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Point of view: Kaladin
Setting: Amaram's camp, a battlefield somewhere along the border of Alethkar, one year ago
It is now four years after Kaladin first volunteered to join Amaram’s army. Kaladin’s enlistment is up in a few weeks, but he decides to stay with the army; he expects to never go home since he broke his “promise to protect Tien" and now can’t face his parents. Kaladin has risen in the ranks and is now the youngest squadleader in Amaram’s camp. As a darkeyes, in order to be raised higher he must go to the Shattered Plains to further distinguish himself.
Gare (another squadleader) approaches Kaladin. Gare seems annoyed that he has to talk to Kaladin, given that a battle is about to start. Kaladin wants Cenn, who is currently assigned to Gare’s squad, transferred to his own group. Gare doesn’t want to do it and questions why Kaladin wants all of the untrained young recruits, since they wouldn’t help his squad. Kaladin calls his bluff and tells Gare to accept the payment like everyone else and send Cenn over. Kaladin drops a pouch of spheres on the ground. As he walked away he hears Gare say “can’t blame a man for trying.”
Kaladin passes through the busy camp as soldiers are running to and fro, attending to duties and lining up for their squads. Kaladin walks to the surgeon’s station intending to leave a bribe with Ven, the chief of surgeons, to ensure his men are treated first if any of his squad took injuries in the coming battle. The pouch of spheres sticks to him oddly, but he blames a windspren nearby. The pouch eventually comes free and he tosses it to Ven and walks to his squad where his second in command, Dallet, has them waiting. Standing beside Dallet is the new recruit Cenn, who looks eerily like Tien.
Kaladin’s thoughts turn to the Shattered Plains where “real soldiers” fought for a purpose better than these border squabbles he has fought for the last four years. Kaladin wants to get his team to the Shattered Plains as they’d have to fight in fewer, more important battles and he feels it would be safer for them there. Soon the horns blare and Kaladin and his squad rush in.
Kaladin finds himself in the thick of battle. As he looks around, he spots all of his men except for the young Cenn, who Kaladin at first mistakenly refers to as Tien to himself. Kaladin finally spots Cenn far out of formation and surrounded by the enemy. He races over and blocks a spear that would have surely been the end of Cenn. Kaladin quickly goes on the offensive, pushing all of the men back; he found himself invincible at moments like this, flowing easily from one position to the next as he defended someone. Kaladin feels a wind around him as he settles into a defensive stance. He examines Cenn and bandages his leg. Soon the rest of his squad finishes off the remaining nearby enemy troops and form a circle around Kaladin as he works on Cenn’s leg.
When Kaladin finishes, he orders Cyn and Korater to take Cenn to the surgeon. They should be fine here for the moment as Amaram’s forces were concentrated to this area. Cenn thought he saw a Shardbearer, but Dallet corrects him that it was only a well-armored lighteyes officer.
Kaladin becomes focused on taking the lighteyes officer down. Internally, he feels that that lighteyes represented Roshone and all the other lighteyes, save the few honorable ones like Amaram and Dalinar. All other petty lighteyes were responsible for all the troubles in their warring society and ultimately the death of Kaladin’s brother, Tien.
Two subsquads head out with Kaladin, eager to fight. One subsquad draws the attention of the honor guard while the other distracts the lighteyes as Kaladin approached from behind. Kaladin gets a knife into the Brightlord's eye and then easily finishes him off with his spear.
Kaladin surveys the area and orders his squad to hold position. He’s about to call for the surgeons and for the captainlord to confirm their kill of a Brightlord when he hears a commotion and sees that a true Shardbearer is on the field. The Shardbearer’s armor is gold and he wields a Shardblade shaped like flames. The Shardbearer breaks Amaram’s lines, tramples Cenn, cuts off Dallet’s head, and cuts down even more of Kaladin’s squad.
Kaladin rushes to his fallen men. Cenn is still alive, but dies soon after saying something about a black piper in the night. What’s left of the squad circles around Kaladin again. Kaladin looks up and sees that the Shardbearer headed through them to get at Amaram as directly as possible. He runs toward the Shardbearer with his men close on his heels. As Kaladin approaches, he sees that Amaram’s honor guard fled, as did most of the other soldiers.
The Shardbearer slices through Amaram’s mount, which then falls with Amaram in tow. The Shardbearer dismounts his own horse and is about to finish off Amaram when Kaladin hits his leg, causing the Shardbearer to stumble and split Kaladin’s spear. Ten of his squad surround the Shardbearer, but their hits are ineffective against his Shardplate; with a few quick cuts the Shardbearer kills them all. The Shardbearer then attacks other members of the squad who are standing nearby. Incensed, Kaladin screams and attacks the Shardbearer. Kaladin avoids the Shardblade, but just barely. He backs up and sees Amaram dragging himself away.
Kaladin charges again only to have the head of his spear sliced off by the Shardblade. Kaladin then throws a knife towards the slit of the Shardbearer’s faceplate but misses by a fraction. Kaladin sees a flash and grabs the falling spearhead out of the air; he spins and slams the spearhead into the Shardbearer’s face though the visor. The Shardbearer falls over and drops his Shardblade to the ground. Amaram confirms that the Shardbearer is truly dead, since the sword did not evaporate into mist. Kaladin killed a Shardbearer!
The Shardblade rests stabbed into the ground. Coreb, one of Kaladin’s few remaining squadmates tells him to take it, but Kaladin refuses. Kaladin can’t take up the sword for fear of changing into a lighteyes - something he despises deeply. He also can’t justify taking up the blade that had killed so many of his friends, and so many others in the past.
Amaram is aghast that Kaladin doesn’t take the blade. Kaladin simply says, “I don’t want it. I’m giving it to my men,” then walks away.
- by Michael Pye[1]
Quote of the Chapter:
"Kaladin stepped forward, dazed, raising his hand toward the hilt of the Blade. He hesitated just an inch away from it.
Everything felt wrong.
If he took that Blade, he’d become one of them. His eyes would even change, if the stories were right. Though the Blade glistened in the light, clean of the murders it had performed, for a moment it seemed red to him. Stained with Dallet’s blood. Toorim’s blood. The blood of the men who had been alive just moments before."