Difference between revisions of "Summary:The Way of Kings"

 

==Part Two: The Illuminating Storms==

[[Adolin]] is on a [[chasmfiend]] hunt with Dalinar, [[Renarin]], [[Elhokar]], and [[Sadeas]]. He is troubled by Dalinar's increasingly strange behavior, especially his fits during the highstorms, and worries that his father is going mad. Sadeas also continually taunts Dalinar over his lack of recent success in capturing [[gemhearts]], which frustrates Adolin.

 

After a brief conversation with the King's Wit, in which Wit tells Dalinar that Renarin is not as fragile as he thinks, Dalinar and Adolin meet again with Elhokar and Sadeas, making final preparations for the hunt. After only a few minutes conversing with [[Bashin]], the hunt master, however, Dalinar and Adolin realize that something is wrong. At this point, the [[chasmfiend]] they are supposedly hunting appears, climbing onto the platform with all of the courtiers and scribes, rather than the smaller plateau the hunt was supposed to take place on.

 

Dalinar, Adolin, and Elhokar all immediately begin to race for the chasmfiend, hoping to kill it before it can harm any bystanders. Sadeas uses his [[grandbow]], weakening it from a distance while Dalinar and Adolin go for its many legs and Elhokar distracts it. While doing so, however, the strap on Elhokar's saddle breaks, causing him to be thrown to the ground. Just as he is about to be crushed by the chasmfiend, Dalinar hurls himself beneath the descending claw and, with Shardplate-enhanced strength, catches it, giving Elhokar time to escape. Adolin continues to cut off its legs, and the chasmfiend is eventually unable to support its own weight. Elhokar summons his Shardblade once again and uses it to kill the felled chasmfiend, then harvest its [[gemheart]].

 

Kaladin gets up before any of the other bridgemen, resolved that he will fight for a better existence, even in his terrible circumstances. He attempts to rouse the rest of Bridge Four, but none come. After Kaladin physically carries [[Moash]] out of the barrack, however, the rest of the bridgemen reluctantly get up. Kaladin then informs the men of bridge four that instead of sleeping in each morning, they will be training, and that he intends to do everything he can to ensure that Bridge Four never loses another man.

 

Kaladin then proceeds to spend his morning training, jogging back and forth across the lumberyard with an unfinished board of a bridge. He does this for several hours, before meeting several of the men from Bridge Four to dismiss them for lunch. Syl informs Kaladin that she is changing, becoming better at remembering things and understanding new concepts and abstract ideas. Kaladin realizes that she feels much the way about her new understanding of life as he does about his current position – afraid to continue, but sure that he can't go back.

 

Adolin is overseeing the cleanup four hour after the chasmfiend attack while the group waits for a bridge crew to come, replacing the bridge the chasmfiend had destroyed in its rampage. He reflects that many of the other lighteyes are treating Dalinar slightly more respectfully and carefully after his earlier rescue of Elhokar, and thinks to himself that it can't last. Having finished his rounds, he approaches Elhokar's pavilion to give his final casualty report.

 

Elhokar approaches, asking if they've learned anything about the saddle. He and Dalinar then begin arguing, Elhokar insisting that someone is trying to kill him and Dalinar insisting that Elhokar is simply overreacting. Elhokar leaves, and Dalinar sends Adolin to prepare the soldiers to move. As he begins to make his way back to camp, Dalinar reflects on his failure to determine the meaning of Gavilar's last words and his desire to protect Elhokar.

 

Seven and a half years ago:

 

Kaladin gets in a few good hits, and is surprised by how good the quarterstaff feels in his hands, but is outmatched by Jost. Tien helps him up, and they return home. There, Kaladin is informed that [[Brightlord Wistiow]], the Citylord and Laral's father, is dead, and that he's left Kaladin a large number of spheres for him to go to Kharbranth, be trained as a surgeon, then return to Hearthstone to serve the people there with his new knowledge.

 

Kaladin visits an apothecary, hoping to get some antiseptic. He leaves when he finds out the apothecary is charging considerably more than he can afford.

 

All four of the other men in the front row, the deathline, are hit with arrows almost immediately, but Kaladin takes only minor injuries. As soon as the bridge is placed, he begins finding bridgemen who were wounded in the approach and treating their wounds. He then has his men carry the wounded back to camp on top of their bridge, removing them when they get to a chasm so the soldiers can cross.

 

Adolin is out walking with Janala, the woman he has been courting. He visits the leatherworkers who were inspecting the strap from Elhokar's saddle, and they tell him that the strap was almost certainly cut, but it's possible it was a buckle from the saddle itself that sliced it. A horn is sounded, signalling that a chasmfiend has been spotted close enough for Dalinar's men to attempt to reach it first. Adolin is disappointed when Dalinar elects not to seek it.

 

Dalinar meets up with Renarin, intending to ride back to their camp. However, before they can get there, they are forced to take shelter in one of their own barracks to avoid a highstorm. They barely make it inside before the storm hits.

 

The moment the storm hits, Dalinar finds that he is no longer in the barracks, but in an unfamiliar barn in the middle of a clear, cool night with only a small girl for company. The girl is terrified of something, and thinks that Dalinar is her father. After a few moments of hushed conversation, a strange creature bursts through one of the walls of the barn and attacks. Dalinar is able to avoid the creature long enough to grab the girl and escape to a nearby house where a woman who thinks he is her husband is waiting for him.

 

Dalinar continues to question the voice, but before he can receive answers, he wakes up back in the barrack on the shattered plains, surrounded by soldiers who have been holding him down, keeping him from acting out his visions. He tells them that his mind is clear and they can release him, then takes Renarin and leaves.

 

Seven Years Ago:

 

He leaves her father to grieve over her, trying to cope with the fact that he was unable to save her. His father finds him and tells him that his work had all been good, and her death wasn't Kaladin's fault. He leaves Kaladin, telling him that he'll have to learn when to care and when to let go.

 

Kaladin lies in bed, debating whether or not to get up. Eventually, he forces himself up and realizes that the other bridgemen had all been watching to see if he would get up and continue his training routine from the previous day. Kaladin goes to check on the wounded from the previous day's bridge run. Two of them are, for the most part fine, but one of them badly needs antiseptic.

 

Kaladin then goes to Gaz and gets his bridge crew assigned to stone-gathering duty for the day. He convinces Rock and Teft to help him gather knobweed reeds over the course of the afternoon.

 

Dalinar goes with his sons to the king’s feast. Adolin reports that according to the leatherworkers he consulted, the strap was cut, though it could’ve been an accident. They discuss the king’s paranoia and Dalinar refuses to talk about his episode in the highstorm, saying that perhaps it was good for the men in the barracks to witness it, as the rumors about his condition were perhaps worse than the truth.

 

King Elhokar then announces that in light of the recent attempt on his life with the cut girth strap, he is appointing Sadeas to Highprince of Information to investigate. This is to snub Dalinar, who he believes is not giving the investigation serious attention. Dalinar realizes that this is Sadeas’s way of outmaneuvering his Highprince of War idea.

 

Bridge 4 is on rock duty, finding stones to soulcast into food. Kaladin has Rock and Teft searching for [[knobweed]] to extract the antiseptic sap from. Rock, who can inexplicably see Syl, finds knobweed quickly guided by her. Kaladin ties bundles of the reed to the bottom of the cart to conceal them. Syl comes to him excitedly, telling him that she led Rock to a pile of dung as a joke. He makes small talk with the bridgecrew, trying to soften their attitude towards him, with little success. Kaladin realizes that even though he has saved lives in Bridge 4, no one will follow his leadership unless he finds a way to make their lives worth living.