The Hero of Ages

The door opened.

Sazed and Breeze both turned. A solitary aide entered, bearing an ornate sheet of parchment. King Lekal had signed the treaty at the bottom. His signature was small, almost cramped, in the large space allotted. He knew he was beaten.

The aide set the treaty on the table, then retreated.

Each time Rashek tried to fix things, he made them worse. He had to change the world's plants to make them able to survive in the new, harsh environment. Yet, that change left the plants less nutritious to mankind. Indeed, the falling ash would make men sick, causing them to cough like those who spent too long mining beneath the earth. And so Rashek changed mankind itself as well, altering them so that they could survive.

5

Elend knelt beside the fallen inquisitor, trying to ignore the mess that was left of the thing's head. Vin approached, and he noted the wound on her forearm. As usual, she all but ignored the injury.

The koloss army stood quietly on the battlefield around them. Elend still wasn't comfortable with the idea of controlling the creatures. He felt. . tainted by even associating with them. Yet, it was the only way.

'Something's wrong, Elend,' Vin said.

He looked up from the body. 'What? You think there might be another one around?'

She shook her head. 'Not that. That Inquisitor moved too quickly at the end. I've never seen a person- Allomancer or not-with that kind of speed.'

'He must have had duralumin,' Elend said, looking down. For a time, he and Vin had held an edge, since they'd had access to an Allomantic metal the Inquisitors hadn't known about. Reports now indicated that edge was gone.

Fortunately, they still had electrum. The Lord Ruler was to be thanked for that, actually. Poor man's atium. Normally, an Allomancer who was burning atium was virtually invincible-only another Allomancer burning the metal could fight him. Unless, of course, one had electrum. Electrum didn't grant the same invincibility as atium-which allowed an Allomancer to see slightly into the future-but it did make one immune to atium.

'Elend,' Vin said, kneeling, 'it wasn't duralumin. The Inquisitor was moving too quickly even for that.'

Elend frowned. He had seen the Inquisitor move only out of the corner of his eye, but surely it hadn't been that fast. Vin had a tendency to be paranoid and assume the worst.

Of course, she also had a habit of being right.

She reached out and grabbed the front of the corpse's robe, ripping it free. Elend turned away. 'Vin! Have respect for the dead!'

'I have no respect for these things,' she said, 'nor will I ever. Did you see how that thing tried to use one of its spikes to kill you?'

'That was odd. Perhaps he felt he couldn't get to the axes in time.'

'Here, look.'

Elend glanced back. The Inquisitor had the standard spikes-three pounded between the ribs on each side of the chest. But. . there was another one-one Elend hadn't seen in any other Inquisitor corpse-pounded directly through the front of this creature's chest.

Lord Ruler! Elend thought. That one would have gone right through its heart. How did it survive? Of course, if two spikes through the brain didn't kill it, then one through the heart probably wouldn't either.

Vin reached down and yanked the spike free. Elend winced. She held it up, frowning. 'Pewter,' she said.

'Really?' Elend asked.

She nodded. 'That makes ten spikes. Two through the eyes and one through the shoulders: all steel. Six through the ribs: two steel, four bronze. Now this, a pewter one-not to mention the one he tried to use on you, which appears to be steel.'

Elend studied the spike in her hand. In Allomancy and Feruchemy, different metals did different things-he could only guess that for Inquisitors, the type of metal used in the various spikes was important as well. 'Perhaps they don't use Allomancy at all, but some. . third power.'

'Maybe,' Vin said, gripping the spike, standing up. 'We'll need to cut open the stomach and see if it had atium.'

'Maybe this one will finally have some.' They always burned electrum as a precaution; so far, none of the Inquisitors they'd met had actually possessed any atium.

Vin shook her head, staring out over the ash-covered battlefield. 'We're missing something, Elend. We're like children, playing a game we've watched our parents play, but not really knowing any of the rules. And. . our opponent created the game in the first place.'

Elend stepped around the corpse, moving over to her. 'Vin, we don't even known that it's out there. The thing we saw a year ago at the Well. . perhaps it's gone. Perhaps it left, now that it's free. That could be all it wanted.'

Vin looked at him. He could read in her eyes that she didn't believe that. Perhaps she saw that he didn't really believe it either.

'It's out there, Elend,' she whispered. 'It's directing the Inquisitors; it knows what we're doing. That's why the koloss always move against the same cities we do. It has power over the world-it can change text that has been written, create miscommunications and confusion. It knows our plans.'

Elend put a hand on her shoulder. 'But today we beat it-and, it sent us this handy koloss army.'

'And how many humans did we lose trying to capture this force?'

Elend didn't need to speak the answer. Too many. Their numbers were dwindling. The mists-the Deepness-were growing more powerful, choking the life from random people, killing the crops of the rest. The Outer Dominances were wastelands-only those closest to the capital, Luthadel, still got enough daylight to grow food. And even that area of livability was shrinking.

Hope, Elend thought forcefully. She needs that from me; she's always needed that from me. He tightened his grip on her shoulder, then pulled her into an embrace. 'We'll beat it, Vin. We'll find a way.'

She didn't contradict him, but she obviously wasn't convinced. Still, she let him hold her, closing her eyes and resting her head against his chest. They stood on the battlefield before their fallen foe, but even Elend had to admit that it didn't feel like much of a victory. Not with the world collapsing around them.

Hope! he thought again. I belong to the Church of the Survivor, now. It has only one prime commandment.

Survive.

'Give me one of the koloss,' Vin finally said, pulling out of the embrace.

Elend released one of the medium-large creatures, letting Vin take control of it. He still didn't quite understand how they controlled the creatures. Once he had control of a koloss, he could control it indefinitely- whether sleeping or awake, burning metals or not. There were many things he didn't understand about Allomancy. He'd had only a year to use his powers, and he had been distracted by ruling an empire and trying to feed his people, not to mention the wars. He'd had little time for practice.

Of course, Vin had less time than that to practice before she killed the Lord Ruler himself. Vin, however, was a special case. She used Allomancy as easily as other people breathed; it was less a skill to her than an extension of who she was. Elend might be more powerful-as she always insisted-but she was the true master.

Vin's lone koloss wandered over and picked up the fallen Inquisitor and the spike. Then, Elend and Vin walked down the hill-Vin's koloss servant following-toward the human army. The koloss troops split and made a passage at Elend's command. He suppressed a shiver even as he controlled them.