Mistborn #01 The Final Empire

man stumbled to the stone floor as they pushed him into the cell beside Vin’s.
    “ Sazed? ” Vin cried, rushing to the bars.
    The Terrisman lay groggily as the soldiers tied his hands and feet to a small metal ring set into the stone floor. He had been beaten so severely that he barely seemed conscious, and he was completely naked. Vin turned away from his nudity, but not before she saw the place between his legs—a simple, empty scar where his manhood should have been.
    All Terrisman stewards are eunuchs, he had told her. That wound wasn’t new—but the bruises, cuts, and scrapes were fresh.
    “We found him sneaking into the palace after you,” Kar said. “Apparently, he feared for your safety.”
    “What have you done to him?” she asked quietly.
    “Oh, very little . . . so far,” Kar said. “Now, you may wonder why I spoke to you of your brother. Perhaps you think me a fool for admitting that your brother’s mind snapped before we drew out his secret. But, you see, I am not so much a fool that I will not admit a mistake. We should have drawn out your brother’s torture . . . made him suffer longer. That was an error indeed.”
    He smiled wickedly, nodding to Sazed. “We won’t make that mistake again, child. No—this time, we’re going to try a different tactic. We’re going to let you watch us torture the Terrisman. We’re going to be very careful, making certain his pain is lasting, and quite vibrant. When you tell us what we want to know, we’ll stop.”
    Vin shivered in horror. “No . . . please . . .”
    “Oh, yes,” Kar said. “Why don’t you take some time to think about what we’re going to do to him? The Lord Ruler has commanded my presence—I need to go and receive formal leadership of the Ministry. We’ll begin when I return.”
    He turned, black robe sweeping the ground. The guards followed, likely taking positions in the guard chamber just outside the room.
    “Oh, Sazed,” Vin said, sinking to her knees beside the bars of her cage.
    “Now, Mistress,” Sazed said in a surprisingly lucid voice. “What did we tell you about running around in your undergarments? Why, if Master Dockson were here, he would scold you for certain.”
    Vin looked up, shocked. Sazed was smiling at her.
    “Sazed!” she said quietly, glancing in the direction the guards had gone. “You’re awake?”
    “Very awake,” he said. His calm, strong voice was a stark contrast to his bruised body.
    “I’m sorry, Sazed,” she said. “Why did you follow me? You should have stayed back and let me be stupid on my own!”
    He turned a bruised head toward her, one eye swollen, but the other looking into her eyes. “Mistress,” he said solemnly, “I vowed to Master Kelsier that I would see to your safety. The oath of a Terrisman is not something given lightly.”
    “But . . . you should have known you’d be captured,” she said, looking down in shame.
    “Of course I knew, Mistress,” he said. “Why, how else was I going to get them to bring me to you?”
    Vin looked up. “Bring you . . . to me?”
    “Yes, Mistress. There is one thing that the Ministry and my own people have in common, I think. They both underestimate the things that we can accomplish.”
    He closed his eyes. And then, his body changed. It seemed to . . . deflate, the muscles growing weak and scrawny, the flesh hanging loosely on his bones.
    “Sazed!” Vin cried out, pushing herself against the bars, trying to reach him.
    “It is all right, Mistress,” he said in a faint, frighteningly weak voice. “I just need a moment to . . . gather my strength.”
    Gather my strength. Vin paused, lowering her hand, watching Sazed for a few minutes. Could it be . . .
    He looked so weak—as if his strength, his very muscles, were being drawn away. And perhaps . . . stored somewhere?
    Sazed’s eyes snapped open. His body returned to normal; then his muscles continued to grow, becoming large and powerful, growing bigger, even, than Ham’s.
    Sazed smiled at her from a head sitting atop a beefy, muscular neck; then he easily snapped his bindings. He stood, a massive, inhumanly muscular man—so different from the lanky, quiet scholar she had known.
    The Lord Ruler spoke of their strength in his logbook, she thought with wonder. He said the man Rashek lifted a boulder by himself and threw it out of their way.
    “But, they took all of your jewelry!” Vin said. “Where did you hide the metal?”
    Sazed smiled, grabbing the bars