POV: kaladin
Summary
Kaladin jolts awake in the dark with his hands bound. For a panicky moment he does not know why; then he remembers — he tied his own wrists before sleep so that whoever woke him would not eat a punch the way Dabbid did the day before. He huddles against the wall, fighting the urge to claw his own skull open and dig out the nightmares. He tells himself the visions are only visions. He is so tired.
Eventually he frees his hands. The room is black; they have left no spheres burning. Teft is snoring softly. Kaladin finds his canteen, then notices a faint glow on the wall — a garnet so dim he almost misses it. He hesitates, wipes the sweat from his forehead, and touches it. A voice, very small, scrapes into the back of his mind. *Help. Please.* The tower spren sounds frail. He asks: have they found the last node? *Yes. At … the model.* The room with the large stone model of the tower — the same infirmary where his parents are staying and where the captive Radiants lie in their comas. The voice grows worse: there is something more terrible than the node. *They will soon kill all the Radiants.* *Send … me Rlain.* Then the light fades.
Kaladin pulls out a sphere and shakes Teft awake. Teft's grip on his arm is reflexive but weak — the coma left him hollowed out. Kaladin tells him: the tower spren has woken him; the final node is located, the Radiants are about to be slaughtered, and the spren has asked for Rlain — almost certainly meaning Rlain is to be sent to Navani as they had planned. The hand has been forced. They have to try the rescue *now*. Teft is not surprised. This was coming, whatever they did; there is no time to do it Lirin's way.
*Watchers at the rim,* Kaladin mutters — they will need to move fast. He outlines the plan as they dress in the spare Bridge Four uniforms Dabbid has smuggled in. Teft takes Lift and slips into the infirmary to begin waking the captive Radiants one by one. Kaladin will make a noisy distraction outside the room to pull the stormform guards into the corridor and draw the attention of the Pursuer. If the guards do not bite, Teft will have to neutralise them inside. The rescued Radiants will be carried out down the outside of the tower strapped to the backs of Windrunners, using Kaladin's trick of infusing boots and objects to walk down the stone. In an absolute emergency someone may have to step out the window and hope to bond Stormlight back before they hit the ground.
Dabbid returns, frantic. The tower spren has spoken to him too. He is on his way to meet Rlain on the fourth floor — Rlain is shaken by something to do with Venli and refused to talk in the infirmary. Kaladin gives him the orders: tell Rlain the plan is a go, then the two of them carry word to the queen (Navani) — Rlain thinks he can reach her and Dabbid notes, with weary precision, that *people ignore me*. Once they have warned her, they are to hide in this room and stay quiet. Dabbid gives the Bridge Four salute and runs.
The last conversation is between two old Bridge Four men. Kaladin tells Teft that if it falls apart, Teft is to get out the window with any Radiants he can carry, take his spren and reach Dalinar — not stay and make a stand. *And you?* Teft asks. Kaladin hesitates. Teft presses: *If I run, you run.* The last two times a node was discovered the Pursuer was waiting; he will be waiting again. This is a trap. The enemy thinks they are coming for the node; the enemy does not know that this time they only care about the Radiants in the room down the hall. Distract him a little, then run and let them have their storming fabrial. *Give me an oath, lad.* Kaladin gives it — *always* — and swears: once Teft gets the Radiants out, Kaladin will follow.