Sazed jumped forward, holding one of the bars from Vin’s cage. His Feruchemy, however, had obviously given him strength only, no speed. He stepped with a lumbering gait, and the guards dashed away, crying for help.
“Come now, Mistress,” Sazed said, tossing aside the bar. “My strength will not last long – the metal I swallowed wasn’t large enough to hold much of a Feruchemical charge.”
Even as he spoke, he began to shrink. Vin moved past him, scrambling out of the room. The guard chamber beyond was quite small, set with only a pair of chairs. Beneath one, however, she found a cloak rolled around one of the guards’ evening meals. Vin shook the cloak free, tossing it to Sazed.
“Thank you, Mistress,” he said.
She nodded, moving to the doorway and peeking out. The larger room outside was empty, and had two hallways leading off of it – one going right, one extending into the distance across from her. The wall to her left was lined with wooden trunks, and the center of the room held a large table. Vin shivered as she saw the dried blood and the set of sharp instruments lying in a row on the table’s side.
This is where we’ll both end up if we don’t move quickly, she thought, waving Sazed forward.
She froze mid-step as a group of soldiers appeared in the far hallway, led by one of the guards from before. Vin cursed quietly – she would have heard them earlier if she’d had tin.
Vin glanced backward. Sazed was hobbling through the guard chamber. His Feruchemical strength was gone, and the soldiers had obviously beaten him soundly before tossing him into the cell. He could barely walk.
“Go, Mistress!” he said, waving her forward. “Run!”
You still have some things to learn about friendship, Vin, Kelsier’s voice whispered in her mind. I hope someday you realize what they are…
I can’t leave him. I won’t.
Vin dashed toward the soldiers. She swiped a pair of torturing knives from the table, their bright, polished steel glistening between her fingers. She jumped atop the table, then leapt off of it toward the oncoming soldiers.
She had no Allomancy, but she flew true anyway, her months of practice helping despite her lack of metals. She slammed a knife into a surprised soldier’s neck as she fell. She hit the ground harder than she had expected, but managed to scramble away from a second soldier, who cursed and swung at her.
The sword clanged against the stone behind her. Vin spun, slashing another soldier across the thighs. He stumbled back in pain.
Too many, she thought. There were at least two dozen of them. She tried to jump for a third soldier, but another man swung his quarterstaff, slamming the weapon into Vin’s side.
She grunted in pain, dropping her knife as she was thrown to the side. No pewter strengthened her against the fall, and she hit the hard stones with a crack, rolling to a dazed stop beside the wall.
She struggled, unsuccessfully, to rise. To her side, she could barely make out Sazed collapsing as his body grew suddenly weak. He was trying to store up strength again. He wouldn’t have enough time. The soldiers would be on him soon.
At least I tried, she thought as she heard another group of soldiers charging down the rightmost hallway. At least I didn’t abandon him. I think… think that’s what Kelsier meant.
“Valette!” a familiar voice cried.
Vin looked up with shock as Elend and six soldiers burst into the room. Elend wore a nobleman’s suit, a little ill-fitting, and carried a dueling cane.
“Elend?” Vin asked, dumbfounded.
“Are you all right?” he said with concern, stepping toward her. Then he noticed the Ministry soldiers. They seemed a bit confused to be confronted by a nobleman, but they still had superior numbers.
“I’m taking the girl with me!” Elend said. His words were brave, but he was obviously no soldier. He carried only a nobleman’s dueling cane as a weapon, and he wore no armor. Five of the men with him wore Venture red – men from Elend’s keep. One, however – the one who had been leading them as they charged into the room – wore a palace guard’s uniform. Vin realized that she recognized him just vaguely. His uniform jacket was missing the symbol on its shoulder. The man from before, she thought, stupefied. The one I convinced to change sides…
The lead Ministry soldier apparently made his decision. He waved curtly, ignoring Elend’s command, and the soldiers began to edge around the room, moving to surround Elend’s band.
“Valette, you have to go!” Elend said urgently, raising his dueling cane.
“Come, Mistress,” Sazed said, reaching her side, moving to lift her to her feet.
“We can’t abandon them!” Vin said.
“We have to.”
“But you came for me. We have to do the same for Elend!”
Sazed shook his head. “That was different, child. I knew I had a chance to save you. You cannot help here – there is beauty in compassion, but one must learn wisdom too.”
She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, Elend’s soldiers obediently moving to block off the Ministry soldiers. Elend stood at their front, obviously determined to fight.
There has to be another way! Vin thought with despair. There has to…
And then she saw it sitting discarded in one of the trunks along the wall. A familiar strip of gray cloth, one single tassel, hanging over the trunk’s side.
She pulled free of Sazed as the Ministry soldiers attacked. Elend cried out behind her, and weapons rang.
Vin threw the top pieces of cloth – her trousers and shirt – out of the trunk. And there, at the bottom, lay her mistcloak. She closed her eyes and reached into the side cloak pocket.
Her fingers found a single glass vial, cork still in place.
She pulled the vial out, spinning toward the battle. The Ministry soldiers had retreated slightly. Two of their members lay wounded on the floor – but three of Elend’s men were down. The small size of the room had, fortunately, kept Elend’s men from being surrounded at first.
Elend stood sweating, a cut in his arm, his dueling cane cracked and splintered. He grabbed the sword from the man he had felled, holding the weapon in unpracticed hands, staring down a much larger force.
“I was wrong about that one, Mistress,” Sazed said softly. “I… apologize.”
Vin smiled. Then she flipped the cork free from her vial and downed the metals in one gulp.
Wells of power exploded within her. Fires blazed, metals raging, and strength returned to her weakened, tired body like a dawning sun. Pains became trivial, dizziness disappeared, the room became brighter, the stones more real beneath her toes.
The soldiers attacked again, and Elend raised his sword in a determined, but unhopeful, posture. He seemed utterly shocked when Vin flew through the air over his head.
She landed amid the soldiers, blasting outward with a Steelpush. The soldiers on either side of her smashed into the walls. One man swung a quarterstaff at her, and she slapped it away with a disdainful hand, then smashed a fist into his face, spinning his head back with a crack.
She caught the quarterstaff as it fell, spinning, slamming it into the head of the soldier attacking Elend. The staff exploded, and she let it drop with the corpse. The soldiers at the back began to yell, turning and dashing away as she Pushed two more groups of men into the walls. The final soldier left in the room turned, surprised, as Vin Pulled his metal cap to her hands. She Pushed it back at him, smashing it into his chest and anchoring herself from behind. The soldier flew down the hallway toward his fleeing companions, crashing into them.
Vin breathed out in excitement, standing with tense muscles amidst the groaning men. I can… see how Kelsier would get addicted to this.
“Valette?” Elend asked, stupefied.
Vin jumped up, grabbing him in a joyful embrace, hanging onto him tightly and burying her face into his shoulder. “You came back,” she whispered. “You came back, you came back, you came back…”
“Um, yes. And… I see that you’re a Mistborn. That’s rath
er interesting. You know, it’s generally common courtesy to tell one’s friends about things like that.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, still holding on to him.
“Well, yes,” he said, sounding very distracted. “Um, Valette? What happened to your clothes?”
“They’re on the floor over there,” she said, looking up at him. “Elend, how did you find me?”
“Your friend, one Master Dockson, told me that you’d been captured in the palace. And well, this fine gentleman here – Captain Goradel, I believe his name is – happens to be a palace soldier, and he knew the way here. With his help – and as a nobleman of some rank – I was able to get into the building without much problem, and then we heard screaming down this hallway… And, um, yes. Valette? Do you think you could go put your clothes on? This is… kind of distracting.”
She smiled up at him. “You found me.”
“For all the good it did,” he said wryly. “It doesn’t look like you needed our help very much…”
“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “You came back. No one’s ever come back before.”
Elend looked down at her, frowning slightly.
Sazed approached, carrying Vin’s clothing and cloak. “Mistress, we need to leave.”
Elend nodded. “It’s not safe anywhere in the city. The skaa are rebelling!” He paused, looking at her. “But, uh, you probably already know that.”
Vin nodded, finally letting go of him. “I helped start it. But, you’re right about the danger. Go with Sazed – he’s known by many of the rebel leaders. They won’t hurt you as long as he vouches for you.”
Elend and Sazed both frowned as Vin pulled on her trousers. In the pocket, she found her mother’s earring. She put it back on.
“Go with Sazed?” Elend asked. “But, what about you?”
Vin pulled on her loose overshirt. Then she glanced upward… sensing through the stone, feeling him up above. He was there. Too powerful. Now, having faced him directly, she was certain of his strength. The skaa rebellion was doomed as long as he lived.
“I have another task, Elend,” she said, taking the mistcloak from Sazed.
“You think you can defeat him, Mistress?” Sazed said.
“I have to try,” she said. “The Eleventh Metal worked, Saze. I saw… something. Kelsier was convinced it would provide the secret.”
“But… the Lord Ruler, Mistress…”
“Kelsier died to start this rebellion,” Vin said firmly. “I have to see that it succeeds. This is my part, Sazed. Kelsier didn’t know what it was, but I do. I have to stop the Lord Ruler.”
“The Lord Ruler?” Elend asked with shock. “No, Valette. He’s immortal!”
Vin reached over, grabbing Elend’s head and pulling him down to kiss her. “Elend, your family delivered the atium to the Lord Ruler. Do you know where he keeps it?”
“Yes,” he said with confusion. “He keeps the beads in a treasury building just east of here. But–”
“You have to get that atium, Elend. The new government is going to need that wealth – and power – if it’s going to keep from getting conquered by the first nobleman who can raise an army.”
“No, Valette,” Elend said shaking his head. “I have to get you to safety.”
She smiled at him, then turned to Sazed. The Terrisman nodded to her.
“Not going to tell me not to go?” she asked.
“No,” he said quietly. “I fear that you are right, Mistress. If the Lord Ruler is not defeated… well, I will not stop you. I will bid you, however, good luck. I will come to help you once I see young Venture to safety.”
Vin nodded, smiled at the apprehensive Elend, then looked up. Toward the dark force waiting above, pulsing with a tired depression.
She burned copper, pushing aside the Lord Ruler’s Soothing.
“Valette…” Elend said quietly.
She turned back to him. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I think I know how to kill him.”
38
Such are my fears as I scribble with an ice-crusted pen on the eve before the world is reborn. Rashek watches. Hating me. The cavern lies above. Pulsing. My fingers quiver. Not from the cold.
Tomorrow it will end.
VIN PUSHED HERSELF THROUGH THE air above Kredik Shaw. Spires and towers rose around her like the shadowed tines of some phantom monster lurking below. Dark, straight, and ominous, for some reason they made her think of Kelsier, lying dead in the street, an obsidian-tipped spear jutting from his chest.
The mists spun and swirled as she blew through them. They were still thick, but tin let her see a faint glistening on the horizon. Morning was near.
Below her, a greater light was building. Vin caught hold of a thin spire, letting her momentum spin her around the slick metal, giving her a sweeping view of the area. Thousands of torches burned in the night, mixing and merging like luminescent insects. They were organized in great waves, converging on the palace.
The palace guard doesn’t have a chance against such a force, she thought. But, by fighting its way into the palace, the skaa army will seal its own doom.
She turned to the side, the mist-wetted spire cold beneath her fingers. The last time she had jumped through the spires of Kredik Shaw, she had been bleeding and semiconscious. Sazed had arrived to save her, but he wouldn’t be able to help this time.
A short distance away, she could see the throne tower. It wasn’t difficult to spot; a ring of blazing bonfires illuminated its outside, lighting its single stained-glass window to those inside. She could feel Him inside. She waited for a few moments, hoping, perhaps, that she might be able to attack after the Inquisitors had left the room.
Kelsier believed that the Eleventh Metal was the key, she thought.
She had one idea. It would work. It had to.
“As of this moment,” the Lord Ruler proclaimed in a loud voice, “the Canton of Inquisition is granted organizational dominance of the Ministry. Inquiries once addressed to Tevidian should now go to Kar.”
The throne room fell silent, the collection of high-ranking obligators dumbfounded by the night’s events. The Lord Ruler waved a hand, indicating that the meeting was finished.
Finally! Kar thought. He raised his head, his eye-spikes throbbing as always, bringing him pain – but, this evening it was the pain of joy. The Inquisitors had been waiting for two centuries, carefully politicking, subtly encouraging corruption and dissension among the regular obligators. And finally it had worked. The Inquisitors would no longer bow before the dictates of inferior men.
He turned and smiled toward the group of Ministry priests, knowing full well the discomfort the gaze of an Inquisitor could cause. He couldn’t see anymore, not as he once had, but he had been given something better. A command of Allomancy so subtle, so detailed, that he could make out the world around him with startling accuracy.
Almost everything had metal in it – water, stone, glass… even human bodies. These metals were too diffuse to be affected by Allomancy – indeed, most Allomancers couldn’t even sense them.
With his Inquisitor’s eyes, however, Kar could see the iron-lines of these things – the blue threads were fine, nearly invisible, but they outlined the world for him. The obligators before him were a shuffling mass of blues, their emotions – discomfort, anger, and fear – showing in their postures. Discomfort, anger, and fear… so sweet, all three. Kar’s smile widened, despite his fatigue.
He had been awake for too long. Living as an Inquisitor drained the body, and he had to rest often. His brethren were already shuffling from the room, heading toward their rest chambers, which lay intentionally close to the throne room. They would sleep immediately; with the executions earlier in the day and the excitement of the night, they would be extremely fatigued.
Kar, however, stayed behind as both Inquisitors and obligators left. Soon, only he and the Lord Ruler remained, standing in a room lit by five massive braziers. The external bonfires slowly went out, extinguished by servants,
leaving the glass panorama dark and black.
“You finally have what you want,” the Lord Ruler said quietly. “Perhaps now I can have peace in this matter.”
“Yes, Lord Ruler,” Kar said, bowing. “I think that…”
A strange sound snapped in the air – a soft click. Kar looked up, frowning as a small disk of metal bounced across the floor, eventually rolling to a stop against his foot. He picked up the coin, then looked up at the massive window, noting the small hole broken through it.
What?
Dozens more coins zipped through the window, scattering it with holes. Metallic clinks and tinkling glass rang in the air. Kar stepped back in surprise.
The entire southern section of the window shattered, blasting inward, the glass weakened by coins to the point that a soaring body could break through.
Shards of colorful glass spun in the air, spraying before a small figure clad in a fluttering mistcloak and carrying a pair of glittering black daggers. The girl landed in a crouch, skidding a short distance on the bits of glass, mist billowing through the opening behind her. It curled forward, drawn by her Allomancy, swirling around her body. She crouched for just a moment in the mists, as if she were some herald of the night itself.
Then she sprang forward, dashing directly toward the Lord Ruler.
Vin burned the Eleventh Metal. The Lord Ruler’s past-self appeared as it had before, forming as if out of mist to stand on the dais beside the throne.
Vin ignored the Inquisitor. The creature, fortunately, reacted slowly – she was halfway up the dais steps before it thought to chase her. The Lord Ruler, however, sat quietly, watching her with a barely interested expression.
Two spears through the chest didn’t even bother him, Vin thought as she leapt the last bit of distance up to the top of the dais. He has nothing to fear from my daggers.
Which was why she didn’t intend to attack him with them. Instead, she raised her weapons and plunged directly toward the past-self’s heart.
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