Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

she had felt when she'd taken control of TenSoon's body.
    Cousins indeed. The Lord Ruler had built the koloss with a weakness—the same weakness as the kandra. He had given himself a way to keep them in check.
    And suddenly she understood how he'd controlled them all those long years.

    Sazed stood at the head of his large band of refugees, snow and ash—the two now indistinguishable in the misty darkness—falling around him. Ham sat to one side, looking drowsy. He'd lost too much blood; a man without pewter would have died by now. Someone had given Sazed a cloak, but he had used it to wrap the comatose Breeze. Even though be barely tapped his brassmind for warmth, Sazed himself wasn't cold.
    Maybe he was just getting too numb to care.
    He held two hands up before him, forming fists, ten rings sparkling against the light of the group's single lantern. Koloss approached from the dark alleyways, their forms huddled shadows in the night.
    Sazed's soldiers backed away. There was little hope left in them. Sazed alone stood in the quiet snow, a spindly, bald scholar, nearly naked. He, the one who preached the end. He, who should have had the most faith of all.
    Ten rings. A few minutes of power. A few minutes of life.
    He waited as the koloss gathered. The beasts grew strangely silent in the night. They stopped approaching. They stood still, a line of dark, moundlike silhouettes in the night.
    Why don't they attack! Sazed thought, frustrated.
    A child whimpered. Then, the koloss began to move again. Sazed tensed, but the creatures didn't walk forward. They split, and a quiet figure walked through the center of them.
    "Lady Vin?" Sazed asked. He still hadn't had a chance to speak with her since she'd saved him at the gate. She looked exhausted.
    "Sazed," she said tiredly. "You lied to me about the Well of Ascension."
    "Yes, Lady Vin," he said.
    "That isn't important now," she said. "Why are you standing naked outside of the keep's walls?"
    "I. . ." He looked up at the koloss. "Lady Vin, I—"
    "Penrod!" Vin shouted suddenly. "Is that you up there?"
    The king appeared. He looked as confused as Sazed felt.
    "Open your gates!" Vin yelled.
    "Are you mad?" Penrod yelled back.
    "I'm not sure," Vin said. She turned, and a group of koloss moved forward, walking quietly as if commanded. The largest one picked Vin up, holding her up high, until she was nearly level with the top of the keep's low wall. Several guards atop the wall shied away from her.
    "I'm tired, Penrod," Vin said. Sazed had to tap his hearing tinmind to listen in on her words.
    "We're all tired, child," Penrod said.
    "I'm particularly tired," Vin said. "I'm tired of the games. I'm tired of people dying because of arguments between their leaders. I'm tired of good men being taken advantage of."
    Penrod nodded quietly.
    "I want you to gather our remaining soldiers," Vin said, turning to look over the city. "How many do you have in there?"
    "About two hundred," he said.
    Vin nodded. "The city is not lost—the koloss have fought against the soldiers, but haven't had much time to turn on the population yet. I want you to send out your soldiers to find any groups of koloss that are pillaging or killing. Protect the people, but don't attack the koloss if you can help it. Send a messenger for me instead."
    Remembering Penrod's bullheadedness earlier, Sazed thought the man might object. He didn't. He just nodded.
    "What do we do then?" Penrod asked.
    "I'll take care of the koloss," Vin said. "We'll go reclaim Keep Venture first—I'm going to need more metals, and there are plenty stored there. Once the city is secure, I want you and your soldiers to put out those fires. It shouldn't be too hard; there aren't a lot of buildings left that can burn."
    "Very well," Penrod said, turning to call out his orders.
    Sazed watched in silence as the massive koloss lowered Vin to the ground. It stood quietly, as if it were a monster hewn of stone, and not a breathing, bleeding, living creature.
    "Sazed," Vin said softly. He could sense the fatigue in her voice.
    "Lady Vin," Sazed said. To the side, Ham finally shook himself out of his stupor, looking up in shock as he noticed Vin and the koloss.
    Vin continued to look at Sazed, studying him. Sazed had trouble meeting her eyes. But, she was right. They could talk about his betrayal later. There were other, more important tasks that had to be accomplished. "I realize you probably have work for me to do," Sazed said, breaking the