Bridge Four trains a side-carry, still clumsy but improving. New recruits arrive; Kaladin forces Gaz to assign one to Bridge Four, then chooses Lopen, a one-armed Herdazian. When horns sound, Kaladin puts Lopen on water duty; Lopen, with Dabbid and Hobber, improvises a litter and supplies waterskins, boosting the crew’s endurance during a grueling eastward run.

The destination is the Tower plateau, infamous and distant. Scouts report Parshendi on the far rim with an unopened chrysalis. With Bridge Four understrength and likely to be targeted, Kaladin resolves to try the side-carry as a mobile shield, promising to lead and, if it fails, die first. His crew forms up and sprints to the front.

Kaladin angles and then zigzags, turning the bridge to face volleys. Arrows hammer the wood, but Bridge Four takes no casualties and places their bridge on-mark. Other crews suffer heavy losses; seeing Kaladin’s method, some try to copy it mid-run, stumbling and dropping bridges. The scattered placements prevent a cohesive cavalry surge; riders cross piecemeal and are flanked, while infantry scrambles to reinforce unstable bridgeheads. Sadeas’s force gains only a tenuous foothold amid mounting casualties.

Realizing his innovation saved his crew but ruined the army’s timing, Kaladin anticipates punishment. Gaz and Lamaril approach with spearmen. Kaladin orders his men to stand down and confronts the officers, offering to attest they weren’t complicit if he’s spared. Lamaril, wary of appearances, orders a beating rather than an execution. Soldiers club Kaladin to the ground; his pouch bursts, scattering now-dun spheres, as the battle rages on the Tower.