Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

couldn't change things, but Kelsier had given her pride in herself.
    If she couldn't protect Elend, what good was she?
    There are still some things I can do , she thought forcefully. She crouched quietly on a ledge, mistcloak tassels hanging down, waving slightly in the wind. Just below her, torches burned fitfully at the front of Keep Venture, illuminating a pair of Ham's guards. They stood alert in the swirling mists, showing impressive diligence.
    The guards wouldn't be able to see her sitting just above them; they'd barely be able to see twenty feet in the thick mists. They weren't Allomancers. Besides the core crew, Elend had access to barely half a dozen Mistings—which made him Allomantically weak compared with most of the other new kings in the Final Empire. Vin was supposed to make up the difference.
    The torches flickered as the doors opened, and a figure left the palace. Ham's voice echoed quietly in the mist as he greeted his guards. One reason—perhaps the main reason—that the guards were so diligent was because of Ham. He might have been a bit of an anarchist at heart, but he could be a very good leader if he was given a small team. Though his guards weren't the most disciplined, polished soldiers Vin had seen, they were fiercely loyal.
    Ham talked with the men for a time, then he waved farewell and walked out into the mists. The small courtyard between the keep and its wall contained a couple of guard posts and patrols, and Ham would visit each one in turn. He walked boldly in the night, trusting to diffused starlight to see, rather than blinding himself with a torch. A thief's habit.
    Vin smiled, leaping quietly to the ground, then scampering after Ham. He walked on, ignorant of her presence. What would it be like to have only one Allomantic power ? Vin thought. To be able to make yourself stronger, but to have ears as weak as those of any normal man ? It had been only two years, but already she had come to rely so heavily on her abilities.
    Ham continued forward, Vin following discreetly, until they reached the ambush. Vin tensed, flaring her bronze.
    OreSeur howled suddenly, jumping from a pile of boxes. The kandra was a dark silhouette in the night, his inhuman baying disturbing even to Vin. Ham spun, cursing quietly.
    And he instinctively flared pewter. Focused on her bronze, Vin confirmed that the pulses were definitely coming from him. Ham spun around, searching in the night as OreSeur landed. Vin, however, simply smiled. Ham's Allomancy meant he wasn't the impostor. She could cross another name off her list.
    "It's okay, Ham," Vin said, walking forward.
    Ham paused, lowering his dueling cane. "Vin?" he asked, squinting in the mist.
    "It's me," she said. "I'm sorry, you startled my hound. He can get jumpy at night."
    Ham relaxed. "We all can, I guess. Anything happening tonight?"
    "Not that I can tell," she said. "I'd let you know."
    Ham nodded. "I'd appreciate it—though I doubt you'd need me. I'm captain of the guard, but you're the one who does all the work."
    "You're more valuable than you think, Ham," Vin said. "Elend confides in you. Since Jastes and the others left him, he's needed a friend."
    Ham nodded. Vin turned, glancing into the mists, where OreSeur sat waiting on his haunches. He seemed to be getting more and more comfortable with his hound's body.
    Now that she knew Ham was not an impostor, there was something she needed to discuss with him. "Ham," she said, "your protection of Elend is more valuable than you know."
    "You're talking about the impostor," Ham said quietly. "El has me searching through the palace staff to see who might have gone missing for a few hours on that day. It's a tough task, though."
    She nodded. "There's something else, Ham. I'm out of atium."
    He stood quietly in the mists for a moment, and then she heard him mutter a curse.
    "I'll die the next time I fight a Mistborn," she said.
    "Not unless he has atium," Ham said.
    "What are the chances that someone would send a Mistborn without atium to fight me?"
    He hesitated.
    "Ham," she said, "I need to find a way to fight against someone who is burning atium. Tell me that you know a way."
    Ham shrugged in the darkness. "There are lots of theories, Vin. I once had a long conversation with Breeze about this—though he spent most of it grumbling that I was annoying him."
    "Well?" Vin asked. "What can I do?"
    He rubbed his chin. "Most people agree that the best way to kill a Mistborn with atium is to surprise