Desire immediately blossomed inside of him. No! Breeze thought. She’s half your age. You’re a dirty old man. Dirty! “Allrianne,” he said uncomfortably, “shouldn’t you be in bed or something?”
She rolled her eyes, shooing his legs out of the way so she could sit on the bench beside him. “It’s only nine o’clock, Breeze. I’m eighteen, not ten.”
You might as well be, he thought, looking away from her, trying to focus on something else. He knew that he should be stronger, shouldn’t let the girl get near him, but he did nothing as she slid up to him and took a drink from his cup.
He sighed, putting his arm around her shoulders. Clubs just shook his head, the hint of a smile on his lips.
“Well,” Vin said quietly, “that answers one question.”
“Mistress?” OreSeur said, sitting across the table from her in the dark room. With her Allomancer’s ears, she could hear exactly what was going on in the next boothlike room over.
“Allrianne is an Allomancer,” Vin said.
“Really?”
Vin nodded. “She’s been Rioting Breeze’s emotions ever since she arrived, making him more attracted to her.”
“One would think that he’d notice,” OreSeur said.
“You’d think,” Vin said. She probably shouldn’t feel as amused as she did. The girl could be a Mistborn—though the idea of that puff flying through the mists seemed ridiculous.
Which is probably exactly how she wants me to think, Vin thought. I have to remember Kliss and Shan—neither one of them turned out to be the person I thought they were.
“Breeze probably just doesn’t think his emotions are unnatural,” Vin said. “He must be attracted to her already.”
OreSeur closed his mouth and cocked his head—his dog’s version of a frown.
“I know,” Vin agreed. “But, at least we know he isn’t the one using Allomancy to seduce her. Either way, that’s irrelevant. Clubs isn’t the kandra.”
“How could you possibly know that, Mistress?”
Vin paused. Clubs always turned his copper on around Breeze; it was one of the few times he used it. However, it was difficult to tell if someone was burning copper. After all, if they turned on their metal, they hid themselves by default.
But Vin could pierce copperclouds. She could sense Allrianne’s Rioting; she could even sense a faint thumping coming from Clubs himself, copper’s own Allomantic pulse, something that Vin suspected few people beyond herself and the Lord Ruler had ever heard.
“I just know,” Vin said.
“If you say so, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “But … didn’t you already decide the spy was Demoux?”
“I wanted to check Clubs anyway,” she said. “Before I did anything drastic.”
“Drastic?”
Vin sat quietly for a moment. She didn’t have much proof, but she did have her instincts—and those instincts told her Demoux was the spy. That sneaking way he’d gone out the other night … the obvious logic of choosing him … it all fit.
She stood. Things were getting too dangerous, too sensitive. She couldn’t ignore it any longer. “Come on,” she said, leaving the booth behind. “It’s time to put Demoux in prison.”
“What do you mean you lost him?” Vin asked, standing outside the door to Demoux’s room.
The servant flushed. “My lady, I’m sorry. I watched him, like you told me—but he went out on patrol. Should I have followed? I mean, don’t you think that would have looked suspicious?”
Vin cursed quietly to herself. She knew that she didn’t have much right to be angry, however. I should have told Ham straight off, she thought with frustration.
“My lady, he only left a few minutes ago,” the servant said.
Vin glanced at OreSeur, then took off down the corridor. As soon as they reached a window, Vin leaped out into the dark night, OreSeur following behind her, dropping the short distance to the courtyard.
Last time, I saw him come back in through the gates to the palace grounds, she thought, running through the mist. She found a couple of soldiers there, guarding.
“Did Captain Demoux come this way?” she demanded, bursting into their ring of torchlight.
They perked up, at first shocked, then confused.
“Lady Heir?” one of them said. “Yes, he just went out, on patrol just a minute or two ago.”
“By himself?” Vin asked.
They nodded.
“Isn’t that a little odd?”
They shrugged. “He goes by himself sometimes,” one said. “We don’t question. He’s our superior, after all.”
“Which way?” Vin demanded.
One pointed, and Vin took off, OreSeur at her side. I should have watched better. I should have hired real spies to keep an eye on him. I should have—
She froze. Up ahead, walking down a quite street in the mists, was a figure, walking into the city. Demoux.
Vin dropped a coin and threw herself into the air, passing far over his head, landing on top of a building. He continued, oblivious. Demoux or kandra, neither would have Allomantic powers.
Vin paused, daggers out, ready to spring. But … she still didn’t have any real proof. The part of her that Kelsier had transformed, the part that had come to trust, thought of the Demoux she knew.
Do I really believe he’s the kandra? she thought. Or do I just want him to be the kandra, so that I don’t have to suspect my real friends?
He continued to walk below, her tin-enhanced ears easily picking out his footfalls. Behind, OreSeur scrambled up onto the top of the roof, then padded over and sat down beside her.
I can’t just attack, she thought. I need to at least watch, see where he’s going. Get proof. Perhaps learn something in the process.
She waved to OreSeur, and they quietly followed along the rooftops, trailing Demoux. Soon, Vin noticed something odd—a flicker of firelight illuminating the mists a few streets over, making haunted shadows of buildings. Vin glanced at Demoux, trailing him with her eyes as he wandered down an alleyway, moving toward the illumination.
What…?
Vin threw herself off the roof. It took only three bounds for her to reach the source of the light. A modest bonfire crackled in the center of a small square. Skaa huddled around it for warmth, looking a little frightened in the mists. Vin was surprised to see them. She hadn’t seen skaa go out in the mists since the night of the Collapse.
Demoux approached down a side street, greeting several of the others. In the firelight she could confirm for certain that it was him—or, at least, a kandra with his face.
There were, perhaps, two hundred people in the square. Demoux moved as if to sit on the cobblestones, but someone quickly approached with a chair. A young woman brought him a mug of something steaming, which he received gratefully.
Vin leaped to a rooftop, staying low to keep from being exposed by the firelight. More skaa arrived, mostly in groups, but some brave individuals came alone.
A sound came from behind her, and Vin turned as OreSeur—apparently having barely made the jump—scrambled the last few feet over the edge onto the roof. He glanced down at the street below, shook his head, then padded over to join her. She raised a finger to her lips, nodding down at the growing group of people. OreSeur cocked his head at the sight, but said nothing.