Jastes Lekal poked his head out of his tent, cursing as he extricated himself from the canvas. He’d changed much in the two years since Vin had last seen him. However, there had been hints of what the man would become. His thin figure had become spindly; his balding head had fulfilled its promise. Yet, how had his face come to look so haggard … so old? He was Elend’s age.
“Jastes,” Elend said, stepping out of his hiding place in the forest. He walked into the clearing, Spook at his side. “Why are you here?”
Jastes managed to stand as his other two soldiers cut their way out of their tent. He waved them down. “El,” he said. “I … didn’t know where else to go. My scouts said that you were fleeing, and it seemed like a good idea. Wherever you’re going, I want to go with you. We can hide there, maybe. We can—”
“Jastes!” Elend snapped, striding forward to stand beside Vin. “Where are your koloss? Did you send them away?”
“I tried,” Jastes said, looking down. “They wouldn’t go—not once they’d seen Luthadel. And then …”
“What?” Elend demanded.
“A fire,” Jastes said. “In our … supply carts.”
Vin frowned.
“Your supply carts?” Elend said. “The carts where you carried your wooden coins?”
“Yes.”
“Lord Ruler, man!” Elend said stepping forward. “And you just left them there, without leadership, outside our home?”
“They would have killed me, El!” Jastes said. “They were beginning to fight so much, to demand more coins, to demand we attack the city. If I’d stayed, they’d have slaughtered me! They’re beasts—beasts that only barely have the shape of man.”
“And you left,” Elend said. “You abandoned Luthadel to them.”
“You abandoned it, too,” Jastes said. He walked forward, hands pleading as he approached Elend. “Look, El. I know I was wrong. I thought I could control them. I didn’t mean for this to happen!”
Elend fell silent, and Vin could see a hardness growing in his eyes. Not a dangerous hardness, like Kelsier. More of a … regal bearing. The sense that he was more than he wanted to be. He stood straight, looking down at the man pleading before him.
“You raised an army of violent monsters and led them in a tyrannical assault, Jastes,” Elend said. “You caused the slaughter of innocent villages. Then, you abandoned that army without leadership or control outside the most populated city in the whole of the Final Empire.”
“Forgive me,” Jastes said.
Elend looked the man in the eyes. “I forgive you,” he said quietly. Then, in one fluid stroke, he drew his sword and sheared Jastes’s head from his shoulders. “But my kingdom cannot.”
Vin stared, dumbfounded, as the corpse fell to the ground. Jastes’s soldiers cried out, drawing their weapons. Elend turned, his face solemn, and raised the point of his bloodied sword toward them. “You think this execution was performed in error?”
The guards paused. “No, my lord,” one of them finally said, looking down.
Elend knelt and cleaned his sword on Jastes’s cloak. “Considering what he did, this was a better death than he deserved.” Elend snapped his sword back into its sheath. “But he was my friend. Bury him. Once you are through, you are welcome to travel with me to Terris, or you may go back to your homes. Choose as you wish.” With that, he walked back into the woods.
Vin paused, watching the guards. Solemnly, they moved forward to collect the body. She nodded to Spook, then dashed out into the forest after Elend. She didn’t have to go far. She found him sitting on a rock a short distance away, staring at the ground. An ashfall had begun, but most of the flakes got caught in the trees, coating their leaves like black moss.
“Elend?” she asked.
He looked out, staring into the forest. “I’m not sure why I did it, Vin,” he said quietly. “Why should I be the one to bring justice? I’m not even king. And yet, it had to be done. I felt it. I feel it still.”
She laid a hand on his shoulder.
“He’s the first man I’ve ever killed,” Elend said. “He and I had such dreams, once: We’d ally two of the most powerful imperial houses, uniting Luthadel as never before. Ours wasn’t to have been a treaty of greed, but a true political alliance intended to help make the city a better place.”
He looked up at her. “I think I understand now, Vin, what it is like for you. In a way, we’re both knives—both tools. Not for each other, but for this kingdom. This people.”
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him, pulling his head to her chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It had to be done,” he said. “The saddest part is, he’s right. I abandoned them, too. I should take my own life with this sword.”
“You left for a good reason, Elend,” Vin said. “You left to protect Luthadel, to make it so Straff wouldn’t attack.”
“And if the koloss attack before Straff can?”
“Maybe they won’t,” Vin said. “They don’t have a leader—maybe they’ll attack Straff’s army instead.”
“No,” Spook’s voice said. Vin turned, seeing him approach through the forest, eyes squinting against the light.
That boy burns way too much tin, she thought.
“What do you mean?” Elend asked, turning.
Spook looked down. “They won’t attack Straff’s army, El. It won’t be there anymore.”
“What?” Vin asked.
“I …” Spook looked away, shame showing in his face.
I’m a coward. His words from earlier returned to her. “You knew,” Vin said. “You knew the koloss were going to attack!”
Spook nodded.
“That’s ridiculous,” Elend said. “You couldn’t have known that Jastes would follow us.”
“I didn’t,” Spook said, a lump of ash falling from a tree behind him, bursting before the wind, and fluttering in a hundred different flakes to the ground. “But my uncle figured that Straff would withdraw his army and let the koloss attack the city. That’s why Sazed decided to send us away.”
Vin felt a sudden chill.
I’ve found the location of the Well of Ascension, Sazed had said. To the north. In the Terris Mountains. …
“Clubs told you this?” Elend was saying.
Spook nodded.
“And you didn’t tell me?” Elend demanded, standing.
Oh, no. …
Spook paused, then shook his head. “You would have wanted to go back! I didn’t want to die, El! I’m sorry. I’m a coward.” He cringed, glancing at Elend’s sword, shying away.
Elend paused, as if realizing he’d been stepping toward the boy. “I’m not going to hurt you, Spook,” he said. “I’m just ashamed of you.” Spook lowered his eyes, then sank down to the ground, sitting with his back to an aspen.
The thumpings, getting softer. …
“Elend,” Vin whispered.
He turned.
“Sazed lied. The Well isn’t to the north.”