Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

‘No flying or walking on walls? I need to impress the women. I do not think sticking rocks to walls will be enough.’

Do not let your assumptions about a culture block your ability to perceive the individual, or you will fail.’

‘You all seem odd to me,’ Syl said lightly. ‘Everyone but Rock, who is a complete gentleman.’ ‘He thinks you’re a god. You shouldn’t encourage him.’ ‘Why not? I am a god.’

I want to have Syl's mindset for myself!

‘You can’t just leave your army, Punio,’ Kaladin said, rubbing his forehead. ‘It’s called desertion.’ ‘Not for us,’ Lopen called. ‘We’re Herdazian – nobody can tell us apart anyway.’ ‘Yes,’ Punio said. ‘I leave for the homeland once a year. When I come back, nobody remembers me.’ He shrugged. ‘This time, I come here.’ Kaladin sighed, but the man looked like he knew his way around a spear, and Kaladin did need more men. ‘Fine. Just pretend you were one of the bridgemen from the start, all right?’ ‘Bridge Four!’ the man said enthusiastically.

Apparently, the things needed to be exercised periodically to keep them functioning properly. Devilish creatures.

‘So yes, I, Adolin Kholin – cousin to the king, heir to the Kholin princedom – have shat myself in my Shardplate. Three times, all on purpose.’ He downed the rest of his wine. ‘You are a very strange woman.’

‘You!’ he said, pointing at the driver. ‘Me!’ the King’s Wit replied

What, you think I’d torment someone just because they were deaf? That would be immoral. No, I torment all people equally, thank you very much.’ ‘Great.’

‘You!’ Adolin exclaimed. ‘Me!’ Wit replied.

‘You!’ Shallan exclaimed. ‘Yes, yes. People certainly are good at identifying me today.

Kaladin retrieved his spear from the back of the carriage, then jogged to catch up, eventually falling in a few steps behind them. He listened to them both laughing, and wanted to punch them in the face.

‘How are your accommodations?’ Dalinar asked. ‘Sir? I’m in storming prison.’ A smile cracked Dalinar’s face. ‘So I see. Calm yourself, soldier. If I’d ordered you to guard a room for a week, would you have done it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then consider this your duty. Guard this room.’ ‘I’ll make sure nobody unauthorized runs off with the chamber pot, sir.’

‘Brightlord Adolin insisted. So long as you were in here, he wouldn’t leave. We tried to stop him, but the man’s a prince. We can’t storming make him do anything, not even leave. He locked himself away in the cell and we just had to live with it.’

‘Please,’ Wit said, refusing the hand. ‘I wouldn’t want it to rub off on me.’ ‘It?’ ‘Whatever you’ve been using to make your hands look clean, Brightlord Amaram. It must be powerful stuff indeed.’

I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.”’

He saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been broken. Then she smiled. Oh, storms. She smiled anyway. It was the single most beautiful thing he’d seen in his entire life.

‘I will protect even those I hate,’ Kaladin whispered through bloody lips. ‘So long as it is right.’

‘You sent him to the sky to die, assassin,’ Kaladin said, Stormlight puffing from his lips, ‘but the sky and the winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.’

‘You are what I’ve been looking for.’

The Lopen made a fist with his hand, clutching the sphere inside. In the next room over, his mother scolded a king.

‘All right,’ Lopen whispered, ‘you really need to work this time.’ He focused on that sphere in his hand. Just like he did every day, and had done every day since Captain Kaladin had started glowing. He’d figure it out sooner or later. He was as sure of it as he was sure of his name.

Hello, a cheerful voice said in his mind. Would you like to destroy some evil today?

Elhokar had finally arrived, in the company of a group of Herdazians, of all things. One claiming his name needed to be added to the lists of Alethi kings . .

‘Life before death, Radiant.’

A man will find a single coin in the mud and talk about it for days, but when his inheritance comes and is accounted one percent less than he expected, then he will declare himself cheated.’