Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

‘Is it terribly difficult for you?’ he asked softly. ‘Living with the rest of us, suffering our average wits and simple thoughts? Is it lonely to be so singular in your brilliance, Jasnah?’

‘Accouterments?’

‘I’m practicing my fancy words. They help a fellow obtain reasonable feminine companionship. You know – the kind of young lady who doesn’t smell too bad an’ has at least a few teeth left.’

It was as if . . . once she had feared the darkness, but now she had stepped into it. She had experienced some of the horrors that awaited her there. Terrible as they were, at least she knew.

‘You think they’re superstitious fools,’ Shallan said softly, watching the sailor leave. ‘From what I have observed,’ Jasnah said, ‘these sailors are men who have found a purpose in life and now take simple pleasure in it.’ Jasnah looked at the next drawing. ‘Many people make far less out of life.

‘I . . . had trouble concentrating.’ ‘So you came up on deck,’ Jasnah said, ‘to sketch pictures of young men working without their shirts on. You expected this to help your concentration?’

‘No complaining today! You do this thing too much. Do not make me kick you. I do not like kicking. It hurts my toes.’

‘You’re an odd one, son.’ ‘The normal ones are dead in the chasms, sir,’ Kaladin said softly. ‘Sadeas saw to that.’

‘No flying or walking on walls? I need to impress the women. I do not think sticking rocks to walls will be enough.’ ‘I think anyone would find that impressive,’ Sigzil said. ‘It defies the laws of nature.’ ‘You do not know many Herdazian women, do you?’

‘Didn’t stop you from throwing a tree at my head.’ ‘Was small tree,’ Rock said. ‘And very hard head.’

If something had been done one way for such a long time, he figured there was probably a good reason.

‘Long ago, there was only One. One knew everything, but had experienced nothing. And so, One became many – us, people. The One, who is both male and female, did so to experience all things.’

As each experience is different, it brings completeness. Eventually, all will be gathered back in – when the Seventh Land is attained – and we will once again become One.’

‘As One, we knew truth,’ Ym said, ‘but as many, we need ignorance. We exist in variety to experience all kinds of thought. That means some of us must know and others must not – just like some must be rich, and others must be poor.’ He worked the shoe a moment longer. ‘More people did know this, once. It’s not talked about as much as it should be.

Expectation wasn’t just about what people expected of you. It was about what you expected of yourself.

Also, you look a little spindly for a Horneater.’ ‘Did you just insult the princess’s weight?’ Tyn asked, aghast.

The humming to Awe grew louder, and some began to sing. Eshonai gloried in it. She pointedly ignored the voice deep within her that was screaming in horror.

‘I should envy you,’ he said, turning back to her. ‘My breath needs to be up close to kill, while that face of yours can kill any man from a distance.’ ‘Any man?’ she asked. ‘Why, it’s not working on you. I guess that’s proof that you’re not much of a man.’

Kaladin told her to bring whatever, barely paying attention. This place was not inviting, really. It was loud, obnoxious, smoky, and smelly. It was also alive. Laughing. Boasts and calls, mugs clanking. This . . . this was what some people lived for. A day of honest labor, followed by an evening at the tavern with friends. That was not so bad a life.

Adolin browsed a folio, oversized by design so it wouldn’t be mistaken for a woman’s book. Shallan had seen some folios containing battle maps, others with designs for armor or pictures of architecture.

his way and jumped into the air, Lashing himself upward. He soared a good thirty feet upward before Lashing himself to the

‘No.’ ‘That was a joke, bridgeboy.’ ‘My mistake. I was under the impression that jokes were supposed to be funny.’

‘You know, I’m working very hard to come up with engaging, clever, meaningful points of interest to offer you. I can’t help thinking you’re not upholding your side of the conversation. It’s a little like playing music for a deaf man.

She giggled. Storms, lighteyes were annoying. Particularly when they fawned over one another. Their conversation continued, and Kaladin found it blatantly obvious how badly this woman wanted a relationship with Adolin.

Is that really what you people spend your time on? Kaladin wondered. Almighty save you if you don’t have sculpture contests to watch.

He listened to them both laughing, and wanted to punch them in the face. ‘Wow,’ Syl’s voice said. ‘You’re supposed to harness the storms, Kaladin. Not carry them about behind your eyes.’

malodorous

‘I’m really not very witty. You just happen to be stupid, so it seems that way. Contrast, remember?’

He gave her a chuckle at that because it seemed the right thing to do. Inside, however, it ripped him apart. He’d failed.

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. ‘How?’ he asked. She shrugged lightly. ‘Helps if you’re crazy.

‘I’m glad to be down here,’ he said, ‘because at least it was me, and not one of my men, who fell.’ She hopped over a puddle, then eyed him. ‘You’re not very good at this.’

‘You really do try too hard.’ ‘It’s what keeps me insane.’

punctiliously.

‘You want to get a palanquin?’ Lopen asked. ‘Those are for women.’ ‘Ain’t nothing wrong with being a woman, gancho,’ Lopen said. ‘Some of my relatives are women.’

gelding

patently unfair.

Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results.

Shallan grinned. ‘I always just assumed she was born in her thirties.’

‘It frightens me,’ Shallan said, ‘because we all see the world by some kind of light personal to us, and that light changes our perception. I don’t see clearly. I want to, but I don’t know if I ever truly can.’

‘Brightness,’ the bridgeman continued reluctantly, ‘he did say that if you wouldn’t come, he would send Adolin to . . . um . . . cart you back over his shoulder.’ ‘I would like to see him do that,’ Shallan said. It did sound kind of romantic, the sort of thing you’d read of in a novel.

Kaladin felt a chill. ‘They wanted you

‘I don’t need to wonder if you two can keep up with me or not.’ ‘This was nothing,’ Skar said. ‘Yeah,’ Drehy added. ‘Lifting fat lighteyes is easy. You should try a bridge sometime.’ Adolin grinned, then wiped water from his face with his exposed hand.

If he did that, he only cared about what was convenient for himself. That wasn’t protecting. That was selfishness.

‘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.’

‘Oh!’ Shallan raised a hand to her mouth, remembering the bruises on his face. ‘Sorry.’ He grinned, then winced again, as apparently that hurt too. ‘Worth it. Anyway, I’ll promise to avoid being awkward if you avoid being too irresistible. At least until I’m healed up. Deal?’ ‘Deal.’

‘I know.’ Pattern buzzed softly. ‘Eventually, you will kill me, and you will have your revenge.’ ‘I don’t want revenge. I want my family.’

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.’

‘Whatever else might be said, at least the world chose a nice night upon which to end. . . .’