77. Trust

Shallan joins Dalinar's four-army expedition onto the Shattered Plains, where she studies the recovered book Words of Radiance while traveling. Navani overcomes her grief and reconciles with Shallan, offering to help her research the lost city of Urithiru and the Knights Radiant, to which Shallan reveals that Jasnah was one. Meanwhile, Kaladin remains behind, wounded and without his spren, as Moash informs him that the conspiracy to assassinate King Elhokar is proceeding and will strike once Dalinar is sufficiently distant from the city.

Shallan departs with Dalinar's expedition, traveling with Adolin and her soldiers. She is given a slower horse by Adolin, who correctly predicts she will become sore from riding; after an hour, she agrees to travel by coach instead. Gaz arrives with a book Shallan had commissioned: Words of Radiance, an ancient text about the Knights Radiant written two hundred years after the Recreance. In her coach, Shallan studies the book intensively, using it alongside her maps of Stormseat and the Shattered Plains to identify the location of Urithiru, the city of the Knights Radiant, and the Oathgate portal she believes can be found there. When rain begins, Navani enters the coach seeking shelter. Initially anxious about her intentions, Shallan finds that Navani has overcome her grief and wishes to reconcile. Navani reviews Shallan's research and offers assistance, though assuring Shallan she will not take over the project. Shallan then reveals to Navani that Jasnah was a Knight Radiant—that she could Soulcast without a fabrial and possessed knowledge of the past that no one else holds. Navani departs to begin coordinating scribes and researchers to support Shallan's work. In the palace, Kaladin lies in darkness during the Weeping, his leg throbbing. Moash visits him in Shardplate and reveals that the conspiracy to kill King Elhokar is proceeding as planned: they will stage an alert about the Assassin in White appearing, clear the palace of servants, and strike when Dalinar is committed to his expedition against the Parshendi. Moash states that Kaladin's help is no longer needed and asks if he can be trusted. Kaladin, wounded and without Syl (whose departure he attributes to her awareness of the assassination plot), confirms he will not interfere, though he privately despairs at the inevitability of the plan.