The crowd was silent.
“One of those armies is led by Elend’s father, Straff Venture,” Vin said. “Elend and I are going to go meet with Straff tomorrow. We will persuade him to be our ally.”
“The king is going to surrender!” a voice said. “I heard it. He’s going to trade the city for his life.”
“No,” Vin said. “He would never do that!!”
“He won’t fight for us!” a voice called. “He’s not a soldier. He’s a politician!”
Other voices called out in agreement. Reverence disappeared as people began to yell out concerns, while others began to demand help. The dissidents continued to rail against Elend, yelling that there was no way he could protect them.
Vin raised her hands to her ears. Trying to ward off the crowd, the chaos. “Stop!” she yelled, Pushing out with steel and brass. Several people stumbled back away from her, and she could see a wave in the crowd as buttons, coins, and buckles suddenly pressed backward.
The people grew suddenly quiet.
“I will suffer no ill words spoken of our king!” Vin said, flaring her brass and increasing her Soothing. “He is a good man, and a good leader. He has sacrificed much for you—your freedom comes because of his long hours spent drafting laws, and your livelihoods come because of his work securing trade routes and agreements with merchants.”
Many members of the crowd looked down. The bearded man at the front continued to twist his cap, however, looking at Vin. “They’re just right frightened, Lady Heir. Right frightened.”
“We’ll protect you,” Vin said. What am I saying? “Elend and I, we’ll find a way. We stopped the Lord Ruler. We can stop these armies …” She trailed off, feeling foolish.
Yet, the crowd responded. Some were obviously still unsatisfied, but many seemed calmed. The crowd began to break up, though some of its members came forward, leading or carrying small children. Vin paused nervously. Kelsier had often met with and held the children of the skaa, as if giving them his blessing. She bid the group a hasty farewell and ducked back into the shop, pulling Allrianne after her.
Tindwyl waited inside, nodding with satisfaction.
“I lied,” Vin said, pushing the door closed.
“No you didn’t,” Tindwyl said. “You were optimistic. The truth or fiction of what you said has yet to be proven.”
“It won’t happen,” Vin said. “Elend can’t defeat three armies, not even with my help.”
Tindwyl raised an eyebrow. “Then you should leave. Run away, leave the people to deal with the armies themselves.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Vin said.
“Well, make a decision then,” Tindwyl said. “Either give up on the city or believe in it. Honestly, the pair of you. …” She shook her head.
“I thought you weren’t going to be harsh with me,” Vin noted.
“I have trouble with that sometimes,” Tindwyl said. “Come, Allrianne. Let’s finish your fitting.”
They moved to do so. However, at that moment—as if to belie Vin’s assurances of safety—several warning drums began to beat atop the city wall.
Vin froze, glancing through the window, out over the anxious crowd.
One of the armies was attacking. Cursing the delay, she rushed into the back of the shop to change out of the bulky dress.
Elend scrambled up the steps to the city wall, nearly tripping on his dueling cane in his haste. He stumbled out of the stairwell, moving onto the wall top, rearranging the cane at his side with a curse.
The wall top was in chaos. Men scrambled about, calling to each other. Some had forgotten their armor, others their bows. So many tried to get up after Elend that the stairwell got clogged, and he watched hopelessly as men crowded around the openings below, creating an even larger jam of bodies in the courtyard.
Elend spun, watching a large group of Straff’s men—thousands of them—rush toward the wall. Elend stood near Tin Gate, at the north of the city, nearest Straff’s army. He could see a separate group of soldiers rushing toward Pewter Gate, a little to the east.
“Archers!” Elend yelled. “Men, where are your bows?”
His voice, however, was lost in the shouting. Captains moved about, trying to organize the men, but apparently too many footmen had come to the wall, leaving a lot of the archers trapped in the courtyard below.
Why? Elend thought desperately, turning back toward the charging army. Why is he attacking? We had an a agreement to meet!
Had he, perhaps, gotten wind of Elend’s plan to play both sides of the conflict? Perhaps there really was a spy in the inner crew.
Either way, Elend could only watch hopelessly as the army approached his wall. One captain managed to get off a pathetic volley of arrows, but it didn’t do much good. As the army approached, arrows began to zip up toward the wall, mixed with flying coins. Straff had Allomancers in the group.
Elend cursed, ducking down below a merlon as coins bounced against the stonework. A few soldiers fell. Elend’s soldiers. Killed because he’d been too proud to surrender the city.
He peeked carefully over the wall. A group of men carrying a battering ram were approaching, their bodies carefully protected by men with shields. The care probably meant that the rammers were Thugs, a suspicion confirmed by the sound the ram made when it smashed into the gate. That was not the blow of ordinary men.
Hooks followed next. Shot up toward the wall by Coinshots below, falling far more accurately than if they’d been thrown. Soldiers moved to pull them off, but coins shot up, taking the men almost as quickly as they made the attempt. The gate continued to thump beneath him, and he doubted it would last for long.
And so we fall, Elend thought. With barely a hint of resistance.
And there was nothing he could do. He felt impotent, forced to keep ducking down lest his white uniform make him a target. All of his politicking, all of his preparations, all of his dreams and his plans. Gone.
And then Vin was there. She landed atop the wall, breathing hard, amid a group of wounded men. Coins and arrows that came near to her deflected back out into the air. Men rallied around her, moving to remove hooks and pull the wounded to safety. Her knives cut ropes, dropping them back down below. She met Elend’s eyes, looking determined, then moved as if to leap over the side of the wall and confront the Thugs with their battering ram.
Elend raised a hand, but someone else spoke.
“Vin, wait!” Clubs bellowed, bursting out of the stairwell.
She paused. Elend had never heard such a forceful command from the gnarled general.
Arrows stopped flying. The booming calmed. Elend stood hesitantly, watching with a frown as the army retreated back across the ash-strewn fields toward their camp. They left a couple of corpses behind; Elend’s men had actually managed to hit a few with their arrows. His own army had taken far heavier casualties: some two dozen men appeared to be wounded.
“What …?” Elend asked, turning to Clubs.
“They weren’t putting up scaling ladders,” Clubs said, eyeing the retreating force. “This wasn’t an actual attack.”
“What was it then?” Vin asked, frowning.
“A test,” Clubs said. “It’s common in warfare—a quick skirmish to see how your enemy responds, to feel out their tactics and preparations.”