"I won't risk lives on your bridges, Sadeas," Dalinar said. "I don't know that I can agree to a completely joint assault."

"Bah," Sadeas said. "I've got a new way of using bridgemen, one that doesn't use nearly as many lives. Their casualties have dropped to almost nothing."

"Really?" Dalinar said. "Is it because of those bridgemen with armor? What made you change?"

Sadeas shrugged. "Perhaps you're getting through to me. Regardless, we need to go now. Together. With as many troops as they'll have, I can't risk engaging them and waiting for you to catch up. I want to go together and assault as closely together as we can manage. If you're still worried about the bridgemen, I can attack first and gain a foothold, then let you cross without risking bridgeman lives."

Dalinar looked thoughtful.

Come on, Father, Adolin thought. You've been waiting for a chance to hit the Parshendi hard. This is it!

"Very well," Dalinar said. "Adolin, send messengers to mobilize the Fourth through Eighth Divisions. Prepare the men to march. Let's end this war." "I see them. They are the rocks. They are the vengeful spirits. Eyes of red." -Kakakes 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed young woman of fifteen. Subject was reportedly mentally unstable since childhood. Several hours later, Dalinar stood with Sadeas on a rock formation overlooking the Tower itself. It had been a hard, long march. This was a distant plateau, as far eastward as they had ever struck. Plateaus beyond this point were impossible to take. The Parshendi could arrive so quickly that they had the gemheart out before the Alethi arrived. Sometimes that happened with the Tower as well.

Dalinar searched. "I see it," he said, pointing. "They don't have the gemheart out yet!" A ring of Parshendi were pounding on the chrysalis. Its shell was like thick stone, however. It was still holding.

"You should be glad you're using my bridges, old friend." Sadeas shaded his face with a gauntleted hand. "Those chasms might be too wide for a Shardbearer to jump."

Dalinar nodded. The Tower was enormous; even its huge size on the maps didn't do it justice. Unlike other plateaus, it wasn't level-instead, it was shaped like an enormous wedge that dipped toward the west, pointing a large cliff face in the stormward direction. It was too steep-and the chasms too wide-to approach from the east or south. Only three adjacent plateaus could provide staging areas for assaults, all along the western or northwestern side.

The chasms between these plateaus were unusually large, almost too wide for the bridges to span. On the nearby staging plateaus, thousands upon thousands of soldiers in blue or red were gathered, one color per plateau. Combined, they made for a larger force than Dalinar had ever seen brought against the Parshendi.

The Parshendi numbers were as large as anticipated. There were at least ten thousand of them lining up. This would be a full-scale battle, the kind Dalinar had been hoping for, the kind that would let them pit a huge number of Alethi against a large Parshendi force.

This could be it. The turning point in the war. Win this day, and everything would change.

Dalinar shaded his eyes as well, helm under his arm. He noted with satisfaction that Sadeas's scouting crews were crossing to adjacent plateaus where they could watch for Parshendi reinforcements. Just because the Parshendi had brought so many at first didn't mean that there were no other Parshendi forces waiting to flank them. Dalinar and Sadeas wouldn't be taken by surprise again.

"Come with me," Sadeas said. "Let us assault them together! A single grand wave of attack, across forty bridges!"

Dalinar looked down at the bridge crews; many of their members were lying exhausted on the plateau. Awaiting-likely dreading-their next task. Very few of them wore the armor Sadeas had spoken of. Hundreds of them would be slaughtered in the assault if they attacked together. But was that any different from what Dalinar did, asking his men to charge into battle to seize the plateau? Weren't they all part of the same army?

The cracks. He couldn't let them get wider. If he was going to be with Navani, he had to prove to himself he could remain firm in the other areas. "No," he said. "I will attack, but only after you've made a landing point for my bridge crews. Even that is more than I should allow. Never force your men to do as you yourself would not."

"You do charge the Parshendi!"

"I'd never do it carrying one of those bridges," Dalinar said. "I'm sorry, old friend. It's not a judgment of you. It is what I must do."

Sadeas shook his head, pulling on his helmet. "Well, it will have to do. We still planning on dining together tonight to discuss strategy?"

"I assume so. Unless Elhokar has a fit for both of us missing his feast."

Sadeas snorted. "He's going to have to grow accustomed to it. Six years of feasting every night is growing tedious. Besides, I doubt he'll feel anything but elation after we win this day and leave the Parshendi down a full third of their soldiers. See you on the battlefield."

Dalinar nodded and Sadeas jumped off the rock formation, dropping down to the surface below and joining his officers. Dalinar lingered, looking over at the Tower. It was not only larger than most plateaus, it was rougher, covered with lumpish rock formations of hardened crem. The patterns were rolling and smooth, yet very uneven-like a field full of short walls covered by a blanket of snow.

The southeastern tip of the plateau rose to a point overlooking the Plains. The two plateaus they'd use were on the middle of the west side; Sadeas would take the northern one and Dalinar would assault from one just below it, once Sadeas had cleared a landing for him.

We need to push the Parshendi to the southeast, Dalinar thought, rubbing his chin, corner them there. Everything hinged on that. The chrysalis was up near the top, so the Parshendi were already situated in a good position for Dalinar and Sadeas to push them back against the cliff edge. The Parshendi would probably allow this, as it would give them the high ground.

If a second Parshendi army came, it would be separated from the others. The Alethi could focus on the Parshendi trapped atop the Tower while holding a defensive formation against the new arrivals. It would work.

He felt himself growing excited. He hopped down to a shorter outcropping, then walked down a few steplike clefts to reach the plateau floor, where his officers waited. He then rounded the rock formation, investigating Adolin's progress. The young man stood in his Shardplate, directing the companies as they crossed Sadeas's mobile bridges onto the southern staging plateau. In the near distance, Sadeas's men were forming up for the assault.

That group of armored bridgemen stood out, preparing at the front center of the formation of bridge crews. Why were they allowed armor? Why not the others as well? It looked like Parshendi carapace. Dalinar shook his head. The assault began, bridge crews running out ahead of Sadeas's army, approaching the Tower first.

"Where would you like to make our assault, Father?" Adolin asked, summoning his Shardblade and resting it on his pauldron, sharp side up.

"There," Dalinar said, pointing to a spot on their staging plateau. "Get the men ready."

Adolin nodded, shouting the orders.

In the distance, bridgemen began to die. Heralds guide your paths, you poor men, Dalinar thought. As well as my own. Kaladin danced with the wind.

Arrows streamed around him, passing close, nearly kissing him with their painted scragglebark fletching. He had to let them get close, had to make the Parshendi feel they were near to killing him.

Despite four other bridgemen drawing their attention, despite the other men of Bridge Four behind armored with the skeletons of fallen Parshendi, most of the archers focused on Kaladin. He was a symbol. A living banner to destroy.