30: DARKNESS UNSEEN

Bridge Four practices a new technique for carrying bridges on their side, while tensions escalate between their leader and camp authority. The chapter intercuts between the bridgemen's growing competence and two authority figures—the bridge sergeant and an officer—plotting against them, though their immediate goals conflict.

The chapter opens with a section from the perspective of Bridge Four's sergeant, revealing that the bridgemen exist as bait to draw enemy attention away from more valuable troops, and that exposure of this truth would demoralize them completely. After two weeks of training, Bridge Four has become notably efficient and cohesive, running exercises that impress even nearby soldiers. However, this success attracts the attention of the camp hierarchy: the bridge sergeant's superior officer, a lighteyes named LaMoral, confronts him about the bridgemen's growing insubordination and threatens him with demotion or death if he cannot control them. The sergeant, desperate for money to pay off blackmail debts, considers having the bridge leader assassinated, though LaMoral forbids it, warning that a martyr would inspire rebellion. The perspective then shifts to Bridge Leader, who reflects on the grim casualty rates among his men—nearly thirty percent over two weeks—and struggles to find tactics to protect them without shields or armor. His spren companion, who has evolved into a more humanlike form, warns him about suspicious conversations between authority figures. Bridge Leader then inspects makam wood bridges with his spren and hatches a risky plan: to carry the bridge on its side to serve as a shield when casualties reduce crew size. He names four men as subsquad commanders—a radical innovation in bridge crew organization. One of them, , initially questions this appointment but accepts it out of curiosity rather than conviction. When Bridge Four runs their first practice carrying the bridge on its side, the bridge sergeant stops Bridge Leader to inquire about the maneuver. Bridge Leader claims it distributes muscle fatigue differently, but actually envisions it as a solution for depleted crews. The sergeant, however, interprets this as an opportunity: a slow, exposed bridge run could result in Bridge Four's disaster, which would solve his blackmail problem by removing the obstinate bridge leader without requiring assassination. He encourages the technique, creating a convergence of unintended consequences where two separate plots—one to kill Bridge Leader and one to eliminate Bridge Four—may align through this experimental bridge carry.