Zane looked up through the mists, looked up at her. I’m dying, he thought.
Her atium shadow had split at the last moment. Two shadows, two possibilities. He’d counteracted the wrong one. She’d tricked him, defeated him somehow. And now he was dying.
Finally.
“You know why I thought you’d save me?” he tried to whisper to her, though he somehow knew that his lips weren’t properly forming the words. “The voice. You were the first person I ever met that it didn’t tell me to kill. The only person.”
“Of course I didn’t tell you to kill her,” God said.
Zane felt his life seeping away.
“You know the really funny thing, Zane?” God asked. “The most amusing part of this all? You’re not insane.
“You never were.”
Vin watched quietly as Zane sputtered, blood coming from his lips. She watched cautiously; a knife to the throat should have been enough to kill even a Mistborn, but sometimes pewter could let one do awesome things.
Zane died. She checked his pulse, then retrieved her dagger. After that, she stood for a moment, feeling … numb, in both mind and body. She raised a hand to her wounded shoulder—and in doing so, she brushed her wounded breast. She was bleeding too much, and her mind was growing fuzzy again.
I killed him.
She flared pewter, forcing herself to keep moving. She stumbled over to TenSoon, kneeling beside him.
“Mistress,” he said. “I’m sorry. …”
“I know,” she said, staring at the terrible wound she’d made. His legs no longer worked, and his body lay in an unnatural twist. “How can I help?”
“Help?” TenSoon said. “Mistress, I nearly got you killed!”
“I know,” she said again. “How can I make the pain go away? Do you need another body?”
TenSoon was quiet for a moment. “Yes.”
“Take Zane’s,” Vin said. “For the moment, at least.”
“He is dead?” TenSoon asked with surprise.
He couldn’t see, she realized. His neck is broken.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“How, Mistress?” TenSoon asked. “He ran out of atium?”
“No,” Vin said.
“Then, how?”
“Atium has a weakness,” she said. “It lets you see the future.”
“That … doesn’t sound like a weakness, Mistress.”
Vin sighed, wobbling slightly. Focus! she thought. “When you burn atium, you see a few moments into the future—and you can change what will happen in that future. You can grab an arrow that should have kept flying. You can dodge a blow that should have killed you. And you can move to block an attack before it even happens.”
TenSoon was quiet, obviously confused.
“He showed me what I was going to do,” Vin said. “I couldn’t change the future, but Zane could. By reacting to my attack before I even knew what I was going to do, he inadvertently showed me the future. I reacted against him, and he tried to block a blow that never came. That let me kill him.”
“Mistress …” TenSoon whispered. “That is brilliant.”
“I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it,” Vin said wearily. “But it isn’t the sort of secret that you share. Anyway, take his body.”
“I … would rather not wear the bones of that creature,” TenSoon said. “You don’t know how broken he was, Mistress.”
Vin nodded tiredly. “I could just find you another dog body, if you want.”
“That won’t be necessary, Mistress,” TenSoon said quietly. “I still have the bones of the other wolfhound you gave me, and most of them are still good. If I replace a few of them with the good bones from this body, I should be able to form a complete skeleton to use.”
“Do it, then. We’re going to need to plan what to do next.”
TenSoon was quiet for a moment. Finally, he spoke. “Mistress, my Contract is void, now that my master is dead. I … need to return to my people for reassignment.”
“Ah,” Vin said, feeling a wrench of sadness. “Of course.”
“I do not want to go,” TenSoon said. “But, I must at least report to my people. Please, forgive me.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” Vin said. “And thank you for that timely hint at the end.”
TenSoon lay quietly. She could see guilt in his canine eyes. He shouldn’t have helped me against his current master.
“Mistress,” TenSoon said. “You know our secret now. Mistborn can control a kandra’s body with Allomancy. I don’t know what you will do with it—but realize that I have entrusted you with a secret that my people have kept sacred for a thousand years. The way that Allomancers could take control of our bodies and make slaves of us.”
“I … don’t even understand what happened.”
“Perhaps it is better that way,” TenSoon said. “Please, leave me. I have the other dog’s bones in the closet. When you return, I will be gone.”
Vin rose, nodding. She left, then, pushing through the mists and seeking the hallway outside. Her wounds needed tending. She knew that she should go to Sazed, but somehow she couldn’t force herself in that direction. She walked faster, feet taking her down the hallway, until she was running.
Everything was collapsing around her. She couldn’t manage it all, couldn’t keep things straight. But she did know what she wanted.
And so she ran to him.
He is a good man—despite it all, he is a good man. A sacrificing man. In truth, all of his actions—all of the deaths, destructions, and pains that he has caused—have hurt him deeply. All of these things were, in truth, a kind of sacrifice for him.
48
ELEND YAWNED, LOOKING OVER THE letter he’d penned to Jastes. Perhaps he could persuade his former friend to see reason.
If he couldn’t … well, a duplicate of the wooden coin Jastes had been using to “pay” the koloss sat on Elend’s desk. It was a perfect copy, whittled by Clubs himself. Elend was pretty certain that he had access to more wood than Jastes did. If he could help Penrod stall for a few more weeks, they might be able to make enough “money” to bribe the koloss away.
He set down his pen, rubbing his eyes. It was late. Time to—
His door slammed open. Elend spun, and caught sight of a flustered Vin dashing across the room and into his arms. She was crying.
And she was bloody.
“Vin!” he said. “What happened?”
“I killed him,” she said, head buried in Elend’s chest.
“Who?”
“Your brother,” she said. “Zane. Straff’s Mistborn. I killed him.”
“Wait. What? My brother?”
Vin nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Forget about that, Vin!” Elend said, gently prying her back and pushing her into his chair. She had a gash on her cheek, and her shirt was slick with blood. “Lord Ruler! I’m going to get Sazed right now.”
“Don’t leave me,” she said, holding his arm.