Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive 4)

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 dropped 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.