Dockson frowned, and glanced at Ham, who shrugged.
“It’s really quite simple,” Breeze said, tapping the table with his dueling cane. “Why, even I figured it out.” Clubs snorted at this. “If Straff makes it look like he’s withdrawing, the koloss will probably attack Luthadel for him. They’re too literal to understand the threat of a hidden army.”
“If Straff withdraws,” Clubs said, “Jastes won’t be able to keep them from the city.”
Dockson blinked. “But they’d …”
“Slaughter?” Clubs asked. “Yes. They’d pillage the richest sectors of the town—probably end up killing most of the noblemen in the city.”
“Eliminating the men that Straff has been forced—against his will, knowing that man’s pride—to work with,” Breeze added. “In fact, there’s a good chance the creatures will kill Vin. Can you imagine her not joining the fight if koloss broke in?”
The room fell silent.
“But, that doesn’t really help Straff get the city,” Dockson said. “He’ll still have to fight the koloss.”
“Yes,” Clubs said, scowling. “But, they’ll probably take down some of the city gates, not to mention level a lot of the homes. That will leave Straff with a clear field to attack a weakened foe. Plus, koloss don’t strategize—for them, city walls won’t be much help. Straff couldn’t ask for a better setup.”
“He’d be seen as a liberator,” Breeze said quietly. “If he returns at the right time—after the koloss have broken into the city and fought the soldiers, but before they’ve done serious damage to the skaa quarter—he could free the people and establish himself as their protector, not their conqueror. Knowing how the people feel, I think they’d welcome him. Right now, a strong leader would mean more to them than coins in their pockets and rights in the Assembly.”
As the group thought on this, Breeze eyed Sazed, who still sat quietly. He’d said so little; what was his game? Why gather the crew? Was he subtle enough to know that they’d simply needed to have an honest discussion like this, without Elend’s morals to clutter things up?
“We could just let Straff have it,” Dockson finally said. “The city, I mean. We could promise to call Vin off. If that is where this is heading anyway …”
“Dox,” Ham said quietly, “what would Kell think, to hear you talk like that?”
“We could give the city to Jastes Lekal,” Breeze said. “Perhaps he can be persuaded to treat the skaa with dignity.”
“And let twenty thousand koloss into the city?” Ham asked. “Breeze, have you ever seen what those things can do?”
Dockson pounded the table. “I’m just giving options, Ham. What else are we going to do?”
“Fight,” Clubs said. “And die.”
The room fell silent again.
“You sure know how to kill a conversation, my friend,” Breeze finally said.
“It needed to be said,” Clubs muttered. “No use fooling yourselves anymore. We can’t win a fight, and a fight is where this was always going. The city is going to get attacked. We’re going to defend it. And we’ll lose.
“You wonder if we should just give up. Well, we’re not going to do that. Kell wouldn’t let us, and so we won’t let ourselves. We’ll fight, and we’ll die with dignity. Then, the city will burn—but we’ll have said something. The Lord Ruler pushed us around for a thousand years, but now we skaa have pride. We fight. We resist. And we die.”
“What was this all worth, then?” Ham said with frustration. “Why overthrow the Final Empire? Why kill the Lord Ruler? Why do anything, if it was just going to end like this? Tyrants ruling every dominance, Luthadel smashed to rubble, our crew dead?”
“Because,” Sazed said softly, “someone had to begin it. While the Lord Ruler ruled, society could not progress. He kept a stabilizing hand on the empire, but it was an oppressive hand as well. Fashion stayed remarkably unchanged for a thousand years, the noblemen always trying to fit the Lord Ruler’s ideals. Architecture and science did not progress, for the Lord Ruler frowned on change and invention.
“And the skaa could not be free, for he would not let them. However, killing him did not free our peoples, my friends. Only time will do that. It will take centuries, perhaps—centuries of fighting, learning, and growth. At the beginning, unfortunately and unavoidably, things will be very difficult. Worse even than they were beneath the Lord Ruler.”
“And we die for nothing,” Ham said with a scowl.
“No,” Sazed said. “Not nothing, Lord Hammond. We will die to show that there are skaa who will not be bullied, who will not back down. This is a very important precedent, I think. In the histories and legends, this is the kind of event that inspires. If the skaa are ever to take rule of themselves, there will need to be sacrifices they can look to for motivation. Sacrifices like that of the Survivor himself.”
The men sat in silence.
“Breeze,” Ham said, “I could use a little more confidence right now.”
“Of course,” Breeze said, carefully Soothing away the man’s anxiety and fear. His face lost some of its pale pallor, and he sat up a little straighter. Just for good measure, Breeze gave the rest of the crew a little of the same treatment.
“How long have you known?” Dockson asked Sazed.
“For some time now, Lord Dockson,” Sazed said.
“But, you couldn’t have known that Straff would pull back and give us to the koloss. Only Clubs figured that out.”
“My knowledge was general, Lord Breeze,” Sazed said in his even voice. “It did not relate to the koloss specifically. I have thought for some time that this city would fall. In all honesty, I am deeply impressed with your efforts. This people should long since have been defeated, I think. You have done something grand—something that will be remembered for centuries.”
“Assuming anyone survives to tell the story,” Clubs noted.
Sazed nodded. “That, actually, is why I called this gathering. There is little chance of those of us who remain in the city surviving—we will be needed to help with defenses, and if we do survive the koloss attack, Straff will try to execute us. However, it is not necessary for us all to remain in Luthadel for its fall—someone, perhaps, should be sent out to organize further resistance against the warlords.”
“I won’t leave my men,” Clubs grumbled.
“Nor I,” Ham said. “Though I did send my family to ground yesterday.” The simple phrase meant that he’d had them leave, perhaps to hide in the city’s underground, perhaps to escape through one of the passwalls. Ham wouldn’t know—and that way he couldn’t betray their location. Old habits died hard.
“If this city falls,” Dockson said, “I’ll be here with it. That’s what Kell would expect. I’m not leaving.”
“I’ll go,” Breeze said, looking at Sazed. “Is it too early to volunteer?”
“Um, actually, Lord Breeze,” Sazed said, “I wasn’t—”
Breeze held up a hand. “It’s all right, Sazed. I believe it’s obvious whom you think should be sent away. You didn’t invite them to the meeting.”