Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (11 page)

Even now, Vin could feel her koloss tugging at her, trying to break free. It didn't like being controlled it wanted to attack her. It could not, fortunately; she controlled it, and would continue to do so whether awake or asleep, burning metals or not, unless someone stole the beast from her. Even linked as they were, there was so much Vin didn't understand about the creatures. She looked up, and found the koloss staring at her with its bloodred eyes . Its skin was stretched tight across its face, the nose pulled completely f lat. The skin was torn near the right eye, and a j agged rip ran down to the corner of its mouth, letting a f lap of blue skin hang free, exposing the red muscles and bloodied teeth below.

"Don't look at me," the creature said, speaking in a sluggish voice. Its words were slurred, partially from the way its lips were pulled.

"What?" Vin asked.

"You don't think I'm human," the koloss said, speaking slowly, deliberately like the others she had heard. It was like they had to think hard between each word. "You
aren't
human," Vin said. "You're something else. "

"I will
be human,"
the koloss said. "We will kill you. Take your cities . Then we will be human." Vin shivered. It was a common theme among koloss . She'd heard others make similar remarks. There was something very chilling about the flat, emotionless way the koloss spoke of slaughtering people.
They were created by the Lord Ruler,
she thought.
Of course the y're twisted. As twisted as he was
.

"What is your name?" she aske d the koloss.

It continued to lumber beside her. Finally, it looked at her. "Human."

"I know you want to be human," Vin said. "What is your name?"

"That is my name. Human. You call me Human."

. 26 201

Vin frowned as they walked.
That almost seemed . . . clever
. She'd never taken the opportunity to talk to koloss before. She'd alw ays assumed that they were of a homogeneous mentality just the same stupid beast repeated over and over.

"All right, Human," she said, curious. "How long have you been alive ? " He walked for a moment, so long that Vin thought he had forgotten the question. Finally, however, he spoke. "Don't you see my bigness?"

"Your bigness? Your size ? "

Human j ust kept walking.

"So you all grow at the same rate ? "

He didn't answer. Vin shook her head, suspecting that the question was too abstract for the beast. "I'm bigger than some," Human said. "Smaller than some but not very many. That means I'm old."
Another sign of intelligence,
she thought, raising an eyebrow. From what Vin had seen of other koloss, Human's logic was impressive.

"I hate you," Human said after a short time spent walking. "I want to kill you. But I can't kill you."

"No," Vin said. "I won't let you."

"You're big inside. Very big."

"Yes," Vin said. "Human, where are the girl koloss ? "

The creature walked several moments. "Girl ? "

"Like me," Vin said.

"We're not like you," he said. "We're big on the outside only."

"No," Vin said. "Not my size. My . . ." How did one describe gender? Short of stripping, she couldn't think of any methods. So, she decided to try a dif f erent tactic. "Are there baby koloss?"

"Baby ? "

"Small ones," Vin said.

The koloss pointed toward the marching koloss army. "Small ones," he said, ref erring to some of the five-foot-tall koloss.

"Smaller," Vin said.

"None smaller."

Koloss reproduction was a mystery that, to her knowledge, nobody had ever cracked. Even af ter a year spent fighting with the beasts, she'd never found out where new ones came from. Whenever Elend's koloss armies grew too small, she and he stole new ones from the Inquisitors. Yet, it was ridiculous to assume that the koloss didn't reproduce. She'd seen koloss camps that weren't controlled by an Allomancer, and the creatures killed each other with fearful regularity. At that rate, they would have killed themselves off after a f ew years. Yet, they had lasted for ten centuries. That implied a very quick rise from child to adult, or so Sazed and Elend seemed to think. They hadn't been able to confirm their theories, and she knew their ignorance frustrated Elend greatly especially since his duties as emperor left him little time for the studies he'd once enj oyed so much.

"If there are none smaller," Vin asked, "then where do new koloss come from?"

"New koloss come from us," Human finally said.

"From you?" Vin asked, frowning as she walked. "That doesn't tell me much." Human didn't say anything further. His talkative mood had apparently passed.
From us,
Vin thought.
They bud o f f of each other , perhaps?
She'd heard of some creatures that, if you cut them the right way, e ach half would grow into a new animal. But, that couldn't be the case with koloss she'd seen battlefields filled with their dead, and no pieces rose to form new koloss. But she'd also never seen a female koloss . Though most of the beasts wore crude loincloths, they were as far as she knew all male.

Further speculation was cut off as she noticed the line ahead bunching up; the crowd was slowing. Curious, she dropped a coin and left Human behind, shooting herself over the people. The mists had retreated hours ago, and though night was again approaching, for the moment it was both light and mistless. Therefore, as she shot through the falling ash, she easily picked out the canal up ahead. It cut unnaturally through the ground, far straighter than any river. Elend speculated that the constant ashfall would soon put an end to most of the canal systems. Without skaa laborers to dredge them on a regular basis, they would fill up with ashen sediment, eventually clogging to uselessness. Vin soared through the air, completing her arc, heading toward a large mass of tents stationed beside the canal. Thousands of f ires spit smoke into the afternoon air, and men milled about, training, w orking, or preparing. Nearly f if ty thousand soldiers bivouacked here, using the canal route as a supply line back to Luthadel. Vin dropped another coin, bounding through the air again. She quickly caught up to the small group of horses that had broken off from Elend's line of tired, marching skaa. She landed dropping a coin and Pushing against it slightly to slow her descent, throwing up a spray of ash as she hit.

Elend reined in his horse, smiling as he surveyed the camp. The expression was rare enough on his lips these days that Vin found herself smiling as well. Ahead, a group of men waited for them their scouts would have long since noticed the townspeople's approach.

"Lord Elend!" said a man sitting at the head of the army contingent. " You're ahead of schedule!"

"I assume you're ready anyway, General," Elend said, dismounting.

"Well, you know me," Demoux said, smiling as he approached. The general wore well-used armor of leather and steel, his face bearing a scar on one cheek, the left side of his scalp missing a large patch of hair where a koloss blade had nearly taken his head. Ever formal, the grizzled man bowed to Elend, who just slapped him on the shoulder affectionately.

Vin's smile lingered. I remember
when that man was little more than a fresh recruit standing
frightened in a tunnel
. Demoux wasn't actually that much older than she was, even though his tanned face and callused hands gave that impression.

"We've held position, my lord," Demoux said as Fatren and his brother dismounted and joined the group. "Not that there was much to hold it against. Still, it was good for my men to practice fortifying a camp."

Indeed, the army's camp beside the canal was surrounded by heaped earth and spikes a considerable feat, considering the army's size.

"You did well, Demoux," Elend said, turning back to look over the townspeople. " Our mission was a success."

"I can see that, my lord," Demoux said, smiling. "That's a fair pack of koloss you picked up. I hope the Inquisitor leading them wasn't
too
sad to see them go." "Couldn't have bothered him too much," Elend said. "Since he was dead at the time. We found the storage cavern as well."

"Praise the Survivor!" Demoux said.

Vin frowned. At his neck, hanging outside his clothing, Demoux wore a necklace that bore a small silver spear: the increasingly popular symbol of the Church of the Survivor. It seemed odd to her that the weapon that had killed Kelsier would become the symbol of his followers. Of course, she didn't like to think about the other possibility that the spear might not represent the one that had killed Kelsier. It might very well represent the one that she herself had used to kill the Lord Ruler. She'd never asked Demoux which it was . Despite three years of growing Church power, Vin had never become comfortable with her own part in its doctrine.

"Praise the Survivor indeed," E lend said, looking over the army's supply barges. "How did your project go?"

"Dredging the southern bend?" Demoux asked. "It went well there was blessed little else to do while we waited. You should be able to get barges through there now."

"Good," Elend said. "Form two task forces of f ive hundred men. Send one with barges back to Vetitan for the supplies we had to leave down in that cavern. They will transfer the supplies to the barges and send them up to Luthadel."

"Yes, my lord," Demoux said.

"Send the second group of soldiers north to Luthadel with these refugees," Elend said, nodding to Fatren. "This is Lord Fatren. He's in command of the townspeople. Have your men respect his wishes, as long as they are reasonable, and introduce him to Lord Penrod."

Once not long ago Fatren would probably have complained about being handed off. However, his time with Elend had transformed him surprisingly quickly. The dirty leader nodded gratefully at the escort. " You . . . aren't coming with us then, my lord?"

Elend shook his head. "I have other work to do, and your people need to get to Luthadel, where they can begin farming. Though, if any of your men wish to join my army, they are welcome. I'm always in need of good troops, and against the odds, you succeeded in training a useful force."

"My lord . . . why not j ust compel them? Pardon me, but that's what you've done so far."

"I compelled your people to safety, Fatren," Elend said. "Sometimes even a drowning man will fight the one who tries to save him and must be compelled. My army is a different matter. Men who don't want to fight are men you can't depend on in battle, and I won't have any of those in my army. You yourself need to go to Luthadel your people need you but please let your soldiers know that I will gladly welcome any of them into our ranks."

Fatren nodded. "All right. And . . . thank you, my lord."

"You are welcome. Now, General Demoux, are Sazed and Breeze back yet? "

"They should arrive sometime this evening, my lord," Demoux said. "One of their men rode ahead to let us know."

"Good," Elend said. "I assume my tent is ready ? "

"Yes, my lord," Demoux said.

Elend nodded, suddenly looking very tired to Vin.

"My lord?" Demoux asked eagerly. "Did you f ind the . . . other item? The location of the final cache

? "

Elend nodded. "It's in Fadrex."

. 27 201

"Cett's city ? " Demoux asked, l aughing. "Well, he'll be happy to hear that. He's been complaining for over a year that we haven't ever gotten around to conquering it back for him." Elend smiled wanly. "I've been half convinced that if we did, Cett would decide that he and his soldiers didn't need us anymore."

"He'll stay, my lord," Demoux said. "After the scare Lady Vin gave him last year . . ." Demoux glanced at Vin, trying to smile, but she saw it in his eyes. Respect, far too much of it. He didn't joke with her the way he did with Elend. She still couldn't believe that Elend had joined that silly religion of theirs. Elend's intentions had been political by joining the skaa faith, Elend had forged a link between himself and the common people. Even so, the move made her uncomfortable. A year of marriage had taught her, however, that there were some things one just had to ignore. She could love Elend for his desire to do the right thing, even when she thought he'd done the opposite .

"Call a meeting this evening, Demoux," Elend said. "We have much to discuss and let me know when S azed arrives."

"Should I inform Lord Hammond and the others of the meeting's agenda, my lord?" Elend paused, glancing toward the ashen sky. "Conquering the world, Demoux," he finally said. " Or, at least, what's left of it. "

. 28 201

A llomancy was, indeed, born with the mists. Or, at least, A llomancy began at the same time as the
mists' f irst appearances. When Rashek took the power at the Well o f Ascension, he became aware of
certain things. Some were whispered to him by Ruin; others were granted to him as an instinctive part
of the power
.
One of these was an understanding of the Three Metallic Arts. He knew, f or instance,
that the nuggets of metal in the Chamber of Ascension
would
make those who ingested them into
Mistborn. These were, after all, f ractions of the ver y power in the Well itsel f .
9

TENSOON HAD VISITED
the Trustwarren before; he was of the Third Generation. He had been born seven centuries ago, when the kandra were still new though by that time, the First Generation had already given over the raising of new kandra to the Second Generation.

The Seconds hadn't done very well with TenSoon's generation or, at least, that was how the Seconds felt. They'd wanted to form a society of individuals who followed strict rules of respect and seniority. A "perfect" people who lived to serve their Contracts and, of course, the members of the Second Generation. Up until his return, TenSoon had generally been considered one of the least troublesome of the Thirds. He'd been known as a kandra who cared little for Homeland politics; one who served out his Contracts, content to keep himself as far away from the Seconds and their machinations as possible. It was ironic indeed that TenS oon would end up on trial for the most heinous of kandra crimes.