“All that effort, wasted,” he hissed. “Hiding an Allomancer in Cett’s hirelings so that you would suspect him of attacking you at the Assembly. Forcing you to fight in front of Elend so that he’d be intimidated by you. Pushing you to explore your powers and kill so that you’d realize just how powerful you truly are. All wasted!”
He leaned down. “You. Were. Supposed. To. Save me!” he said, his face just inches from hers, breathing heavily. He pinned one of her struggling arms to the floor with his knee, and then, in a strangely surreal moment, he kissed her.
And at the same time, he rammed his dagger into the side of one of her breasts. Vin tried to cry out, but his mouth held hers as the dagger cut her flesh.
“Be careful, Master!” OreSeur—TenSoon—suddenly yelled. “She knows much about kandra!”
Zane looked up, his hand stilled. The voice, the pain, brought lucidity to Vin. She flared tin, using the pain to shock herself awake, clearing her mind.
“What?” Zane asked, looking down toward the kandra.
“She knows, Master,” TenSoon said. “She knows our secret. The reason why we served the Lord Ruler. The reason why we serve the Contract. She knows why we fear Allomancers so much.”
“Be silent,” Zane commanded. “And speak no more.”
TenSoon fell silent.
Our secret … Vin thought, glancing over at the wolfhound, sensing the anxiety in his canine expression. He’s trying to tell me something. Trying to help me.
Secret. The secret of the kandra. The last time she’d tried Soothing him, he’d howled with pain. Yet, she saw permission in his expression. It was enough.
She slammed TenSoon with a Soothing. He cried out, howling, but she Pushed harder. Nothing happened. Gritting her teeth, she burned duralumin.
Something broke. She was in two places at once. She could feel TenSoon standing by the wall, and she could feel her own body in Zane’s grip. TenSoon was hers, totally and completely. Somehow, not quite knowing how, she ordered him forward, controlling his body.
The massive wolfhound’s body slammed into Zane, throwing him off Vin. The dagger flipped to the ground, and Vin stumbled to her knees, grabbing her chest, feeling warm blood there. Zane rolled, obviously shocked, but he came to his feet and kicked TenSoon.
Bones broke. The wolfhound tumbled across the floor—right toward Vin. She snatched the dagger off the ground as he rolled to her feet, then plunged it into his shoulder, cutting the shoulder, her fingers feeling in the muscle and sinew. She came up with bloodied hands and a single bead of atium. She swallowed it with a gulp, spinning toward Zane.
“Now let’s see how you fare,” she hissed, burning atium. Dozens of atium shadows burst from Zane, showing her possible actions he could take—all of them ambiguous. She would be giving off the same confusing mess to his eyes. They were even.
Zane turned, looking into her eyes, and his atium shadows disappeared.
Impossible! she thought. TenSoon groaned at her feet as she realized that her atium reserve was gone. Burned away. But the bead had been so large. …
“Did you think I’d give you the very weapon you needed to fight me?” Zane asked quietly. “Did you think I’d really give up atium?”
“But—”
“A lump of lead,” Zane said, walking forward. “Plated with a thin layer of atium around it. Oh, Vin. You really need to be more careful whom you trust.”
Vin stumbled backward, feeling her confidence wilt. Make him talk! she thought. Try to get his atium to run out.
“My brother said that I shouldn’t trust anyone …” she mumbled. “He said … anyone would betray me.”
“He was a wise man,” Zane said quietly, standing chest-deep in mists.
“He was a paranoid fool,” Vin said. “He kept me alive, but he left me broken.”
“Then he did you a favor.”
Vin glanced toward TenSoon’s mangled, bleeding form. He was in pain; she could see it in his eyes. In the distance she could hear … thumping. She’d turned her bronze back on. She looked up slowly. Zane was walking toward her. Confident.
“You’ve been playing with me,” she said. “You drove a wedge between me and Elend. You made me think he feared me, made me think he was using me.”
“He was,” Zane said.
“Yes,” Vin said. “But it doesn’t matter—not the way you made it seem. Elend uses me. Kelsier used me. We use each other, for love, for support, for trust.”
“Trust will kill you,” he said.
“Then it is better to die.”
“I trusted you,” he said, stopping before her. “And you betrayed me.”
“No,” Vin said, raising her dagger. “I’m going to save you. Just like you want.” She snapped forward and struck, but her hope—that he’d run out of atium—was in vain. He sidestepped indifferently; he let her dagger come within an inch of striking, but he was never really in danger.
Vin spun to attack, but her blade cut only air, skimming along the top of the rising mists.
Zane moved before her next attack came, dodging even before she knew what she was going to do. Her dagger stabbed the place where he had been standing.
He’s too fast, she thought, side burning, mind thumping. Or was that the Well of Ascension thumping. …
Zane stopped just in front of her.
I can’t hit him, she thought with frustration. Not when he knows where I’ll strike before I do!
Vin paused.
Before I do. …
Zane stepped away to a place near the center of the room, then kicked her fallen dagger into the air and caught it. He turned back toward her, mist trailing from the weapon in his hand, jaw set and eyes dark.
He knows where I’ll strike before I do.
Vin raised her dagger, blood trickling down face and side, thunderous drumbeats booming in her mind. The mist was nearly up to her chin.
She cleared her mind. She didn’t plan an attack. She didn’t react to Zane as he ran toward her, dagger raised. She loosened her muscles and closed her eyes, listening to his footsteps. She felt the mist rise around her, churned by Zane’s advent.
She snapped her eyes open. He had the dagger raised; it glittered as it swung. Vin prepared to attack, but didn’t think about the strike; she simply let her body react.
And she watched Zane very, very carefully.
He flinched just slightly to the left, open hand moving upward, as if to grab something.
There! Vin thought, immediately wrenching herself to the side, forcing her instinctive attack out of its natural trajectory. She twisted her arm—and dagger—midswing. She had been about to attack left, as Zane’s atium had anticipated.
But, by reacting, Zane had shown her what she was going to do. Let her see the future. And if she could see it, she could change it.
They met. Zane’s weapon took her in the shoulder. But Vin’s knife took him in the neck. His left hand closed on empty air, snatching at a shadow that should have told him where her arm would be.
Zane tried to gasp, but her knife had pierced his windpipe. Air sucked through blood around the blade, and Zane stumbled back, eyes wide with shock. He met her eyes, then collapsed into the mists, his body thumping against the wooden floor.