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 them.”
“That doesn’t help if they attack me first,” Vin said.
“Well,” Ham said. “Barring surprise, there isn’t much. Some people think that you might be able to kill an atium-using Mistborn if you catch them in an unavoidable situation. It’s like a game of fets—sometimes, the only way to take a piece is to corner it so that no matter which way it moves, it dies.
“Doing that to a Mistborn is pretty tough, though. The thing is, atium lets the Mistborn see the future—so he knows when a move will trap him, and so he can avoid the situation. The metal is supposed to enhance his mind somehow, too.”
“It does. When I’m burning atium, I often dodge before I even register the attacks that are coming.”
Ham nodded.
“So,” Vin said, “what else?”
“That’s it, Vin,” Ham said. “Thugs talk about this topic a lot—we’re all afraid of going up against a Mistborn. Those are your two options: Surprise him or overwhelm him. I’m sorry.”
Vin frowned. Neither option would do her much good if she got ambushed. “Anyway, I need to keep moving. I promise to tell you about any corpses I produce.”
Ham laughed. “How about you just try and avoid getting into situations where you have to produce them, eh? The Lord only knows what this kingdom would do if we lost you. …”
Vin nodded, though she wasn’t certain how much Ham could see of her in the darkness. She waved to OreSeur, heading out toward the keep wall, leaving Ham on the cobbled path.
“Mistress,” OreSeur said as they reached the top of the wall, “might I know the purpose of surprising Master Hammond like that? Are you that fond of startling your friends?”
“It was a test,” Vin said, pausing beside a merlon gap, looking out over the city proper.
“A test, Mistress?”
“To see if he would use Allomancy. That way, I could know that he wasn’t the impostor.”
“Ah,” the kandra said. “Clever, Mistress.”
Vin smiled. “Thank you,” she said. A guard patrol was moving toward them. Not wanting to have to deal with them, Vin nodded to the wall-top stone guardhouse. She jumped, pushing off a coin, and landed on top of it. OreSeur bounded up beside her, using his strange kandra musculature to leap the ten feet.
Vin sat down cross-legged to think, and OreSeur padded over to the roof’s side and lay down, paws hanging over the edge. As they sat, Vin considered something. OreSeur told me that a kandra didn’t gain Allomantic powers if he ate an Allomancer … but, can a kandra be an Allomancer on his own? I never did finish that conversation.
“This will tell me if a person isn’t a kandra, won’t it?” Vin asked, turning to OreSeur. “Your people don’t have Allomantic powers, right?”
OreSeur didn’t answer.
“OreSeur?” Vin said.
“I’m not required to answer that question, Mistress.”
Yes, Vin thought with a sigh. The Contract. How am I supposed to catch this other kandra if OreSeur won’t answer any of my questions? She leaned back in frustration, staring up into the endless mists, using her mistcloak to cushion her head.
“Your plan will work, Mistress,” OreSeur said quietly.
Vin paused, rolling her head to look at him. He lay with head on forepaws, staring over the city. “If you sense Allomancy from someone, then they aren’t a kandra.”
Vin sensed a hesitant reluctance to his words, and he didn’t look at her. It was as if he spoke grudgingly, giving up information that he’d rather have kept to himself.
So secretive, Vin thought. “Thank you,” she said.
OreSeur shrugged a pair of canine shoulders.
“I know you’d rather not have to deal with me,” she said. “We’d both rather keep our distance from each other. But, we’ll just have to make things work this way.”
OreSeur nodded again, then turned his head slightly and looked at her. “Why is it that you hate me?”
“I don’t hate you,” Vin said.
OreSeur raised a canine eyebrow. There was a wisdom in those eyes, an understanding that Vin was surprised to see. She’d never seen such things in him before.
“I …” Vin trailed off, looking away. “I just haven’t ever gotten over the fact that you ate Kelsier’s body.”
“That isn’t it,” OreSeur said, turning back to look at the city. “You’re too smart to be bothered by that.”
Vin frowned indignantly, but the kandra wasn’t looking at her. She turned, staring back up at the mists. Why did he bring this up? she thought. We were just starting to get along. She’d been willing to forget.
You really want to know? she thought. Fine.
“It’s because you knew,” she whispered.
“Excuse me, Mistress?”
“You knew,” Vin said, still looking into the mists. “You were the only one on the crew who knew Kelsier was going to die. He told you that he was going to let himself be killed, and that you were to take his bones.”
“Ah,” OreSeur said quietly.
Vin turned accusing eyes at the creature. “Why didn’t you say something? You knew how we felt about Kelsier. Did you even consider telling us that the idiot planned to kill himself? Did it even cross your mind that we might be able to stop him, that we might be able to find another way?”
“You are being quite harsh, Mistress.”