How can you be a lighteyes without light eyes?” Teft said with a scowl.
“By having dark eyes,” Rock said, as if it were obvious. “We do not pick our leaders this way. Is complicated. But do not interrupt story.” He milked another reed, tossing the husk into a pile beside him.
“The nuatoma, they see our lack of Shards as great shame. They want these weapons very badly. It is believed that the nuatoma who first obtains a Shardblade would become king, a thing we have not had for many years. No peak would fight another peak where a man held one of the blessed Blades.”
“So you came to buy one?” Kaladin asked. No Shardbearer would sell his weapon. Each was a
distinctive relic, taken from one of the Lost Radiants after their betrayal.
Rock laughed. “Ha! Buy? No, we are not so foolish as this. But my nuatoma, he knew of your tradition, eh? It says that if a man kills a Shardbearer, he may take the Blade and Plate as his own. And
so my nuatoma and his house, we made a grand procession, coming down to find and kill one of your Shardbearers.”
Kaladin almost laughed. “I assume it proved more difficult than that.”
“My nuatoma was not a fool,” Rock said, defensive. “He knew this thing would be difficult, but your tradition, it gives us hope, you see? Occasionally, a brave nuatoma will come down to duel a
Shardbearer. Someday, one will win, and we will have Shards.
Autore: Brandon Sanderson