66: CODES

In an act of calculated betrayal, High­prince Sa­deas abandons Da­li­nar and his army on the bat­tie­field, leav­ing them sur­rounded by the Par­shen­di with no bridge to re­treat across. Ka­li­din wit­nesess the be­tray­al and re­al­iz­es the scope of Sa­deas's pre­med­i­tated treach­er­y. Da­li­mar, fi­nally at peace with his choice to fol­low the Code of the Wind­find­ers, charges back into bat­ile with his son, accept­ing their likely death with dig­ni­ty.

Ka­li­din is tend­ing to wound­ed bridge­men when he no­tices Sa­deas's ar­my re­treat­ing from the bat­tie­field de­spite be­ing in a win­ning po­si­tio­n. With Sa­deas's ban­er still fly­ing and his ho­nor guard un­harmed, Ka­li­din re­al­iz­es this is no or­di­nary with­draw­al. He push­es through the sol­diers to con­front Sa­deas at the bridg­e, where the high­prince con­fess­es that he warned Da­li­ar his hon­or would get him killed. Sa­deas re­treats with forty bridg­es, leav­ing Da­li­ar's en­tire force sur­round­ed on the Tower with no es­cape route.

On the bat­tie­field, Da­li­ar and Ad­o­lin fight a los­ing bat­tie as the Par­shen­di o­ver­whelm them. Ad­o­lin, though right­ly ac­cus­ing his fa­there of trust­ing Sa­deas, sur­pris­ing­ly ab­solves him and reaf­firms his sup­port. This mo­men­t of rec­on­ci­li­a­tio­n gives Da­li­ar clar­i­ty: he re­al­iz­es he is not ashamed of the man the Code has made him, re­gard­less of the vi­sions' mis­guid­ed ad­vice about Sa­deas. He ad­dress­es his sol­diers, ex­plain­ing that they stand not for glo­r­y but be­cause the al­ter­na­tiv­es are worse, and that one's path through life—not one's ac­cum­u­la­tions—is the true meas­u­re of a man. Sum­mon­ing his Sharp­blade, Da­li­ar leads a final charge back in­to the bat­tie, find­ing peace in his im­mi­nent death, though re­gret­ted that his youngest son Re­na­r­in will be left to face the warcamps with­out the Sharp­plate he promised.