Mistborn Trilogy

by Sanderson, Brandon

  Demoux nodded, then moved over to pass on the commands. Elend turned as a messenger arrived. The man had to weave his way through an organized jumble of soldiers receiving orders and making plans.

  Elend nodded to the newcomer. “You’re on the demolitions scout group, correct?”

  The man nodded as he bowed. He wasn’t in uniform; he was a soldier, not one of Elend’s guards. He was a younger man, with a square jaw, balding head, and honest smile.

  “Don’t I know you?” Elend said.

  “I helped you a year ago, my lord,” the man said. “I led you into the Lord Ruler’s palace to help rescue Lady Vin….”

  “Goradel,” Elend said, remembering. “You used to be in the Lord Ruler’s personal guard.”

  The man nodded. “I joined up in your army after that day. Seemed like the thing to do.”

  Elend smiled. “Not my army anymore, Goradel, but I do appreciate you coming to help us today. What’s your report?”

  “You were right, my lord,” Goradel said, “the skaa have already robbed the empty homes for furniture. But, not many thought of the walls. A good half of the abandoned mansions have wooden walls on the inside, and a lot of the tenements were made of wood. Most all of them have wooden roofs.”

  “Good,” Elend said. He surveyed the gathering mass of men. He hadn’t told them his plans; he’d simply asked for volunteers to help him with some manual labor. He hadn’t expected the response to number in the hundreds.

  “It looks like we’re gathering quite a group, my lord,” Demoux said, rejoining Elend.

  Elend nodded, giving leave for Goradel to withdraw. “We’ll be able to try an even more ambitious project than I’d planned.”

  “My lord,” Demoux said. “Are you certain you want to start tearing the city down around ourselves?”

  “We either lose buildings or we lose people, Demoux,” Elend said. “The buildings go.”

  “And if the king tries to stop us?”

  “Then we obey,” Elend said. “But I don’t think Lord Penrod will object. He’s too busy trying to get a bill through the Assembly that hands the city over to my father. Besides, it’s probably better for him to have these men here, working, than it is to have them sitting and worrying in the barracks.”

  Demoux fell silent. Elend did as well; both knew how precarious their position was. Only a short time had passed since the assassination attempt and the transfer of power, and the city was in shock. Cett was still holed up inside of Keep Hasting, and his armies had moved into position to attack the city. Luthadel was like a man with a knife pressed very closely to his throat. Each breath cut the skin.

  I can’t do much about that now, Elend thought. I have to make certain the people don’t freeze these next few nights. He could feel the bitter cold, despite the daylight, his cloak, and the shelter. There were a lot of people in Luthadel, but if he could get enough men tearing down enough buildings, he just might be able to do some good.

  “My lord!”

  Elend turned as a short man with a drooping mustache approached. “Ah, Felt,” he said. “You have news?” The man was working on the poisoned-food problem—specifically how the city was being breached.

  The scout nodded. “I do indeed, my lord. We interrogated the refugees with a Rioter, and we came up dry. Then, however, I started thinking. The refugees seemed too obvious to me. Strangers in the city? Of course they’d be the first ones we’d suspect. I figured, with how much has been going wrong with the wells and the food and the like, someone has to be sneaking in and out of the city.”

  Elend nodded. They’d been watching Cett’s soldiers inside Keep Hasting very carefully, and none of them was responsible. Straff’s Mistborn was still a possibility, but Vin had never believed that he was behind the poisoning. Elend hoped that the trail—if it could be found—would lead back to someone in his own palace, hopefully revealing who on his serving staff had been replaced by a kandra.

  “Well?” Elend asked.

  “I interrogated the people who run passwalls,” Felt continued. “I don’t think they’re to blame.”

  “Passwalls?”

  Felt nodded. “Covert passages out of the city. Tunnels or the like.”

  “Such things exist?” Elend asked with surprise.

  “Of course, my lord,” Felt said. “Moving between cities was very difficult for skaa thieves during the Lord Ruler’s reign. Everyone who entered Luthadel was subject to interview and interrogation. So, ways to get into the city covertly were very prevalent. Most of those have shut down—the ones who used to lower people up and down by ropes over the walls. A few are still running, but I don’t think they are letting the spies in. Once that first well was poisoned, the passwalls all got paranoid that you’d come after them. Since then, they’ve only been letting people out of the city—ones who want to run from the besieged city and the like.”

  Elend frowned. He wasn’t certain what he thought of the fact that people were disobeying his order that the gates be shut, with no passage out.

  “Next,” Felt said, “I tried the river.”

  “We thought of that,” Elend said. “The grates covering the water are all secure.”

  Felt smiled. “That they are. I sent some men down under the water to search about, and we found several locks down below, keeping the river grates in place.”

  “What?”

  “Someone pried the grates free, my lord,” Felt said, “then locked them back into place so it wouldn’t look suspicious. That way, they could swim in and out at their leisure.”

  Elend raised an eyebrow.

  “You want us to replace the grates?” Felt asked.

  “No,” Elend said. “No, just replace those locks with new ones, then post men to watch. Next time those poisoners try and get into the city, I want them to find themselves trapped.”

  Felt nodded, retreating with a happy smile on his face. His talents as a spy hadn’t been put to much good use lately, and he seemed to be enjoying the tasks Elend was giving him. Elend made a mental note to think about putting Felt to work on locating the kandra spy—assuming, of course, that Felt himself wasn’t the spy.

  “My lord,” Demoux said, approaching. “I think I might be able to offer a second opinion on how the poisonings are occurring.”

  Elend turned. “Oh?”

  Demoux nodded, waving for a man to approach from the side of the room. He was younger, perhaps eighteen, and had the dirty face and clothing of a skaa worker.

  “This is Larn,” Demoux said. “A member of my congregation.”

  The young man bowed to Elend, posture nervous.

  “You may speak, Larn,” Demoux said. “Tell Lord Venture what you saw.”

  “Well, my lord,” the young man said. “I tried to go tell this to the king. The new king, I mean.” He flushed, embarrassed.

  “It’s all right,” Elend said. “Continue.”

  “Well, the men there turned me away. Said the king didn’t have time for me. So, I came to Lord Demoux. I figured he might believe me.”

  “About what?” Elend asked.

  “Inquisitor, my lord,” the man said quietly. “I saw one in the city.”

  Elend felt a chill. “You’re sure?”

  The young man nodded. “I’ve lived in Luthadel all my life, my lord. Watched executions a number of times. I’d recognize one of those monsters, sure I would. I saw him. Spikes through the eyes, tall and robed, slinking about at night. Near the center squares of the city. I promise you.”

  Elend shared a look with Demoux.

  “He’s not the only one, my lord,” Demoux said quietly. “Some other members of my congregation claimed to have seen an Inquisitor hanging around Kredik Shaw. I dismissed the first few, but Larn, he’s trustworthy. If he said he saw something, he did. Eyes nearly as good as a Tineye, that one.”

  Elend nodded slowly, and ordered a patrol from his personal guard to keep watch in the area indicated. After that, he turned his attention back to the wood-gat
hering effort. He gave the orders, organizing the men into teams, sending some to begin working, others to gather recruits. Without fuel, many of the city’s forges had shut down, and the workers were idle. They could use something to occupy their time.

  Elend saw energy in the men’s eyes as they began to split up. Elend knew that determination, that firmness of eye and arm. It came from the satisfaction of doing something, of not just sitting around and waiting for fate—or kings—to act.

  Elend turned back to the map, making a few notations. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ham saunter in. “So this is where they all went!” Ham said. “The sparring grounds are empty.”

  Elend looked up, smiling.

  “You’re back to the uniform, then?” Ham asked.

  Elend glanced down at his white outfit. Designed to stand out, to set him apart from a city stained by ash. “Yes.”

  “Too bad,” Ham said with a sigh. “Nobody should have to wear a uniform.”

  Elend raised an eyebrow. In the face of undeniable winter, Ham had finally taken to wearing a shirt beneath his vest. He wore no cloak or coat, however.

  Elend turned back to the map. “The clothing suits me,” he said. “It just feels right. Anyway, that vest of yours is as much a uniform as this is.”

  “No it’s not.”

  “Oh?” Elend asked. “Nothing screams Thug like a man who goes about in the winter without a coat, Ham. You’ve used your clothing to change how people react to you, to let them know who you are and what you represent—which is essentially what a uniform does.”

  Ham paused. “That’s an interesting way of looking at it.”

  “What?” Elend said. “You never argued about something like this with Breeze?”

  Ham shook his head as he turned to look over the groups of men, listening to the men Elend had appointed to give orders.

  He’s changed, Elend thought. Running this city, dealing with all of this, it’s even changed him. The Thug was more solemn, now—more focused. Of course, he had even more stake in the city’s safety than the rest of the crew. It was sometimes hard to remember that the free-spirited Thug was a family man. Ham tended to not talk much about Mardra or his two children. Elend suspected it was habit; Ham had spent much of his marriage living apart from his family in order to keep them safe.

  This whole city is my family, Elend thought, watching the soldiers leave to do their work. Some might have thought something as simple as gathering firewood to be a mundane task, of little relevance in a city threatened by three armies. However, Elend knew that the freezing skaa people would receive the fuel with as much appreciation as they would salvation from the armies.

  The truth was that Elend felt a little like his soldiers did. He felt a satisfaction—a thrill even—from doing something, anything, to help.

  “What if Cett’s attack comes?” Ham said, still looking over the soldiers. “A good portion of the army will be out scattered through the city.”

  “Even if we have a thousand men in my teams, that’s not much of a dent in our forces. Besides, Clubs thinks there will be plenty of time to gather them. We’ve got messengers set up.”

  Elend looked back at his map. “Anyway, I don’t think Cett’s going to attack just yet. He’s pretty safe in that keep, there. We’ll never take him—we’d have to pull too many men away from the city defenses, leaving ourselves exposed. The only thing he really has to worry about is my father…”

  Elend trailed off.

  “What?” Ham said.

  “That’s why Cett is here,” Elend said, blinking in surprise. “Don’t you see? He intentionally left himself without options. If Straff attacks, Cett’s armies will end up fighting alongside our own. He’s locked in his fate with ours.”

  Ham frowned. “Seems like a pretty desperate move.”

  Elend nodded, thinking back to his meeting with Cett. “‘Desperate,’” he said. “That’s a good word. Cett is desperate for some reason—one I haven’t been able to figure out. Anyway, by putting himself in here, he sides with us against Straff—whether we want the alliance or not.”

  “But, what if the Assembly gives the city to Straff? If our men join with him and attack Cett?”

  “That’s the gamble he took,” Elend said. Cett never intended to be able to walk away from the confrontation here in Luthadel. He intends to take the city or be destroyed.

  He is waiting, hoping Straff will attack, worrying that we’ll just give into him. But neither can happen as long as Straff is afraid of Vin. A three-way standoff. With the koloss as a fourth element that nobody can predict.

  Someone needed to do something to tip the scales. “Demoux,” Elend said. “Are you ready to take over here?”

  Captain Demoux looked over, nodding.

  Elend turned to Ham. “I have a question for you, Ham.”

  Ham raised an eyebrow.

  “How insane are you feeling at the moment?

  Elend led his horse out of the tunnel into the scraggly landscape outside of Luthadel. He turned, craning to look up at the wall. Hopefully, the soldiers there had gotten his message, and wouldn’t mistake him for a spy or a scout of one of the enemy armies. He’d rather not end up in Tindwyl’s histories as the ex-king who’d died by an arrow from one of his own men.

  Ham led a small, grizzled woman from the tunnel. As Elend had guessed, Ham had easily found a suitable passwall to get them out of the city.

  “Well, there you go,” said the elderly woman, resting on her cane.

  “Thank you, good woman,” Elend said. “You have served your dominance well this day.”

  The woman snorted, raising an eyebrow—though, from what Elend could tell, she was quite nearly blind. Elend smiled, pulling out a pouch and handing it to her. She reached into it with gnarled, but surprisingly dexterous, fingers and counted out the contents. “Three extra?”

  “To pay you to leave a scout here,” Elend said. “To watch for our return.”

  “Return?” the woman asked. “You aren’t running?”

  “No,” Elend said. “I just have some business with one of the armies.”

  The woman raised the eyebrow again. “Well, none of Granny’s business,” she muttered, turning back down the hole with a tapping cane. “For three clips, I can find a grandson to sit out here for a few hours. Lord Ruler knows, I have enough of them.”

  Ham watched her go, a spark of fondness in his eyes.

  “How long have you known about this place?” Elend asked, watching as a couple of burly men pulled closed the hidden section of stone. Half burrowed, half cut from the wall’s stones themselves, the tunnel was a remarkable feat. Even after hearing about the existence of such things from Felt earlier, it was still a shock to travel through one hidden not a few minutes’ ride from Keep Venture itself.

  Ham turned back to him as the false wall snapped shut. “Oh, I’ve known of this for years and years,” he said. “Granny Hilde used to give me sweets when I was a kid. Of course, that was really just a cheap way of getting some quiet—yet well-targeted—publicity for her passwall. When I was grown, I used to use this to sneak Mardra and the kids in and out of the city when they came to visit.”

  “Wait,” Elend said. “You grew up in Luthadel?”

  “Of course.”

  “On the streets, like Vin?”

  Ham shook his head. “Not really like Vin,” he said in a subdued voice, scanning the wall. “I don’t really think anyone grew up like Vin. I had skaa parents—my grandfather was the nobleman. I was involved with the underground, but I had my parents for a good portion of my childhood. Besides, I was a boy—and a large one.” He turned toward Elend. “I suspect that makes a big difference.”

  Elend nodded.

  “You’re not going to shut this place down, are you?” Ham asked.

  Elend turned with shock. “Why would I?”

  Ham shrugged. “It doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of honest enterprise that you would approve of. There are probably people fleein
g from the city nightly through this hole. Granny Hilde is known to take coin and not ask questions—even if she does grumble at you a bit.”

  Ham did have a point. Probably why he didn’t tell me about the place until I specifically asked. His friends walked a fine line, close to their old ties with the underground, yet working hard to build up the government they’d sacrificed so much to create.

  “I’m not king,” Elend said, leading his horse away from the city. “What Granny Hilde does isn’t any of my business.”

  Ham moved up beside him, looking relieved. Elend could see that relief dissipate, however, as the reality of what they were doing settled in. “I don’t like this, El.”

  They stopped walking as Elend mounted. “Neither do I.”

  Ham took a deep breath, then nodded.

  My old nobleman friends would have tried to talk me out of this, Elend thought with amusement. Why did I surround myself with people who had been loyal to the Survivor? They expect their leaders to take irrational risks.

  “I’ll go with you,” Ham said.

  “No,” Elend said. “It won’t make a difference. Stay here, wait to see if I get back. If I don’t, tell Vin what happened.”

  “Sure, I’ll tell her,” Ham said wryly. “Then I’ll proceed to remove her daggers from my chest. Just make sure you come back, all right?”

  Elend nodded, barely paying attention. His eyes were focused on the army in the distance. An army without tents, carriages, food carts, or servants. An army who had eaten the foliage to the ground in a wide swath around them. Koloss.

  Sweat made the reins slick in Elend’s hands. This was different from before, when he’d gone into Straff’s army and Cett’s keep. This time he was alone. Vin couldn’t get him out if things went bad; she was still recovering from her wounds, and nobody knew what Elend was doing but Ham.

  What do I owe the people of this city? Elend thought. They rejected me. Why do I still insist on trying to protect them?

  “I recognize that look, El,” Ham said. “Let’s go back.”

  Elend closed his eyes, letting out a quiet sigh. Then he snapped his eyes open and kicked his horse into a gallop.