Well of Ascension

by Brandon Sanderson

  Vin landed in a crouch, bare feet on the cool stone cobbles of the Hasting courtyard. Zane landed upright, standing- as always-with his towering air of self-confidence.

  Pewter blazed within her, giving her muscles the taut energy of a thousand excited moments. She easily ignored the pain of her wounded side. Her sole bead of atium rested in her stomach, but she didn*t use it. Not yet. Not unless she was right, and Cetl proved to be Mistborn.

  "We'll go from the bottom up," Zane said.

  Vin nodded. The central tower of Keep Hasting was many stories high, and they couldn't know which one Cett was on. If they started low, he wouldn't be able to escape.

  Besides. Going up would be more difficult. The energy in Vin's limbs cried for release. She'd waited, remained coiled, for far too long. She was tired of weakness, tired of being restrained. She had spent months as a knife, held immobile at someone's throat.

  It was time to cut.

  The two dashed forward. Torches began to light around them as Cett's men-those who camped in the courtyard-awakened to the alarm. Tents unfurled and collapsed, men yelling in surprise, looking for the army that assailed them. They could only wish that they were so lucky.

  Vin jumped straight up into the air.^and Zane spun, throwing a bag of coins around him. Hundreds of bits of copper sparkled in the air beneath her-a peasant's fortune. Vin landed with a rustle, and they both Pushed, their power throwing the coins outward. The torch-sparkled missiles ripped through the camp, dropping surprised, drowsy men.

  Vin and Zane continued toward the central tower. A squad of soldiers had formed up at the tower's front. They still seemed disoriented, confused, and sleepy, but they were armed. Armed with metal armor and steel weapons- a choice that, had they actually been facing an enemy army, would have been wise.

  Zane and Vin slid into the midst of the soldiers. Zane tossed a single coin into the air between them. Vin reached out and Pushed against it. feeling Zane's weight as he also Pushed against it.

  Braced against each other, they both Pushed in opposite directions, throwing their weight against the breastplates of the soldiers to either side. With flared pewter-holding each other steady-their Pushes scattered the soldiers as if they had been slapped by enormous hands. Spears and swords twisted in the night, clattering to the cobbles. Breastplates towed bodies away.

  Vin extinguished her steel as she felt Zane's weight come off the coin. The sparkling bit of metal bounced to the ground between them, and Zane turned, throwing up his hand toward the single soldier who remained standing directly between Zane and the keep doors.

  A squad of soldiers raced up behind Zane. but they suddenly halted as he Pushed against them-then sent the transfer of weight directly into the lone soldier. The unfortunate man crashed backward into the keep doors.

  Bones crunched. The doors flung open as the soldier burst into the room beyond. Zane ducked through the open doorway, and Vin moved smoothly behind him, her bare feet leaving rough cobbles and falling on smooth marble instead.

  Soldiers waited inside. These didn't wear armor, and they carried large wooden shields to block coins. They were armed with staves or obsidian swords. Hazekillers- men trained specifically to fight Allomancers. There were, perhaps, fifty of them.

  Now it begins in earnest, Vin thought, leaping into the air and Pushing off the door's hinges.

  Zane led by Pushing on the same man he'd used to break open the doors, throwing the corpse toward a group of hazekillers. As the soldier crashed into them, Vin landed amid a second group. She spun on the floor, whipping out her legs and flaring pewter, tripping a good four men. As the others tried to strike, she Pushed downward against a coin in her pouch, ripping it free and throwing herself upward. She spun in the air, catching a falling staff discarded by a tripped soldier.

  Obsidian cracked against the white marble where she had been. Vin came down with her own weapon and struck, attacking faster than anyone should be able to, hitting ears, chins, and throats. Skulls cracked. Bones broke. She was barely breathing hard when she found all ten of her opponents down.

  Ten men... didn't Kelsier once tell me he had trouble with half a dozen hazekillers''

  No time to think. A large group of soldiers charged her. She yelled and jumped toward them, throwing her staff into the face of the first man she met. The others raised their shields, surprised, but Vin whipped out a pair of obsidian daggers as she landed. She rammed them into the thighs of two men before her, then spun past them, attacking flesh where she saw it.

  An attack flickered from the comer of her eye, and she snapped up an arm, blocking the wooden staff as it came for her head. The wood cracked, and she took the man down with a wide sweep of the dagger, nearly beheading him. She jumped backward as the others moved in, braced herself, then yanked on the armored corpse Zane had used before. Pulling it toward her.

  Shields did little good against a missile so large. Vin smashed the corpse into her opponents, sweeping them before her. To the side, she could see the remnants of the hazeShe couldn't feel pain at the moment.

  She Pushed against a broken metal frame, throwing herself over the heads of soldiers, landing outside the large circle of attackers. The outer line of men was down, impaled by glass shards and twisted metal frames. Vin raised a hand and bowed her head.

  Duralumin and steel. She Pushed. The world lurched.

  Vin shot out into the mists through a broken window as she Pushed against the line of corpses impaled by metal frames. The bodies were thrown away from her, smashing into the men who were still alive in the center.

  Dead, dying, and unharmed were swept from the room, Pushed out the window opposite Vin. Bodies twisted in the mists, fifty men thrown into the night, leaving the room empty save for trails of blookillers who had attacked Zane. Zane stood among them, a black pillar before the fallen, arms outstretched. He met her eyes, then nodded toward the rear of the chamber.

  Vin ignored the few remaining hazekillers. She Pushed against the corpse and sent herself sliding across the floor. Zane jumped up. Pushing back, shattering his way through a window and into the mists. Vin quickly did a check of the back rooms: no Cett. She turned and took down a straggling hazekiller as she ducked into the lift shaft.

  She needed no elevator. She shot straight up on a Pushed coin, bursting out onto the third floor. Zane would take the second.

  Vin landed quietly on the marble floor, hearing footsteps come down a stairwell beside her. She recognized this large, open room: it was the chamber where she and Elend had met Cett for dinner. It was now empty, even the table removed, but she recognized the circular perimeter of stained-glass windows.

  Hazekillers burst from the kitchen room. Dozens. There must be another stairwell back there, Vin thought as she darted toward the stairwell beside her. Dozens more were coining out there, however, and the two groups moved to surround her.

  Fifty-to-one must have seemed like good odds for the men, and they charged confidently. She glanced at the open kitchen doors, and saw no Cett beyond. This floor was clear.

  Cell certainly brought a lot of hazekillers, she thought, backing quietly to the center of the room. Save for the stairwell, kitchens, and pillars, the room was mostly surrounded in arched stained-glass windows.

  He planned for my attack. Or, he tried to.

  Vin ducked down as the waves of men surrounded her. She turned her head up. eyes closed, and burned duralumin.

  Then she Pulled.

  Stained-glass windows-set in metal frames inside their arches-exploded around the room. She felt the metal frames burst inward, twisting on themselves before her awesome power. She imagined twinkling slivers of multicolored glass in the air. She heard men scream as glass and metal hit them, embedding in their flesh.

  Only the outer layer of men would die from the blast. Vin opened her eyes and jumped as a dozen dueling canes fell around her. She passed through a hail of attacks. Some hit. It didn't matter. d and discarded bits of glass.

  Vin downed a vial o
f metals as the mists rushed around her; then she Pulled herself back toward the keep, using a window on the fourth floor. As she approached, a corpse crashed through the window, falling out into the night. She caught a glimpse of Zane disappearing out another window on the opposite side. This level was clear.

  Lights burned on the fifth floor. They probably could have come here first, but that wasn't the plan. Zane was right. They didn't just need to kill Cett. They needed to terrify his entire army.

  Vin Pushed against the same corpse that Zane had thrown out the window, using its metal armor as an anchor. It shot down at an angle, passing just inside a broken window, and Vin soared upward in an angle away from the building. A quick Pull directed her back to the building once she reached the'elevation she needed. She landed at a window on the fifth floor.

  Vin grasped the stone sill, heart thumping, breaths coming in deep gasps. Sweat made her face cold in the winter breeze, despite the heat burning within her. She gulped, eyes wide, and flared her pewter.

  Mistborn.

  She shattered the window with a slap. The soldiers that waited beyond jumped backward, spinning. One wore a metal belt buckle. He died first. The other twenty barely knew how to react as the buckle buzzed through their ranks, twisting between Vin's Pushes and Pulls. They had been trained, instructed, and perhaps even tested against Allomancers.

  But they had never fought Vin.

  Men screamed and fell. Vin ripping through their ranks with only the buckle as a weapon. Before the force of her pewter, tin. steel, and iron, the possible use of atium seemed an incredible waste. Even without it. she was a terrible weapon-one that, until this moment, even she hadn't understood.

  Mistborn.

  The last man fell. Vin stood among them, feeling a numbing sense of satisfaction. She let the belt buckle slip from her fingers. It hit carpet. She stood in a room that wasn't unadorned as the rest of the building had been: there was furniture here, and there were some minor decorations. Perhaps Elend's clearing crews hadn't gotten this far before Cett's arrival, or perhaps he'd simply brought some of his own comforts.

  Behind her was the stairwell. In front of her was a fine wooden wall set with a door-the inner apartments. Vin stepped forward quietly, mistcloak rustling as she Pulled four.lamps off the brackets behind her. They whipped forward, and she sidestepped, letting them crash into the wall. Fire blossomed across splattered oil, billowing across the wall, the force of the lamps breaking the door on its hinges. She raised a hand. Pushing it fully open.

  Fire dripped around her as she stepped into the room beyond. The richly decorated chamber was quiet, and eerily empty save for two figures. Cett sat in a simple wooden chair, bearded, sloppily dressed, and looking very, very tired. Cett's young son stepped in between Cett and Vin. The boy held a dueling cane.

  So, which one is Mislborn ?

  The boy swung. Vin caught the weapon, then shoved the boy to the side. He crashed into the wooden wall, then slumped to the ground. Vin eyed him.

  "Leave Gneorndin alone, woman," Cett said. "Do what you came to do."

  Vin turned toward the nobleman. She remembered her frustration, her rage, her cool, icy anger. She stepped forward and grabbed Cett by the front of his suit. "Fight me," she said, and tossed him backward.

  He slammed against the back wall, then slumped to the ground. Vin prepared her atium, but he did not rise. He simply rolled to the side, coughing.

  Vin walked over, pulling him up by one arm. He balled a fist, trying to strike her, but he was pathetically weak. She let the blows bounce off her side.

  "Fight me," she commanded, tossing him to the side. He tumbled across the floor-head hitting hard-and came to rest against the burning wall, a trickle of blood running from his brow. He didn't rise.

  Vin gritted her teeth, striding forward.

  "Leave him alone!" The boy, Gneorndin, stumbled in front of Cett, raising his dueling cane in a wavering hand.

  Vin paused, cocking her head. The boy's brow was streaked with sweat, and he was unsteady on his feet. She looked into his eyes, and saw absolute terror therein. This boy was no Mistborn. Yet, he held his ground. Pathetically, hopelessly, he stood before the body of the fallen Cett.

  "Step aside, son," Cett said in a tired voice. "There is nothing you can do here."

  The boy started to shake, then began to weep.

  Tears, Vin thought, feeling an oddly surreal feeling cloud her mind. She reached up, surprised to find wet streaks on her own cheeks.

  "You have no Mistborn," she whispered.

  Cett had struggled to a half-reclining position, and he looked into her eyes.

  "No Allomancers faced us this night," she said. "You used them all on the assassination attempt in the Assembly Hall?"

  "The only Allomancers I had, I sentagainst you months ago," Cett said with a sigh. "They^were all I ever had. my only hope of killing you. Even they weren't from my family. My whole line has been corrupted by skaa blood- Allrianne is the only Allomancer to be bom to us for centuries."

  "You came to Luthadel.. ."

  "Because Straff would have come for me eventually," Cett said. "My best chance, lass, was to kill you early on. That's why I sent them all against you. Failing that, I knew I had to try and take this damn city and its atium so I could buy myself some Allomancers. Didn't work."

  "You could have just offered us an alliance."

  Cett chuckled, pulling himself up to a sitting position. "It doesn't work that way in real politics. You take, or you get taken. Besides, I've always been a gambling man." He looked up at her, meeting her eyes. "Do what you came to," he repeated.

  Vin shivered. She couldn't feel her tears. She could barely feel anything.

  Why? Why can't I make sense of anything anymore ?

  The room began to shake. Vin spun, looking toward the back wall. The wood there quivered and spasmed like a dying animal. Nails began to pop, ripping backward through the paneling; then the entire wall burst away from Vin. Burning boards, splinters, nails, and shingles sprayed in the air, flying around a man in black. Zane stood sideways in the room beyond, death strewn at his feet, hands at his sides.

  Red streamed from the tips of his fingers, running in a steady drip. He looked up through the burning remnants of the wall, smiling. Then he stepped toward Cett's room.

  "No!" Vin said, dashing at him.

  Zane paused, surprisrd him. Pushing herself in a skid across the room. She reached for his arm. The black fabric glistened wet with blood that was only his own.

  Zane dodged. He turned toward her, curious. She reached for him, but he moved out of the way with supernatural ease, outstepping her like a master swordsman facing a young boy.

  Atium, Vin thought. He probably burned it this entire time. But, he didn 't need it to fight those men... they didn 7 have a chance against us anyway.

  "Please." she asked. "Leave them."

  ed. He stepped to the side, easily dodging Vin, walking toward Cett and the boy.

  "Zane, leave them!" Vin said, turning towa

  Zane turned toward Cett, who sat expectant. The boy was at his side, trying to pull his father away.

  Zane looked back at her, head cocked.

  "Please," Vin repeated.

  Zane frowned. "He still controls you, then," he said, sounding disappointed. "I thought, maybe, if you could fight and see just how powerful you were, you'd shake yourself free of Elend's grip. I guess I was wrong."

  Then he turned his back on Cett and walked out through the hole he had made. Vin followed quietly, feet crunching splinters of wood as she slowly withdrew, leaving a broken keep, shattered army, and humiliated lord behind.

  44

  IN THE COLD CALM OF morning. Breeze watched a very disheartening sight: Cett's army withdrawing.

  Breeze shivered, breath puffing as he turned toward Clubs. Most people wouldn't have been able to read beyond the sneer on the squat general's face. But Breeze saw more: he saw the tension in the taut skin around Clubs's eyes, he not
iced the way that Clubs tapped his finger against the frosty stone wall. Clubs was not a nervous man. The motions meant something.

  "This is it, then?" Breeze asked quietly.

  Clubs nodded.

  Breeze couldn't see it. There were still two armies out there; it was still a standoff. Yet, he trusted Clubs's assessment. Or, rather, he trusted his own knowledge of people enough to trust his assessment of Clubs.

  The general knew something he didn't.

  "Kindly explain." Breeze said.

  "ThisTI end when Straff figures it out," Clubs said.

  "Figures what out?"

  'That those koloss will do his job for him, if he lets them."

  Breeze paused. Straff doesn't really care about the people in the city-he just wants to take it for the atium. And for the symbolic victory.

  "If Straff pulls back ..." Breeze said.

  "Those koloss will attack," Clubs said with a nod. "They'll slaughter everyone they find and generally make rubble out of the city. Then Straff can come back and find his atium once the koloss are done."

  "Assuming they leave, my dear man."

  Clubs shrugged. "Either way, he's better off. Straff will face one weakened enemy instead of two strong ones."

  Breeze felt a chill, and pulled his cloak closer. "You say that all so ... straightforwardly."

  "We were dead the moment that first army got here, Breeze," Clubs said. "We're just good at stalling."

  Why in the name of the Lord Ruler do I spend my time with this man? Breeze thought. He's nothing more than a pessimistic doomsayer. And yet, Breeze knew people. This time, Clubs wasn't exaggerating.

  "Bloody hell," Breeze muttered.

  Clubs just nodded, leaning against the wall and looking out at the disappearing army.

  "Three hundred men," Ham said, standing in Elend's study. "Or, at least, that's what our scouts say."

  "That's not as bad as I'd feared," Elend said. They stood in Elend's study, the only other occupant being Spook, who sat lounging beside the table.

  "El," Ham said, "Cett only had a thousand men with him here in Luthadel. That means that during Vin's attack, Cett took thirty percent casualties in less than ten minutes. Even on a batUefield, most armies will break if they take thirty or forty percent casualties in the course of an entire day's fighting."