Vin turned, causing the skaa couple to jump. Perhaps they’d noticed the daggers in her belt, or perhaps it was the look in her eyes, but they no longer looked quite as friendly as they had before.
“Is that a stable?” Vin said, nodding toward one of the dark buildings.
“Yes,” the man said hesitantly. “But we have no horses. Only a couple of goats and cows. Surely you don’t want to—”
“Horseshoes,” Vin said.
The man frowned.
“I need horseshoes,” Vin said. “A lot of them.”
“Follow me,” the man said, responding to her Soothing. He led her out into the cold afternoon. Others followed behind them, and Vin noticed a couple of men casually carrying cudgels. Perhaps it wasn’t just Elend’s protection that had allowed these people to remain unmolested.
The stocky man threw his weight against the stable door, pushing it to the side. He pointed to a barrel inside. “They were getting rusty anyway,” he said.
Vin walked up to the barrel and took out a horseshoe, testing its weight. Then she tossed it up in front of her and Pushed it with a solid flare of steel. It shot away, arcing far through the air until it splashed into a pool some hundred paces away.
Perfect, she thought.
The skaa men were staring. Vin reached into her pocket and pulled out one of her metal vials, downing its contents and restoring her pewter. She didn’t have much of it left by pewter-dragging standards, but she had plenty of steel and iron. Both burned slowly. She could Push and Pull on metals for hours yet.
“Prepare your village,” she said, burning pewter, then counting out ten horseshoes. “Luthadel is besieged—it might have fallen already. If you get word that it has, I suggest you take your people and move to Terris. Follow the imperial canal directly to the north.”
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“Nobody of consequence.”
He paused. “You’re her, aren’t you?”
She didn’t need to ask what he meant. She simply dropped a horseshoe to the ground behind her.
“Yes,” she said quietly, then Pushed off of the shoe.
Immediately, she shot into the air at an angle. As she began to fall, she dropped another horseshoe. However, she waited until she was near the ground to Push against this one; she needed to keep herself going more forward than up.
She’d done all this before. It wasn’t that different from using coins to jump around. The trick was going to be to keep herself moving. As she Pushed against the second horseshoe—propelling herself into the snowy air again—she reached behind herself and Pulled hard on the first horseshoe.
The horseshoe wasn’t connected to anything, so it leaped into the air after her, crossing the distance through the sky as Vin dropped a third shoe to the ground. She let go of the first shoe, its momentum carrying it through the air above her head. It fell to the ground as she Pushed against the third shoe and Pulled on the second one, now far behind her.
This is going to be tough, Vin thought, frowning with concentration as she passed over the first shoe and Pushed on it. However, she didn’t get the angle right, and she fell too far before Pushing. The horseshoe shot out behind her, and didn’t give her enough upward momentum to keep her in the air. She hit the ground hard, but immediately Pulled the shoe to herself and tried again.
The first few tries were slow. The biggest problem was getting the angle down. She had to hit the shoe just right, giving it enough downward force to keep it in place on the ground, but enough forward motion to keep her moving in the right direction. She had to land often that first hour, going back to fetch horseshoes. However, she didn’t have time for much experimentation, and her determination insisted that she get the process right.
Eventually, she had three shoes working pretty well; it helped that the ground was wet, and that her weight pressed the horseshoes down in the mud, giving her a stronger anchor to use when Pushing herself forward. Soon she was able to add a fourth shoe. The more frequently she Pushed—the more horseshoes she had to Push against—the faster she would go.
By the time she was an hour out of the village, she added a fifth shoe. The result was a continuous flow of flipping metal chunks. Vin Pulled, then Pushed, then Pulled, then Pushed, moving with continual single-mindedness, juggling herself through the air.
The ground raced beneath her and horseshoes shot through the air above her. The wind became a roar as she Pushed herself faster and faster, steering her pathway to the south. She was a flurry of metal and motion—as Kelsier had been, near the end, when he had killed the Inquisitor.
Except, her metal wasn’t meant to kill, but save. I might not arrive in time, she thought, air rushing around her. But I’m not going to give up halfway.
I have a young nephew, one Rashek. He hates all of Khlennium with the passion of envious youth. He hates Alendi even more acutely—though the two have never met—for Rashek feels betrayed that one of our oppressors should have been chosen as the Hero of Ages.
53
STRAFF WAS ACTUALLY STARTING TO feel quite well as his army crested the last hill to overlook Luthadel. He’d discreetly tried a few drugs from his cabinet, and he was pretty certain he knew which one Amaranta had given him: Black Frayn. A nasty drug indeed. He’d have to wean himself from it slowly—but, for now, a few swallowed leaves made him stronger and more alert than he’d ever been before. In fact, he felt wonderful.
He was sure the same couldn’t be said for those in Luthadel. The koloss pooled around the outer wall, still beating on several of the gates on the north and east sides. Smoke rose from inside the city.
“Our scouts say the creatures have broken through four of the city gates, my lord,” said Lord Janarle. “They breached the eastern gate first, and there met with heavy resistance. The northeastern gate fell next, then the northwestern gate, but the troops at both are holding as well. The main breach happened in the north. The koloss are apparently ravaging from that direction, burning and looting.”
Straff nodded. The northern gate, he thought. The one closest to Keep Venture.
“Do we attack, my lord?” Janarle asked.
“How long ago did the northern gate fall?”
“Perhaps an hour ago, my lord.”
Straff shook his head leisurely. “Then, let us wait. The creatures worked quite hard to break into the city—we should at least let them have a little fun before we slaughter them.”
“Are you sure, my lord?”
Straff smiled. “Once they lose their bloodlust in a few hours, they’ll be tired from all the fighting and calm down. That will be the best time to strike. They’ll be dispersed through the city and weakened from the resistance. We can take them easily, that way.”
Sazed gripped his koloss opponent by the throat, forcing back its snarling, distorted face. The beast’s skin was stretched so tightly that it had split down the center of the face, revealing bloody muscles above the teeth, around the nose holes. It breathed with husky rage, spraying droplets of spittle and blood across Sazed with each exhalation.
Strength! Sazed thought, tapping his pewtermind for more power. His body became so massive that he feared splitting his own skin. Fortunately, his metalminds had been built to expand, braces and rings that didn’t connect on one side so that they could bend. Still, his bulk was daunting. He probably wouldn’t have been able to walk or maneuver with such size—but it didn’t matter, for the koloss had already knocked him to the ground. All he needed was some extra power in his grip. The creature clawed him in the arm with one hand, reaching behind with the other, grasping its sword. …