the pillar, Kaladin thought, using this as a conduit to touch it. He leveled his spear at her.

  She stopped and turned to regard him. “The Pursuer isn’t lying,” she said in accented Alethi. “He will hunt you forever. To the abandonment of all reason and duty.”

  “Step away from the gemstone,” Kaladin said.

  “He’ll return shortly,” she noted. “You should flee. He has placed Voidlight gemstones in stashes nearby, so he can reinfuse himself and make new bodies.”

  “I said step away.”

  “You’re a Windrunner,” she said. “You won’t hurt me if I’m not a threat.”

  “Touching that gemstone makes you a threat. Step away.”

  She did, which meant walking toward him, clasping her hands behind her. “What is it, do you suppose, that makes you able to continue using your powers? I’ll admit, I had worried about the Windrunners. They say your Surges are closest to Honor.”

  Kaladin gripped his spear, uncertain what to do. Stab her? He had to protect the gemstone.

  Or destroy it, he thought. Storms, that would weaken the shield Navani had set up—and if the enemy had found this one so quickly, how long would it be until they discovered the others? He glanced to Syl on his shoulder, and she shook her head. She didn’t know what to do either.

  “Ah,” the Fused said. “He’s back. On with you, then.”

  Kaladin risked looking over his shoulder, cursing as he saw a distinctly bloodred ribbon of light approaching. Making a snap decision, Kaladin dropped his spear and pulled out his scalpel. Then he quickly sliced the laces on his boots.

  The Pursuer appeared inside the tunnel and grabbed for him, but Kaladin bent—dodging the grip—and infused the floor with a Full Lashing. Then he leaped forward around the Pursuer, leaving his shoes stuck to the stone. The Pursuer couldn’t help but land on that floor, trapping him in place.

  Kaladin held out his scalpel, barefoot as he backed up into the rubble of the broken wall that had been opened. The Pursuer eyed him, remaining rooted on the ground. Then he grinned and left his body, shooting toward Kaladin.

  Kaladin retreated through the opening into the outer corridor, infusing the floor again, using up a large amount of his Stormlight. He was able to roll away from the Pursuer’s next attack, which again left the creature rooted. But Kaladin couldn’t step forward and reclaim the Light he’d used, not without getting within the Pursuer’s reach.

  His Stormlight was almost gone, something the Pursuer had clearly figured out. The creature left his second body, the first already starting to crumble. When Kaladin leaped forward to try to retrieve his Stormlight, the Pursuer darted at him as a ribbon of light—like a snapping eel—and Kaladin retreated.

  The two watched one another in the dark corridor. The Pursuer could only form one more body before he’d need to renew his Voidlight, or risk fighting in his fourth body and perhaps being killed. But Kaladin’s Light was low—and he didn’t have a quick way to get more.

  Storms. The other Fused—the femalen—had returned to the gemstone and was working on it again.

  “We have to destroy it, Kaladin,” Syl whispered.

  She was right. He couldn’t defend this place on his own. He’d simply have to hope that the other nodes were better hidden. Though … how could something be better hidden than in the middle of a wall?

  Kaladin took a deep breath, then dashed forward to force the Pursuer to materialize. He did so—but only after zipping back into the center of the second pool of Light Kaladin had made. That let the creature materialize standing on the remnants of his second husk, which was stuck to the Light.

  The Fused crouched low, hands out and ready to grab Kaladin if he tried to run past. Kaladin was forced to shy back.

  I can’t afford to fight him the way he wants, Kaladin thought. If he gets me into his grip, I’ll end up pinned.

  When he’d killed the creature before, Kaladin had used the Pursuer’s assumptions against him. This time he wasn’t making the same mistake, but he was still so very confident.

  Use that. Let him defeat himself.

  Kaladin turned and started running in th
e opposite direction.

  Behind, the Pursuer began laughing. “That’s right, human! Flee! You see it now! Run and be pursued.”

  Syl zipped up alongside Kaladin. “What’s the plan?”

  “He’s called the Pursuer,” Kaladin said. “He loves the chase. When we were doing what humans shouldn’t do—trying to fight him—he was deliberate and careful. Now we’re fleeing prey. He might get sloppy. But he won’t leave that third body until we’re far enough away that he’s sure we won’t just double back and attack that other Fused. Go warn me when he does.”

  “Right.” She darted off to watch.

  Kaladin took a few turns in the corridor, then said, “Tower spren, I need you!” A garnet light ahead started flashing quickly as if anxious.

  Kaladin jogged to it, and Syl came darting back. “The Pursuer is recharging—but he’s not leaving the fabrial unwatched! He’s getting Voidlight from the other Fused.”

  Kaladin nodded as he pressed his hand to the wall. The tower spren spoke in his mind.

  SheiskillingmeSheiskillingmeSheiskillingme. Stopitstopit.

  “I’m trying,” Kaladin said. He dug out some of his gemstones, then infused his Stormlight into them to preserve what he had left. “I’m not convinced I can beat that monster again. Not without a team on a battlefield. He fights too well one-on-one. So, I need another hidden room. One with only a single exit—and with a door that will open and close fast.”

  You’re going to hide? the Sibling said, hysterical. You can’t—

  “I won’t abandon you, but you need to do this for me. We don’t have much time. Please.”

  “Kaladin!” Syl said. “He’s coming!”

  Kaladin cursed, leaving the Sibling and dashing for an intersection in the dark corridors ahead.

  “Duck!” Syl said.

  Kaladin ducked, narrowly avoiding the Pursuer’s grip as he materialized. As Kaladin darted a different direction, the creature tried again, dropping a husk and shooting ahead of Kaladin.

  Trying to play the part of panicked prey, Kaladin turned and ran the other way—though he hated putting his back to the creature like that. He could almost feel him, forming with arms grabbing at Kaladin’s neck.…