VIN AWOKE TO A QUIET ROOM, red morning sunlight
peeking through cracks in the shutters. She lay in bed for a moment,
unsettled. Something felt wrong. It wasn’t that she was walking up in an
unfamiliar place—traveling with Reen had accustomed her to a nomadic
lifestyle. It took her a moment to realize the source of her discomfort.
The room was empty.
Not only was it empty, it was open. Uncrowded. And it was…
comfortable. She lay on an actual mattress, raised on posts, with sheets
and a plush quilt. The room was decorated with a sturdy wooden
armoire, and even had a circular rug. Perhaps another might have found
the room cramped and spartan, but to Vin it seemed lavish.
She sat up, frowning. It felt wrong to have a room all to herself. She
had always been crammed into tight bunkrooms filled with
crewmembers. Even while traveling, she had slept in beggars’ alleys or
rebel caves, and Reen had been there with her. She had always been
forced to fight to find privacy. Being given it so easily seemed to devalue
the years she had spent relishing her brief moments of solitude.
She slipped out of bed, not bothering to open the shutters. The sunlight
was faint, which meant it was still early morning, but she could alreadyhear people moving in the hallway. She crept to the door, creaking it
open and peeking out.
After leaving Kelsier the night before, Dockson had led Vin to Clubs’s
shop. Because of the late hour, Clubs had immediately led them to their
separate rooms. Vin, however, had not gone to bed immediately. She had
waited until everyone was asleep, then had snuck out to inspect her
surroundings.
The residence was almost more of an inn than it was a shop. Though it
had a showroom below and a large workshop in the back, the building’s
second floor was dominated by several long hallways lined with
guestrooms. There was a third floor, and the doors were more widely
spaced there, implying larger rooms. She hadn’t tapped for trapdoors or
false walls—the noise might have awakened someone—but experience
told her that it wouldn’t be a proper lair if it didn’t have at least a secret
basement and some bolt-holes.
Overall, she was impressed. The carpentry equipment and halffinished projects below indicated a reputable, working front. The lair was
secure, well stocked, and well maintained. Watching through the crack in
her door, Vin made out a group of about six groggy young men coming
out of the hallway opposite her own. They wore simple clothing, and
made their way down the stairs toward the workroom.
Apprentice carpenters, Vin thought. That’s Clubs’s front—he’s a skaa
craftsman. Most skaa lived lives of drudgery on the plantations; even
those who lived in a city were generally forced to do menial labor.
However, some talented few were allowed a trade. They were still skaa;
they were paid poorly and were always subject to the whims of the
nobility. However, they had a measure of freedom that most skaa would
envy.
Clubs was probably a master carpenter. What would entice such a man
—one who had, by skaa standards, an amazing life—to risk joining the
underground?
He is a Misting, Vin thought. Kelsier and Dockson called him a
“Smoker.” She would probably have to figure out what that meant on her
own; experience told her that a powerful man like Kelsier would
withhold knowledge from her as long as he could, stringing her along
with occasional tidbits. His knowledge was what bound her to him—it
would be unwise to give away too much too quickly.Footsteps sounded outside, and Vin continued to peek through the
crack.
“You’ll want to get ready, Vin,” Dockson said as he passed her door.
He wore a nobleman’s dress shirt and slacks, and he already looked
awake and trim. He paused, continuing. “There’s a fresh bath for you in
the room at the end of the hallway, and I had Clubs scrounge you up a
few changes of clothing. They should fit well enough until we can get
you something more appropriate. Take your time in the bath—Kell’s
planned a meeting for this afternoon, but we can’t start until Breeze and
Ham arrive.”
Dockson smiled, eyeing her through the cracked door, then continued
on down the hallway. Vin flushed at being caught. These are observant
men. I’m going to have to remember that.
The hallway grew quiet. She slipped out her door and crept down to
the indicated room, and was half surprised to find that there was indeed a
warm bath waiting for her. She frowned, studying the tiled chamber and
metal tub. The water smelled scented, after the fashion of noble ladies.
These men are more like noblemen than skaa, Vin thought. She wasn’t
certain what she thought of that. However, they obviously expected her
to do as they did, so she closed and bolted the door, then disrobed and
crawled into the tub.
She smelled funny.
Even though the scent was faint, Vin still caught whiffs of herself
occasionally. It was the smell of a passing noblewoman, the scent of a
perfumed drawer opened by her brother’s burgling fingers. The smell
grew less noticeable as the morning progressed, but it still worried her. It
would distinguish her from other skaa. If this crew expected her to take
those baths regularly, she would have to request that the perfumes be
removed.
The morning meal was more up to her expectations. Several skaa
women of various ages worked the shop’s kitchen, preparing baywraps—
rolls of thin, flat bread stuffed with boiled barley and vegetables. Vin
stood by the kitchen doorway, watching the women work. None of themsmelled like she did, though they were far more cleanly and well
groomed than average skaa.
In fact, there was an odd sense of cleanliness to the entire building.
She hadn’t noticed it the night before, because of the darkness, but the
floor was scrubbed clean. All of the workers—kitchen women or
apprentices—had clean faces and hands. It felt odd to Vin. She was
accustomed to her own fingers being black with ashstains; with Reen, if
she’d ever washed her face, she had quickly rubbed it with ash again. A
clean face stood out on the streets.
No ash in the corners, she thought, eyeing the floor. The room is kept
swept. She’d never lived in such a place before. It was almost like living
in some nobleman’s house.
She glanced back at the kitchen women. They wore simple dresses of
white and gray, with scarves around the tops of their heads and long tails
of hair hanging out the back. Vin fingered her own hair. She kept it short,
like a boy’s—her current, ragged cut had been given by one of the other
crewmembers. She wasn’t like these women—she never had been. By
Reen’s command, Vin had lived so that other crewmembers would think
of her as a thief first and a girl second.
But, what am I now? Perfumed by her bath, yet wearing the tan
trousers and buttoning shirt of an apprentice craftsman, she felt distinctly
out of place. And that was bad—if she felt awkward, then she
undoubtedly looked awkward too. Something else to make her stand out.
Vin turned, eyeing the workroom. The apprentices were already about
their morning labors, working on various bits of furniture. They stayed in
the back while Clubs worked in the main showroom, putting detailed
finishing touches on the pieces.
The back kitchen door suddenly slammed open. Vin slipped
reflexively to the side, putting her back to a wall and peeking around into
the kitchen.
Ham stood in the kitchen doorway, framed by red sunlight. He wore a
loose shirt and vest, both sleeveless, and carried several large packs. He
wasn’t dirtied by soot—none of the crew had ever been, the few times
Vin had seen them.
Ham walked through the kitchen and into the workroom. “So,” he said,
dropping his packs, “anyone know which room is mine?”
“I’ll ask Master Cladent,” one of the apprentices said, moving into the
front room.Ham smiled, stretching, then turned toward Vin. “Morning, Vin. You
know, you don’t have to hide from me. We’re on the same team.”
Vin relaxed but remained where she was, standing beside a line of
mostly finished chairs. “You’re going to live here too?”
“It always pays to stay near the Smoker,” Ham said, turning and
disappearing back into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with a
stack of four large baywraps. “Anyone know where Kell is?”
“Sleeping,” Vin said. “He came in late last night, and hasn’t gotten up
yet.”
Ham grunted, taking a bite of a baywrap. “Dox?”
“In his room on the third floor,” Vin said. “He got up early, came down
to get something to eat, and went back upstairs.” She didn’t add that she
knew, from peeking through the keyhole, that he was sitting at his desk
scribbling on some papers.
Ham raised an eyebrow. “You always keep track of where everyone is
like that?”
“Yes.”
Ham paused, then chuckled. “You’re an odd kid, Vin.” He gathered up
his packs as the apprentice returned, and the two moved up the stairs.
Vin stood, listening to their footsteps. They stopped about halfway down
the first hallway, perhaps a few doors from her room.
The scent of steamed barley enticed her. Vin eyed the kitchen. Ham
had gone in and taken food. Was she allowed to do the same?
Trying to look confident, Vin strode into the kitchen. A pile of
baywraps sat on a platter, probably to be delivered to the apprentices as
they worked. Vin picked up two of them. None of the women objected;
in fact, a few of them even nodded respectfully toward her.
I’m an important person now, she thought with a measure of
discomfort. Did they know that she was…Mistborn? Or was she simply
treated with respect because she was a guest?
Eventually, Vin took a third baywrap and fled to her room. It was more
food than she could possibly eat; however, she intended to scrape out the
barley and save the flatbread, which would keep well should she need it
later.A knock came at her door. Vin answered it, pulling the door open with a
careful motion. A young man stood outside—the boy who had been with
Clubs back at Camon’s lair the night before.
Thin, tall, and awkward-looking, he was dressed in gray clothing. He
was perhaps fourteen, though his height might have made him look older
than he was. He seemed nervous for some reason.
“Yes?” Vin asked.
“Um…”
Vin frowned. “What?”
“You’re wanted,” he said in a thick Eastern accent. “Ups in the where
above with the doing. With Master Jumps to the third floor. Uh, I’ve
gotta go.” The boy blushed, then turned and hurried away, scrambling up
the stairs.
Vin stood in the doorway of her room, dumbfounded. Was that
supposed to make any sense? she wondered.
She peeked into the hallway. The boy had seemed like he expected her
to follow him. Finally, she decided to do so, carefully making her way up
the steps.
Voices were coming from an open door at the end of the hallway. Vin
approached and peeked around the corner to find a well-decorated room,
set with a fine rug and comfortable-looking chairs. A hearth burned at
the side of the room, and the chairs were arranged to point toward a large
charcoal writing board set atop an easel.
Kelsier stood, leaning one elbow resting against the brick hearth, a cup
of wine in his hand. Angling herself slightly, Vin could see that he was
talking to Breeze. The Soother had arrived well into midday, and had
appropriated half of Clubs’s apprentices to unload his possessions. Vin
had watched from her window as the apprentices had carried the luggage
—disguised as boxes of lumber scraps—up to Breeze’s room. Breeze
himself hadn’t bothered to help.
Ham was there, as was Dockson, and Clubs was settling himself into
the large, overstuffed chair farthest from Breeze. The boy who had
fetched Vin sat on a stool beside Clubs, and he was obviously making a
point of trying not to look at her. The final occupied chair held the man
Yeden, dressed—as before—in common skaa worker’s clothing. He sat
in his chair without resting against its back, as if he disapproved of its
plushness. His face was darkened with soot, as Vin expected of a skaa
worker.There were two empty chairs. Kelsier noticed Vin standing by the
doorway, and gave her one of his inviting smiles. “Well, there she is.
Come in.”
Vin scanned the room. There was a window, though its shutters were
closed against approaching gloom. The only chairs were the ones in
Kelsier’s half circle. Resigned, she moved forward and took the empty
chair beside Dockson. It was too big for her, and she settled into it with
her knees folded beneath her.
“That’s all of us,” Kelsier said.
“Who’s the last chair for?” Ham asked.
Kelsier smiled, winked, but ignored the question. “All right, let’s talk.
We’ve got something of a task ahead of ourselves, and the sooner we
begin outlining a plan, the better.”
“I thought you had a plan,” Yeden said uncomfortably.
“I have a framework,” Kelsier said. “I know what needs to happen,
and I have a few ideas on how to do it. But, you don’t gather a group like
this and just tell them what to do. We need to work this out together,
beginning with a list of problems we need to deal with if we want the
plan to work.”
“Well,” Ham said, “let me get the framework straight first. The plan is
to gather Yeden an army, cause chaos in Luthadel, secure the palace,
steal the Lord Ruler’s atium, then leave the government to collapse?”
“Essentially,” Kelsier said.
“Then,” Ham said, “our main problem is the Garrison. If we want
chaos in Luthadel, then we can’t have twenty thousand troops here to
keep the peace. Not to mention the fact that Yeden’s troops will never
take the city while there is any sort of armed resistance on the walls.”
Kelsier nodded. Picking up a piece of chalk, he wrote Luthadel
Garrison up on the board. “What else?”
“We’ll need a way to make said chaos in Luthadel,” Breeze said,
gesturing with a cup of wine. “Your instincts are right, my dear man.
This city is where the Ministry makes its headquarters and the Great
Houses run their mercantile empires. We’ll need to bring Luthadel down
if we want to break the Lord Ruler’s ability to govern.”
“Mentioning the nobility brings up another point,” Dockson added.
“The Great Houses all have guard forces in the city, not to mention theirAllomancers. If we’re going to deliver the city to Yeden, we’ll have to
deal with those noblemen.”
Kelsier nodded, writing Chaos and Great Houses beside Luthadel
Garrison on his board.
“The Ministry,” Clubs said, leaning back in his plush chair so much
that Vin almost couldn’t see his grumpy face. “There’ll be no change in
government as long as the Steel Inquisitors have anything to say about
it.”
Kelsier added Ministry to the board. “What else?”
“Atium,” Ham said. “You might as well write it up there—we’ll need
to secure the palace quickly, once general mayhem starts, and make
certain nobody else takes the opportunity to slip into the treasury.”
Kelsier nodded, writing Atium: Secure Treasury on the board.
“We will need to find a way to gather Yeden’s troops,” Breeze added.
“We’ll have to be quiet, but quick, and train them somewhere that the
Lord Ruler won’t find them.”
“We also might want to make certain that the skaa rebellion is ready to
take control of Luthadel,” Dockson added. “Seizing the palace and
digging in will make for a spectacular story, but it would be nice if
Yeden and his people were actually ready to govern, once this is all
over.”
Troops and Skaa Rebellion were added to the board. “And,” Kelsier
said, “I’m going to add ‘Lord Ruler.’ We’ll at least want a plan to get
him out of the city, should other options fail.” After writing Lord Ruler
on the list, he turned back toward the group. “Did I forget anything?”
“Well,” Yeden said dryly, “if you’re listing problems we’ll have to
overcome, you should write up there that we’re all bloody insane—
though I doubt we can fix that fact.”
The group chuckled, and Kelsier wrote Yeden’s Bad Attitude on the
board. Then he stepped back, looking over the list. “When you break it
down like that, it doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”
Vin frowned, trying to decide if Kelsier was attempting a joke or not.
The list wasn’t just daunting—it was disturbing. Twenty thousand
imperial soldiers? The collected forces and power of the high nobility?
The Ministry? One Steel Inquisitor was said to be more powerful than a
thousand troops.More discomforting, however, was how matter-of-factly they regarded
the issues. How could they even think of resisting the Lord Ruler? He
was…well, he was the Lord. He ruled all of the world. He was the
creator, protector, and punisher of mankind. He had saved them from the
Deepness, then had brought the ash and the mists as a punishment for the
people’s lack of faith. Vin wasn’t particularly religious—intelligent
thieves knew to avoid the Steel Ministry—but even she knew the
legends.
And yet, the group regarded their list of “problems” with
determination. There was a grim mirth about them—as if they
understood that they had a better chance of making the sun rise at night
than they did of overthrowing the Final Empire. Yet, they were still
going to try.
“By the Lord Ruler,” Vin whispered. “You’re serious. You really mean
to do this.”
“Don’t use his name as an oath, Vin,” Kelsier said. “Even blasphemy
honors him—when you curse by that creature’s name, you acknowledge
him as your god.”
Vin fell silent, sitting back in her chair, a bit numb.
“Anyway,” Kelsier said, smiling lightly. “Anyone have any ideas on
how to overcome these problems? Besides Yeden’s attitude, of course—
we all know he’s hopeless.”
The room was quiet and thoughtful.
“Thoughts?” Kelsier asked. “Angles? Impressions?”
Breeze shook his head. “Now that it’s all up there, I can’t help
wondering if the child has a point. This is a daunting task.”
“But it can be done,” Kelsier said. “Let’s start by talking about how to
break the city. What can we do that would be so threatening that it would
throw the nobility into chaos, maybe even get the palace guard out into
the city, exposing them to our troops? Something that would distract the
Ministry, and the Lord Ruler himself, while we move our troops in to
attack?”
“Well, a general revolution among the populace comes to mind,” Ham
said.
“Won’t work,” Yeden said firmly.
“Why not?” Ham asked. “You know how the people are treated. They
live in slums, work in mills and smithies the entire day, and half of themstill starve.”
Yeden shook his head. “Don’t you understand? The rebellion has been
trying for a thousand years to get the skaa in this city to rise up. It never
works. They’re too beaten down—they don’t have the will or the hope to
resist. That’s why I had to come to you to get an army.”
The room fell still. Vin, however, slowly nodded her head. She’d seen
it—she’d felt it. One didn’t fight the Lord Ruler. Even living as a thief,
crouching at the edge of society, she knew that. There would be no
rebellion.
“He’s right, I’m afraid,” Kelsier said. “The skaa won’t rise up, not in
their current state. If we’re going to overthrow this government, we’ll
need to do it without the help of the masses. We can probably recruit our
soldiers from among them, but we can’t count on the general populace.”
“Could we cause a disaster of some sort?” Ham asked. “A fire
maybe?”
Kelsier shook his head. “It might disrupt trade for a while, but I doubt
it would have the effect we want. Besides, the cost in skaa lives would be
too high. The slums would burn, not stone nobleman keeps.”
Breeze sighed. “What, then, would you have us do?”
Kelsier smiled, eyes twinkling. “What if we turned the Great Houses
against each other?”
Breeze paused. “A house war…” he said, taking a speculative sip of
his wine. “It’s been a while since the city had one of those.”
“Which means that tensions have had plenty of time to brew,” Kelsier
said. “The high nobility are growing increasingly powerful—the Lord
Ruler barely has control over them anymore, which is why we have a
chance of shattering his grip. Luthadel’s Great Houses are the key—they
control imperial trade, not to mention enslave the greatest majority of the
skaa.”
Kelsier pointed at the board, moving his finger between the line that
said Chaos and the line that said Great Houses.
“If we can turn the houses inside Luthadel against each other, we can
bring down the city. Mistborn will start assassinating house leaders.
Fortunes will collapse. It won’t take long before there is open warfare in
the streets. Part of our contract with Yeden states that we’ll give him an
opening to seize the city for himself. Can you think of a better one than
that?”Breeze nodded with a smile. “It has flair—and I do like the idea of
having the noblemen kill each other.”
“You always like it better when someone else does the work, Breeze,”
Ham noted.
“My dear friend,” Breeze replied, “the entire point of life is to find
ways to get others to do your work for you. Don’t you know anything
about basic economics?”
Ham raised an eyebrow. “Actually, I—”
“It was a rhetorical question, Ham,” Breeze interrupted, rolling his
eyes.
“Those are the best kind!” Ham replied.
“Philosophy later, Ham,” Kelsier said. “Stay on task. What do you
think of my suggestion?”
“It could work,” Ham said, settling back. “But I can’t see the Lord
Ruler letting things go that far.”
“It’s our job to see that he doesn’t have a choice,” Kelsier said. “He’s
known to let his nobility squabble, probably to keep them off-balance.
We fan those tensions, then we somehow force the Garrison to pull out.
When the houses start fighting in earnest, the Lord Ruler won’t be able
to do anything to stop them—except, perhaps, send his palace guard into
the streets, which is exactly what we want him to do.”
“He could also send for a koloss army,” Ham noted.
“True,” Kelsier said. “But they’re stationed a moderate distance away.
That’s a flaw we need to exploit. Koloss troops make wonderful grunts,
but they have to be kept away from civilized cities. The very center of
the Final Empire is exposed, yet the Lord Ruler is confident in his
strength—and why shouldn’t he be? He hasn’t faced a serious threat in
centuries. Most cities only need small policing forces.”
“Twenty thousand men is hardly a ‘small’ number,” Breeze said.
“It is on a national scale,” Kelsier said, holding up a finger. “The Lord
Ruler keeps most of his troops on the edges of his empire, where the
threat of rebellion is strongest. That’s why we’re going to strike him
here, in Luthadel itself—and that’s why we’re going to succeed.”
“Assuming we can deal with that Garrison,” Dockson noted.
Kelsier nodded, turning to write House War underneath Great Houses
and Chaos. “All right, then. Let’s talk about the Garrison. What are we
going to do about it?”“Well,” Ham said speculatively, “historically, the best way to deal with
a large force of soldiers is to have your own large force of soldiers.
We’re going to raise Yeden an army—why not let them attack the
Garrison? Isn’t that kind of the point of raising the army in the first
place?”
“That won’t work, Hammond,” Breeze said. He regarded his empty
cup of wine, then held it up toward the boy sitting beside Clubs, who
immediately scurried over to refill it.
“If we wanted to defeat the Garrison,” Breeze continued, “we’d need
our own force of at least its same size. We’d probably want one much
larger, since our men will be newly trained. We might be able to raise
Yeden an army—we might even be able to get him one large enough to
hold the city for a while. But, getting him one large enough to take on
the Garrison inside its fortifications? We might as well give up now, if
that’s our plan.”
The group fell silent. Vin squirmed in her chair, looking over each man
in turn. Breeze’s words had a profound effect. Ham opened his mouth to
speak, then closed it again, sitting back to reconsider.
“All right,” Kelsier finally said. “We’ll get back to the Garrison in a
moment. Let’s look at our own army. How can we raise one of
substantial size and hide it from the Lord Ruler?”
“Again, that will be difficult,” Breeze said. “There is a very good
reason why the Lord Ruler feels safe in the Central Dominance. There
are constant patrols on the roadways and canals, and you can hardly
spend a day traveling without running into a village or plantation. This
isn’t the sort of place where you can raise an army without attracting
notice.”
“The rebellion has those caves up to the north,” Dockson said. “We
might be able to hide some men there.”
Yeden paled. “You know about the Arguois caverns?”
Kelsier rolled his eyes. “Even the Lord Ruler knows about them,
Yeden. The rebels there just aren’t dangerous enough to bother him yet.”
“How many people do you have, Yeden?” Ham asked. “In Luthadel
and around it, caves included? What do we have to start with?”
Yeden shrugged. “Maybe three hundred—including women and
children.”
“And how many do you think those caves could hide?” Ham asked.Yeden shrugged again.
“The caves could support a larger group, for certain,” Kelsier said.
“Perhaps ten thousand. I’ve been there—the rebellion has been hiding
people in them for years, and the Lord Ruler has never bothered to
destroy them.”
“I can imagine why,” Ham said. “Cave fighting is nasty business,
especially for the aggressor. The Lord Ruler likes to keep defeats to a
minimum—he’s nothing if not vain. Anyway, ten thousand. That’s a
decent number. It could hold the palace with ease—might even be able to
hold the city, if it had the walls.”
Dockson turned to Yeden. “When you asked for an army, what size
were you thinking?”
“Ten thousand sounds like a good number, I suppose,” Yeden said.
“Actually…it’s a bit larger than I was thinking.”
Breeze tipped his cup slightly, swirling the wine. “I hate to sound
contrary again—that’s usually Hammond’s job—but I do have to return
to our earlier problem. Ten thousand men. That won’t even frighten the
Garrison. We’re talking about twenty thousand well-armed, well-trained
troops.”
“He has a point, Kell,” Dockson said. He had found a small book
somewhere, and had begun taking notes on the meeting.
Kelsier frowned.
Ham nodded. “Any way you look at it, Kell, that Garrison is going to
be a tough stone to break. Perhaps we should just focus on the nobility.
Maybe we can cause enough chaos that even the Garrison won’t be able
to suppress it.”
Kelsier shook his head. “Doubtful. The Garrison’s primary duty is to
maintain order in the city. If we can’t deal with those troops, we’ll never
pull this off.” He paused, then eyed Vin. “What do you think, Vin? Any
suggestions?”
She froze. Camon had never asked her opinion. What did Kelsier want
from her? She pulled back into her chair slightly as she realized that the
other members of the crew had turned, looking at her.
“I…” Vin said slowly.
“Oh, don’t intimidate the poor thing, Kelsier,” Breeze said with a wave
of his hand.Vin nodded, but Kelsier didn’t turn away from her. “No, really. Tell me
what you’re thinking, Vin. You’ve got a much larger enemy threatening
you. What do you do?”
“Well,” she said slowly. “You don’t fight him, that’s for certain. Even
if you won somehow, you’d be so hurt and broken that you couldn’t fight
off anyone else.”
“Makes sense,” Dockson said. “But we might not have a choice. We
have to get rid of that army somehow.”
“And if it just left the city?” she asked. “That would work too? If I had
to deal with someone big, I’d try and distract him first, get him to leave
me alone.”
Ham chuckled. “Good luck getting the Garrison to leave Luthadel. The
Lord Ruler sends squads out on patrol sometimes, but the only time I
know of the entire Garrison leaving was when that skaa rebellion broke
out down in Courteline a half century ago.”
Dockson shook his head. “Vin’s idea is too good to dismiss that easily,
I think. Really, we can’t fight the Garrison—at least, not while they’re
entrenched. So, we need to get them to leave the city somehow.”
“Yes,” Breeze said, “but it would take a particular crisis to require
involving the Garrison. If the problem weren’t threatening enough, the
Lord Ruler wouldn’t send the entire Garrison. If it were too dangerous,
he’d hunker down and send for his koloss.”
“A rebellion in one of the nearby cities?” Ham suggested.
“That leaves us with the same problem as before,” Kelsier said,
shaking his head. “If we can’t get the skaa here to rebel, we’ll never get
ones outside the city to do so.”
“What about a feint of some sort, then?” Ham asked. “We’re assuming
that we’ll be able to raise a sizable group of soldiers. If they pretend to
attack someplace nearby, perhaps the Lord Ruler would send the
Garrison out to help.”
“I doubt he’d send them away to protect another city,” Breeze said.
“Not if it left him exposed in Luthadel.”
The group fell silent, thinking again. Vin glanced around, then found
Kelsier’s eyes on her.
“What?” he asked.
She squirmed a bit, glancing down. “How far away are the Pits of
Hathsin?” she finally asked.The crew paused.
Finally, Breeze laughed. “Oh, now that’s devious. The nobility don’t
know that the Pits produce atium, so the Lord Ruler couldn’t make much
of a fuss—not without revealing that there’s something very special
about those Pits. That means no koloss.”
“They wouldn’t arrive in time anyway,” Ham said. “The Pits are only a
couple of days away. If they were threatened, the Lord Ruler would have
to respond quickly. The Garrison would be the only force in striking
distance.”
Kelsier smiled, eyes alight. “And it wouldn’t take much of an army to
threaten the Pits, either. A thousand men could do it. We send them to
attack, then when the Garrison leaves, we march our second, larger force
in and seize Luthadel itself. By the time the Garrison realized that they’d
been duped, they wouldn’t be able to get back in time to stop us from
taking the city walls.”
“Could we keep them, though?” Yeden asked apprehensively.
Ham nodded eagerly. “With ten thousand skaa, I could hold this city
against the Garrison. The Lord Ruler would have to send for his koloss.”
“By then, we’d have the atium,” Kelsier said. “And the Great Houses
won’t be in any position to stop us—they’ll be weakened and frail
because of their internal fighting.”
Dockson was scribbling furiously on his pad. “We’ll need to use
Yeden’s caves, then. They’re within striking distance of both our targets,
and they’re closer to Luthadel than the Pits are. If our army left from
there, it could get here before the Garrison could return from the Pits.”
Kelsier nodded.
Dockson continued to scribble. “I’ll have to start stockpiling supplies
in those caves, maybe make a trip out to check conditions there.”
“And, how are we going to get the soldiers there?” Yeden asked.
“That’s a week outside the city—and skaa aren’t allowed to travel on
their own.”
“I’ve already got someone who can help us there,” Kelsier said,
writing Attack Pits of Hathsin beneath Luthadel Garrison on his board.
“I have a friend that can give us a front to run canal boats to the north.”
“Assuming,” Yeden said, “you can even make good on your first and
primary promise. I paid you to gather me an army. Ten thousand men is a
great number, but I’ve still to see an adequate explanation of how you’regoing to raise them. I’ve already told you the kinds of problems we’ve
had trying to recruit in Luthadel.”
“We won’t need the general population to support us,” Kelsier said.
“Just a small percentage of them—there are nearly a million workers in
and around Luthadel. This should actually be the easiest part of the plan,
since we happen to be in the presence of one of the world’s greatest
Soothers. Breeze, I’m counting on you and your Allomancers to force us
up a nice selection of recruits.”
Breeze sipped his wine. “Kelsier, my good man. I wish you wouldn’t
use words like ‘force’ in reference to my talents. I simply encourage
people.”
“Well, can you encourage us up an army?” Dockson asked.
“How much time do I have?” Breeze asked.
“A year,” Kelsier said. “We’ll plan this to go off next fall. Assuming
the Lord Ruler does gather his forces to attack Yeden once we take the
city, we might as well make him do it in the winter.”
“Ten thousand men,” Breeze said with a smile, “gathered from a
resistant population in less than a year. It would certainly be a
challenge.”
Kelsier chuckled. “From you, that’s as good as a yes. Start in Luthadel,
then move to the surrounding cities. We need people who are close
enough to gather at the caves.”
Breeze nodded.
“We’ll also need weapons and supplies,” Ham said. “And we’ll need to
train the men.”
“I’ve already got a plan to get weapons,” Kelsier said. “Can you find
some men to do the training?”
Ham paused thoughtfully. “Probably. I know some skaa soldiers who
fought in one of the Lord Ruler’s Suppression Campaigns.”
Yeden paled. “Traitors!”
Ham shrugged. “Most of them aren’t proud of what they did,” he said.
“But most of them also like to eat. It’s a hard world, Yeden.”
“My people will never work with such men,” Yeden said.
“They’ll have to,” Kelsier said sternly. “A large number of skaa
rebellions fail because their men are poorly trained. We’re going to give
you an army of well-equipped, well-fed men—and I’ll be damned if I’mgoing to let you get them slaughtered because they were never taught
which end of the sword to hold.”
Kelsier paused, then eyed Ham. “However, I do suggest that you find
men who are bitter against the Final Empire for what it forced them to
do. I don’t trust men whose loyalty only goes as far as the boxings in
their pockets.”
Ham nodded, and Yeden quieted. Kelsier turned, writing Ham:
Training and Breeze: Recruitment beneath Troops on the board.
“I’m interested in your plan to get weapons,” Breeze said. “How,
exactly, do you intend to arm ten thousand men without making the Lord
Ruler suspicious? He keeps a very careful eye on the armament flows.”
“We could make the weapons,” Clubs said. “I have enough extra wood
that we could churn out a war staff or two every day. Could probably get
you some arrows too.”
“I appreciate the offer, Clubs,” Kelsier said. “And I think that’s a good
idea. However, we’re going to need more than staves. We’ll need
swords, shields, and armor—and we need them quickly enough to begin
training.”
“How, then, are you going to do it?” Breeze asked.
“The Great Houses can get weapons,” Kelsier said. “They don’t have
any problems arming their personal retinues.”
“You want us to steal from them?”
Kelsier shook his head. “No, for once we’re going to do things
somewhat legally—we’re going to buy our weapons. Or, rather, we’re
going to have a sympathetic nobleman buy them for us.”
Clubs laughed bluntly. “A nobleman sympathetic to the skaa? It will
never happen.”
“Well, ‘never’ happened a short time ago, then,” Kelsier said lightly.
“Because I’ve already found someone to help us.”
The room fell silent save for the crackling of the fireplace. Vin
squirmed slightly in her chair, glancing at the others. They seemed
shocked.
“Who?” Ham asked.
“His name is Lord Renoux,” Kelsier said. “He arrived in the area a few
days back. He’s staying in Fellise—he doesn’t quite have enough
influence to establish himself in Luthadel. Besides, I think it’s prudent to
keep Renoux’s activities a bit removed from the Lord Ruler.”Vin cocked her head. Fellise was a small, suburb-style city an hour
outside of Luthadel; she and Reen had worked there before moving into
the capital city. How had Kelsier recruited this Lord Renoux? Had he
bribed the man, or was it some sort of scam?
“I know of Renoux,” Breeze said slowly. “He’s a Western lord; he has
a great deal of power in the Farmost Dominance.”
Kelsier nodded. “Lord Renoux recently decided to try and elevate his
family to high noble status. His official story is that he came south in
order to expand his mercantile efforts. He hopes that by shipping fine
Southern weaponry to the North, he can earn enough money—and make
enough connections—to build himself a keep in Luthadel by the end of
the decade.”
The room was quiet.
“But,” Ham said slowly, “those weapons will be coming to us instead.”
Kelsier nodded. “We’ll have to fake the shipping records, just in case.”
“That’s…quite an ambitious front, Kell,” Ham said. “A lord’s family
working on our side.”
“But,” Breeze said, looking confused. “Kelsier, you hate noblemen.”
“This one’s different,” Kelsier said with a sly smile.
The crew studied Kelsier. They didn’t like working with a nobleman;
Vin could tell that much easily. It probably didn’t help that Renoux was
so powerful.
Suddenly, Breeze laughed. He leaned back in his chair, downing the
last of his wine. “You blessed madman! You killed him, didn’t you?
Renoux—you killed him and replaced him with an impostor.”
Kelsier’s smile broadened.
Yeden cursed, but Ham simply smiled. “Ah. Now that makes sense.
Or, at least, it makes sense if you’re Kelsier the Foolhardy.”
“Renoux is going to take up permanent residence in Fellise,” Kelsier
said. “He’ll be our front if we need to do anything official. I’ll use him to
purchase armaments and supplies, for instance.”
Breeze nodded thoughtfully. “Efficient.”
“Efficient?” Yeden asked. “You’ve killed a nobleman! A very
important one.”
“You’re planning to overthrow the entire empire, Yeden,” Kelsier
noted. “Renoux isn’t going to be the last aristocratic casualty in this littleendeavor.”
“Yes, but impersonating him?” Yeden asked. “That sounds a little risky
to me.”
“You hired us because you wanted extraordinary results, my dear
man,” Breeze said, sipping his wine. “In our line of work, extraordinary
results usually require extraordinary risks.”
“We minimize them as best we can, Yeden,” Kelsier said. “My actor is
very good. However, these are the sorts of things we’re going to be doing
in this job.”
“And if I order you to stop a few of them?” Yeden asked.
“You can shut down the job at any time,” Dockson said, not looking up
from his ledgers. “But as long as it is in motion, Kelsier has final say on
plans, objectives, and procedures. That is how we work; you knew that
when you hired us.”
Yeden shook his head ruefully.
“Well?” Kelsier asked. “Do we continue or not? The call is yours,
Yeden.”
“Feel free to call an end to it, friend,” Breeze said with a helpful voice.
“Don’t be afraid of offending us. I, for one, look favorably upon free
money.”
Vin saw Yeden pale slightly. In Vin’s estimation, he was fortunate that
Kelsier hadn’t simply taken his money and stabbed him in the chest. But,
she was becoming increasingly convinced that wasn’t the way things
worked around here.
“This is insane,” Yeden said.
“Trying to overthrow the Lord Ruler?” Breeze asked. “Why, yes, as a
matter of fact, it is.”
“All right,” Yeden said, sighing. “We continue.”
“Good,” Kelsier said, writing Kelsier: Equipment under Troops. “The
Renoux front will also give us an ‘in’ with Luthadel high society. This
will be a very important advantage—we’ll need to keep careful track of
Great House politics if we’re going to start a war.”
“This house war might not be as easy to pull off as you think, Kelsier,”
Breeze warned. “The current lot of high noblemen is a careful,
discriminating group.”Kelsier smiled. “Then it’s good that you’re here to help, Breeze.
You’re an expert at making people do what you want—together, you and
I will plan how to make the high nobility turn on each other. Major house
wars seem to happen every couple of centuries or so. The current group’s
competence will only make them more dangerous, so getting them riled
up shouldn’t be that hard. In fact, I’ve already started the process….”
Breeze raised an eyebrow, then glanced at Ham. The Thug grumbled a
bit, pulling out a golden ten-boxing coin and flipping it across the room
to the self-satisfied Breeze.
“What was that about?” Dockson asked.
“We had a bet,” Breeze said, “regarding whether or not Kelsier was
involved in last night’s disturbance.”
“Disturbance?” Yeden asked. “What disturbance?”
“Someone attacked House Venture,” Ham said. “The rumors claim that
three full Mistborn were sent to assassinate Straff Venture himself.”
Kelsier snorted. “Three? Straff certainly has an elevated opinion of
himself. I didn’t go anywhere near His Lordship. I was there for the
atium—and to make certain that I was seen.”
“Venture isn’t sure who to blame,” Breeze said. “But because Mistborn
were involved, everyone assumes that it was one of the Great Houses.”
“That was the idea,” Kelsier said happily. “The high nobility take
Mistborn attacks very seriously—they have an unspoken agreement that
they won’t use Mistborn to assassinate each other. A few more strikes
like this, and I’ll have them snapping at each other like frightened
animals.”
He turned, adding Breeze: Planning and Kelsier: General Mayhem
beneath Great Houses on the board.
“Anyway,” Kelsier continued, “we’ll need to keep an eye on local
politics to find out which Houses are making alliances. That means
sending a spy to some of their functions.”
“Is that really necessary?” Yeden asked uncomfortably.
Ham nodded. “It’s standard procedure for any Luthadel job, actually. If
there is information to be had, it will pass through the lips of the court’s
powerful. It always pays to keep an open set of ears moving through
their circles.”
“Well, that should be easy,” Breeze said. “We just bring up your
impostor and send him into the parties.”Kelsier shook his head. “Unfortunately, Lord Renoux himself won’t be
able to come to Luthadel.”
Yeden frowned. “Why not? Won’t your impostor hold up to close
scrutiny?”
“Oh, he looks just like Lord Renoux,” Kelsier said. “Exactly like Lord
Renoux, actually. We just can’t let him get near an Inquisitor….”
“Ah,” Breeze said, exchanging a glance with Ham. “One of those.
Well, then.”
“What?” Yeden asked. “What does he mean?”
“You don’t want to know,” Breeze said.
“I don’t?”
Breeze shook his head. “You know how unsettled you just were when
Kelsier said he’d replaced Lord Renoux with an impostor? Well, this is
about a dozen times worse. Trust me—the less you know, the more
comfortable you’ll be.”
Yeden looked toward Kelsier, who was smiling broadly. Yeden paled,
then leaned back in his chair. “I think you’re probably right.”
Vin frowned, eying the others in the room. They seemed to know what
Kelsier was talking about. She’d have to study this Lord Renoux
sometime.
“Anyway,” Kelsier said, “we have to send someone to the social
functions. Dox, therefore, will be playing Renoux’s nephew and heir, a
scion of the family who has recently gained favor with Lord Renoux.”
“Wait a moment, Kell,” Dockson said. “You didn’t tell me about this.”
Kelsier shrugged. “We’re going to need someone to be our dupe with
the nobility. I assumed that you’d fit the role.”
“Can’t be me,” Dockson said. “I got marked during the Eiser job just a
couple months back.”
Kelsier frowned.
“What?” Yeden asked. “Do I want to know what they’re talking about
this time?”
“He means that the Ministry is watching for him,” Breeze said. “He
pretended to be a nobleman, and they found out.”
Dockson nodded. “The Lord Ruler himself saw me on one occasion,
and he’s got a flawless memory. Even if I managed to avoid him,
someone’s bound to recognize me eventually.”“So…” Yeden said.
“So,” Kelsier said, “we’ll need someone else to play Lord Renoux’s
heir.”
“Don’t look at me,” Yeden said apprehensively.
“Trust me,” Kelsier said flatly, “nobody was. Clubs is out too—he’s
far too prominent a local skaa craftsman.”
“I’m out as well,” Breeze said. “I already have several aliases among
the nobility. I suppose I could use one of them, but I couldn’t go to any
major balls or parties—it would be rather embarrassing if I met someone
who knew me by a different alias.”
Kelsier frowned thoughtfully.
“I could do it,” Ham said. “But you know I’m no good at acting.”
“What about my nephew?” Clubs said, nodding to the young man at
his side.
Kelsier studied the boy. “What’s your name, son?”
“Lestibournes.”
Kelsier raised an eyebrow. “That’s a mouthful. You don’t have a
nickname?”
“Not of the yetting yet.”
“We’ll have to work on that,” Kelsier said. “Do you always speak in
that Eastern street slang?”
The boy shrugged, obviously nervous at being such a center of
attention. “Wasing the place when I was young.”
Kelsier glanced at Dockson, who shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a
good idea, Kell.”
“Agreed.” Kelsier turned to Vin, then smiled. “I guess that leaves you.
How good are you at imitating a noblewoman?”
Vin paled slightly. “My brother gave me a few lessons. But, I’ve never
actually tried to….”
“You’ll do fine,” Kelsier said, writing Vin: Infiltration underneath
Great Houses. “All right. Yeden, you should probably begin planning
how you’re to keep control of the empire once this is all through.”
Yeden nodded. Vin felt a little sorry for the man, seeing how much the
planning—the sheer outrageousness of it all—seemed to be
overwhelming him. Still, it was hard to feel sympathy for him,
considering what Kelsier had just said regarding her part in all this.Playing a noblewoman? she thought. Surely there’s someone else who
could do a better job….
Breeze’s attention was still on Yeden and his obvious discomfort.
“Don’t look so solemn, my dear fellow,” Breeze said. “Why, you’ll
probably never actually have to rule the city. Chances are, we’ll all get
caught and executed long before that happens.”
Yeden smiled wanly. “And if we don’t? What’s to keep you all from
just knifing me and taking the empire for yourselves?”
Breeze rolled his eyes. “We’re thieves, my dear man, not politicians. A
nation is far too unwieldy a commodity to be worth our time. Once we
have our atium, we’ll be happy.”
“Not to mention rich,” Ham added.
“The two words are synonyms, Hammond,” Breeze said.
“Besides,” Kelsier said to Yeden. “We won’t be giving you the entire
empire—hopefully, it will shatter once Luthadel destabilizes. You’ll have
this city, and probably a good piece of the Central Dominance—
assuming you can bribe the local armies into supporting you.”
“And…the Lord Ruler?” Yeden asked.
Kelsier smiled. “I’m still planning to deal with him personally—I just
have to figure out how to make the Eleventh Metal work.”
“And if you don’t?”
“Well,” Kelsier said, writing Yeden: Preparation and Rule beneath
Skaa Rebellion on the board, “we’ll try and find a way to trick him out of
the city. Perhaps we can get him to go with his army to the Pits and
secure things there.”
“Then what?” Yeden asked.
“You find some way to deal with him,” Kelsier said. “You didn’t hire
us to kill the Lord Ruler, Yeden—that’s just a possible perk I intend to
throw in if I can.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much, Yeden,” Ham added. “He won’t be able
to do much without funds or armies. He’s a powerful Allomancer, but by
no means omnipotent.”
Breeze smiled. “Though, if you think about it, hostile, dethroned
pseudo-deities probably make disagreeable neighbors. You’ll have to
figure out something to do with him.”Yeden didn’t appear to like that idea much, but he didn’t continue the
argument.
Kelsier turned. “That should be it, then.”
“Uh,” Ham said, “what about the Ministry? Shouldn’t we at least find
a way to keep an eye on those Inquisitors?”
Kelsier smiled. “We’ll let my brother deal with them.”
“Like hell you will,” a new voice said from the back of the room.
Vin jumped to her feet, spinning and glancing toward the room’s
shadowed doorway. A man stood there. Tall and broad-shouldered, he
had a statuesque rigidity. He wore modest clothing—a simple shirt and
trousers with a loose skaa jacket. His arms were folded in dissatisfaction,
and he had a hard, square face that looked a bit familiar.
Vin glanced back at Kelsier. The similarity was obvious.
“Marsh?” Yeden said, standing. “Marsh, it is you! He promised you’d
be joining the job, but I…well…welcome back!”
Marsh’s face remained impassive. “I’m not certain if I’m ‘back’ or not,
Yeden. If you all don’t mind, I’d like to speak privately with my little
brother.”
Kelsier didn’t seem intimidated by Marsh’s harsh tone. He nodded to
the group. “We’re done for the evening, folks.”
The others rose slowly, giving Marsh a wide berth as they left. Vin
followed them, pulling the door shut and walking down the stairs to give
the appearance of retiring to her room.
Less than three minutes later she was back at the door, listening
carefully to the conversation going on inside.Rashek is a tall man—of course, most of these Terrismen are tall. He is
young to receive so much respect from the other packmen. He has
charisma, and the women of court would probably describe him as
handsome, in a rugged sort of way.
Yet, it amazes me that anyone would give heed to a man who speaks
such hatred. He has never seen Khlennium, yet he curses the city. He
does not know me, yet I can already see the anger and hostility in his
eyes.
