Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (62 page)

Wellen leaned against his spear, watching those mists again. Rittle his companion guard said they weren't dangerous. But, Rittle hadn't seen what they could do. What they could reveal. Wellen figured that he had survived because he respected them. That, and because he didn't think too hard about the things he had seen. "You think Skiff and Jaston will be late to relieve us again?" Wellen asked, trying again to start a conversation.

Rittle just grunted. "Dunno, We lls." Rittle never did care for small talk.

"I think maybe one of us should go see," Wellen said, eyeing the mist. " You know, ask if they've come in yet. . . ." He trailed off.

Something was out there.

Lord Ruler! he thought, cringing back.
Not again!

But, no attack came from the mists. Instead, a dark figure strode forward. Rittle perked up, lowering his spear. "Halt !"

A man walked f rom the mists, wearing a deep black cloak, arms at his sides, hood up. His face, however, was visible. Wellen frowned. Something about this man looked familiar. . . . Rittle gasped, then f ell to his knees, clutching something at his neck the pendant of a silver spear that he always wore. Wellen frowned. Then he noticed the scars on this newcomer's arms.

. 127 201

Lord Ruler!
Wellen thought in shock, realizing where he'd seen this man's face. It had been in a painting, one of many available in the city, that depicted the Survivor of Hathsin.

"Rise," the stranger said, speaking in a benevolent voice.

Rittle stood on shaking f eet. Wellen backed away, uncertain whether to be awed or terrified, and feeling a little of both.

"I have come to commend your faith," the Survivor said.

"My lord . . ." Rittle said, his head still bowed.

"Also," Kelsier said, raising a finger. "I have come to tell you I do not approve of how this city is being run. My people are sick, they starve, and they die." "My lord," Rittle said, "there is not enough food, and there have been riots seizing that which was stockpiled. My lord, and the mists kill! Please, why have you sent them to kill us!"

"I did no such thing," Kelsier said. "I know that f ood is scarce, but you must share what you have and have hope. Tell me of the man who rules this city." "King Penrod?" Rittle asked. "He rules for Emperor Elend Venture, who is away at w ar."

"Lord
Elend
Venture ? And he approves of how this city is being treated?" Kelsier looked angry. Wellen cringed.

"No, my lord!" Rittle said, shaking. "I . . ."

"Lord Penrod is mad," Wellen found himself saying.

The Survivor turned toward him.

"Wells, you shouldn't . . ." Rittle said, but then trailed off, the Survivor shooting him a stern look.

"Speak," the Survivor said to Wellen.

"He speaks to the air, my lord," Wellen said, averting his eyes. "Talks to himself claims that he can see the Lord Ruler standing beside him. Penrod . . . he's given lots of strange orders, lately. Forcing the skaa to f ight each other for food, claiming that only the strong should survive. He kills those who disagree with him. That kind of thing."

"I see," the Survivor said.

Surely he knows this alread
y ,
Wellen thought.
Why bother asking?

"Where is my Heir? " the Survivor asked. "The Hero of Ages, Vin."

"The Lady Empress?" Wellen asked. " She's with the emperor."

"Where?"

"Nobody knows for certain, my lord," Rittle said, still shaking. "She hasn't returned in a long time. My sergeant says that she and the emperor are fighting in the South, f ighting koloss. But I've heard other men say the army went to the west."

"That's not very helpful," Kelsier said.

Wellen perked up, remembering something.

"What?" the Survivor asked, apparently noticing Wellen's change in posture.

"An army troop stopped by the city a f ew months ago," Wellen said, feeling proud. " They kept it quiet, but I was in the group that helped them resupply. Lord Breeze was with them, and he spoke of meeting up with others of your crew ."

"Where?" Kelsier asked. "Where were they going?"

"North," Wellen said. "To Urte au. That must be where the emperor is, my lord. The Northern Dominance is in rebellion. He must have taken his armies to quell it. " The Survivor nodded. " Very well," he said. He turned as if to go, then paused, looking back. "Pass what news you can," he said.

"There isn't much time lef t. Tell the people that when the mists leave, they should immediately find shelter. A place underground, if possible."

Wellen paused, then nodded. "The caverns," he said. "Where you trained your army?"

"That will do," Kelsier said. "F arewell ."

The Survivor disappeared into the mists.

TenSoon left the gates of Keep Venture behind, running off into the mists. He could, perhaps, have gotten himself into the building. However, he wasn't certain how well his imitation of the Survivor would hold up under closer scrutiny.

He didn't know how reliable the two guards' information was. However, he had no better leads. Other people he had talked to in the night hadn't been able to provide any information about the army's movements. Evidently, Vin and Elend had been gone from Luthadel for quite some time. He rushed back to the patch of earth behind the warehouse where he'd found Kelsier's body. He knelt in the darkness, uncovering the sack he'd stuffed with bones. He needed to get the dog's body back and head north. Hopefully he would

"You there !" a voice said.

TenSoon looked up ref lexively. A man stood in the doorway of the warehouse, looking through the mists at TenS oon. A lantern flared to lif e behind him, revealing a group of people who had apparently taken up residence inside of the holy place.

Uh, oh . . . TenS oon thought as those at the front adopted shocked expressions.

"My lord!" the man in front said, quickly kneeling in his sleeping robe. "You've returned!" TenSoon stood, stepping carefully to hide the sack of bones behind him. "I have," he said.

"We knew that you would," the man said as others began to whisper and cry out behind him. Many f ell to their knees . "We stayed in this place, praying for you to come give us counsel. The king is mad, my lord! What do we do?"

TenSoon was tempted to expose himself as a kandra, but looking into their hopeful eyes, he found that he could not. Besides, perhaps he could do some good. "Penrod has been corrupted by Ruin," he said.

"The thing that seeks to destroy the world. You must gather the faithful and escape this city before Penrod kills you all." "My lord, where should we go ?"

TenSoon hesitated. Where? "There are a pair of guards at the f ront of Keep Venture. They know of a place. Listen to them. You
must
get to a place underground. Do you understand?"

"Yes, lord," the man said. Behind, more and more people were edging forward, straining to catch a glimpse of TenSoon. He bore their scrutiny with some nervousness. Finally, he bid them be careful, then fled into the night.

He found an empty building and quickly changed back to the dog's bones before anyone else could see him. When he was done, he eyed the Survivor's bones, feeling a strange . . . reverence. Don 't be sill y , he told himself.
They're just bones, like hundreds o f other sets you 've used
. Still, it seemed foolish to leave such a potentially powerful tool behind. He carefully packed them into the sack he'd pilfered, then using paws he'd created to have more dexterity than those of a real wolfhound he tied the sack on his back. After that, TenSoon left the city by the northern gate, running at full wolfhound speed. He would go to Urteau and hope that he was on the right path. . 128 201

The pact between Preservation and Ruin is a thing of gods, and di f ficult to explain in human terms.
Indeed, initially, there was a stalemate between them. On one hand, each knew that only by working
together could they create. On the other hand, both knew that they would never have complete
satisfaction in what the y created. Preservation would not be able to keep things perfect and
unchanging, and Ruin would not be able to destroy completel y
.

Ruin, of course, eventually acquired the ability to end the world and gain the satisfaction he wanted.
But , then, that wasn't originally part of the bargain
.
53

SPOOK FOUND HER SITTING
on the rocky lakeshore, looking out across the deep black waters, so still in the cavern's windless air. In the near distance, Spook could hear Sazed with a large contingent of Goradel's men working on their proj ect to stanch the flow of water into the cavern. Spook approached Beldre quietly, carrying a mug of warmed tea. It almost seemed to burn his flesh, which meant that it would be j ust right for normal people. He let his own food and drinks sit out until they cooled to room temperature.

He didn't wear his eye bandage . With pewter, he'd found that he could withstand a little lantern-light. She didn't turn as he approached, so he cleared his throat. She jumped slightly. It was no wonder that Quellion worked so hard to shelter the girl one could not fake Beldre's level of innocence. She wouldn't survive three heartbeats in the underground. Even Allrianne, who did her best to look like a puff, had an edge to her that bespoke an ability to be as hard as necessary in order to survive. Beldre, though . . .

She's normal , Spook thought.
This is how people would be, if they didn 't have to deal with
Inquisitors, armies, and assassins
. For that, he actually envied her. It was a strange feeling, after so many years spent wishing that he were someone more important.

She turned back toward the waters, and he approached and sat beside her. "Here," he said, handing her the mug. "I know it gets a bit chilly down here, with the lake and the water." She paused, then took the mug. "Thank you," she whispered. Spook let her roam free in the cavern there was very little she could s abotage, though he had warned Goradel's men to keep an eye on her. Either way, there was no way she was going to get out. Spook kept two dozen men guarding the exit, and had ordered the ladder up to the trapdoor above removed, to be replaced only with proper authorization.

"Hard to believe this place was beneath your city all along, isn't it? " Spook said, try ing to work into a conversation. Oddly, it had seemed easier to speak to her when he was confronting her in her gardens, surrounded by danger.

Beldre nodded. "My brother would have loved to find this place. He worries about food supplies. Fewer and fewer fish are being c aught in the northern lakes. And crops . . . well, they're not doing so well, I hear."

"The mists," Spook said. " They don't let enough sunlight through for most plants." Beldre nodded, looking down at her mug. She hadn't taken a sip yet.

"Beldre," Spook said, "I'm sorry. I actually considered kidnapping you from those gardens, but decided against it. However, with you showing up here, alone . . ." "It was just too good an opportunity," she said bitterly. "I understand. It's my own fault. My brother always says I'm too trusting."

"There are times that would be an advantage ."

Beldre sniffed quietly. "I've never known such times as that. It seems my entire life, I've just trusted and been hurt. This is no diff erent."

Spook sat, feeling frustrated with himself. Kelsier , tell me what to say! he thought. Yet, God remained silent. The Survivor didn't seem to have much advice about things that didn't relate to securing the city.

It had all seemed so simple when Spook had given the order to capture her. Why, now, was he sitting here with this empty pit in his stomach? "I believed in him, you know," Beldre said.

"Your brother? "

"No," she said with a slight shake of her head. " The Lord Ruler. I was a good little noblewoman. I always gave my payments to the obligators paying extra, even, and calling them in to witness the smallest things. I also paid them to come tutor me in the history of the empire. I thought everything w as perfect. So neat; so peaceful. And then, they tried to kill me . Turns out I'm half skaa. My father wanted a child so desperately, and my mother was barren. He had two children with one of the maidservants my mother even approved."

She shook her head. "Why would someone do that?" she continued. "I mean, why not pick a noblewoman? No. My father chose the servant woman. I guess he fancied her or something. . . ." She looked down.

"For me, it was my grandfather," Spook said. "I never knew him. Grew up on the streets."

"Sometimes I wish I had," Beldre said. "Then maybe this would all make sense. What do you do when the priests you've been paying to tutor you since you were a child men you trusted more than your own parents come to take you away for execution? I would have died, too. I just went with them. Then . . ." "Then what?" Spook asked.

"You saved me," she whispered. " The Survivor's crew. You overthrew the Lord Ruler, and in the chaos, everybody forgot about people like me. The obligators were too busy trying to please Straff."

"And then, your brother took over."

She nodded quietly. "I thought he'd be a good ruler. He really is a good man! He just wants everything to be stable and secure. Peace for everyone. Yet, sometimes, the things he does to people . . . the things he asks of people . . ."

"I'm sorry," Spook said.

She shook her head. "And then you came. You rescued that child, right in front of Quellion and me. You came to my gardens, and you didn't even threaten me. I thought . . . maybe he really is as the stories say. Maybe he'll help. And, like the idiot I always am, I just came."

"I wish things were simple, Beldre," Spook said. "I wish I could let you go. But, this is for the greater good."

"That's j ust what Quellion always says, you know," she said.

Spook paused.

"You're a lot alike, you two," she said. "Forceful. Commanding." Spook chuckled. "You really don't know me very well, do you?"

She flushed. "You're the Survivor of the Flames. Don't think I haven't heard the rumors my brother can't keep me out of
all
of his conf erences." "Rumors," Spook said, " are rare ly reliable."