Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

or fleeing from danger. I can fight!
    He spun, smiling.
    And found the final soldier standing with Spook's own knife held to the neck of a young girl. The soldier stood with his back to the burning hallway, eyeing escape through the hidden passage. Behind the man, flames were curling around the wooden doorframe, licking the room.
    "The rest of you, get out!" Spook said, not turning from the soldier. "Go out the back door of the building you find at the end of this tunnel. You'll find men there. They'll hide you in the underground, then get you out of the city. Go!"
    Some had already fled, and those who remained moved at his command. The soldier stood, watching, obviously trying to decide his course. He must have known he was facing an Allomancer—no ordinary man could have taken down so many soldiers so quickly. Fortunately, it appeared that Quellion hadn't sent his own Allomancers into the building. He likely kept them above, protecting him.
    Spook stood still. He dropped the broken dueling cane, but held the other tightly to keep his hand from shaking. The girl whimpered quietly.
    What would Kelsier have done?
    Behind him, the last of the prisoners was fleeing into the passage. "You!" Spook said without turning. "Bar that door from the outside. Quickly!"
    "But—"
    "Do it!" Spook yelled.
    "No!" the soldier said, pressing the knife against the girl's neck. "I'll kill her!"
    "Do and you die," Spook said. "You know that. Look at me. You're not getting past me. You're—"
    The door thunked closed.
    The soldier cried out, dropping the girl, rushing toward the door, obviously trying to get to it before the bar fell on the other side. "That's the only way out! You'll get us—"
    Spook broke the man's knees with a single crack of the dueling cane. The soldier screamed, falling to the ground. Flames burned on three of the walls, now. The heat was already intense.
    The bar clicked into place on the other side of the door. Spook looked down at the soldier. Still alive.
    "Leave him," Kelsier said. "Let him burn in the building."
    Spook hesitated.
    "He would have let all of those people die," Kelsier said. "Let him feel what he would have done to these—what he has already done several times, at Quellion's command."
    Spook left the groaning man on the ground, moving over to the secret door. He threw his weight against it.
    It held.
    Spook cursed quietly, raising a boot and kicking the door. It, however, remained solid.
    "That door was built by noblemen who feared they would be pursued by assassins," Kelsier said. "They were familiar with Allomancy, and would make certain the door was strong enough to resist a Thug's kick."
    The fire was growing hotter. The girl huddled on the floor, whimpering. Spook whirled, staring down the flames, feeling their heat. He stepped forward, but his amplified senses were so keen that the heat seemed amazingly powerful to him.
    He gritted his teeth, picking up the girl.
    I have pewter now, he thought. It can balance the power of my senses.
    That will have to be enough.
    Smoke billowed out the windows of the condemned building. Sazed waited with Breeze and Allrianne, standing at the back of a solemn crowd. The people were oddly silent as they watched the flames claim their prize. Perhaps they sensed the truth.
    That they could be taken and killed as easily as the poor wretches who died inside.
    "How quickly we come around," Sazed whispered. "It wasn't long ago that men were forced to watch the Lord Ruler cut the heads from innocent people. Now we do it to ourselves."
    Silence. What sounded like yells came from inside the building. The screams of dying men.
    "Kelsier was wrong," Breeze said.
    Sazed frowned, turning.
    "He blamed the noblemen," Breeze said. "He thought that if we got rid of them, things like this wouldn't happen."
    Sazed nodded. Then, oddly, the crowd began to grow restless, shuffling about, murmuring. And, Sazed felt himself agreeing with them. Something needed to be done about this atrocity. Why did nobody fight? Quellion stood there, surrounded by his proud men in red. Sazed gritted his teeth, growing angry.
    "Allrianne, dear," Breeze said, "this isn't the time."
    Sazed started. He turned, glancing at the young woman. She was crying.
    By the Forgotten Gods, Sazed thought, finally recognizing her touch on his emotions, Rioting them to make him angry at Quellion. She's as good as Breeze is.
    "Why not?" she said. "He deserves it. I could make this crowd rip him apart."
    "And his