The Hero of Ages Read online

Page 3

  "Whats that?"

  Venture met his eyes. "You have me. "

  "My lord emperor!" a voice called from atop the bulwark. "Koloss sighted!"

  They already call to him first, Fatren thought. Fatren wasnt certain whether to be insulted or impressed.

  Venture immediately jumped up to the top of the bulwark, using his Allomancy to cross the distance in a quick bound. Most of the soldiers stooped or hid behind the top of the fortification, keeping a low profile despite the distance of their enemies. Venture, however, stood proud in his white cape and uniform, shading his eyes, squinting toward the horizon.

  "Theyre setting up camp," he said, smiling. "Good. Lord Fatren, prepare the men for an assault. "

  "An assault?" Fatren asked, scrambling up behind Venture.

  The emperor nodded. "The koloss will be tired from marching, and will be distracted by making camp. Well never have a better opportunity to attack them. "

  "But, were on the defensive!"

  Venture shook his head. "If we wait, theyll eventually whip themselves into a blood frenzy, then come against us. We need to attack, rather than just wait to be slaughtered. "

  "And abandon the bulwark?"

  "The fortification is impressive, Lord Fatren, but ultimately useless. You dont have the numbers to defend the entire perimeter, and the koloss are generally taller and more stable than men. Theyll just take the bulwark from you, then hold the high ground as they push down into the city. "

  "But—"

  Venture looked at him. His eyes were calm, but his gaze was firm and expectant. The message was simple. I am in charge now. There would be no more arguing.

  "Yes, my lord," Fatren said, calling over messengers to pass the orders.

  Venture stood 1watching as the messenger boys dashed off. There seemed to be some confusion among the men—they werent expecting to attack. More and more eyes turned toward Venture, standing tall atop the bulwark.

  He really does look like an emperor, Fatren thought despite himself.

  The orders moved down the line. Time passed. Finally, the entire army was watching. Venture pulled out his sword and held it high in the ash-scattered sky. Then, he took off down the bulwark in an inhumanly quick dash, charging toward the koloss camp.

  For a moment, he ran alone. Then, surprising himself, Fatren gritted his teeth against shaking nerves and followed.

  The bulwark exploded with motion, the soldiers charging with a collective yell, running toward death with their weapons held high.

  Holding the power did strange things to my mind. In just a few moments, I became familiar with the power itself, with its history, and with the ways it might be used.

  Yet, this knowledge was different from experience, or even ability to use that power. For instance, I knew how to move a planet in the sky. Yet, I didnt know where to place it so that it wouldnt be too close, or too far, from the sun.

  2

  AS ALWAYS, TENSOONS DAY began in darkness. Part of that was due, of course, to the fact that he didnt have any eyes. He could have created a set—he was of the Third Generation, which was old, even for a kandra. He had digested enough corpses that he had learned how to create sensory organs intuitively without a model to copy.

  Unfortunately, eyes would have done him little good. He didnt have a skull, and he had found that most organs didnt function well without a full body—and skeleton—to support them. His own mass would crush eyes if he moved the wrong way, and it would be very difficult to turn them about to see.

  Not that there would be anything to look at. TenSoon moved his bulk slightly, shifting inside his prison chamber. His body was little more than a grouping of translucent muscles—like a mass of large snails or slugs, all connected, somewhat more malleable than the body of a mollusk. With concentration, he could dissolve one of the muscles and either meld it with another one, or make something new. Yet, without a skeleton to use, he was all but impotent.

  He shifted in his cell again. His very skin had a sense of its own—a kind of taste. Right now, it tasted the stench of his own excrement on the sides of the chamber, but he didnt dare turn off this sense. It was one of his only connections to the world around him.

  The "cell" was actually nothing more than a grate-covered stone pit. It was barely large enough to hold his mass. His captors dumped food in from the top, then periodically poured water in to hydrate him and wash his excrement out through a small drainage hole at the bottom. Both this hole and those in the locked grate above were too small for him to slide through—a kandras body was supple, but even a pile of muscles could be squeezed only so small.

  Most people would have gone mad from the stress of being so confined for . . . he didnt even know how long it had been. Months? But TenSoon had the Blessing of Presence. His mind would not give in easily.

  Sometimes he cursed the Blessing for keeping him from the blissful relief of madness.

  Focus,1 he told himself. He had no brain, not as humans did, but he was able to think. He didnt understand this. He wasnt certain if any kandra did. Perhaps those of the First Generation knew more—but if so, they didnt enlighten everyone else.

  They cant keep you here forever, he told himself. The First Contract says. . .

  But he was beginning to doubt the First Contract—or, rather, that the First Generation paid any attention to it. But, could he blame them? TenSoon was a Contract-breaker. By his own admission, he had gone against the will of his master, helping another instead. This betrayal had ended with his masters death.

  Yet, even such a shameful act was the least of his crimes. The punishment for Contract-breaking was death, and if TenSoons crimes had stopped there, the others would have killed him and been done with it. Unfortunately, there was much more at stake. TenSoons testimony—given to the Second Generation in a closed conference—had revealed a much more dangerous, much more important, lapse.

  TenSoon had betrayed his peoples secret.

  They cant execute me, he thought, using the idea to keep him focused. Not until they find out who I told.

  The secret. The precious, precious secret.

  Ive doomed us all. My entire people. Well be slaves again. No, were already slaves. Well become something else—automatons, our minds controlled by others. Captured and used, our bodies no longer our own.

  This was what he had done—what he had potentially set in motion. The reason he deserved imprisonment and death. And yet, he wished to live. He should despise himself. But, for some reason, he still felt he had done the right thing.

  He shifted again, masses of slick muscle rotating around one another. Midshift, however, he froze. Vibrations. Someone was coming.

  He arranged himself, pushing his muscles to the sides of the pit, forming a depression in the middle of his body. He needed to catch all of the food that he could—they fed him precious little. However, no slop came pouring down through the grate. He waited, expectant, until the grate unlocked. Though he had no ears, he could feel the coarse vibrations as the grate was dragged back, its rough iron finally dropped against the floor above.

  What?

  Hooks came next. They looped around his muscles, grabbing him and ripping his flesh as they pulled him out of the pit. It hurt. Not just the hooks, but the sudden freedom as his body was spilled across the floor of the prison. He unwillingly tasted dirt and dried slop. His muscles quivered, the unfettered motion of being outside the cell felt strange, and he strained, moving his bulk in ways that he had nearly forgotten.

  Then it came. He could taste it in the air. Acid, thick and pungent, presumably in a gold-lined bucket brought by the prison keepers. They were going to kill him after all.

  But, they cant! he thought. The First Contract, the law of our people, it—

  Something fell on him. Not acid, but something hard. He touched it eagerly, muscles moving against one another, tasting it, testing it, feeling it. It was round, with holes, and several sha
rp edges . . . a skull.

  The acid stink grew sharper. Were they stirring it? TenSoon moved quickly, forming around the skull, filling it. He already had some dissolved flesh stored1 inside of an organ-like pouch. He brought this out, oozing it around the skull, quickly making skin. He left the eyes alone, working on lungs, forming a tongue, ignoring lips for the moment. He worked with a sense of desperation as the taste of acid grew strong, and then . . .

  It hit him. It seared the muscles on one side of his body, washing over his bulk, dissolving it. Apparently, the Second Generation had given up on getting his secrets from him. However, before killing him, they knew they had to give him an opportunity to speak. The First Contract required it—hence the skull. However, the guards obviously had orders to kill him before he could actually say anything in his defense. They followed the form of the law, yet at the very same time they ignored its intent.

  They didnt realize, however, how quickly TenSoon could work. Few kandra had spent as much time on Contracts as he had—all of the Second Generation, and most of the Third, had long ago retired from service. They led easy lives here in the Homeland.

  An easy life taught one very little.

  Most kandra took hours to form a body—some younger ones needed days. In seconds, however, TenSoon had a rudimentary tongue. As the acid moved up his body, he forced out a trachea, inflated a lung, and croaked out a single word:

  "Judgment!"

  The pouring stopped. His body continued to burn. He worked through the pain, forming primitive hearing organs inside the skull cavity.

  A voice whispered nearby. "Fool. "

  "Judgment!" TenSoon said again.

  "Accept death," the voice hissed quietly. "Do not put yourself in a position to cause further harm to our people. The First Generation has granted you this chance to die because of your years of extra service!"

  TenSoon paused. A trial would be public. So far, only a select few knew the extent of his betrayal. He could die, cursed as a Contract-breaker but retaining some measure of respect for his prior career. Somewhere—likely in a pit in this very room—there were some who suffered endless captivity, a torture that would eventually break even the minds of those endowed with the Blessing of Presence.

  Did he want to become one of those? By revealing his actions in an open forum, he would earn himself an eternity of pain. Forcing a trial would be foolish, for there was no hope of vindication. His confessions had already damned him.

  If he spoke, it would not be to defend himself. It would be for other reasons entirely.

  "Judgment," he repeated, this time barely whispering.

  In some ways, having such power was too overwhelming, I think. This was a power that would take millennia to understand. Remaking the world would have been easy, had one been familiar with the power. Yet, I realized the danger inherent in my ignorance. Like a child suddenly given awesome strength, I could have pushed too hard, and left the world a broken toy I could never repair.

  3

  ELEND VENTURE, SECOND EMPEROR of the Final Empire, had not been born a warrior. Hed been born a nobleman—which, in the Lord Rulers day, had essentially made Elend a professional socialite. Hed spent his youth learning to play the frivolous games of the Great Houses, living the pampered lifestyle of the imperial elite.

  It wasnt od1d for him to have ended up a politician. Hed always been interested in political theory, and while hed been more a scholar than a true statesman, hed known that someday hed rule his house. Yet, he hadnt made a very good king at first. He hadnt understood that there was more to leadership than good ideas and honest intentions. Far more.