Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive 4)

The singers were keeping their reeds in central locations to be checked out, used, and returned. The reeds wouldn’t go home with individual scribes. This wasn’t going to be as easy as sneaking into a bedroom to grab one, but the hub might offer other opportunities.

“We need to get past that guard post,” Kaladin whispered, burying his fatigue.

“There’s something else, Kaladin,” Syl said. “Look out the door, down the tunnel.”

Frowning, he did as she requested, peeking out and watching down the tunnel. He was confused, until he saw something pass in the air—like rippling red lightning.

“That’s a new kind of Voidspren,” he said. The ones he’d seen in the past that looked like lightning moved along the ground.

“It’s not, though,” Syl said. “That spren should be invisible to people, but something is off about its aura. It is leaving a trail that I noted the guards watching.”

Curious. So the tower was interfering with spren invisibility? “Did the guards look at you when you passed?”

“No, but they might just not have noticed me.”

Kaladin nodded, watching a little longer. That spren in the distance didn’t pass again. “It’s worth the risk,” he decided, “in proceeding. At least we’ll know if we’re being spied upon.”

“But what about that guard post?” she asked.

“I doubt we’ll be able to sneak around it,” he said. “They’ll have all directions guarded for something valuable like a spanreed hub. But a lot of these rooms have small tunnels at the tops for ventilation. Perhaps we can sneak through one of those?”

Syl led him carefully to an intersection. He peered right, to where four guards blocked the way, two at either side of the hallway. Spears at the crooks of their arms, they wore Alethi-style uniforms with knots on the shoulders. Kaladin was able to spot one of the ventilation holes nearby, but this one was far too small for him to squeeze into.

He’d stood on guard duty himself like that on a number of occasions. If these four were well trained, there would be no luring them away with simple distractions. If you wanted a path well protected, you often posted four. Two to investigate any disturbances, two to remain vigilant.

With the hallway this narrow, and with those guards looking as alert as they were … Well, he’d been there. The only times when he’d been drawn away, it had involved someone with proper authority commandeering him for another task.

“Syl,” he whispered, “you’re getting better at changing colors. Do you think you could change your coloring to appear like a Voidspren?”

She cocked her head, standing beside him in the air, then scrunched up her face in a look of concentration. Her dress changed to red, but not her “skin,” even though it was simply another part of her. Strange.

“I think this is all I can manage,” she said.

“Then make the dress cover your hands with gloves and put on a mask.”

She cocked her head, then changed her clothing so she was wrapped in phantom cloth. That bled to a deep red, making her entire form glow with that color.

She inspected her arms. “Do you think it will fool them?”

“It might,” Kaladin said. He pulled a length of rope from his sack, then Lashed it to the wall. “Go order all four of them to come with you, then pull them over here to look at this.”

“But … doesn’t that rope risk causing a bigger disturbance? Like, what if they go for backup?”

“We need something reasonable enough to have caused a Voidspren to get riled up. I know guard duty though, and those are common warforms. Regular soldiers. I’m guessing that so long as there’s no danger, they’ll just make a report on it.”

He hid down a side hallway, waiting as Syl flew off toward the guard post. She didn’t look exactly like a Voidspren, but it was a reasonable approximation.

She drew near to the post, then spoke loudly enough that he heard her easily. “You there! I am super annoyed! Super, super annoyed! How can you stand there? Didn’t you see?”

“Brightness?” one of them said, in Alethi. “Er, Ancient One? We are to—”

“Come on, come on! No, all of you. Come see this! Right now. I’m really annoyed! Can’t you tell?”

Kaladin waited, tense. Would it work? Even when acting angry, there was a certain perkiness to Syl’s voice. She sounded too … lively to be a Voidspren.

The guards followed though—and as he’d hoped, the glowing length of rope on the wall caught their attention entirely. Kaladin was able to sneak out behind them, passing the post.

At the end of this hallway was the door Syl said led into the spanreed room. Kaladin didn’t dare slip through it; he’d step directly into the middle of a hub of activity. Instead he prowled into a smaller hallway to the right—and here he finally caught a break. High up on the wall, near the ceiling, a dark cleft indicated a large ventilation shaft in the stone. Maybe big enough for him to squeeze through.

Syl returned—once again white-blue, and likely invisible. “They’re sending one of their number to make a report,” she said. “Like you said.” She peeked into the shaft in the rock Kaladin had found. “What is this?”

Ventilation? he thought, trying to send the idea to her so he wouldn’t have to make noise.

It worked. “Seems too big for that,” she said. “This place is so strange.”

With two of his brushes, Kaladin was able to haul himself up and inspect the cleft in the stone. Syl flew into the darkened shaft toward some light at the other end. He heard the guards talking as they came back, but he was around the corner from them now, out of sight.

This ventilation shaft looked like it turned toward the spanreed room just to the left. It was big enough. Maybe.

Syl waved, excited. So he squeezed in. It was more than wide enough to the right and left, but it was barely high enough. He had to move using his brush handholds to pull himself along. He worried the scraping sounds he made would give him away—but he was rewarded when the shaft opened up to the left, revealing a small, well-lit room. The shaft he’d entered ran through the middle of the large thick wall between this room and whatever was on the other side.

That meant Kaladin was able to peek in—hidden mostly behind the stone—at the room from the top of the wall. Spanreeds stood poised on many pieces of paper, waiting for reports. There was no sign of the two singer women from earlier—they’d delivered their spanreed and gone off duty. However, two other femalens in rich dresses maintained the reeds, checking for blinking lights and moving reeds between actively writing on boards and inactive piles on the tables.

Syl entered, and none of them glanced at her, so she seemed to actually be invisible. So, she began reading the reports that were coming in. The door opened and one of the guards entered, requesting a report be sent to his superior. They’d found what appeared to be the sign of a Radiant—something the Pursuer had told everyone to watch for.

Kaladin might not have much time before the creature himself arrived. Best to move quickly. As the guard left, Kaladin quietly maneuvered in the tight quarters, reaching to his waist and pulling out some of his rope. Directly beneath him was a table with a number of spanreeds, including a leather case that had a few nibs sticking out of it.