“This is it, then?” Breeze asked quietly.
Clubs nodded.
Breeze couldn’t see it. There were still two armies out there; it was still a standoff. Yet, he trusted Clubs’s assessment. Or, rather, he trusted his own knowledge of people enough to trust his assessment of Clubs.
The general knew something he didn’t.
“Kindly explain,” Breeze said.
“This’ll end when Straff figures it out,” Clubs said.
“Figures what out?”
“That those koloss will do his job for him, if he lets them.”
Breeze paused. Straff doesn’t really care about the people in the city—he just wants to take it for the atium. And for the symbolic victory.
“If Straff pulls back …” Breeze said.
“Those koloss will attack,” Clubs said with a nod. “They’ll slaughter everyone they find and generally make rubble out of the city. Then Straff can come back and find his atium once the koloss are done.”
“Assuming they leave, my dear man.”
Clubs shrugged. “Either way, he’s better off. Straff will face one weakened enemy instead of two strong ones.”
Breeze felt a chill, and pulled his cloak closer. “You say that all so … straightforwardly.”
“We were dead the moment that first army got here, Breeze,” Clubs said. “We’re just good at stalling.”
Why in the name of the Lord Ruler do I spend my time with this man? Breeze thought. He’s nothing more than a pessimistic doomsayer. And yet, Breeze knew people. This time, Clubs wasn’t exaggerating.
“Bloody hell,” Breeze muttered.
Clubs just nodded, leaning against the wall and looking out at the disappearing army.
“Three hundred men,” Ham said, standing in Elend’s study. “Or, at least, that’s what our scouts say.”
“That’s not as bad as I’d feared,” Elend said. They stood in Elend’s study, the only other occupant being Spook, who sat lounging beside the table.
“El,” Ham said, “Cett only had a thousand men with him here in Luthadel. That means that during Vin’s attack, Cett took thirty percent casualties in less than ten minutes. Even on a battlefield, most armies will break if they take thirty or forty percent casualties in the course of an entire day’s fighting.”
“Oh,” Elend said, frowning.
Ham shook his head, sitting down, pouring himself something to drink. “I don’t get it, El. Why’d she attack him?”
“She’s loony,” Spook said.
Elend opened his mouth to counter that comment, but found it difficult to explain his feelings. “I’m not sure why she did it,” he finally admitted. “She did mention that she didn’t believe those assassins at the Assembly came from my father.”
Ham shrugged. He looked … haggard. This wasn’t his element, dealing with armies and worrying about the fate of kingdoms. He preferred to concern himself with smaller spheres.
Of course, Elend thought, I’d just prefer to be in my chair, reading quietly. We do what we must.
“Any news of her yet?” Elend asked.
Spook shook his head. “Uncle Grumpy has the scouts searching the city, but so far nothing.”
“If Vin doesn’t want to be found …” Ham said.
Elend began to pace. He couldn’t keep still; he was beginning to think he must look like Jastes, wandering in circles, running his hand through his hair.
Be firm, he told himself. You can afford to seem worried, but you mustn’t ever seem uncertain.
He continued to pace, though he slowed his step, and he didn’t voice his concerns to Ham or Spook. What if Vin was wounded? What if Cett had killed her? Their scouts had seen very little of the attack the night before. Vin had definitely been involved, and there were conflicting reports that said she’d been fighting another Mistborn. She had left the keep with one of the top floors in flames—and, for some reason, she had left Cett alive.
Since then, nobody had seen her.
Elend closed his eyes, pausing as he leaned a hand against the stone wall. I’ve been ignoring her lately. I’ve helped the city … but what good will it do to save Luthadel if I lose her? It’s almost like I don’t know her anymore.
Or did I ever know her in the first place?
It felt wrong to not have her with him. He had come to rely on her simple bluntness. He needed her genuine realism—her sheer sense of concreteness—to keep him grounded. He needed to hold her, so that he could know that there was something more important than theories and concepts.
He loved her.
“I don’t know, El,” Ham finally said. “I never thought that Vin would be a liability, but she had a hard youth. I remember once she exploded at the crew for little reason, yelling and screaming about her childhood. I … don’t know that she’s completely stable.”
Elend opened his eyes. “She’s stable, Ham,” he said firmly. “And she’s more capable than any of us.”
Ham frowned. “But—”
“She had a good reason for attacking Cett,” Elend said. “I trust her.”
Ham and Spook exchanged glances, and Spook just shrugged.
“It’s more than last night, El,” Ham said. “Something’s not right with that girl—not just mentally, either. …”
“What do you mean?” Elend asked.
“Remember the attack on the Assembly?” Ham said. “You told me you saw her get hit square-on by a Thug’s staff.”
“And?” Elend asked. “It laid her out for three full days.”
Ham shook his head. “Her complete collection of wounds—getting hit in the side, the shoulder wound, nearly being choked to death—those all together laid her out for a couple of days. But, if she’d really gotten hit that hard by a Thug, she shouldn’t have been out for days, Elend. She should have been out for weeks. Maybe longer. She certainly shouldn’t have escaped without broken ribs.”
“She was burning pewter,” Elend said.
“Presumably, so was the Thug.”
Elend paused.
“You see?” Ham said. “If both were flaring pewter, then they should have balanced each other out. That leaves Vin—a girl who can’t weigh more than a hundred pounds—getting clobbered full-on by a trained soldier with three times her weight. She shrugged it off with barely a few days’ rest.”
“Vin’s special,” Elend finally said.
“I won’t argue with that,” Ham said. “But she’s also hiding things from us. Who was that other Mistborn? Some of the reports make it sound like they were working together.”
She said there was another Mistborn in the city, Elend thought. Zane—Straff’s messenger. She hasn’t mentioned him in a very long while.
Ham rubbed his forehead. “This is all falling apart around us, El.”
“Kelsier could have kept it together,” Spook mumbled. “When he was here, even our failures were part of his plan.”
“The Survivor is dead,” Elend said. “I never knew him, but I’ve listened to enough about him to learn one thing. He didn’t give in to despair.”