The Hero of Ages m-3

by Brandon Sanderson

  And by so doing, he would leave MeLaan and the others to be destroyed as their leaders refused to take action. What's more, he would leave Vin without the information she needed. Even from within the Homeland, he could feel the occasional rumbles in the rock. The earthquakes were still remote, and the others likely ignored them. But TenSoon worried.

  The end could be nearing. If it was, then Vin needed to know the truths about the kandra. Their origins, their beliefs. Perhaps she could use the Trust itself. Yet, if he told Vin anything more, it would mean an even greater betrayal of his people. Perhaps a human would have found it ridiculous that he would hesitate now. However, so far, his true sins had been impulsive, and he'd only later rationalized what he'd done. If he fought his way free of prison, it would be different. Willful and deliberate.

  He closed his eyes, feeling the chill of his cage, which still sat alone in the large cavern-the place was mostly abandoned during the sleeping hours. What was the point? Even with the Blessing of Presence-which let TenSoon focus, despite his uncomfortable confines-he could think of no way to escape the meshed cage and its Fifth Generation guards, who all bore the Blessing of Potency. Even if he did get out of the cage, TenSoon would have to pass through dozens of small caverns. With his body mass as low as it was, he didn't have the muscles to fight, and he couldn't outrun kandra who had the Blessing of Potency. He was trapped.

  In a way, this was comforting. Escape was not something he preferred to contemplate-it simply wasn't the kandra way. He had broken Contract, and deserved punishment. There was honor in facing the consequences of one's actions.

  Wasn't there?

  He shifted positions in his cell. Unlike that of a real human, the skin of his naked body did not become sore or chapped from the extended exposure, for he could re-form his flesh to remove wounds. However, there was little to do about the cramped feeling he got from being forced to sit in the small cage for so long.

  Motion caught his attention. TenSoon turned, surprised to see VarSell and several other large Fifths approaching his cage, their quartzite stone True Bodies ominous in size and coloring.

  Time already? TenSoon thought. With the Blessing of Presence, he was able to mentally recount the days of his imprisonment. It was nowhere near time. He frowned, noting that one of the Fifths carried a large sack. For a moment, Ten-Soon had a flash of panic as he pictured them towing him away inside the sack.

  It looked filled already, however.

  Dared he hope? Days had passed since his conversation with MeLaan, and while she had returned several times to look at him, they had not spoken. He'd almost forgotten his words to her, said in the hope that they would be overheard by the minions of the Second Generation. VarSell opened the cage and tossed the sack in. It clinked with a familiar sound. Bones.

  "You are to wear those to the trial," VarSell said, leaning down and putting a translucent face up next to TenSoon's bars. "Orders of the Second Generation."

  "What is wrong with the bones I now wear?" TenSoon asked carefully, pulling over the sack, uncertain whether to be excited or ashamed.

  "They intend to break your bones as part of your punishment," VarSell said, smiling. "Something like a public execution-but where the prisoner lives through the process. It's a simple thing, I know-but the display ought to leave. . an impression on some of the younger generations."

  TenSoon's stomach twisted. Kandra could re-form their bodies, true, but they felt pain just as acutely as any human. It would take quite a severe beating to break his bones, and with the Blessing of Presence, there would be no release of unconsciousness for him.

  "I still don't see the need for another body," TenSoon said, pulling out one of the bones.

  "No need to waste a perfectly good set of human bones, Third," VarSell said, slamming the cage door closed. "I'll be back for your current bones in a few hours."

  The leg bone he pulled out was not that of a human, but a dog. A large wolfhound. It was the very body TenSoon had been wearing when he'd returned to the Homeland over a year before. He closed his eyes, holding the smooth bone in his fingers.

  A week ago, he'd spoken of how much he despised these bones, hoping that the Second Generation's spies would carry the news back to their masters. The Second Generation was far more traditional than MeLaan, and even she had found the thought of wearing a dog's body distasteful. To the Seconds, forcing TenSoon to wear an animal's body would be supremely degrading.

  That was exactly what TenSoon had been counting on.

  "You'll look good, wearing that," VarSell said, standing to leave. "When your punishment comes, everyone will be able to see you for what you really are. No kandra would break his Contract."

  TenSoon rubbed the thighbone with a reverent finger, listening to VarSell's laughter. The Fifth had no way of knowing that he'd just given TenSoon the means he needed to escape.

  The Balance. Is it real?

  We've almost forgotten this little bit of lore. Skaa used to talk about it, before the Collapse. Philosophers discussed it a great deal in the third and fourth centuries, but by Kelsier's time, it was mostly a forgotten topic.

  But it was real. There was a physiological difference between skaa and nobility. When the Lord Ruler altered mankind to make them more capable of dealing with ash, he changed other things as well. Some groups of people-the noblemen-were created to be less fertile, but taller, stronger, and more intelligent. Others-the skaa-were made to be shorter, hardier, and to have many children.

  The changes were slight, however, and after a thousand years of interbreeding, the differences had largely been erased.

  25

  "Fadrex City," Elend said, standing in his customary place near the narrowboat's prow. Ahead, the broad Conway Canal-the primary canal route to the west-continued into the distance, turning to the northwest. To Elend's left, the ground rose in a broken incline, forming a set of steep rock formations. He could see them rising much higher in the distance.

  Closer to the canal, however, a broad city was nestled in the very center of a large group of rock formations. The deep red and orange rocks were the type left behind when wind and rain wore away weaker sections of stone, and many of them reached high, like spires. Others formed jagged, hedge-like barriers-like stacks of enormous blocks that had been fused together, reaching some thirty and forty feet into the air.

  Elend could barely see the tips of the city's buildings over the stone formations. Fadrex had no formal city wall, of course-only Luthadel had been allowed one of those-but the rising rocks around the city formed a set of terrace-like natural fortifications.

  Elend had been to the city before. His father had made certain to introduce him in all of the Final Empire's main cultural centers. Fadrex hadn't been one of those, but it had been on the way to Tremredare, once known as the capital of the West. In forging his new kingdom, however, Cett had ignored Tremredare, instead establishing his capital in Fadrex. A clever move, in Elend's estimation-Fadrex was smaller, more defensible, and had been a major supply station for numerous canal routes.

  "The city looks different from the last time I was here," Elend said.

  "Trees," Ham said, standing beside him. "Fadrex used to have trees growing on the rocky shelves and plateaus." Ham glanced at him. "They're ready for us. They cut down the trees to provide a better killing field and to keep us from sneaking up close."

  Elend nodded. "Look down there."

  Ham squinted, though it obviously took him a moment to pick out what Elend's tin-enhanced eyes had noticed. On the northern side of the city-the one closest to the main canal route-the rock terraces and shelves fell down into a natural canyon. Perhaps twenty feet across, it was the only way into the city, and the defenders had cut several troughs into the floor. They were bridged at the moment, of course, but getting through that narrow entryway, with pits in front of the army and archers presumably firing from the rocky shelves above, with a gate at the end. .

  "Not bad," Ham said. "I'm just glad they decided n
ot to drain the canal on us."

  As they'd moved west, the land had risen-requiring the convoy to pass through several massive lock mechanisms. The last four had been jammed intentionally, requiring hours of effort to get them working.

  "They rely on it too much," Elend said. "If they survive our siege, they'll need to ship in supplies. Assuming any can be had."

  Ham fell silent. Finally, he turned, looking back up the dark canal behind them. "El," he said. "I don't think that much more will be traveling this canal. The boats barely made it this far-there's too much ash clogging it. If we go home, we'll do so on foot."

  " 'If' we go home?"

  Ham shrugged. Despite the colder western weather, he still wore only a vest. Now that Elend was an Allomancer, he could finally understand the habit. While burning pewter, Elend barely felt the chill, though several of the soldiers had complained about it in the mornings.

  "I don't know, El," Ham finally said. "It just seems portentous to me. Our canal closing behind us as we travel. Kind of like fate is trying to strand us here."

  "Ham," Elend said, "everything seems portentous to you. We'll be fine."

  Ham shrugged.

  "Organize our forces," Elend said, pointing. "Dock us in that inlet over there, and set up camp on the mesa."

  Ham nodded. He was still looking backward, however. Toward Luthadel, which they had left behind.

  They don't fear the mists, Elend thought, staring up through the darkness at the rocky formations that marked the entrance into Fadrex City. Bonfires blazed up there, lighting the night. Often, such lights were futile-signifying man's fear of the mists. These fires were different, somehow. They seemed a warning; a bold declaration of confidence. They burned brightly, high, as if floating in the sky.

  Elend turned, walking into his illuminated commander's tent, where a small group of people sat waiting for him. Ham, Cett, and Vin. Demoux was absent, still recovering from mistsickness.

  We're spread thin, Elend thought. Spook and Breeze in the North, Penrod back at Luthadel, Felt watching the storage cache in the East. .

  "All right," Elend said, letting the tent flaps close behind him. "Looks like they're holed up in there pretty well."

  "Initial scout reports are in, El," Ham said. "We're guessing about twenty-five thousand defenders."

  "Not as many as I expected," Elend said.

  "That bastard Yomen has to keep control of the rest of my kingdom," Cett said. "If he pulled all of his troops into the capital, the other cities would overthrow him."

  "What?" Vin asked, sounding amused. "You think they'd rebel and switch back to your side?"

  "No," Cett said, "they'd rebel and try to take over the kingdom themselves! That's the way this works. Now that the Lord Ruler is gone, every little lord or petty obligator with half a taste of power thinks he can run a kingdom. Hell, I tried it-so did you."

  "We were successful," Ham pointed out.

  "And so was Lord Yomen," Elend said, folding his arms. "He's held this kingdom since Cett marched on Luthadel."

  "He all but forced me out," Cett admitted. "He had half the nobility turned against me before I even struck toward Luthadel. I said I was leaving him in charge, but we both knew the truth. He's a clever one-clever enough to know he can hold that city against a larger force, letting him spread his troops out to maintain the kingdom, and to endure a longer siege without running out of supplies."

  "Unfortunately, Cett's probably right," Ham said. "Our initial reports placed Yomen's forces at somewhere around eighty thousand men. He'd be a fool to not have a few units within striking distance of our camp. We'll have to be wary of raids."

  "Double the guards and triple scout patrols," Elend said, "particularly during the early morning hours, when the daymist is out to obscure, but the sun is up to provide light."

  Ham nodded.

  "Also," Elend said thoughtfully, "order the men to stay in their tents during the mists-but tell them to be ready for a raid. If Yomen thinks that we're afraid to come out, perhaps we can bait one of his 'surprise' attacks against us."

  "Clever," Ham said.

  "That won't get us past those natural walls, though," Elend said, folding his arms. "Cett, what do you say?"

  "Hold the canal," Cett said. "Post sentries up around those upper rock formations to make certain that Yomen doesn't resupply the city via secret means. Then, move on."

  "What?" Ham asked with surprise.

  Elend eyed Cett, trying to decide what the man meant. "Attack surrounding cities? Leave a force here that's large enough to stymie a siege-break, then capture other parts of his territory?"

  Cett nodded. "Most of the cities around here aren't fortified at all. They'd cave in without a fight."

  "A good suggestion," Elend said. "But we won't do it."

  "Why not?" Cett asked.

  "This isn't just about conquering your homeland back, Cett," Elend said. "Our primary reason for coming here is to secure that storage cache-and I hope to do that without resorting to pillaging the countryside."

  Cett snorted. "What do you expect to find in there? Some magical way to stop the ash? Even atium wouldn't do that."

  "Something's in there," Elend said. "It's the only hope we have."

  Cett shook his head. "You've been chasing a puzzle left by the Lord Ruler for the better part of a year, Elend. Hasn't it ever occurred to you that the man was a sadist? There's no secret. No magical way out of this. If we're going to survive the next few years, we're going to have to do it on our own-and that means securing the Western Dominance. The plateaus in this area represent some of the most elevated farmland in the empire-and higher altitude means closer to the sun. If you're going to find plants that survive despite the daymists, you'll have to grow them here."

  They were good arguments. But I can't give up, Elend thought. Not yet. Elend had read the reports of supplies back in Luthadel, and had seen the projections. Ash was killing crops as much or more than the mists were. More land wouldn't save his people-they needed something else. Something that, he hoped, the Lord Ruler left for them.

  The Lord Ruler didn't hate his people, and he wouldn't want them to die out, even if he were defeated. He left food, water, supplies. And, if he knew secrets, he would have hidden them in the caches. There will be something here.

  There has to be.

  "The cache remains our primary target," Elend said. To the side, he could see Vin smiling.

  "Fine," Cett said, sighing. "Then you know what we have to do. This siege could take a while."

  Elend nodded. "Ham, send our engineers in under cover of mist. See if they can find a way for our troops to cross those troughs. Have the scouts search out streams that might run into the city-Cett, presumably you can help us locate some of these. And, once we get spies into the city, have them search out food stores that we can ruin."

  "A good start," Cett said. "Of course, there's one easy way to sow chaos in that city, to perhaps make them surrender without a fight. ."

  "We're not going to assassinate King Yomen," Elend said.

  "Why not?" Cett demanded. "We've got two Mistborn. We'll have no difficulty killing off the Fadrex leadership."

  "We don't work that way," Ham said, face growing dark.

  "Oh?" Cett asked. "That didn't stop Vin from tearing a hole through my army and attacking me back before we teamed up."

  "That was different," Ham said.

  "No," Elend said, interrupting. "It wasn't. The reason we're not going to assassinate Yomen, Cett, is because I want to try diplomacy first."

  "Diplomacy?" Cett asked. "Didn't we just march an army of forty thousand soldiers on his city? That's not a diplomatic move."

  "True," Elend said, nodding. "But we haven't attacked, not yet. Now that I'm here in person, I might as well try talking before sending out knives in the night. We might be able to persuade Lord Yomen that an alliance will benefit him more than a war."

  "If we make an alliance," Cett said, leaning forward in his chair,
"I don't get my city back."

  "I know," Elend said.

  Cett frowned.

  "You seem to be forgetting yourself, Cett," Elend said. "You did not 'team up' with me. You knelt before me, offering up oaths of service in exchange for not getting executed. Now, I appreciate your allegiance, and I will see you rewarded with a kingdom to rule under me. However, you don't get to choose where that kingdom is, nor when I will grant it."

  Cett paused, sitting in his chair, one arm resting on his useless, paralyzed legs. Finally, he smiled. "Damn, boy. You've changed a lot in the year I've known you."

  "So everyone is fond of telling me," Elend said. "Vin. You think you can get into the city?"

  She raised an eyebrow. "I hope that was meant to be rhetorical."

  "It was meant to be polite," Elend said. "I need you to do some scouting. We know next to nothing about what's been going on in this dominance lately-we've focused all of our efforts on Urteau and the South."

  Vin shrugged. "I can go poke around a bit. I don't know what you expect me to find."

  "Cett," Elend said, turning, "I need names. Informants, or perhaps some noblemen that might still be loyal to you."

  "Noblemen?" Cett asked, amused. "Loyal?"

  Elend rolled his eyes. "How about some that could be bribed to pass on a little information."

  "Sure," Cett said. "I'll write up some names and locations. Assuming they still live in the city. Hell, assuming they're even still alive. Can't count on much these days."

  Elend nodded. "We won't take any further action until we have more information. Ham, make certain the soldiers dig in well-use the field fortifications that Demoux taught them. Cett, see that those guard patrols get set up, and make certain our Tineyes remain alert and on watch. Vin will scout and see if she can sneak into the cache like she did in Urteau. If we know what's in there, then we can better judge whether to gamble on trying to conquer the city or not."