Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (36 page)

The woman sniffed. "You spread lies. You know nothing of my supposed plans."

"Don't I? You're not the type to let a man like Yomen determine your future, and if the others here think about it, they'll realized that there's no way you would let yourself get caught in Fadrex City without plans to escape. I'm surprised you're even still here."

"Your threats do not frighten me," the lady said.

"I haven't threatened you yet," Vin noted, sipping her wine. She gave a careful Push on the emotions of the women at the table, making them more worried. "We could get to that, if you wish though, technically, I've got your entire city under threat already."

The woman narrowed her eyes at Vin. "Don't listen to her, ladies."

"Yes, Lady Patresen," one of the women said, speaking a little too quickly. Patresen, Vin thought, relieved that someone had finally mentioned the woman's name.
Do I know
that name ?
"House Patresen," Vin said idly. "Isn't that a cousin family of House Elariel ? " Lady Patresen remained quiet.

"I killed an Elariel once," Vin said. "It was a good f ight. Shan was a very clever woman, and a skilled Mistborn." She leaned in. "You may think that the stories about me are exaggerations. You may assume that I didn't really kill the Lord Ruler, and that the talk is simply propaganda crafted to help stabilize my husband's rule. "Think as you wish, Lady Patresen. However, there is one thing you
must
understand. You are not my adversary. I don't have
time
for people like you. You're a petty woman in an insignif icant city, part of a doomed culture of nobility. I'm not talking to you because I want to be part of your schemes; you can't even understand how unimportant they are to me. I'm just here to voice a warning. We're going to take this city and when we do, there will be little room for people who were against us." Patresen paled just slightly. However, her voice was calm when she spoke. "I doubt that's true. If you could take the city as easily as you claim, then you would have already."

"My husband is a man of honor," Vin said, " and decided that he wished to speak with Yomen before attacking. I, however, am not quite so temperate." "Well,
I
think that "

"You don't understand, do you? " Vin asked. "It doesn't matter what you think. Look, I know you're the type with powerful connections . Those connections will have told you by now the numbers we bring. Forty thousand men, twenty thousand koloss, and a full contingent of Allomancers. Plus two Mistborn. My husband and I did not come to this conf erence to make allies, or even to make enemies. We came to give warning. I suggest you take it."

She punctuated her last comment with a powerful Soothing. She wanted it to be obvious to the women, to let them know that they were indeed under her power. Then, she stood, trailing away from the table.

What she had said to Patresen wasn't really that important the important thing was that Vin had been seen confronting the woman. Hopefully, that would put Vin on a side in the local politics, making her less threatening to some factions in the room. That, in turn, would make her more accessible, and The sound of chairs scooting back from the table came from behind her. Vin turned, suspicious, and saw most of Lady Patresen's clique approaching in a hurry, leaving their leader sitting virtually alone at her table, a scowl on her face .

Vin tensed.

"Lady Venture," one of the women said. "Perhaps you would let some of us . . . introduce you at the party?"

Vin frowned.

"Please," the woman said very quietly.

Vin blinked in surprise. She'd expected the women to resent her, not
listen
to her. She glanced about. Most of the women looked so intimidated that Vin thought they might wilt away, like leaves in the sun. Feeling a little bemused, Vin nodded her head and let herself be led into the party f or introductions .

. 75 201

Rashek wore both black and white. I think he wanted to show that he was a dualit y, Preservation and
Ruin.

This, of course, was a lie. Af ter all, he had onl y touched one of the powers and onl y in a ver y small
way at that.

31

"LORD BREEZE GUESSED CORRECTLY,"
S azed said, standing at the front of their small group. "As far as I can tell, the diversion of waters into this underground reservoir was intentional. The proj ect must have taken decades. It required widening natural passageways so that the water which once fed the river and canals above instead flowed into this cavern."

"Yes, but what's the point?" Breeze asked. "Why waste so much effort to move a river? " Three days in Urteau had allowed them to do as Spook had suggested, moving their troops into the Ministry building, ostensibly taking up residence inside of it. The Citizen couldn't know about the cache, otherwise he would have ransacked it. That meant Sazed and his team held a distinct advantage should events in the city turn ugly.

They had pulled some of the furniture from the building above and arranged it with sheets and tapestries to create "rooms " amid the shelves in the cavern. Logic dictated that the cavern was the best place to spend their time, for should someone attack the Ministry building, the cavern was where they wanted to be. True, they'd be trapped but with the supplies they had, they'd be able to survive indefinitely and work out a plan of escape.

Sazed, Breeze, Spook, and Allri anne sat in one of these partitioned-off areas among the shelves of food. "The reason that the Lord Ruler made this lake is simple, I think." Sazed turned, glancing over his shoulder at the lake. "That water comes via an underground river, filtered in all likelihood through layers of rock. It is pure water, the likes of which you rarely see in the Final Empire. No ash, no sediment. The purpose of that water is to sustain a population should a disaster occur. If it were still flowing into the canals above, it would quickly get soiled and polluted by the population living in the city."

"The Lord Ruler was looking to the future," Spook said, still wearing his strange eye bandage . He'd turned aside all questions and promptings regarding why he wore it, though Sazed was beginning to suspect it had to do with burning tin.

Sazed nodded at the young man's comment. "The Lord Ruler wasn't worried about causing financial ruin in Urteau he just wanted to make certain this cavern had access to a constant, f lowing source of fresh water."

"Isn't this all beside the point? " Allrianne asked. "So we have water. What about that maniac running the city ? "

Sazed paused, and the others turned to look to him.
I am, un f ortunately, in char ge.
"Well," he said,

"we should speak of this. Emperor Venture has asked us to secure the city. As the Citizen has proven unwilling to meet with us again, we shall need to discuss other options."

"That man needs to go," Spook said. "We need assassins."

"I fear that wouldn't work very well, my dear boy," Breeze said.

"Why not?" Spook asked. "We killed the Lord Ruler, and that worked pretty well."

"Ah," Breeze said, raising a finger, "but the Lord Ruler was irreplaceable. He was a god, and so killing him created a psychological impact on his populace." Allrianne nodded. " This Citizen's not a force of nature, but a man and men can be replaced. If we assassinate Quellion, one of his lackeys will simply take his place."

"And we will be branded as murderers," Breeze added.

"What, then?" Spook asked. "We leave him alone ?"

"Of course not," Breeze said. "If we want to take this city, we need to undermine him,
then
remove him. We prove that his entire system is faulty that his government is, in essence, silly. If we manage that, we won't j ust stop him, we'll stop everyone who has worked with him and supported him. That is the only way we're going to take Urteau short of marching an army in here and seizing it by force."

"And, since His Maj esty kindly left us without any troops to speak of . . ." Allrianne said.

"I am not convinced that such rash action is required," S azed said. "Perhaps, given more time, we'll be able to work with this man."

"Work with
him?"
Spook asked. "You've been here three days isn't that enough for you to see what Quellion is like ? "

"I have seen," Sazed said. "And, to be perf ectly honest, I do not know that I can fault the Citizen's views."

The cavern f ell silent.

"Perhaps you should explain yourself, my dear man," Breeze said, sipping at a cup of wine.

"The things that the Citizen says are not false," Sazed said. "We cannot blame him for teaching the very same things that Kelsier did. The Survivor spoke of killing the nobility goodness knows, we all saw him engaging in
that
activity often enough. He spoke of revolution and of skaa ruling themselves

."

"He spoke of extreme actions during extreme times," Breeze said. "That's what you do when you need to motivate people. Even Kelsier wouldn't have taken it this far."

"Perhaps," Sazed said. "But can we really be surprised that people who heard Kelsier speak have created this society? And, what right have we to take it from them? In a way, they've been truer to Kelsier than we have . Can you really say that you think he'd be pleased to f ind out that we put a nobleman on the throne not one day after he died?"

Breeze and Spook glanced at e ach other, and neither contradicted him.

"It's just not right," Spook finally said. "These people claim to know Kelsier, but they don't. He didn't want people to be grim and bullied he wanted them to be free and happy."

"Indeed," Breeze said. "Beside s, we
did
choose to follow Elend Venture and he's given us an order. Our empire needs these supplies, and we can't afford to let an organized rebellion seize and control one of the most important cities in the empire. We need to secure this cache and protect the people of Urteau. It's for the greater good, and all that!"

Allrianne nodded her agreement and, as always, S azed felt her touch on his emotions .
For the greater good . . .
Saze d thought. He knew that Spook was right. Kelsier wouldn't want this warped society being perpetuated in his name. Something needed to be done. "Very well," he said.

"What should our course of action be ? "

"Nothing, for now," Breeze said. "We need time to f eel out the city's climate. How close are the people to rebelling against dear Quellion? How active is the local criminal element? How corruptible are the men who serve the new government? Give me some time to discover answers to these questions, and then we can decide what to do."

"I still say we do it as Kelsier did," Spook said. "Why can't we just topple the Citizen like he did the Lord Ruler? "

"I doubt that would work," Breeze said, sipping his wine.

"Why not?" Spook asked.

"For a very simple reason, my dear boy," Breeze said. "We don't have Kelsier anymore." Sazed nodded. That much was true though he did wonder if they would ever be rid of the Survivor's legacy. In a way, the battle in this town had been inevitable . If Kelsier had possessed one flaw, it had been his extreme hatred of the nobility. It was a passion that had driven him, had helped him accomplish the impossible. However, Sazed feared it would destroy those whom it had infected.

"Take the time you need, Breeze," S azed said. "Let me know when you think we are ready to take the next step."

Breeze nodded, and the meeting broke up. Sazed stood, sighing quietly. As he did, he met Breeze's eyes, and the man winked at him with a smile that seemed to say, "This won't be half as diff icult as you think." S azed smiled back, and he f elt Breeze's touch on his emotions, trying to encourage him. Yet, the Soother's hand was too light. Breeze couldn't have known the conflict that still twisted inside of Sazed. A conf lict about much more than Kelsier and the problems in Urteau. He was glad for a little bit of time to wait in the city, for he still had much work to do with the religions listed, one per sheet, in his portfolio. Even that work was difficult for him to get to recently. He did his best to give the others leadership, as Elend had asked. However, the pernicious darkness Sazed felt inside of him refused to be shaken away. It was more dangerous to him, he knew, than anything else he had faced while serving with the crew, because it made him feel as if he didn't care. I must keep working, he decided, walking away from the meeting place, caref ully sliding his portfolio off of a nearby shelf.
I have to keep searching. I must not give up.
It was far more difficult than that, however. In the past, logic and thought had always been his refuge. However, his emotions didn't respond to logic . No amount of thinking about what he should be doing could help him.

He ground his teeth, walking, hoping that the motion would help him work out the knots within himself. A part of him wanted to go out and study the new form of the Church of the Survivor that had sprung up here in Urteau. However, that seemed like a waste of time. The world was ending, why study one more religion? He already knew this one was false; he 'd dismissed the Church of the Survivor early in his studies. It was filled with more contradictions than almost any in his portfolio. More filled with passion as well.

All the religions in his collection were alike in one respect; they had failed. The people who'd followed them had died, been conquered, their religions stamped out. Was that not proof enough for him ? He'd tried preaching them, but he'd very, very rarely had any success. It was all meaningless . Everything was ending anyway.

No!
Sazed thought.
I will f ind the answers. The religions didn't disappear com pletel y the Keepers
preserved them. There must be answers in one of them. Somewhere.

Eventually,
he found his way to the wall of the cavern, which held the steel plate inscribed by the Lord Ruler. They already had a record of what it said, of course, but . 76 201

Sazed wanted to see it and read it for himself. He looked up at the metal, which ref lected the light of a nearby lantern, reading the words of the very man who had destroyed so many religions. The plan, the words said, is
simple. When the power returns to the Well, I will take it and make
certain the thing remains trapped.