In the ten minutes Dalinar had had his back turned, Kaladin and Adolin had somehow managed to destroy half the warcamp. He turned from the smoking and smouldering wreckage of Urithiru to face the culprits.
"How did this happen?" he asked finally.
Adolin looked sideways at Kaladin, and Kaladin looked sideways at Adolin. Some sort of silent agreement seemed to be reached.
"A game of tag," said Kaladin. He was standing to attention, his eyes fixed on a point past Dalinar's head.
"A game of tag," Dalinar repeated. "A game of tag."
"It was for training purposes, sir," said Adolin. He was studying the boots of his Shardplate with great dedication. He hadn't been mortified enough to call his father 'sir' since he had been eight, and had glued Renarin to a wall. What simple times those had been.
"Training... to destroy the warcamps?" Dalinar prompted.
"It sounded reasonable at the time," Kaladin said. He was sweating profusely, even though the day was cool and he was yet again not wearing a shirt. Did the Captain not have enough shirts? Maybe Dalinar needed to look at their supply lists again. "Adolin needed to practice chasing down a Windrunner, and I needed to practice defending myself against somebody in Shardplate. Sir," he added.
"I thought the Assassin in White was dead, soldier," said Dalinar.
"Even so, sir, if the Radiants have returned, we need to be prepared," Kaladin said. "So, um, after a short discussion-"
"More of an argument," said Adolin.
"Well, yes, anyway, we decided that we needed to, um, settle the matter in a constructive way, sir."
"I would say it was more of a destructive way," said Dalinar as a cadre of soldiers passed them by, carrying buckets for the fire chain.
"Sorry, sir," said Kaladin.
"We'll show more discernment in the future, sir," said Adolin.
"I should hope so," said Dalinar. "You're both on cleanup duty for the foreseeable future. I want Urithiru to look the way we found it by the end of the month."
"Yes, sir," they said together.
"Really, you'd think they'd have built it stronger," said Adolin under his breath.
Dalinar, on the brink of dismissing them so they could get to work, paused. "Out of interest... who won?"
He had thought it would be impossible for them to look more embarrassed.
"Ultimately..." said Adolin.
"Shallan," said Kaladin. "Shallan won."
"Was she involved in your 'short discussion', then?" Dalinar asked. He wondered if he would be technically allowed to put Jasnah's ward on cleanup duty.
"No, but she did arrange the trip wire, sir," said Kaladin. "That's how we lost the eastern wall."