Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive 4)

“Stay under five percent,” Navani said.

“Four and nine-tenths it is,” Sebarial said, bowing to her. “I’ll be practically respectable, Brightness. Perhaps Palona will finally see that I can be useful, if given the proper motivation.”

“Turi?” Navani said.

“Yes, Brightness?” he asked, rising from the flowery bow.

“If a man takes nothing in his life seriously, it makes a woman wonder. What is she? Another joke? Another whim?”

“Surely she knows her value to me, Brightness.”

“Surely there is no problem in making it clear.” Navani patted him on the arm. “It is difficult not to question your value to someone who seems to value nothing. Sincerity might not come easily for you, but when she finds it in you, she’ll value it even more for the scarcity.”

“Yes … All right. Thank you.”

He waddled off, and Navani watched him go with genuine fondness. That was incredible, considering her former opinion of the man. But he’d stood with them, whether through intent or accident, when most others had refused. Beyond that, she’d found he could be trusted to get things done.

Like everyone, deep down he wanted to be useful. Humans were orderly beings. They liked to see lots of straight lines, if only so—in some cases—they could be the one drawing curves. And if a tool seemed broken at first glance, perhaps you were simply applying it to the wrong task.

Once in the tower, Navani took a palanquin inward, attended by Brightness Anesa, who brought various reports for Navani to inspect. Navani passed over the sanitation figures, instead reading up on water distribution through the tower, as well as reports of foot traffic in the stairwells.

There were more random fights and arguments in Urithiru than there had been in Dalinar’s warcamp. Part of that was the diverse population, but she suspected that keeping everyone in relatively tight confines was a culprit as well. Dalinar wanted to post more guard patrols, but if she could divert traffic flow to keep people from jostling one another …

She had some ideas mapped out by the time her palanquin reached the atrium at the far eastern edge of the tower. She stepped out into one of the city’s most dynamic locations: a place where a vast corridor stretched tens and tens of floors upward, almost to the roof. While lifts ran up and down the large artery that led inward to the atrium—and there were a multitude more stairwells—this was the sole place one could catch a lift all the way to the top floor.

Stretching along the eastern wall was an enormous window, hundreds of feet tall. The tiers of Urithiru weren’t full circles—most were closer to half-circles, with the flat side aligned here at the atrium. So you could look all the way up, or stare out toward the Origin.

As one of the brighter sections of the tower, and with its many lifts, the area bustled with traffic. That made it all the more remarkable that the atrium—of all places—had hidden an architectural mystery. Navani crossed the circular chamber to the far wall, just to the left side of the window. A few days back, one of her scribes had noted an oddity here: a small division in the rock, too straight to be a crack.

With Dalinar’s permission, a Stoneward had been called in to shape the rock into an opening—they could make stone soft to their touch. Navani’s morning report had indicated she should come see the results, but this was the first time she’d been able to pull away. Badali, a Stoneward, guarded the door. He was an affable older man with a powdery beard and smiling eyes. He bowed to her as she stepped through his newly made door.

Falilar, the engineer, was already inside measuring what they’d discovered: a large room hidden entirely in the stone.

“Brightness,” Brightness Anesa said, walking alongside her. “What was the purpose of sealing off an entire room like this?”

Navani shook her head. This wasn’t the only room they’d found in the tower with apparently no entrances. This one was particularly significant though, for it had a large picture window along the rear wall, which let in the sunlight.

Standing in front of that window was an odd structure: a tall stone model of the tower. She’d read about it in the report, but as she approached, she was still surprised by its intricacy. The thing was a good fifteen feet tall, and was divided in two—the halves pulled apart—to give a cross section of the tower. At this scale, floors weren’t even an inch tall, but everything she saw about them was reproduced in intricate detail. At least, as much as was allowed at that scale.

Falilar joined her beside it, holding a notebook full of figures. “What do you make of it, Brightness?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “Why put this here, but then seal it off?” She bent over, noting that the crystal pillar room—along with the two library rooms nearby—was represented in the model.

Falilar used a small reed to point. “See here? This room itself is reproduced, with a tiny representation of this very model. But there is an open door leading in, where there wasn’t one in the real tower.”

“So the rooms were sealed off before the Radiants left?”

“Or,” Falilar said, “they could open and close some other way. When the tower was abandoned, some were already closed, others open.”

“That would explain a lot.” They’d found so many rooms with actual doors—or, the remnants of ones rotted away—that she hadn’t considered that there might be other mechanisms on undiscovered rooms. A clearly biased approach. She glanced at the wall they’d come in through. “Did that Stoneward discover any mechanism for such an opening?”

“There was a gemstone embedded in the stone,” Falilar said. “I had him get it out for us to inspect. I intend to have him see if perhaps the rock was somehow intended to slide open to the sides there. If so, it would be a remarkable mechanism.”

Navani made a mental note to have one of the Windrunners fly out to do a close inspection of the mountains that Urithiru was built into. Perhaps windows like this one would reveal other hidden rooms, with equally mysterious contents.

“I’ll do a thorough inspection of this model,” Falilar said. “It might yield secrets.”

“Thank you. I, unfortunately, have some sanitation reports to read.”

“If you get a chance, stop by the library and talk to my nephew,” Falilar said. “He’s made some improvements on his device.”

Navani nodded and started back toward her palanquin, trusting Falilar to send her whatever he discovered. As she was climbing into the palanquin, she saw Isabi—one of her younger scholars—rush into the room, holding a blinking red light.

The mysterious spanreed. The one she’d received weeks ago from the unknown person who was so angry about fabrials. It was the first time they had tried to contact her since that day.

Sanitation reports would wait.

Other Shards I cannot identify, and are hidden to me. I fear that their influence encroaches upon my world, yet I am locked into a strange inability because of the opposed powers I hold.

“Hold it steady!” Falilar said. It had been years since Navani had seen the old white-bearded engineer this animated. “Put it here on the table. Isabi, you have the scale, yes? Hurry, hurry. Set it up like we practiced!”