Vin nodded. Another man would be afraid that I’m keeping secrets from him, too. Elend just tries to make me feel less guilty. He was a better man than she deserved.

  “Kandra,” Elend said, “Vin says you do well at keeping up with her.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. “These bones, though distasteful, are well equipped for tracking and quick movement.”

  “And if she gets hurt?” Elend said. “Will you be able to pull her to safety?”

  “Not with any speed, Your Majesty. I will, however, be able to go for aid. These bones have many limitations, but I will do my best to fulfill the Contract.”

  Elend must have caught Vin’s raised eyebrow, for he chuckled. “He’ll do as he says, Vin.”

  “The Contract is everything, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “It demands more than simple service. It requires diligence and devotion. It is the kandra. By serving it, we serve our people.”

  Vin shrugged. The group fell silent, Elend pulling a book from his pocket, Vin leaning against him. OreSeur lay down, filling the entire seat opposite the humans. Eventually, the carriage rolled into the Venture courtyard, and Vin found herself looking forward to a warm bath. As they were climbing from the carriage, however, a guard rushed up to Elend. Tin allowed Vin to hear what the man said, even though he spoke before she could close the distance.

  “Your Majesty,” the guard whispered, “our messenger reached you, then?”

  “No,” Elend said with a frown as Vin walked over. The soldier gave her a look, but continued speaking; the soldiers all knew that Vin was Elend’s primary bodyguard and confidant. Still, the man looked oddly concerned when he saw her.

  “We… ah, don’t want to be intrusive,” the soldier said. “That’s why we’ve kept this quiet. We were just wondering if… everything is all right.” He looked at Vin as he spoke.

  “What is this about?” Elend asked.

  The guard turned back toward the king. “The corpse in Lady Vin’s room.”

  The “corpse” was actually a skeleton. One completely picked clean, without a hint of blood – or even tissue – marring its shiny white surfaces. A good number of the bones were broken, however.

  “I’m sorry, Mistress,” OreSeur said, speaking low enough that only she could hear. “I assumed that you were going to dispose of these.”

  Vin nodded. The skeleton was, of course, the one OreSeur had been using before she gave him the animal body. Finding the door unlocked – Vin’s usual sign that she wanted a room cleaned – the maids had entered. Vin had stashed the bones in a basket, intending to deal with them later. Apparently, the maids had decided to check and see what was in the basket, and been somewhat surprised.

  “It’s all right, Captain,” Elend said to the young guard – Captain Demoux, second-in-command of the palace guard. Despite the fact that Ham shunned uniforms, this man seemed to take great pride in keeping his own uniform very neat and smart.

  “You did well by keeping this quiet,” Elend said. “We knew about these bones already. They aren’t a reason for concern.”

  Demoux nodded. “We figured it was something intentional.” He didn’t look at Vin as he spoke.

  Intentional, Vin thought. Great. I wonder what this man thinks I did. Few skaa knew what kandra were, and Demoux wouldn’t know what to make of remains like these.

  “Could you dispose of these quietly for me, Captain?” Elend asked, nodding to the bones.

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” the guard said.

  He probably assumes I ate the person or something, Vin thought with a sigh. Sucked the flesh right off his bones.

  Which, actually, wasn’t that far from the truth.

  “Your Majesty,” Demoux said. “Would you like us to dispose of the other body as well?”

  Vin froze.

  “Other one?” Elend asked slowly.

  The guard nodded. “When we found this skeleton, we brought in some dogs to sniff about. The dogs didn’t turn up any killers, but they did find another body. Just like this one – a set of bones, completely cleaned of flesh.”

  Vin and Elend shared a look. “Show us,” Elend said.

  Demoux nodded, and led them out of the room, giving a few whispered orders to one of his men. The four of them – three humans and one kandra – traveled a short distance down the palace hallway, toward a less used section of visitors’ chambers. Demoux dismissed a soldier standing at a particular door, then led them inside.

  “This body wasn’t in a basket, Your Majesty,” Demoux said. “It was stuffed in a back closet. We’d probably never have found it without the dogs – they picked up the scent pretty easily, though I can’t see how. These corpses are completely clean of flesh.”

  And there it was. Another skeleton, like the first, sitting piled beside a bureau. Elend glanced at Vin, then turned to Demoux. “Would you excuse us, Captain?”

  The young guard nodded, walking from the room and closing the door.

  “Well?” Elend said, turning to OreSeur.

  “I do not know where this came from,” the kandra said.

  “But it is another kandra-eaten corpse,” Vin said.

  “Undoubtedly, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “The dogs found it because of the particular scent our digestive juices leave on recently excreted bones.”

  Elend and Vin shared a look.

  “However,” OreSeur said, “it is probably not what you think. This man was probably killed far from here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They are discarded bones, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. “The bones a kandra leaves behind…”

  “After he finds a new body,” Vin finished.

  “Yes, Mistress,” OreSeur said.

  Vin looked at Elend, who frowned. “How long ago?” he asked. “Maybe the bones were left a year before, by my father’s kandra.”

  “Perhaps, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. But he sounded hesitant. He padded over, sniffing at the bones. Vin picked one up herself, holding it to her nose. With tin, she easily picked out a sharp scent that reminded her of bile.

  “It’s very strong,” she said, glancing at OreSeur.

  He nodded. “These bones haven’t been here long, Your Majesty. A few hours at most. Perhaps even less.”

  “Which means we have another kandra somewhere in the palace,” Elend said, looking a bit sick. “One of my staff has been… eaten and replaced.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. “There is no way to tell from these bones whom it could be, since these are the discards. The kandra would have taken the new bones, eating their flesh and wearing their clothing.”

  Elend nodded, standing. He met Vin’s eyes, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was. It was possible that a member of the palace staff had been replaced, which would mean a slight breach in security. There was a far more dangerous possibility, however.

  Kandra were incomparable actors; OreSeur had imitated Lord Renoux so perfectly that even people who’d known him had been fooled. Such talent could have been used for the imitation of a maid or a servant. However, if an enemy had wanted to get a spy into Elend’s closed meetings, he would need to replace a person far more important.

  It would be someone that we haven’t seen during the last few hours, Vin thought, dropping the bone. She, Elend, and OreSeur had been on the wall for most of the afternoon and evening – ever since the end of the Assembly meeting – but the city and palace had been in chaos since the second army had arrived. The messengers had had trouble finding Ham, and she still wasn’t certain where Dockson was. In fact, she hadn’t seen Clubs until he’d joined her and Elend on the wall just a bit before. And Spook had been the last to arrive.

  Vin looked down at the pile of bones, feeling a sickening sense of unease. There was a very good chance that someone in their core team – a member of Kelsier’s former band – was now an impostor.

  Part two

  GHOSTS IN THE MIST

  12

  It wasn’t until years later that I became convinced that Alendi was the Hero of Ages. Hero of Ages: the one called Rabzeen in Khlennium, the Anamnesor.

  Savior.

  A FORTRESS SAT IN THE misty murk of evening.

  It rested at the bottom of a large depression in the land. The steep-sided, craterlike valley was so wide that even in daylight Sazed would barely have been able to see the other side. In the oncoming darkness, obscured by mist, the far edge of the massive hole was only a deep shadow.

  Sazed knew very little about tactics and strategy; though his metalminds held dozens of books on the subjects, he had forgotten their contents in order to create the stored records. The little he did know told him that this fortress – the Conventical of Seran – was not very defensible. It relinquished the high ground, and the crater sides would provide an excellent location for siege engines to pelt rocks down at the walls.

  This fortress, however, had not been built to defend against enemy soldiers. It had been built to provide solitude. The crater made it difficult to find, for a slight rise in the land around the crater’s lip made it practically invisible until one drew near. No roads or paths marked the way, and travelers would have great trouble getting down the sheer sides.

  The Inquisitors did not want visitors.

  “Well?” Marsh asked.

  He and Sazed stood on the crater’s northern lip, before a drop of several hundred feet. Sazed tapped his vision tinmind, drawing forth some of the eyesight he had stored within it. The edges of his vision fuzzed, but things directly in front of him seemed to grow much closer. He tapped a little more sight, ignoring the nausea that came from compounding so much vision.

  The increased eyesight let him study the Conventical as if he stood before it. He could see each notch in the dark stone walls – flat, broad, imposing. He could discern each bit of rust on the large steel plates that hung bolted into outside stones of the wall. He could see each lichen-encrusted corner and ash-stained ledge. There were no windows.

  “I do not know,” Sazed said slowly, releasing his vision tinmind. “It is not easy to say whether or not the fortress is inhabited. There is no motion, nor is there light. But, perhaps the Inquisitors are just hiding inside.”

  “No,” Marsh said, his stiff voice uncomfortably loud in the evening air. “They are gone.”

  “Why would they leave? This is a place of great strength, I think. Poor defense against an army, but a great defense against the chaos of the times.”

  Marsh shook his head. “They are gone.”

  “How are you so certain?”

  “I do not know.”

  “Where did they go, then?”

  Marsh looked at him, then turned and glanced over his shoulder. “North.”

  “Toward Luthadel?” Sazed asked, frowning.

  “Among other things,” Marsh said. “Come. I do not know if they will return, but we should exploit this opportunity.”

  Sazed nodded. This was why they had come, after all. Still, a part of him hesitated. He was a man of books and genteel service. Traveling the countryside to visit villages was enough removed from his experience to be discomforting. Infiltrating the Inquisitor stronghold…

  Marsh obviously didn’t care about his companion’s inner struggles. The Inquisitor turned and began to walk along the rim of the crater. Sazed threw his pack over his shoulder, then followed. They eventually arrived at a cage-like contraption, obviously meant to be lowered down to the bottom by ropes and pulleys. The cage sat locked in place at the top ledge, and Marsh stopped at its side, but did not enter.

  “What?” Sazed asked.

  “The pulley system,” Marsh said. “The cage is meant to be lowered by men holding it from below.”

  Sazed nodded, realizing this was true. Marsh stepped forward and threw a lever. The cage fell. Ropes began to smoke, and pulleys squealed as the massive cage plummeted toward the chasm floor. A muted crash echoed against the rocks.

  If there is anyone down there, Sazed thought, they now know we’re here.

  Marsh turned toward him, the heads of his eye-spikes glistening slightly in the failing sunlight. “Follow however you wish,” he said. Then, he tied off the counterrope and began to climb down the ropes.

  Sazed stepped up to the platform’s edge, watching Marsh shimmy down the dangling rope into the shadowed, misty abyss. Then, Sazed knelt and opened his pack. He unhooked the large metal bracers around his upper and lower arms – his core copperminds. They contained the memories of a Keeper, the stored knowledge of centuries past. He reverently placed them to the side, then pulled a pair of much smaller bracelets – one iron, one pewter – from the pack. Metalminds for a warrior.

  Did Marsh understand how unskilled Sazed was in this area? Amazing strength did not a warrior make. Regardless, Sazed snapped the two bracelets around his ankles. Next, he pulled out two rings – tin and copper. These he slipped on his fingers.

  He closed the pack and threw it over his shoulder, then picked up his core copperminds. He carefully located a good hiding place – a secluded hollow between two boulders – and slid them inside. Whatever happened below, he didn’t want to risk them being taken and destroyed by the Inquisitors.

  In order to fill a coppermind with memories, Sazed had listened to another Keeper recite his entire collection of histories, facts, and stories. Sazed had memorized each sentence, then shoved those memories into the coppermind for later retrieval. Sazed remembered very little of the actual experience – but he could draw forth any of the books or essays he wished, placing them back into his mind, gaining the ability to recollect them as crisply as when he’d first memorized them. He just had to have the bracers on.

  Being without his copperminds made him anxious. He shook his head, walking back over to the platform. Marsh was moving very quickly down toward the chasm floor; like all Inquisitors, he had the powers of a Mistborn. Though how he had gotten those powers – and how he managed to live despite the spikes that had been driven directly through his brain – was a mystery. Marsh had never answered Sazed’s questions on the subject.

  Sazed called down, drawing Marsh’s attention, then held up his pack and dropped it. Marsh reached out, and the pack lurched, Pulled by its metals into Marsh’s hand. The Inquisitor threw it over his shoulder before continuing his descent.

  Sazed nodded thankfully, then stepped off the platform. As he began to fall, he mentally reached into his ironmind, searching for the power he had stored therein. Filling a metalmind always had a cost: in order to store up sight, Sazed had been forced to spend weeks with poor eyesight. During that time, he had worn a tin bracelet, stowing away the excess sight for later use.

  Iron was a bit different from the others. It didn’t store up sight, strength, endurance – or even memories. It stored something completely different: weight.

  This day, Sazed didn’t tap the power stored inside the ironmind; that would have made him more heavy. Instead, he began to fill the ironmind, letting it suck away his weight. He felt a familiar sense of lightness – a sense that his own body wasn’t pressing upon itself as forcefully.

  His fall slowed. The Terris philosophers had much to say on using an ironmind. They explained that the power didn’t actually change a person’s bulk or size – it just somehow changed the way that the ground pulled against them. Sazed’s fall didn’t slow because of his decrease in weight – it slowed because he suddenly had a relatively large amount of surface exposed to the wind of his fall, and a lighter body to go along with it.

  Regardless of the scientific reasons, Sazed didn’t fall as quickly. The thin metal bracelets on his legs were the heaviest things on his body, and they kept him pointed feet-downward. He held out his arms and bent his body slightly, letting the wind push against him. His descent was not terribly slow – not like that of a leaf or a feather. However, he didn’t plummet either. Instead, he fell in a controlled – almost leisurely – manner. Clothing flapping, arms outspread, he passed Marsh, who watched with a curious expression.

  As he approached the ground, Sazed tapped his pewtermind, drawing forth a tiny bit of strength to prepare. He hit the ground – but, because his body was so light, there was very little shock. He barely even needed to bend his knees to absorb the force of impact.

  He stopped filling the ironmind, released his pewter, and waited quietly for Marsh. Beside him, the carrying cage lay in shambles. Sazed noticed several broken iron shackles with discomfort. Apparently, some of those who had visited the Conventical had not come by choice.

  By the time Marsh neared the bottom, the mists were thick in the air. Sazed had lived with them all of his life, and had never before felt uncomfortable in them. Yet, now he half expected the mists to begin choking him. To kill him, as they seemed to have done to old Jed, the unfortunate farmer whose death Sazed had investigated.

  Marsh dropped the last ten feet or so, landing with an Allomancer’s increased agility. Even after spending so much time with Mistborn, Sazed was impressed with Allomancy’s gifts. Of course, he’d never been jealous of them – not really. True, Allomancy was better in a fight; but it could not expand the mind, giving one access to the dreams, hopes, and beliefs of a thousand years of culture. It could not give the knowledge to treat a wound, or help teach a poor village to use modern fertilization techniques. The metalminds of Feruchemy weren’t flamboyant, but they had a far more lasting value to society.

  Besides, Sazed knew a few tricks with Feruchemy that were bound to surprise even the most prepared warrior.

  Marsh handed him the pack. “Come.”

  Sazed nodded, shouldering the pack and following the Inquisitor across the rocky ground. Walking next to Marsh was odd, for Sazed wasn’t accustomed to being around people who were as tall as he was. Terrismen were tall by nature, and Sazed even more so: his arms and legs were a bit too long for his body, a medical condition brought on by his having been castrated as a very young boy. Though the Lord Ruler was dead, Terris culture would long feel the effects of his stewardship and breeding programs – the methods by which he had tried to breed Feruchemical powers out of the Terris people.