62: THREE GLYPHS

In a climactic bridge run, Bridge Four executes a daring strategy: wearing desecrated carapace armor from fallen enemy corpses, a practice horrifying to the deeply religious parshendi, they successfully enrage the enemy to focus their arrows entirely on a single target—the armored bridge carrier. Their gambit succeeds spectacularly, nearly all twenty of Bridge Four's bridges cross untouched. While celebrating the victory, an unexpected group of parshendi archers nearly ambush the bridgemen, but are miraculously cut down by a grey-armored shardbearer, later confirmed to be the legendary commander, Dale or perhaps the mysterious grey-clad warrior, who salutes them in passing.

Bridge Four stands ready for another assault after an exhausting night of chasm scavenging. Despite severe fatigue, the men are steadied by their faith and loyalty to their leader. When a soldier attempts to steal their water and nearly discovers the hidden armor in their stretcher, Bridge Four rises in a unified defensive formation, intimidating the man into retreat. Before the assault, the men pull the bridge across chasm after chasm until reaching the contested plateau. As the soldiers begin their final charge, Bridge Four braces for imminent death. At the moment of crossing, however, they execute a desperate plan: the armored bridgeman (implied to be a parshman, indicated by his carapace armor) runs ahead while infused with captured stormlight, drawing the fury of the parshendi archers through his sacrilege of wearing their dead. The archers become so enraged that they focus their entire barrage on this single target, ignoring the actual bridge crews crossing behind. The bridge carrier dodges the hail of arrows with superhuman agility granted by the stormlight, sustaining only minor wounds that the light miraculously heals. The gambit succeeds beyond imagination: all twenty bridge crews cross with minimal casualties. The soldiers, impressed by the feat, gift the crew with recognition, though the commanding officer, matal, is furious at the risk taken. However, one of their own, the parshman named shen, is traumatized by the desecration of the armor, collapsing into tears at witnessing the dead used as tools of war. As the team tends wounded and celebrations fade, a second crisis emerges: a fresh squad of fifty parshendi archers breaks through enemy lines and positions themselves directly opposite bridge four for a final volley. Before the arrows can fly, a shardbearer in grey armor and bearing an enormous sword crashes into the archer formation, slaughtering them in seconds before saluting the bridgemen and vanishing. The crew is stunned: the shardbearer shows unexpected respect for common bridgemen, a gesture that troubles moash but gives kaladin pause about the intentions of the lighteyes.