Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

were moving to surround the city, large groups of them breaking up, fording the River Channerel toward other gates.
    Gates like Sazed's.

    Vin landed directly in the middle of the camp. She tossed a handful of pewter dust into the firepit, then Pushed, blowing coals, soot, and smoke across a pair of surprised guards, who had been fixing breakfast. She reached out and Pulled out the stakes of the three small tents.
    All three collapsed. One was unoccupied, but cries came from the other two. The canvas outlined struggling, confused figures—one inside the larger tent, two inside the smaller one.
    The guards scrambled back, raising their arms to protect their eyes from the soot and sparks, their hands reaching for swords. Vin raised a fist toward them—and, as they blinked their eyes clear, she let a single coin drop to the ground.
    The guards froze, then took their hands off their swords. Vin eyed the tents. The person in charge would be inside the larger one—and he was the man she would need to deal with. Probably one of Straff's captains, though the guards didn't wear Venture heraldry. Perhaps—
    Jastes Lekal poked his head out of his tent, cursing as he extricated himself from the canvas. He'd changed much in the two years since Vin had last seen him. However, there had been hints of what the man would become. His thin figure had become spindly; his balding head had fulfilled its promise. Yet, how had his face come to look so haggard. . .so old? He was Elend's age.
    "Jastes," Elend said, stepping out of his hiding place in the forest. He walked into the clearing, Spook at his side. "Why are you here?"
    Jastes managed to stand as his other two soldiers cut their way out of their tent. He waved them down. "El," he said. "I. . .didn't know where else to go. My scouts said that you were fleeing, and it seemed like a good idea. Wherever you're going, I want to go with you. We can hide there, maybe. We can—"
    "Jastes!" Elend snapped, striding forward to stand beside Vin. "Where are your koloss? Did you send them away?"
    "I tried," Jastes said, looking down. "They wouldn't go—not once they'd seen Luthadel. And then. . ."
    "What?" Elend demanded.
    "A fire," Jastes said. "In our. . .supply carts."
    Vin frowned.
    "Your supply carts?" Elend said. "The carts where you carried your wooden coins?"
    "Yes."
    "Lord Ruler, man!" Elend said stepping forward. "And you just left them there, without leadership, outside our home?"
    "They would have killed me, El!" Jastes said. "They were beginning to fight so much, to demand more coins, to demand we attack the city. If I'd stayed, they'd have slaughtered me! They're beasts—beasts that only barely have the shape of man."
    "And you left," Elend said. "You abandoned Luthadel to them."
    "You abandoned it, too," Jastes said. He walked forward, hands pleading as he approached Elend. "Look, El. I know I was wrong. I thought I could control them. I didn't mean for this to happen!"
    Elend fell silent, and Vin could see a hardness growing in his eyes. Not a dangerous hardness, like Kelsier. More of a. . .regal bearing. The sense that he was more than he wanted to be. He stood straight, looking down at the man pleading before him.
    "You raised an army of violent monsters and led them in a tyrannical assault, Jastes," Elend said. "You caused the slaughter of innocent villages. Then, you abandoned that army without leadership or control outside the most populated city in the whole of the Final Empire."
    "Forgive me," Jastes said.
    Elend looked the man in the eyes. "I forgive you," he said quietly. Then, in one fluid stroke, he drew his sword and sheared Jastes's head from his shoulders. "But my kingdom cannot."
    Vin stared, dumbfounded, as the corpse fell to the ground. Jastes's soldiers cried out, drawing their weapons. Elend turned, his face solemn, and raised the point of his bloodied sword toward them. "You think this execution was performed in error?"
    The guards paused. "No, my lord," one of them finally said, looking down.
    Elend knelt and cleaned his sword on Jastes's cloak. "Considering what he did, this was a better death than he deserved." Elend snapped his sword back into its sheath. "But he was my friend. Bury him. Once you are through, you are welcome to travel with me to Terris, or you may go back to your homes. Choose as you wish." With that, he walked back into the woods.
    Vin paused, watching the guards. Solemnly, they moved forward to collect the body. She nodded to