Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

."
    "We just let him search the city," Ham said.
    Breeze nodded. "You'd have to persuade him that I misled him about the atium—and that shouldn't be too hard, considering what he thinks of me. Which is another small matter—you'll have to convince him that I've been dealt with. Perhaps he'd believe that I was executed as soon as Elend found out I had raised an army against him."
    The others nodded.
    "Breeze?" Elend asked. "How does Lord Cett treat the skaa in his lands?"
    Breeze paused, then glanced away. "Not well, I'm afraid."
    "Now, see," Elend said. "I think we need to consider how to best protect our people. I mean, if we give everything over to Cett, then we'd save my skin—but at the cost of the entire skaa population of the dominance!"
    Dockson shook his head. "Elend, it's not a betrayal. Not if this is the only way."
    "That's easy to say," Elend said. "But I'm the one who'd have to bear the guilty conscience for doing such a thing. I'm not saying that we should throw out your suggestion, but I do have a few ideas that we might talk about. . .."
    The others shared looks. As usual, Clubs and Spook remained quiet during proceedings; Clubs only spoke when he felt it absolutely necessary, and Spook tended to stay on the periphery of the conversations. Finally, Breeze, Ham, and Dockson looked back at Elend.
    "This is your country, Your Majesty," Dockson said carefully. "We're simply here to give advice." Very good advice , his tone implied.
    "Yes, well," Elend said, quickly selecting a book. In his haste, he knocked over one of the stacks, sending a clatter of books across the table and landing a volume in Breeze's lap.
    "Sorry," Elend said, as Breeze rolled his eyes and sat the book back up on the table. Elend pulled open his own book. "Now, this volume had some very interesting things to say about the movement and arrangement of troop bodies—"
    "Uh, El?" Ham asked, frowning. "That looks like a book on shipping grain."
    "I know," Elend said. "There weren't a lot of books about warfare in the library. I guess that's what we get for a thousand years without any wars. However, this book does mention how much grain it took to keep the various garrisons in the Final Empire stocked. Do you have any idea how much food an army needs?"
    "You have a point," Clubs said, nodding. "Usually, it's a blasted pain to keep soldiers fed; we often had supply problems fighting on the frontier, and we were only small bands, sent to quell the occasional rebellion."
    Elend nodded. Clubs didn't often speak of his past fighting in the Lord Ruler's army—and the crew didn't often ask him about it.
    "Anyway," Elend said, "I'll bet both Cett and my father are unaccustomed to moving large bodies of men. There will be supply problems, especially for Cett, since he marched so hastily."
    "Maybe not," Clubs said. "Both armies have secured canal routes into Luthadel. That will make it easy for them to send for more supplies."
    "Plus," Breeze added, "though much of Cett's land is in revolt right now, he does still hold the city of Haverfrex, which held one of the Lord Ruler's main canneries. Cett has a remarkable amount of food a short canal trip away."
    "Then, we disrupt the canals," Elend said. "We find a way to stop those supplies from coming. Canals make resupply quick, but also vulnerable, since we know exactly which route it will take. And, if we can take away their food, perhaps they'll be forced to turn around and march home."
    "Either that," Breeze said, "or they'll just decide to risk attacking Luthadel."
    Elend paused. "That's a possibility," he said. "But, well, I've been researching how to hold the city as well." He reached across the table, picking up a book. "Now, this is Jendellah's City Management in the Modern Era . He mentions how difficult Luthadel is to police because of its extreme size and large number of skaa slums. He suggests using roving bands of city watchmen. I think we could adapt his methods to use in a battle—our wall is too long to defend in detail, but if we had mobile bands of troops that could respond to—"
    "Your Majesty," Dockson interrupted.
    "Hum? Yes?"
    "We've got a troop of boys and men who have barely a year's training, and we're facing not one overwhelming force, but two . We can't win this battle by force."
    "Oh, yes," Elend said. "Of course. I was just saying that if we did have to fight, I have some strategies. . .."
    "If we fight, we lose," Clubs said. "We'll probably lose anyway."
    Elend