The Hero of Ages Read online

Page 12

  Such a strange people they were. But they were his. Even if he had betrayed them.

  And now I have to convince the First Generation that I was right in that betrayal. Not for me. For them. For all of us.

  They passed through corridors and chambers, e1ventually arriving at sections of the Homeland that were more familiar to TenSoon. He soon realized that their destination must be the Trustwarren. He would argue his defense in his peoples most sacred place. He should have guessed.

  A year of torturous imprisonment had earned him a trial before the First Generation. Hed had a year to think about what to say. And if he failed, hed have an eternity to think about what hed done wrong.

  It is too easy for people to characterize Ruin as simply a force of destruction. Think rather of Ruin as intelligent decay. Not simply chaos, but a force that sought in a rational—and dangerous—way to break everything down to its most basic forms.

  Ruin could plan and carefully plot, knowing if he built one thing up, he could use it to knock down two others. The nature of the world is that when we create something, we often destroy something else in the process.

  8

  ON THE FIRST DAY OUT OF VETITAN, Vin and Elend murdered a hundred of the villagers. Or, at least, that was how Vin felt.

  She sat on a rotting stump at the center of camp, watching the sun approach the distant horizon, knowing what was about to happen. Ash fell silently around her. And the mists appeared.

  Once—not so long ago—the mists had come only at night. During the year following the Lord Rulers death, however, that had changed. As if a thousand years of being confined to the darkness had made the mists restless.

  And so, they had begun to come during the day. Sometimes, they came in great rolling waves, appearing out of nowhere, disappearing as quickly. Most commonly, however, they just appeared in the air like a thousand phantoms, twisting and growing together. Tendrils of mist that sprouted, vine-like tentacles creeping across the sky. Each day, they retreated a little bit later in the day, and each day they appeared a little earlier in the evening. Soon—perhaps before the year ended—they would smother the land permanently. And this presented a problem, for ever since that night when Vin had taken the power of the Well of Ascension, the mists killed.

  Elend had had trouble believing Sazeds stories two years before, when the Terrisman had come to Luthadel with horrific reports of terrified villagers and mists that killed. Vin too had assumed that Sazed was mistaken. A part of her wished she could continue in that delusion as she watched the waiting townspeople, huddled together on the broad open plain, surrounded by soldiers and koloss.

  The deaths began as soon as the mists appeared. Though the mists left most of the people alone, they chose some at random, causing them to begin shaking. These fell to the ground, having a seizure, while their friends and family watched in shock and horror.

  Horror was still Vins reaction. That, and frustration. Kelsier had promised her that the mists were an ally—that they would protect her and give her power. Shed believed that to be true until the mists started to feel alien to her, hiding shadowed ghosts and murderous intent.

  "I hate you," she whispered as the mists continued their grisly work. It was like watching a beloved old relative pick strangers out of a crowd and, one at a time, slit their throats. And there was nothing at all she could do. Elends scholars had tried everything—hoods to keep the mists from being breathed in, waiting to go outside until the mists had already established themselves, rushing people inside the moment th1ey started shaking. Animals were immune for some reason, but every human was potentially susceptible. If one went outside in the mists, one risked death, and nothing could prevent it.

  It was over soon. The mists gave the fits to fewer than one in six, and only a small fraction of those died. Plus, one only needed to risk these new mists once—one gamble, and then you were immune. Most who fell sick would recover. That was no comfort to the families of those who died.

  She sat on her stump, staring out into the mists, which were still lit by the setting sun. Ironically, it was more difficult for her to see than it would have been if it were dark. She couldnt burn much tin, lest the sunlight blind her—but without it, she couldnt pierce the mists.

  The result was a scene that reminded her why she had once feared the mists. Her visibility reduced to barely ten feet, she could see little more than shadows. Amorphous figures ran this way and that, calling out. Silhouettes knelt or stood terrified. Sound was a traitorous thing, echoing against unseen objects, cries coming from phantom sources.

  Vin sat among them, ash raining around her like burnt tears, and bowed her head.

  "Lord Fatren!" Elends voice called, causing Vin to look up. Once, his voice hadnt carried nearly as much authority. That seemed like so long ago. He appeared from the mists, dressed in his second white uniform—the one that was still clean—his face hardened against the mortalities. She could feel his Allomantic touch on those around him as he approached—his Soothing would make the peoples pain less acute, but he didnt Push as hard as he could have. She knew from talking to him that he didnt feel it was right to remove all of a persons grief at the death of one they loved.

  "My lord!" she heard Fatren say, and saw him approaching. "This is a disaster!"

  "It looks far worse than it is, Lord Fatren," Elend said. "As I explained, most of those who have fallen will recover. "

  Fatren stopped beside Vins stump. Then, he turned and stared into the mists, listening to the weeping and the pain of his people. "I cant believe we did this. I cant . . . I cant believe you talked me into making them stand in the mists. "

  "Your people needed to be inoculated, Fatren," Elend said.

  It was true. They didnt have tents for all of the townsfolk, and that left only two options. Leave them behind in their dying village, or force them north—make them go out in the mists, and see who died. It was terrible, and it was brutal, but it would have happened eventually. Still, even though she knew the logic of what they had done, Vin felt terrible for being part of it.

  "What kind of monsters are we?" Fatren asked in a hushed tone.

  "The kind we have to be," Elend said. "Go make a count. Find out how many are dead. Calm the living and promise them that no further harm will come from the mists. "

  "Yes, my lord," Fatren said, moving away.

  Vin watched him go. "We murdered them, Elend," she whispered. "We told them it would be all right. We forced them to leave their village and come out here, to die. "

  "It will be all right," Elend said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Better than a slow death in that village. "

  "We could have given them a choice. "

  Elend shook his head. "There was no choice. Within 1a few months, their city will be covered in mists permanently. They would have had to stay inside their homes and starve, or go out into the mists. Better that we take them to the Central Dominance, where there is still enough mistless daylight to grow crops. "

  "The truth doesnt make it any easier. "

  Elend stood in the mists, ash falling around him. "No," he said. "It doesnt. Ill go gather the koloss so they can bury the dead. "

  "And the wounded?" Those the mists attacked, but didnt kill, would be sick and cramped for several days, perhaps longer. If the usual percentages held, then nearly a thousand of the villagers would fall into that category.

  "When we leave tomorrow, well have the koloss carry them. If we can get to the canal, then we can probably fit most of them on the barges. "

  Vin didnt like feeling exposed. Shed spent her childhood hiding in corners, her adolescence playing the silent nighttime assassin. So it was incredibly difficult not to feel exposed while traveling with five thousand tired villagers along one of the Southern Dominances most obvious routes.

  She walked a short distance away from the townspeople—she never rode—and tried to find something to distract herself from th
inking about the deaths the evening before. Unfortunately, Elend was riding with Fatren and the other town leaders, busy trying to smooth relations. That left her alone.

  Except for her single koloss.

  The massive beast lumbered beside her. She kept it close partially out of convenience; she knew it would make the villagers keep their distance from her. As willing as she was to be distracted, she didnt want to deal with those betrayed, frightened eyes. Not right now.

  Nobody understood the koloss, least of all Vin. Shed discovered how to control them, using the hidden Allomantic trigger. Yet, during the thousand years of the Lord Rulers reign, he had kept the koloss separated from mankind, letting very little be known about them beyond their brutal prowess in battle and their simple bestial nature.

  Even now, Vin could feel her koloss tugging at her, trying to break free. It didnt like being controlled—it wanted to attack her. It could not, fortunately; she controlled it, and would continue to do so whether awake or asleep, burning metals or not, unless someone stole the beast from her.

  Even linked as they were, there was so much Vin didnt understand about the creatures. She looked up, and found the koloss staring at her with its bloodred eyes. Its skin was stretched tight across its face, the nose pulled completely flat. The skin was torn near the right eye, and a jagged rip ran down to the corner of its mouth, letting a flap of blue skin hang free, exposing the red muscles and bloodied teeth below.

  "Dont look at me," the creature said, speaking in a sluggish voice. Its words were slurred, partially from the way its lips were pulled.

  "What?" Vin asked.

  "You dont think Im human," the koloss said, speaking slowly, deliberately—like the others she had heard. It was like they had to think hard between each word.

  "You arent human," Vin said. "Youre something else. "

  "I will be human," the koloss said. "We will kill you. Take your cities. Then we will be human. "

  Vin shivered. It was a common theme among koloss. Shed heard 1others make similar remarks. There was something very chilling about the flat, emotionless way the koloss spoke of slaughtering people.

  They were created by the Lord Ruler, she thought. Of course theyre twisted. As twisted as he was.

  "What is your name?" she asked the koloss.

  It continued to lumber beside her. Finally, it looked at her. "Human. "

  "I know you want to be human," Vin said. "What is your name?"

  "That is my name. Human. You call me Human. "

  Vin frowned as they walked. That almost seemed . . . clever. Shed never taken the opportunity to talk to koloss before. Shed always assumed that they were of a homogeneous mentality—just the same stupid beast repeated over and over.

  "All right, Human," she said, curious. "How long have you been alive?"

  He walked for a moment, so long that Vin thought he had forgotten the question. Finally, however, he spoke. "Dont you see my bigness?"

  "Your bigness? Your size?"

  Human just kept walking.

  "So you all grow at the same rate?"

  He didnt answer. Vin shook her head, suspecting that the question was too abstract for the beast.