“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 shehad 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 flowing 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 prepare 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 Dockson turned; Vin, of
course, had seated herself so she could see both entrances to the room
without having to move.
Vin expected the newcomer to be one of Camon’s crewmembers, sent
to see if Kelsier was done with the lair yet. Therefore, she was
completely surprised when the door swung open to reveal the surly,
gnarled face of the man called Clubs.
Kelsier smiled, eyes twinkling.
He’s not surprised. Pleased, perhaps, but not surprised.
“Clubs,” Kelsier said.
Clubs stood in the doorway, giving the three of them an impressively
disapproving stare. Finally, he hobbled into the room. A thin, awkwardlooking teenage boy followed him.
The boy fetched Clubs a chair and put it by Kelsier’s table. Clubs
settled down, grumbling slightly to himself. Finally, he eyed Kelsier with
a squinting, wrinkle-nosed expression. “The Soother is gone?”
“Breeze?” Kelsier asked. “Yes, he left.”
Clubs grunted. Then he eyed the bottle of wine.
“Help yourself,” Kelsier said.
Clubs waved for the boy to go fetch him a cup from the bar, then
turned back to Kelsier. “I had to be sure,” he said. “Never can trust
yourself when a Soother is around—especially one like him.”
“You’re a Smoker, Clubs,” Kelsier said. “He couldn’t do much to you,
not if you didn’t want him to.”Clubs shrugged. “I don’t like Soothers. It’s not just Allomancy—men
like that…well, you can’t trust that you aren’t being manipulated when
they are around. Copper or no copper.”
“I wouldn’t rely on something like that to get your loyalty,” Kelsier
said.
“So I’ve heard,” Clubs said as the boy poured him a cup of wine. “Had
to be sure, though. Had to think about things without that Breeze
around.” He scowled, though Vin had trouble determining why, then
took the cup and downed half of it in one gulp.
“Good wine,” he said with a grunt. Then he looked over at Kelsier.
“So, the Pits really did drive you insane, eh?”
“Completely,” Kelsier said with a straight face.
Clubs smiled, though on his face the expression had a decidedly
twisted look. “You mean to go through with this, then? This so-called job
of yours?”
Kelsier nodded solemnly.
Clubs downed the rest of his wine. “You’ve got yourself a Smoker
then. Not for the money, though. If you’re really serious about toppling
this government, then I’m in.”
Kelsier smiled.
“And don’t smile at me,” Clubs snapped. “I hate that.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
“Well,” Dockson said, pouring himself another drink, “that solves the
Smoker problem.”
“Won’t matter much,” Clubs said. “You’re going to fail. I’ve spent my
life trying to hide Mistings from the Lord Ruler and his obligators. He
gets them all eventually anyway.”
“Why bother helping us, then?” Dockson asked.
“Because,” Clubs said, standing. “The Lord’s going to get me sooner
or later. At least this way, I’ll be able to spit in his face as I go.
Overthrowing the Final Empire…” He smiled. “It’s got style. Let’s go,
kid. We’ve got to get the shop ready for visitors.”
Vin watched them go, Clubs limping out the door, the boy pulling it
closed behind them. Then she glanced at Kelsier. “You knew he’d come
back.”He shrugged, standing and stretching. “I hoped. People are attracted to
vision. The job I’m proposing…well, it just isn’t the sort of thing you
walk away from—at least, not if you’re a bored old man who’s generally
annoyed at life. Now, Vin, I assume that your crew owns this entire
building?”
Vin nodded. “The shop upstairs is a front.”
“Good,” Kelsier said, checking his pocket watch, then handing it to
Dockson. “Tell your friends that they can have their lair back—the mists
are probably already coming out.”
“And us?” Dockson asked.
Kelsier smiled. “We’re going to the roof. Like I told you, I have to
fetch some atium.”
By day Luthadel was a blackened city, scorched by soot and red sunlight.
It was hard, distinct, and oppressive.
At night, however, the mists came to blur and obscure. High noble
keeps became ghostly, looming silhouettes. Streets seemed to grow more
narrow in the fog, every thoroughfare becoming a lonely, dangerous
alleyway. Even noblemen and thieves were apprehensive about going out
at night—it took a strong heart to brave the foreboding, misty silence.
The dark city at night was a place for the desperate and the foolhardy; it
was a land of swirling mystery and strange creatures.
Strange creatures like me, Kelsier thought. He stood upon the ledge
that ran around the lip of the flat-roofed lair. Shadowed buildings loomed
in the night around him, and the mists made everything seem to shift and
move in the darkness. Weak lights peeked from the occasional window,
but the tiny beads of illumination were huddled, frightened things.
A cool breeze slipped across the rooftop, shifting the haze, brushing
against Kelsier’s mist-wetted cheek like an exhaled breath. In days past
—back before everything had gone wrong—he had always sought out a
rooftop on the evening before a job, wishing to overlook the city. He
didn’t realize he was observing his old custom this night until he glanced
to the side, expecting Mare to be there next to him, as she always had
been.Instead, he found only the empty air. Lonely. Silent. The mists had
replaced her. Poorly.
He sighed and turned. Vin and Dockson stood behind him on the
rooftop. Both looked apprehensive to be out in the mists, but they dealt
with their fear. One did not get far in the underworld without learning to
stomach the mists.
Kelsier had learned to do far more than “stomach” them. He had gone
among them so often during the last few years that he was beginning to
feel more comfortable at night, within the mists’ obscuring embrace,
than he did at day.
“Kell,” Dockson said, “do you have to stand on the ledge like that?
Our plans may be a bit crazy, but I’d rather not have them end with you
splattered across the cobblestones down there.”
Kelsier smiled. He still doesn’t think of me as a Mistborn, he thought.
It will take some getting used to for all of them.
Years before, he had become the most infamous crewleader in
Luthadel, and he had done it without even being an Allomancer. Mare
had been a Tineye, but he and Dockson…they had just been regular men.
One a half-breed with no powers, the other a runaway plantation skaa.
Together, they had brought Great Houses to their knees, stealing brashly
from the most powerful men in the Final Empire.
Now Kelsier was more, so much more. Once he had dreamed of
Allomancy, wishing for a power like Mare’s. She had been dead before
he’d Snapped, coming to his powers. She would never see what he
would do with them.
Before, the high nobility had feared him. It had taken a trap set by the
Lord Ruler himself to capture Kelsier. Now…the Final Empire itself
would shake before he was finished with it.
He scanned the city once more, breathing in the mists, then hopped
down off the ledge and strolled over to join Dockson and Vin. They
carried no lights; ambient starlight diffused by the mists was enough to
see by in most cases.
Kelsier took off his jacket and vest, handing them to Dockson, then he
untucked his shirt, letting the long garment hang loose. The fabric was
dark enough that it wouldn’t give him away in the night.
“All right,” Kelsier said. “Who should I try?”
Dockson frowned. “You’re sure you want to do this?”Kelsier smiled.
Dockson sighed. “Houses Urbain and Teniert have been hit recently,
though not for their atium.”
“Which house is the strongest right now?” Kelsier asked, squatting
down and undoing the ties on his pack, which rested by Dockson’s feet.
“Who would no one consider hitting?”
Dockson paused. “Venture,” he finally said. “They’ve been on top for
the last few years. They keep a standing force of several hundred men,
and the local house nobility includes a good two dozen Mistings.”
Kelsier nodded. “Well, that’s where I’ll go, then. They’re certain to
have some atium.” He pulled open the pack, then whipped out a dark
gray cloak. Large and enveloping, the cloak wasn’t constructed from a
single piece of cloth—rather, it was made up of hundreds of long,
ribbonlike strips. They were sewn together at the shoulders and across
the chest, but mostly they hung separate from one another, like
overlapping streamers.
Kelsier threw on the garment, its strips of cloth twisting and curling,
almost like the mists themselves.
Dockson exhaled softly. “I’ve never been so close to someone wearing
one of those.”
“What is it?” Vin asked, her quiet voice almost haunting in the night
mists.
“A Mistborn cloak,” Dockson said. “They all wear the things—it’s
kind of like a…sign of membership in their club.”
“It’s colored and constructed to hide you in the mist,” Kelsier said.
“And it warns city guards and other Mistborn not to bother you.” He
spun, letting the cloak flare dramatically. “I think it suits me.”
Dockson rolled his eyes.
“All right,” Kelsier said, bending down and pulling a cloth belt from
his pack. “House Venture. Is there anything I need to know?”
“Lord Venture supposedly has a safe in his study,” Dockson said.
“That’s where he’d probably keep his atium stash. You’ll find the study
on the third floor, three rooms in from the upper southern balcony. Be
careful, House Venture keeps about a dozen hazekillers in addition to its
regular troops and Mistings.”
Kelsier nodded, tying on the belt—it had no buckle, but it did contain
two small sheaths. He pulled a pair of glass daggers from the bag,checked them for nicks, and slid them into the sheaths. He kicked off his
shoes and stripped off his stockings, leaving himself barefoot on the chill
stones. With the shoes also went the last bit of metal on his person save
for his coin pouch and the three vials of metals in his belt. He selected
the largest one, downed its contents, then handed the empty vial to
Dockson.
“That it?” Kelsier asked.
Dockson nodded. “Good luck.”
Beside him, the girl Vin was watching Kelsier’s preparations with
intense curiosity. She was a quiet, small thing, but she hid an intensity
that he found impressive. She was paranoid, true, but not timid.
You’ll get your chance, kid, he thought. Just not tonight.
“Well,” he said, pulling a coin from his pouch and tossing it off the
side of the building. “Guess I’ll be going. I’ll meet you back at Clubs’s
shop in a bit.”
Dockson nodded.
Kelsier turned and walked back up onto the roof’s ledge. Then he
jumped off the building.
Mist curled in the air around him. He burned steel, second of the basic
Allomantic metals. Translucent blue lines sprang into existence around
him, visible only to his eyes. Each one led from the center of his chest
out to a nearby source of metal. The lines were all relatively faint—a
sign that they pointed to metal sources that were small: door hinges,
nails, and other bits. The type of source metal didn’t matter. Burning iron
or steel would point blue lines at all kinds of metal, assuming they were
close enough and large enough to be noticeable.
Kelsier chose the line that pointed directly beneath him, toward his
coin. Burning steel, he Pushed against the coin.
His descent immediately stopped, and he was thrown back up into the
air in the opposite direction along the blue line. He reached out to the
side, selected a passing window clasp, and Pushed against it, angling
himself to the side. The careful nudge sent him up and over the lip of the
building directly across the street from Vin’s lair.
Kelsier landed with a lithe step, falling into a crouch and running
across the building’s peaked roof. He paused in the darkness at the other
side, peering through the swirling air. He burned tin, and felt it flare to
life in his chest, enhancing his senses. Suddenly the mists seemed lessdeep. It wasn’t that the night around him grew any lighter; his ability to
perceive simply increased. In the distance to the north, he could just
barely make out a large structure. Keep Venture.
Kelsier left his tin on—it burned slowly, and he probably didn’t need
to worry about running out. As he stood, the mists curled slightly around
his body. They twisted and spun, running in a slight, barely noticeable
current beside him. The mists knew him; they claimed him. They could
sense Allomancy.
He jumped, Pushing against a metal chimney behind him, sending
himself in a wide horizontal leap. He tossed a coin even as he jumped,
the tiny bit of metal flickering through the darkness and fog. He Pushed
against the coin before it hit the ground, the force of his weight driving it
downward in a sharp motion. As soon as it hit the cobblestones, Kelsier’s
Pushing forced him upward, turning the second half of his leap into a
graceful arc.
Kelsier landed on another peaked wooden rooftop. Steelpushing and
Ironpulling were the first things that Gemmel had taught him. When you
Push on something, it’s like you’re throwing your weight against it, the
old lunatic had said. And you can’t change how much you weigh—you’re
an Allomancer, not some northern mystic. Don’t Pull on something that
weighs less than you unless you want it to come flying at you, and don’t
Push on something heavier than you unless you want to get tossed in the
other direction.
Kelsier scratched his scars, then pulled his mistcloak tight as he
crouched on the roof, the wooden grain biting his unshod toes. He often
wished that burning tin didn’t enhance all of the senses—or, at least, not
all of them at once. He needed the improved eyesight to see in the
darkness, and he made good use of the improved hearing as well.
However, burning tin made the night seem even more chilly to his overly
sensitive skin, and his feet registered every pebble and wooden ripple
they touched.
Keep Venture rose before him. Compared with the murky city, the
keep seemed to blaze with light. High nobles kept different schedules
from regular people; the ability to afford, even squander, lamp oil and
candles meant that the wealthy didn’t have to bow before the whims of
season or sun.
The keep was majestic—that much was visible simply from the
architecture. While it maintained a defensive wall around the grounds,
the keep itself was more an artistic construction than a fortification.Sturdy buttressings arched out from the sides, allowing for intricate
windows and delicate spires. Brilliant stained-glass windows stretched
high along the sides of the rectangular building, and they shone with
light from within, giving the surrounding mists a variegated glow.
Kelsier burned iron, flaring it strong and searching the night for large
sources of metal. He was too far away from the keep to use small items
like coins or hinges. He’d need a larger anchor to cover this distance.
Most of the blue lines were faint. Kelsier marked a couple of them
moving in a slow pattern up ahead—probably a pair of guards standing
on the rooftop. Kelsier would be sensing their breastplates and weapons.
Despite Allomantic considerations, most noblemen still armed their
soldiers with metal. Mistings who could Push or Pull metals were
uncommon, and full Mistborn were even more so. Many lords thought it
impractical to leave one’s soldiers and guards relatively defenseless in
order to counter such a small segment of the population.
No, most high noblemen relied on other means to deal with
Allomancers. Kelsier smiled. Dockson had said that Lord Venture kept a
squad of hazekillers; if that was true, Kelsier would probably meet them
before the night was through. He ignored the soldiers for the moment,
instead focusing on a solid line of blue pointing toward the keep’s lofty
top. It likely had bronze or copper sheeting on the roof. Kelsier flared his
iron, took a deep breath, and Pulled on the line.
With a sudden jerk, he was yanked into the air.
Kelsier continued to burn iron, pulling himself toward the keep at a
tremendous speed. Some rumors claimed that Mistborn could fly, but
that was a wistful exaggeration. Pulling and Pushing against metals
usually felt less like flying than it did like falling—only in the wrong
direction. An Allomancer had to Pull hard in order to get the proper
momentum, and this sent him hurtling toward his anchor at daunting
speeds.
Kelsier shot toward the keep, mists curling around him. He easily
cleared the protective wall surrounding the keep’s grounds, but his body
dropped slightly toward the ground as he moved. It was his pesky weight
again; it tugged him down. Even the swiftest of arrows angled slightly
toward the ground as it flew.
The drag of his weight meant that instead of shooting right up to the
roof, he swung in an arc. He approached the keep wall several dozen feet
below the rooftop, still traveling at a terrible speed.Taking a deep breath, Kelsier burned pewter, using it to enhance his
physical strength much in the same way that tin enhanced his senses. He
turned himself in the air, hitting the stone wall feet-first. Even his
strengthened muscles protested at the treatment, but he stopped without
breaking any bones. He immediately released his hold on the roof,
dropping a coin and Pushing against it even as he began to fall. He
reached out, selecting a source of metal above him—one of the wire
housings of a stained-glass window—and Pulled on it.
The coin hit the ground below and was suddenly able to support his
weight. Kelsier launched himself upward, Pushing on the coin and
Pulling on the window at the same time. Then, extinguishing both
metals, he let momentum carry him the last few feet up through the dark
mists. Cloak flapping quietly, he crested the lip of the keep’s upper
service walkway, flipped himself up over the stone railing, and landed
quietly on the ledge.
A startled guard stood not three paces away. Kelsier was upon the man
in a second, jumping into the air, Pulling slightly on the guard’s steel
breastplate and throwing the man off balance. Kelsier whipped out one
of his glass daggers, allowing the strength of his Ironpull to bring him
toward the guard. He landed with both feet against the man’s chest, then
crouched and sliced with a pewter-enhanced swing.
The guard collapsed with a slit throat. Kelsier landed lithely beside
him, ears straining in the night, listening for sounds of alarm. There were
none.
Kelsier left the guard to his gurgling demise. The man was likely a
lesser nobleman. The enemy. If he were, instead, a skaa soldier—enticed
into betraying his people in exchange for a few coins…Well, then,
Kelsier was even happier to send such men into their eternity.
He Pushed off the dying man’s breastplate, hopping up off the stone
service walkway and onto the rooftop itself. The bronze roof was chill
and slick beneath his feet. He scurried along it, heading toward the
southern side of the building, looking for the balcony Dockson had
mentioned. He wasn’t too worried about being spotted; one purpose of
this evening was to steal some atium, the tenth and most powerful of the
generally known Allomantic metals. His other purpose, however, was to
cause a commotion.
He found the balcony with ease. Wide and broad, it was probably a
sitting balcony, used to entertain small groups. It was quiet at the
moment, however—empty save for two guards. Kelsier crouched silentlyin the night mists above the balcony, furled gray cloak obscuring him,
toes curling out over the side of the roof’s metallic lip. The two guards
chatted unwittingly below.
Time to make a bit of noise.
Kelsier dropped to the ledge directly between the guards. Burning
pewter to strengthen his body, he reached out and fiercely Steelpushed
against both men at the same time. Braced as he was at the center, his
Push threw the guards away in opposite directions. The men cried out in
surprise as the sudden force threw them backward, hurling them over the
balcony railing into the darkness beyond.
The guards screamed as they fell. Kelsier threw open the balcony
doors, letting a wall of mist fall inward around him, its tendrils creeping
forward to claim the darkened room beyond.
Third room in, Kelsier thought, moving forward in a crouching run.
The second room was a quiet, greenhouse-like conservatory. Low beds
containing cultivated bushes and small trees ran through the room, and
one wall was made up of enormous floor-to-ceiling windows to provide
sunlight for the plants. Though it was dark, Kelsier knew that the plants
would all be of slightly different colors than the typical brown—some
would be white, others ruddy, and perhaps even a few light yellow.
Plants that weren’t brown were a rarity cultivated and kept by the
nobility.
Kelsier moved quickly through the conservatory. He paused at the next
doorway, noting its lighted outline. He extinguished his tin lest his
enhanced eyes be blinded when he entered the lit room, and threw open
the door.
He ducked inside, blinking against the light, a glass dagger in each
hand. The room, however, was empty. It was obviously a study; a lantern
burned on each wall beside bookcases, and it had a desk in the corner.
Kelsier replaced his knives, burning steel and searching for sources of
metal. There was a large safe in the corner of the room, but it was too
obvious. Sure enough, another strong source of metal shone from inside
the eastern wall. Kelsier approached, running his fingers along the
plaster. Like many walls in noble keeps, this one was painted with a soft
mural. Foreign creatures lounged beneath a red sun. The false section of
wall was under two feet square, and it had been placed so that its cracks
were obscured by the mural.There’s always another secret, Kelsier thought. He didn’t bother trying
to figure out how to open the contraption. He simply burned steel,
reaching in and tugging against the weak source of metal that he
assumed was the trapdoor’s locking mechanism. It resisted at first,
pulling him against the wall, but he burned pewter and yanked harder.
The lock snapped, and the panel swung open, revealing a small safe
embedded in the wall.
Kelsier smiled. It looked small enough for a pewter-enhanced man to
carry, assuming he could get it out of the wall.
He jumped up, Ironpulling against the safe, and landed with his feet
against the wall, one foot on either side of the open panel. He continued
to Pull, holding himself in place, and flared his pewter. Strength flooded
his legs, and he flared his steel as well, Pulling against the safe.
He strained, grunting slightly at the exertion. It was a test to see which
would give out first—the safe, or his legs.
The safe shifted in its mountings. Kelsier Pulled harder, muscles
protesting. For an extended moment, nothing happened. Then the safe
shook and ripped free of the wall. Kelsier fell backward, burning steel
and Pushing against the safe to get out of the way. He landed
maladroitly, sweat dripping from his brow as the safe crashed to the
wooden floor, throwing up splinters.
A pair of startled guards burst into the room.
“About time,” Kelsier noted, raising a hand and Pulling on one of the
soldier’s swords. It whipped out of the sheath, spinning in the air and
streaking toward Kelsier point-first. He extinguished his iron, stepping to
the side and catching the sword by its hilt as momentum carried it past.
“Mistborn!” the guard screamed.
Kelsier smiled and jumped forward.
The guard pulled out a dagger. Kelsier Pushed it, tearing the weapon
out of the man’s hand, then swung, shearing the guard’s head from his
body. The second guard cursed, tugging free the release tie on his
breastplate.
Kelsier Pushed on his own sword even as he completed his swing. The
sword ripped from his fingers and hissed directly toward the second
guard. The man’s armor dropped free—preventing Kelsier from Pushing
against it—just as the first guard’s corpse fell to the ground. A moment
later, Kelsier’s sword planted itself in the second guard’s now unarmored
chest. The man stumbled quietly, then collapsed.Kelsier turned from the bodies, cloak rustling. His anger was quiet, not
as fierce as it had been the night he’d killed Lord Tresting. But he felt it
still, felt it in the itching of his scars and in the remembered screams of
the woman he loved. As far as Kelsier was concerned, any man who
upheld the Final Empire also forfeited his right to live.
He flared his pewter, strengthening his body, then squatted down and
lifted the safe. He teetered for a second beneath its weight, then got his
balance and began to shuffle back toward the balcony. Perhaps the safe
held atium; perhaps it didn’t. However, he didn’t have time to search out
other options.
He was halfway through the conservatory when he heard footsteps
from behind. He turned to see the study flooding with figures. There
were eight of them, each one wearing a loose gray robe and carrying a
dueling cane and a shield instead of a sword. Hazekillers.
Kelsier let the safe drop to the ground. Hazekillers weren’t
Allomancers, but they were trained to fight Mistings and Mistborn.
There wouldn’t be a single bit of metal on their bodies, and they would
be ready for his tricks.
Kelsier stepped back, stretching and smiling. The eight men fanned
into the study, moving with quiet precision.
This should be interesting.
The hazekillers attacked, dashing by twos into the conservatory.
Kelsier pulled out his daggers, ducking beneath the first attack and
slicing at a man’s chest. The hazekiller jumped back, however, and
forced Kelsier away with a swing of his cane.
Kelsier flared his pewter, letting strengthened legs carry him back in a
powerful jump. With one hand, he whipped out a handful of coins and
Pushed them against his opponents. The metal disks shot forward,
zipping through the air, but his enemies were ready for this: They raised
their shields, and the coins bounced off the wood, throwing up splinters
but leaving the men unharmed.
Kelsier eyed the other hazekillers as they filled the room, advancing on
him. They couldn’t hope to fight him in an extended battle—their tactic
would be to rush him at once, hoping for quick end to the fight, or to at
least to stall him until Allomancers could be awakened and brought to
fight. He glanced at the safe as he landed.
He couldn’t leave without it. He needed to end the fight quickly as
well. Flaring pewter, he jumped forward, trying an experimental daggerswipe, but he couldn’t get inside his opponent’s defenses. Kelsier barely
ducked away in time to avoid getting cracked on the head by the end of a
cane.
Three of the hazekillers dashed behind him, cutting off his retreat into
the balcony room. Great, Kelsier thought, trying to keep an eye on all
eight men at once. They advanced on him with careful precision,
working as a team.
Gritting his teeth, Kelsier flared his pewter again; it was running low,
he noticed. Pewter was the fastest-burning of the basic eight metals.
No time to worry about that now. The men behind him attacked, and
Kelsier jumped out of the way—Pulling on the safe to tug himself
toward the center of the room. He Pushed as soon as he hit the ground
near the safe, launching himself into the air at an angle. He tucked,
flipping over the heads of two attackers, and landed on the ground beside
a well-cultivated tree bed. He spun, flaring his pewter and raising his arm
in defense against the swing he knew would come.
The dueling cane connected with his arm. A burst of pain ran down his
forearm, but his pewter-enhanced bone held. Kelsier kept moving,
driving his other hand forward and slamming a dagger into his
opponent’s chest.
The man stumbled back in surprise, the motion ripping away Kelsier’s
dagger. A second hazekiller attacked, but Kelsier ducked, then reached
down with his free hand, ripping his coin pouch off of his belt. The
hazekiller prepared to block Kelsier’s remaining dagger, but Kelsier
raised his other hand instead, slamming the coin pouch into the man’s
shield.
Then he Pushed on the coins inside.
The hazekiller cried out, the force of the intense Steelpush throwing
him backward. Kelsier flared his steel, Pushing so hard that he tossed
himself backward as well—away from the pair of men who tried to
attack him. Kelsier and his enemy flew away from each other, hurled in
opposite directions. Kelsier collided with the far wall, but kept Pushing,
smashing his opponent—pouch, shield, and all—against one of the
massive conservatory windows.
Glass shattered, sparkles of lanternlight from the study playing across
its shards. The hazekiller’s desperate face disappeared into the darkness
beyond, and mist—quiet, yet ominous—began to creep in through the
shattered window.The other six men advanced relentlessly, and Kelsier was forced to
ignore the pain in his arm as he ducked two swings. He spun out of the
way, brushing past a small tree, but a third hazekiller attacked, smashing
his cane into Kelsier’s side.
The attack threw Kelsier into the tree bed. He tripped, then collapsed
near the entrance to the lit study, dropping his dagger. He gasped in pain,
rolling to his knees and holding his side. The blow would have broken
another man’s ribs. Even Kelsier would have a massive bruise.
The six men moved forward, spreading to surround him again. Kelsier
stumbled to his feet, vision growing dizzy from pain and exertion. He
gritted his teeth, reaching down and pulling out one of his remaining
vials of metal. He downed its contents in a single gulp, replenishing his
pewter, then burned tin. The light nearly blinded him, and the pain in his
arm and side suddenly seemed more acute, but the burst of enhanced
senses cleared his head.
The six hazekillers advanced in a sudden, coordinated attack.
Kelsier whipped his hand to the side, burning iron and searching for
metal. The closest source was a thick silvery paperweight on a desk just
inside the study. Kelsier flipped it into his hand, then turned, arm held
toward the advancing men, falling into an offensive stance.
“All right,” he growled.
Kelsier burned steel with a flash of strength. The rectangular ingot
ripped from his hand, streaking through the air. The foremost hazekiller
raised his shield, but he moved too slowly. The ingot hit the man’s
shoulder with a crunch, and he dropped, crying out.
Kelsier spun to the side, ducking a staff swing and putting a hazekiller
between himself and the fallen man. He burned iron, Pulling the ingot
back toward him. It whipped through the air, cracking the second
hazekiller in the side of the head. The man collapsed as the ingot flipped
into the air.
One of the remaining men cursed, rushing forward to attack. Kelsier
Pushed the still airborne ingot, flipping it away from him—and away
from the attacking hazekiller, who had his shield raised. Kelsier heard
the ingot hit the ground behind him, and he reached up—burning pewter
—and caught the hazekiller’s cane mid-swing.
The hazekiller grunted, struggling against Kelsier’s enhanced strength.
Kelsier didn’t bother trying to pull the weapon free; instead he Pulled
sharply on the ingot behind him, bringing it toward his own back at adeadly speed. He twisted at the last moment, using his momentum to
spin the hazekiller around—right into the ingot’s path.
The man dropped.
Kelsier flared pewter, steadying himself against attacks. Sure enough,
a cane smashed against his shoulders. He stumbled to his knees as the
wood cracked, but flared tin kept him conscious. Pain and lucidity
flashed through his mind. He Pulled on the ingot—ripping it out of the
dying man’s back—and stepped to the side, letting the impromptu
weapon shoot past him.
The two hazekillers nearest him crouched warily. The ingot snapped
into one of the men’s shields, but Kelsier didn’t continue Pushing, lest he
throw himself off balance. Instead, he burned iron, wrenching the ingot
back toward himself. He ducked, extinguishing iron and feeling the ingot
whoosh through the air above him. There was a crack as it collided with
the man who had been sneaking up on him.
Kelsier spun, burning iron then steel to send the ingot soaring toward
the final two men. They stepped out of the way, but Kelsier tugged on
the ingot, dropping it to the ground directly in front of them. The men
regarded it warily, distracted as Kelsier ran and jumped, Steelpushing
himself against the ingot and flipping over the men’s heads. The
hazekillers cursed, spinning. As Kelsier landed, he Pulled the ingot
again, bringing it up to smash into a man’s skull from behind.
The hazekiller fell silently. The ingot flipped a few times in the
darkness, and Kelsier snatched it from the air, its cool surface slick with
blood. Mist from the shattered window flowed by his feet, curling up
around his legs. He brought his hand down, pointing it directly at the last
remaining hazekiller.
Somewhere in the room, a fallen man groaned.
The remaining hazekiller stepped back, then dropped his weapon and
dashed away. Kelsier smiled, lowering his hand.
Suddenly, the ingot was Pushed from his fingers. It shot across the
room, smashing through another window. Kelsier cursed, spinning to see
another, larger group of men pouring into the study. They wore the
clothing of noblemen. Allomancers.
Several of them raised hands, and a flurry of coins shot toward Kelsier.
He flared steel, Pushing the coins out of the way. Windows shattered and
wood splintered as the room was sprayed with coins. Kelsier felt a tug on
his belt as his final vial of metal was ripped away, Pulled toward theother room. Several burly men ran forward in a crouch, staying beneath
the shooting coins. Thugs—Mistings who, like Ham, could burn pewter.
Time to go, Kelsier thought, deflecting another wave of coins, gritting
his teeth against the pain in his side and arm. He glanced behind him; he
had a few moments, but he was never going to make it back to the
balcony. As more Mistings advanced, Kelsier took a deep breath and
dashed toward one of the broken, floor-to-ceiling windows. He leapt out
into the mists, turning in the air as he fell, and reached out to Pull firmly
on the fallen safe.
He jerked in midair, swinging down toward the side of the building as
if tied to the safe by a tether. He felt the safe slide forward, grinding
against the floor of the conservatory as Kelsier’s weight pulled against it.
He slammed against the side of the building, but continued to Pull,
catching himself on the upper side of a windowsill. He strained, standing
upside down in the window well, Pulling on the safe.
The safe appeared over the lip of the floor above. It teetered, then fell
out the window and began to plummet directly toward Kelsier. He
smiled, extinguishing his iron and pushing away from the building with
his legs, throwing himself out into the mists like some insane diver. He
fell backward through the darkness, barely catching sight of an angry
face poking out of the broken window above.
Kelsier Pulled carefully against the safe, moving himself in the air.
Mists curled around him, obscuring his vision, making him feel as if he
weren’t falling at all—but hanging in the middle of nothingness.
He reached the safe, then twisted in the air and Pushed against it,
throwing himself upward.
The safe crashed into the cobblestones just below. Kelsier Pushed
against the safe slightly, slowing himself until he eventually jerked to a
halt in the air just a few feet above the ground. He hung in the mists for a
moment, ribbons from his cloak curling and flapping in the wind, then let
himself drop to the ground beside the safe.
The strongbox had been shattered by the fall. Kelsier pried open its
mangled front, tin-enhanced ears listening to calls of alarm from the
building above. Inside the safe, he found a small pouch of gemstones and
a couple of ten-thousand boxing letters of credit, all of which he
pocketed. He felt around inside, suddenly worried that the night’s work
had been for naught. Then his fingers found it—a small pouch at the very
back.He pulled it open, revealing a grouping of dark, beadlike bits of metal.
Atium. His scars flared, memories of his time in the Pits returning to
him.
He pulled the pouch tight and stood. With amusement, he noticed a
twisted form lying on the cobblestones a short distance away—the
mangled remains of the hazekiller he’d thrown out the window. Kelsier
walked over, and retrieved his coin pouch with a tug of Ironpulling.
No, this night was not a waste. Even if he hadn’t found the atium, any
night that ended with a group of dead noblemen was a successful one, in
Kelsier’s opinion.
He gripped his pouch in one hand and the bag of atium in the other. He
kept his pewter burning—without the strength it lent his body, he’d
probably collapse from the pain of his wounds—and dashed off into the
night, heading toward Clubs’s shop.I never wanted this, true. But somebody has to stop the Deepness. And,
apparently, Terris is the only place this can be done.
On this fact, however, I don’t have to take the word of the
philosophers. I can feel our goal now, can sense it, though the others
cannot. It…pulses, in my mind, far off in the mountains.
