Mistborn #01 The Final Empire

clothes?”
    “They’re on the floor over there,” she said, looking up at him. “Elend, how did you find me?”
    “Your friend, one Master Dockson, told me that you’d been captured in the palace. And well, this fine gentleman here—Captain Goradel, I believe his name is—happens to be a palace soldier, and he knew the way here. With his help—and as a nobleman of some rank—I was able to get into the building without much problem, and then we heard screaming down this hallway. . . . And, um, yes. Valette? Do you think you could go put your clothes on? This is . . . kind of distracting.”
    She smiled up at him. “You found me.”
    “For all the good it did,” he said wryly. “It doesn’t look like you needed our help very much. . . .”
    “That doesn’t matter,” she said. “You came back. No one’s ever come back before.”
    Elend looked down at her, frowning slightly.
    Sazed approached, carrying Vin’s clothing and cloak. “Mistress, we need to leave.”
    Elend nodded. “It’s not safe anywhere in the city. The skaa are rebelling!” He paused, looking at her. “But, uh, you probably already know that.”
    Vin nodded, finally letting go of him. “I helped start it. But, you’re right about the danger. Go with Sazed—he’s known by many of the rebel leaders. They won’t hurt you as long as he vouches for you.”
    Elend and Sazed both frowned as Vin pulled on her trousers. In the pocket, she found her mother’s earring. She put it back on.
    “Go with Sazed?” Elend asked. “But, what about you?”
    Vin pulled on her loose overshirt. Then she glanced upward . . . sensing through the stone, feeling him up above. He was there. Too powerful. Now, having faced him directly, she was certain of his strength. The skaa rebellion was doomed as long as he lived.
    “I have another task, Elend,” she said, taking the mistcloak from Sazed.
    “You think you can defeat him, Mistress?” Sazed said.
    “I have to try,” she said. “The Eleventh Metal worked, Saze. I saw . . . something. Kelsier was convinced it would provide the secret.”
    “But . . . the Lord Ruler, Mistress . . .”
    “Kelsier died to start this rebellion,” Vin said firmly. “I have to see that it succeeds. This is my part, Sazed. Kelsier didn’t know what it was, but I do. I have to stop the Lord Ruler.”
    “The Lord Ruler?” Elend asked with shock. “No, Valette. He’s immortal!”
    Vin reached over, grabbing Elend’s head and pulling him down to kiss her. “Elend, your family delivered the atium to the Lord Ruler. Do you know where he keeps it?”
    “Yes,” he said with confusion. “He keeps the beads in a treasury building just east of here. But—”
    “You have to get that atium, Elend. The new government is going to need that wealth—and power—if it’s going to keep from getting conquered by the first nobleman who can raise an army.”
    “No, Valette,” Elend said shaking his head. “I have to get you to safety.”
    She smiled at him, then turned to Sazed. The Terrisman nodded to her.
    “Not going to tell me not to go?” she asked.
    “No,” he said quietly. “I fear that you are right, Mistress. If the Lord Ruler is not defeated . . . well, I will not stop you. I will bid you, however, good luck. I will come to help you once I see young Venture to safety.”
    Vin nodded, smiled at the apprehensive Elend, then looked up. Toward the dark force waiting above, pulsing with a tired depression.
    She burned copper, pushing aside the Lord Ruler’s Soothing.
    “Valette . . .” Elend said quietly.
    She turned back to him. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I think I know how to kill him.”

----
Such are my fears as I scribble with an ice-crusted pen on the eve before the world is reborn. Rashek watches. Hating me. The cavern lies above. Pulsing. My fingers quiver. Not from the cold.
Tomorrow it will end.

    38

    V IN PUSHED HERSELF THROUGH THE air above Kredik Shaw. Spires and towers rose around her like the shadowed tines of some phantom monster lurking below. Dark, straight, and ominous, for some reason they made her think of Kelsier, lying dead in the street, an obsidian-tipped spear jutting from his chest.
    The mists spun and swirled as she blew through them. They were still thick, but tin let her see a faint glistening on the horizon. Morning was near.
    Below her, a greater light was building. Vin caught hold of a thin spire, letting her momentum spin her around the slick metal, giving her