“Revise what you know, Notum,” Adolin said. “Maybe something changed once Radiants started returning. Or maybe some deadeyes are more responsive than others.”
“It simply … it doesn’t make sense…” Notum said, but abandoned the argument.
At their camp, a perky Pattern was happily waving to them. Shallan smiled at that. No matter what else happened, she could count on Pattern to be his same awkward—yet encouraging—self.
Adolin didn’t give them time to rest. He ordered the horses watered, but supplies packed up so they could march straight for Lasting Integrity. Radiant took over from Shallan again as he gave the commands, and she immediately recognized the wisdom in them. Despite Adolin’s brilliant show of swordplay, their group was quite exposed. Without Stormlight, most of the Radiants barely counted as warriors. Adolin was wounded, and Notum struggled to remain upright. If the Tukari regrouped and decided to charge them … Well, best to remove the option and push—difficult as it would be—to reach the honorspren stronghold before the day was done.
Veil checked with Vathah and Ishnah about the corpses they’d searched. The pilfering had been quick, and their findings slim. A few cloth bracelets had patterns Ishnah said she thought were Tukari clan writing.
After that Radiant checked with Pattern, but nothing unusual had happened while they were gone. Finally, as their supplies were being loaded onto the packhorses, Shallan took over and moved to check on Mraize’s communication cube out of habit. Shallan unlocked the trunk and popped it open, then gave a quick glance inside. She didn’t expect …
The powder had been disturbed.
Suppressing her immediate shock, Shallan took a Memory, then shut the trunk and clicked the lock closed. She moved by rote, letting one of the soldiers load it on a horse. Then she stood there, stunned. The powder had been brushed faintly by fingers; she could visualize it distinctly. It had been returned in the right orientation, but Veil’s trick with the powder revealed the truth.
How … She’d checked it earlier. Just before they’d all run off after Adolin. But then she’d left the camp under the watch of …
Of Pattern.
“Mmmm…” he said, making Shallan jump as she noticed him standing right behind her. “An eventful day with humans! Your lives are always so exciting. Mmm…”
“Pattern,” Veil said, “nothing happened here while we were gone. You are sure?”
“Yes, very sure. Ha ha. You had excitement, and I was bored. It is irony! Ha ha.”
Veil, this can’t … this can’t be possible, Shallan thought. We can’t be suspicious of Pattern of all people. It … I can’t …
Yet hadn’t he been standing nearby when she’d mentioned the secret to Beryl that had made its way to Mraize? And she’d told him about the orientation issue with the cube, so it was no wonder that this time—in using it—the spy had returned it exactly the right way.
Radiant wasn’t convinced. And … it was ridiculous, wasn’t it? To think Pattern could be spying on her for the Ghostbloods? He loved lies, but she doubted he could manage one himself. At least not one that would fool Veil.
Shallan took over, and tried to put the idea out of her mind as they began walking. But it wouldn’t leave her alone. Veil and even Radiant began to wonder. He’d had opportunity. He knew about the communication cube, and had been watching over it the night she’d been drunk.
Shallan’s father had belonged to the Ghostbloods; her family had been involved with them all the way back in her youth. Perhaps in her childhood, during those shadowy days she’d forgotten? Could the conspiracy go back that far?
Her association with Pattern stretched back to that time, for certain. She’d used him as a Blade to kill her mother. Shallan had suppressed many of those memories, but this fact was indisputable. Pattern and she had begun to bond nearly a decade ago.
Could Pattern have been working with them all along? Feeding them information about her progress? Leading her to contact them when she’d first come to the warcamps?
The implications of that shook her to the core. If her spren was a spy … could she trust anything?
Could she even keep going? This revelation was far, far worse than discovering Vathah or Ishnah had been the spy. This … this made her tremble. Made her legs weak.
Shallan, Radiant thought. Be strong. We don’t know all the facts yet.
No. No, she couldn’t be strong. Not in the face of this.
She crawled away, deep within, and started whimpering like a child. Something was odd about Pattern, about his interactions with her all along. The way he covered up what happened in the past. The timeline of her past … disregarding the holes in it … didn’t quite work. It never had worked.…
Strength, Shallan, Veil thought.
Take over, Shallan thought. You can face this. It’s why you were created.
Try to keep going, Veil thought, refusing to take over. Just keep walking. You can do this.
So Shallan reluctantly maintained control. When Adolin called a brief break two hours later, Shallan forced herself to make a quick sketch of the communication cube in its trunk. The Memory was perfect, and the details did not lie. The powder had been scuffed with finger marks. It was a very, very thin coating, almost invisible. But her Lightweaver ability allowed her to memorize such details.
Shallan tried hard to ignore the problem, instead focusing on their surroundings, which had grown more uneven and rocky. The glass trees here were beautiful, like they were molten liquid, and made sweeping curls reminiscent of crashing waves. Yes, focus on those. That beauty.
She was particularly thrilled when she spotted what had to be Lasting Integrity: a large fortress on a bleak outcrop of obsidian jutting out into the bead ocean. Imperious—with high walls crafted of some uniformly blue stone—the large boxy fortress was positioned perfectly to defend a natural bay to the north. You even had to cross a bridge to reach the place. Honorspren, it was clear, did not take fortification lightly.
Shallan wanted to draw it. She could lose herself in the picture and not have to confront other facts. But then Pattern walked up beside her, and she instead whimpered and retreated again.
Veil at last took control. For Shallan’s own good.
“We are almost arrived!” Pattern said, his pattern rotating in an intensely excited manner.
Veil needed proof, so she chose her words deliberately. “I’ve been thinking a lot about your early days with Shallan. It seems possible that the Ghostbloods were watching her when she was a child. If we can discover facts to confirm this, it might help us figure out how to beat them.”
“Mm. That makes sense, I suppose!” he said. “I don’t remember much though.”
“You were together once, in the garden, with Shallan,” Veil said—fabricating a complete lie. “I can see her memories. Shallan saw Balat speaking to someone who looked, in hindsight, like she might have been wearing a mask. Do you suppose he might be the spy?”
“Oh!” Pattern said. “Your brother? Working with the Ghostbloods? Hmmm … That would be painful for you! But maybe it makes sense. Mraize always does seem to know too much about your brothers and where they are.”
“Do you remember that day in Shallan’s past?” Veil pushed. “Anything about it?”