Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive 4)

Venli’s first instinct—even still—was to slap him. How dare he question her? She pushed away that instinct, though it warned her that she was the same selfish person, despite it all. A few Words didn’t suddenly make her something better.

“Their powers would be suppressed,” Venli explained to him. “So they shouldn’t be a danger to you. And if they are violent, get away and let it be assumed they woke up spontaneously. That will keep us from being implicated.”

“Fine, but why risk it?”

“Escaping and hiding will be far easier with the help of one like these,” Venli said. “At the very least, we’ll need a distraction to get out. The Windrunners waking and suddenly fighting would provide that.”

She glanced at Dul, who still hummed to Skepticism.

“Look,” Venli said as they completed a walk around the room, “I don’t like humans any more than you do. But if we truly want to escape, we’ll need to make use of every advantage we can find.” She swept her hand across the room of unconscious Radiants. “This could be a very large one.”

Finally, Dul hummed to Reconciliation. “I suppose you’re right. It’s worth trying, though I’m not sure how to wake these up. What we need is a surgeon. Could probably use one anyway; some of these seem to be getting sores and drawing rotspren. Others won’t take any broth, though they have hungerspren buzzing around them.”

Venli attuned Peace as an idea occurred to her. “I’m sure I could get you surgeons. In fact, I know of one who might be willing to help our cause. A human. He’s in hiding, because of certain matters we shouldn’t spread. But I think we could place him here, to help.”

Dul nodded, humming to Appreciation. Venli left, stepping out onto the floor of the atrium—with the long vertical shaft running up toward the top of the tower. She passed several Regals standing guard at the door to the room with the model. Leshwi had told her to put the surgeon and his family someplace safe; well, this made sense.

Curfew was nearing, so here on the floor of the atrium, people were hurrying about their last-minute activities. The humans—no longer confined to quarters—had crept from their shells like vines after a storm. Many of them lived around the atrium, and they had pulled out carts, making temporary shops here near the large window. Like spren to the Passions, the humans sought out the sunlight.

Tonight, they walked timidly and kept their distance from Venli, as if they couldn’t believe that they were supposed to continue on as if nothing had happened. Venli found a stairwell and hurried up, causing a few human women to pull to one side and gasp softly, drawing wormlike fearspren. Sometimes Venli forgot how fearsome her Regal form looked. She’d grown comfortable with it, and more and more it felt like her natural state—even if there was a Voidspren trapped in her gemheart.

On the second floor, Venli made her way toward a meeting point near the atrium balcony. She was supposed to give service to a team of Fused tonight, in case they needed an interpreter. Many Fused had trouble speaking to modern singers. That made sense, considering how short a time they’d been back. Venli found it odder that some—like Raboniel—had already learned to speak modern Alethi.

Venli arrived at the meeting place, surprised to find several Deepest Ones: the strange Fused with limber bodies and milky-white eyes glowing red from behind. They enjoyed spending their time sunken in rock as much as the Heavenly Ones liked to soar. She had occasionally walked into a room to find one or two of them lingering there, sunken into the floor, revealing only their faces, eyes closed.

Tonight four stood in a clump, attended by a few ordinary singers carrying equipment. The Fused were arguing among themselves in their language.

“I did not think the sand would work,” one of the Deepest Ones said to Spite. Their rhythms sounded off. Muted. “I was right in this. You should acknowledge it.”

“There are too many different fabrials in the tower,” said another. “And too many spren. The device we hunt doesn’t leave a strong enough impression to be noticeable, hidden as it is.”

“You’re searching for the fabrial that is creating the shield around the crystal pillar,” Venli guessed. Raboniel had mentioned the field was created by a fabrial—which she theorized would have several gemstones, called nodes, maintaining it, hidden somewhere in the tower.

The Deepest Ones did not directly reprimand her for speaking without first being addressed. As Raboniel’s Voice, Venli had a certain amount of authority, even with these. Not to command, but certainly to speak.

“Why not use secretspren?” she asked. “They can find fabrials as easily as they find Radiants, can’t they?”

“The entire tower is a fabrial,” one of the Deepest Ones said. “The secretspren are useless here; they spin in circles, confused. Asking them to find a specific use of Light in here is like asking them to find a specific patch of water in an ocean.”

“Useless spren,” another said. “Have you seen the chaosspren?”

Venli had. Those types of Voidspren—normally invisible to anyone but the ones they appeared to—left sparks in the air now, as if somehow responding to the dampening field. In this place, even someone who couldn’t look into Shadesmar could know whether they were being watched or not.

As Venli thought on that, she attuned Excitement. No invisible spren … and the secretspren were useless. That meant a Radiant in the tower would be free to use their powers without being noticed.

She could use her powers without being noticed.

The implications of it made Timbre begin to thrum to Excitement as well, in time with Venli’s attunement. Finally. They could practice.

Dared she, though?

“Voice,” one of the Deepest Ones said, waving her over. It was a femalen with pale white skin, swirled with the faintest lines of red. “We need to find these nodes. But without secretspren, we might have to search the entire tower. You will begin interrogating humans, asking if they’ve seen a large gemstone that seems unattached from any visible fabrial.”

“As you wish, Ancient One,” Venli said to Abashment. “But if I may say, this seems an inelegant solution. Are the nodes not likely to be hidden?”

“Yes,” another said, “but they will also need to be accessible. Their purpose is to let Radiants charge the shield with Stormlight.”

“Be that as it may, Ancient One, I am skeptical,” Venli said. “Assuming humans answered me truthfully, I suspect they would not know anything. They have not finished mapping all the floors of the tower, let alone its secret places. Do you truly wish us to spend months talking to each human, asking them if they’ve seen something as vague as a random gemstone?”

The Deepest Ones hummed to Destruction, but otherwise did not contradict her. As with many of the Fused, they did not object out of hand to being challenged, not if the argument was a good one. Venli could learn from them in that regard.

“This is as I said,” one said to the others. “We could search this place for years and discover nothing.”

“Won’t the nodes be connected to the crystal pillar?” Venli asked.

“Yes,” said one of the Deepest Ones. “By veins of crystal, for transporting Stormlight.”