Stormfather! Kaladin thought, pulse pounding, tempest within raging. He thrust his spear alongside that of the Blackthorn in an attempt to hit the assassin.
The man didn’t dodge.
Both spears struck flesh, Dalinar’s in the shoulder, Kaladin’s in the side. The assassin spun, sweeping his Shardblade through the spears and cutting them in half, as if he didn’t even care about the wounds. He lunged forward, slapping Dalinar across the face, sending him sprawling to the ground, then swept his Blade toward Kaladin.
Kaladin barely ducked the blow, then scrambled backward, the top of his spear clattering to the ground beside Dalinar, who rolled with a groan, holding a hand to his cheek where the assassin had struck him. Blood seeped from torn skin. The blow of a Surgebinder bearing Stormlight could not just be shaken off.
The assassin stood poised and confident in the center of the corridor. Stormlight swirled in the slashes in his now-reddened clothing, healing his flesh.
Kaladin backed away, holding a spear missing its head. The things this man did… He couldn’t be a Windrunner, could he?
Impossible.
“Father!” Adolin shouted from above. The youth had climbed to his feet, but the Stormlight streaming from him had nearly run out. He tried to attack the assassin, but slipped from the ceiling and crashed to the ground, landing on his shoulder. His Shardblade vanished as it fell from his fingers.
The assassin stepped over Adolin, who stirred but did not rise. “I am sorry,” the assassin said, Stormlight streaming from his mouth. “I don’t want to do this.”
“I won’t give you the chance,” Kaladin growled, dashing forward. Syl spun around him, and he felt the wind stirring. He felt the tempest raging, urging him onward. He came at the assassin with the remnant of his spear wielded like a quarterstaff, and felt the wind guiding him.
Strikes made with precision, a moment of oneness with the weapon. He forgot his worries, forgot his failures, forgot even his rage. Just Kaladin and a spear.
As the world was meant to be.
The assassin took a blow to the shoulder, then the side. He couldn’t ignore them all—his Stormlight would run out as it healed him. The assassin cursed, letting out another mouthful of Light, and backed away, his Shin eyes—slightly too large, colored like pale sapphires—widening at the continued flurry of strikes.
Kaladin sucked in the rest of his Stormlight. So little. He hadn’t picked up new spheres before coming to guard duty. Stupid. Sloppy.
The assassin turned his shoulder, lifting his Shardblade, preparing to thrust. There, Kaladin thought. He could feel what would happen. He would twist around the strike, bringing up the butt of his spear. It would hit the assassin on the side of the head, a powerful blow that even Stormlight would not easily compensate for. He’d be left dazed. An opening.
I have him.
Somehow, the assassin twisted out of the way.
He moved too quickly, faster than Kaladin anticipated. As quickly… as Kaladin himself. Kaladin’s blow found only open air, and he narrowly avoided being run through by the Shardblade.
Kaladin’s next moves came by instinct. Years of training gave his muscles minds of their own. If he’d been fighting an ordinary foe, the way he automatically shifted his weapon to block the next swing would have been perfect. But the assassin had a Shardblade. Kaladin’s instincts—instilled so diligently—betrayed him.
The silvery weapon sheared through the remnant of Kaladin’s spear, then through Kaladin’s right arm, just below the elbow. A shock of incredible pain washed through Kaladin, and he gasped, falling to his knees.
Then… nothing. He couldn’t feel the arm. It turned grey and dull, lifeless, the palm opening, fingers spreading as half of his spear shaft dropped from his fingers and thumped to the ground.
The assassin kicked Kaladin out of the way, slamming him against the wall. Kaladin groaned, slumping there.
The man in the white clothing turned up the corridor in the direction the king had gone. He again stepped over Adolin.
“Kaladin!” Syl said, her form a ribbon of light.
“I can’t beat him,” Kaladin whispered, tears in his eyes. Tears of pain. Tears of frustration. “He’s one of us. A Radiant.”
“No!” Syl said forcefully. “No. He’s something far more terrible. No spren guides him, Kaladin. Please. Get up.”
Dalinar had regained his feet in the corridor between the assassin and the path to the king. The Blackthorn’s cheek was a bloody mess, but his eyes were lucid. “I won’t let you have him!” Dalinar bellowed. “Not Elhokar. You took my brother! You won’t take the only thing I have left of him!”
The assassin stopped in the corridor just in front of Dalinar. “But I’m not here for him, Highprince,” he whispered, Stormlight puffing from his lips. “I’m here for you.” The assassin lunged forward, slapping away Dalinar’s strike, and kicked the Blackthorn in the leg.
Dalinar went down on one knee, his grunt echoing in the hallway as he dropped his spear. A frigid wind blew into the corridor through the opening in the wall just beside him.
Kaladin growled, forcing himself to stand and charge down the corridor, one hand useless and dead. He’d never wield a spear again. He couldn’t think about that. He had to reach Dalinar.
Too slow.
I’m going to fail.
The assassin swung his terrible Blade down in a final overhead sweep. Dalinar did not dodge.
Instead, he caught the Blade.
Dalinar brought the heels of his palms together as the Blade fell, and he caught it just before it hit.
The assassin grunted in surprise.
At that moment, Kaladin plowed into him, using his weight and momentum to throw the assassin against the wall. Except there wasn’t a wall here. They hit the place where the assassin had cut his entrance into the corridor.
Both tumbled out into the open air.
33. Burdens
But it is not impossible to blend
Their Surges to ours in the end.
It has been promised and it can come.
Or do we understand the sum?
We question not if they can have us then,
But if we dare to have them again.
From the Listener Song of Spren, 10th stanza
Kaladin fell with the rain.
He clung to the assassin’s bone-white clothing with his one working hand. The assassin’s dropped Shardblade exploded into mist beside them, and together they plummeted toward the ground a hundred feet below.
The tempest within Kaladin was almost still. Too little Stormlight!
The assassin suddenly started glowing more powerfully.
He has spheres.
Kaladin breathed in sharply, and Light streamed from spheres in pouches at the assassin’s waist. As the Light streamed into Kaladin, the assassin kicked at him. One handhold was not enough, and Kaladin was thrown free.
Then he hit.
He hit hard. No preparation, no getting his feet beneath him. He smacked against cold, wet stone, and his vision flashed like lightning.
It cleared a moment later, and he found himself lying on the rocks at the base of the rise that led to the king’s palace, a gentle rain sprinkling him. He looked up at the distant light of the hole in the wall above. He’d survived.
One question answered, he thought, struggling to his knees on the wet rock. The Stormlight was already working on his skin, which was shredded along his right side. He’d broken something in his shoulder; he could feel its healing as a burning pain that slowly retreated.