“And the koloss?” Ham asked quietly.
Kelsier paused. “If he marches those creatures on his own capital city, the destruction it would cause could be even more dangerous than financial instability. In the chaos, the provincial noblemen will rebel and set themselves up as kings, and the Lord Ruler won’t have the troops to bring them into line. Yeden’s rebels will be able to hold Luthadel, and we, my friends, will be very, very rich. Everyone gets what they want.”
“You’re forgetting the Steel Ministry,” Clubs snapped, sitting almost forgotten at the side of the room. “Those Inquisitors won’t just let us throw their pretty theocracy into chaos.”
Kelsier paused, turning toward the gnarled man. “We will have to find a way to deal with the Ministry—I’ve got a few plans for that. Either way, problems like that are the things that we—as a crew—will have to work out. We have to get rid of the Luthadel Garrison—there’s no way we’ll be able to get anything done with them policing the streets. We’ll have to come up with an appropriate way to throw the city into chaos, and we’ll have to find a way to keep the obligators off our trail.
“But, if we play this right, we might be able to force the Lord Ruler to send the palace guard—maybe even the Inquisitors—into the city to restore order. That will leave the palace itself exposed, giving Yeden a perfect opportunity to strike. After that, it won’t matter what happens with the Ministry or the Garrison—the Lord Ruler won’t have the money to maintain control of his empire.”
“I don’t know, Kell,” Breeze said, shaking his head. His flippancy was subdued; he seemed to be honestly considering the plan. “The Lord Ruler got that atium somewhere. What if he just goes and mines some more?”
Ham nodded. “No one even knows where the atium mine is.”
“I wouldn’t say no one,” Kelsier said with a smile.
Breeze and Ham shared a look.
“You know?” Ham asked.
“Of course,” Kelsier said. “I spent a year of my life working there.”
“The Pits?” Ham asked with surprise.
Kelsier nodded. “That’s why the Lord Ruler makes certain nobody survives working there—he can’t afford to let his secret out. It’s not just a penal colony, not just a hellhole where skaa are sent to die. It’s a mine.”
“Of course...” Breeze said.
Kelsier stood up straight, stepping away from the bar and walking toward Ham and Breeze’s table. “We have a chance here, gentlemen. A chance to do something great— something no other thieving crew has ever done. We’ll rob from the Lord Ruler himself!
“But, there’s more. The Pits nearly killed me, and I’ve seen things...differently since I escaped. I see the skaa, working without hope. I see the thieving crews, trying to survive on aristocratic leavings, often getting themselves—and other skaa—killed in the process. I see the skaa rebellion trying so hard to resist the Lord Ruler, and never making any progress.
“The rebellion fails because it’s too unwieldy and spread out. Anytime one of its many pieces gains momentum, the Steel Ministry crushes it. That’s not the way to defeat the Final Empire, gentlemen. But, a small team—specialized and highly skilled—has a hope. We can work without great risk of exposure. We know how to avoid the Steel Ministry’s tendrils. We understand how the high nobility thinks, and how to exploit its members. We can do this!”
He paused beside Breeze and Ham’s table.
“I don’t know, Kell,” Ham said. “It’s not that I’m disagreeing with your motives. It’s just that...well, this seems a bit foolhardy.”
Kelsier smiled. “I know it does. But you’re going to go along with it anyway, aren’t you?”
Ham paused, then nodded. “You know I’ll join your crew no matter what the job. This sounds crazy, but so do most of your plans. Just ...just tell me. Are you serious about overthrowing the Lord Ruler?”
Kelsier nodded. For some reason, Vin was almost tempted to believe him.
Ham nodded firmly. “All right, then. I’m in.”
“Breeze?” Kelsier asked.
The well-dressed man shook his head. “I’m not sure, Kell. This is a bit extreme, even for you.”
“We need you, Breeze,” Kell said. “No one can Soothe a crowd like you can. If we’re going to raise an army, we’ll need your Allomancers—and your powers.”
“Well, that much is true,” Breeze said. “But, even still...”
Kelsier smiled, then he set something on the table—the cup of wine Vin had poured for Breeze. She hadn’t even noticed that Kelsier had grabbed it off of the bar.
“Think of the challenge, Breeze,” Kelsier said.
Breeze glanced at the cup, then looked up at Kelsier. Finally, he laughed, reaching for the wine. “Fine. I’m in.”
“It’s impossible,” a gruff voice said from the back of the room. Clubs sat with folded arms, regarding Kelsier with a scowl. “What are you really planning, Kelsier?”
“I’m being honest,” Kelsier replied. “I plan to take the Lord Ruler’s atium and overthrow his empire.”
“You can’t,” the man said. “It’s idiocy. The Inquisitors will hang us all by hooks through our throats.”
“Perhaps,” Kelsier said. “But think of the reward if we succeed. Wealth, power, and a land where the skaa can live like men, rather than slaves.”
Clubs snorted loudly. Then he stood, his chair toppling backward onto the floor behind him. “No reward would be enough. The Lord Ruler tried to have you killed once—I see that you won’t be satisfied until he gets it right.” With that, the older man turned and stalked in a limping gait from the room,
slamming the door behind him.
The lair grew quiet.
“Well, guess we’ll need a different Smoker,” Dockson said.
“You’re just going to let him go?” Yeden demanded. “He knows everything!”
Breeze chuckled. “Aren’t you supposed to be the moral one in this little group?”
“Morals doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Yeden said. “Letting someone go like that is foolish! He could bring the obligators down on us in minutes.”
Vin nodded in agreement, but Kelsier just shook his head. “I don’t work that way,Yeden. I invited Clubs to a meeting where I outlined a dangerous plan—one some people might even call stupid. I’m not going to have him assassinated because he decided it was too dangerous. If you do things like that, pretty soon nobody will come listen to your plans in the first place.”
“Besides,” Dockson said. “We wouldn’t invite someone to one of these meetings unless we trusted him not to betray us.”
Impossible, Vin thought, frowning. He had to be bluffing to keep up crew morale; nobody was that trusting. After all, hadn’t the others said that Kelsier’s failure a few years before—the event that had sent him to the Pits of Hathsin— had come because of a betrayal? He probably had assassins following Clubs at that very moment, watching to make certain he didn’t go to the authorities.
“All right, Yeden,” Kelsier said, getting back to business. “They accepted. The plan is on. Are you still in?”
“Will you give the rebellion’s money back if I say no?” Yeden asked.
The only response to that was a quiet chuckle from Ham. Yeden’s expression darkened, but he just shook his head. “If I had any other option...”
“Oh, stop complaining,” Kelsier said. “You’re officially part of a thieving crew now, so you might as well come over here and sit with us.”
Yeden paused for a moment, then sighed and walked over to sit at Breeze, Ham, and Dockson’s table, beside which Kelsier was still standing. Vin still sat at the next table over.
Kelsier turned, looking over toward Vin. “What about you, Vin?”
She paused. Why is he asking me? He already knows he has a hold over me. The job doesn’t matter, as long as I learn what he knows.
Kelsier waited expectantly.
“I’m in,” Vin said, assuming that was what he w
anted to hear.
She must have guessed correctly, for Kelsier smiled, then nodded to the last chair at the table.
Vin sighed, but did as he indicated, standing and walking over to take the last seat.
“Who is the child?” Yeden asked.
“Twixt,” Breeze said.
Kelsier cocked an eyebrow. “Actually, Vin is something of a new recruit. My brother caught her Soothing his emotions a few months back.”
“Soother, eh?” Ham asked. “Guess we can always use another of those.”
“Actually,” Kelsier noted, “it seems she can Riot people’s emotions as well.”
Breeze started.
“Really?” Ham asked.
Kelsier nodded. “Dox and I tested her just a few hours ago.”
Breeze chuckled. “And here I was telling her that she’d probably never meet another Mistborn besides yourself.”
“A second Mistborn on the team...” Ham said appreciatively. “Well, that increases our chances somewhat.”
“What are you saying?” Yeden sputtered. “Skaa can’t be Mistborn. I’m not even sure if Mistborn exist! I’ve certainly never met one.”
Breeze raised an eyebrow, then laid a hand on Yeden’s shoulder. “You should try not to talk so much, friend,” he suggested. “You’ll sound far less stupid that way.”
Yeden shook off Breeze’s hand, and Ham laughed. Vin, however, sat quietly, considering the implications of what Kelsier had said. The part about stealing the atium reserves was tempting, but seizing the city to do it? Were these men really that reckless?
Kelsier pulled a chair over to the table for himself and sat down on it the wrong way, resting his arms on the seatback. “All right,” he said. “We have a crew. We’ll plan specifics at the next meeting, but I want you all to be thinking about the job. I have some plans, but I want fresh minds to consider our task. We’ll need to discuss ways to get the Luthadel Garrison out of the city, and ways that we can throw this place into so much chaos that the Great Houses can’t mobilize their forces to stop Yeden’s army when it attacks.”
The members of the group, save Yeden, nodded.
“Before we end for the evening, however,” Kelsier continued, “there is one more part of the plan I want to warn you about.”
“More?” Breeze asked with a chuckle. “Stealing the Lord Ruler’s fortune and overthrowing his empire aren’t enough?”
“No,” Kelsier said. “If I can, I’m going to kill him too.”
Silence.
“Kelsier,” Ham said slowly. “The Lord Ruler is the Sliver of Infinity. He’s a piece of God Himself. You can’t kill him. Even capturing him will probably prove impossible.”
Kelsier didn’t reply. His eyes, however, were determined.
That’s it, Vin thought. He has to be insane.
“The Lord Ruler and I,” Kelsier said quietly, “we have an unsettled debt. He took Mare from me, and he nearly took my own sanity as well. I’ll admit to you all that part of my reason for this plan is to get revenge on him. We’re going to take his government, his home, and his fortune from him.
“However, for that to work, we’ll have to get rid of him. Perhaps imprison him in his own dungeons—at the very least, we’ll have to get him out of the city. However, I can think of something far better than either option. Down those pits where he sent me, I Snapped and came to an awakening of my Allomantic powers. Now I intend to use them to kill him.”
Kelsier reached into his suit pocket and pulled something out. He set it on the table.
“In the north, they have a legend,” Kelsier said. “It teaches that the Lord Ruler isn’t immortal—not completely. They say he can be killed with the right metal. The Eleventh Metal. That metal.”
Eyes turned toward the object on the table. It was a thin bar of metal, perhaps as long and wide as Vin’s small finger, with straight sides. It was silvery white in color.
“The Eleventh Metal?” Breeze asked uncertainly. “I’ve heard of no such legend.”
“The Lord Ruler has suppressed it,” Kelsier said. “But it can still be found, if you know where to look. Allomantic theory teaches of ten metals: the eight basic metals, and the two high metals. There is another one, however, unknown to most. One far more powerful, even, than the other ten.”
Breeze frowned skeptically.
Yeden, however, appeared intrigued. “And, this metal can somehow kill the Lord Ruler?”
Kelsier nodded. “It’s his weakness. The Steel Ministry wants you to believe that he’s immortal, but even he can be killed—by an Allomancer burning this.”
Ham reached out, picking up the thin bar of metal. “Where did you get it?”
“In the north,” Kelsier said. “In a land near the Far Peninsula, a land where people still remember what their old kingdom was called in the days before the Ascension.”
“How does it work?” Breeze asked.
“I’m not sure,” Kelsier said frankly. “But I intend to find out.”
Ham regarded the porcelain-colored metal, turning it over his fingers.
Kill the Lord Ruler? Vin thought. The Lord Ruler was a force, like the winds or the mists. One did not kill such things. They didn’t live, really. They simply were.
“Regardless,” Kelsier said, accepting the metal back from Ham, “you don’t need to worry about this. Killing the Lord Ruler is my task. If it proves impossible, we’ll settle for tricking him outside of the city, then robbing him silly. I just thought that you should know what I’m planning.”
I’ve bound myself to a madman, Vin thought with resignation. But that didn’t really matter—not as long as he taught her Allomancy.
I don’t even understand what I’m supposed to do. The Terris philosophers claim that I’ll know my duty when the time comes, but that’s a small comfort.
The Deepness must be destroyed, and apparently I’m the only one who can do so. It ravages the world even now. If I don’t stop it soon, there will be nothing left of this land but bones and dust.
5
“AHA!” KELSIER’S TRIUMPHANT FIGURE POPPED
up from behind Camon’s bar, a look of satisfaction on his face. He brought his arm up and thunked a dusty wine bottle down on the countertop.
Dockson looked over with amusement. “Where’d you find it?”
“One of the secret drawers,” Kelsier said, dusting off the bottle.
“I thought I’d found all of those,” Dockson said.
“You did. One of them had a false back.”
Dockson chuckled. “Clever.”
Kelsier nodded, unstoppering the bottle and pouring out three cups. “The trick is to never stop looking. There’s always another secret.” He gathered up the three cups and walked over to join Vin and Dockson at the table.
Vin accepted her cup with a tentative hand. The meeting had ended a short time earlier, Breeze, Ham, and Yeden leaving to ponder the things Kelsier had told them. Vin felt that she should have left as well, but she had nowhere to go. Dockson and Kelsier seemed to take it for granted that she would remain with them.
Kelsier took a long sip of the rubicund wine, then smiled. “Ah, that’s much better.”
Dockson nodded in agreement, but Vin didn’t taste her own drink.
“We’re going to need another Smoker,” Dockson noted.
Kelsier nodded. “The others seemed to take it well, though.”
“Breeze is still uncertain,” Dockson said.
“He won’t back out. Breeze likes a challenge, and he’ll never find a challenge greater than this one.” Kelsier smiled. “Besides, it’d drive him insane to know that we were pulling a job that he wasn’t in on.”
“Still, he’s right to be apprehensive,” Dockson said. “I’m a little worried myself.”
Kelsier nodded his agreement, and Vin frowned. So, are they serious about the plan? Or is this still a show for my sake? The two men seemed so competent. Yet, overthrowing the Final Empire? They’d sooner stop the mists from �
��owing or the sun from rising.
“When do your other friends get here?” Dockson asked.
“A couple days,” Kelsier said. “We’ll need to have another Smoker by then. I’m also going to need some more atium.”
Dockson frowned. “Already?”
Kelsier nodded. “I spent most of it buying OreSeur’s Contract, then used my last bit at Tresting’s plantation.”
Tresting. The nobleman who had been killed in his manor the week before. How was Kelsier involved? And, what was it Kelsier said before about atium? He’d claimed that the Lord Ruler kept control of the high nobility by maintaining a monopoly on the metal.
Dockson rubbed his bearded chin. “Atium’s not easy to come by, Kell. It took nearly eight months of planning to steal you that last bit.”
“That’s because you had to be delicate,” Kelsier said with a devious smile.
Dockson eyed Kelsier with a look of slight apprehension. Kelsier just smiled more broadly, and finally Dockson rolled his eyes, sighing. Then he glanced at Vin. “You haven’t touched your drink.”
Vin shook her head.
Dockson waited for an explanation, and eventually Vin was forced to respond. “I don’t like to drink anything I didn’t pre
pare myself.”
Kelsier chuckled. “She reminds me of Vent.”
“Vent?” Dockson said with a snort. “The lass is a bit paranoid, but she’s not that bad. I swear, that man was so jumpy that his own heartbeat could startle him.”
The two men shared a laugh. Vin, however, was only made more uncomfortable by the friendly air. What do they expect from me? Am I to be an apprentice of some sort?
“Well, then,” Dockson said, “are you going to tell me how you plan on getting yourself some atium?”
Kelsier opened his mouth to respond, but the stairs clattered with the sound of someone coming down. Kelsier and Dock-son turned; Vin, of course, had seated herself so she could see both entrances to the room without having to move.
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