The Hero of Ages

Might I have your leave?' He bowed his head in deference.

Quellion muttered something under his breath before waving a hand at him. 'If I forbid you, then you'll just sneak in. Stay if you must, Terrisman, but I warn you-follow our laws and do not make trouble.'

Sazed bowed further, then retreated with his people.

'Well,' Breeze said, settling back into the carriage, 'murderous revolutionaries, everybody wearing the same gray clothing, ditch-like streets where every tenth building has been burned to the ground. This is a lovely place Elend chose for us to visit-remind me to thank him upon our return.'

Sazed smiled, though he felt little humor.

'Oh, don't look so grim, old man,' Breeze said, waving with his cane as the carriage began to roll, their soldiers surrounding it. 'Something tells me that Quellion there isn't half as threatening as his bearing implies. We'll convince him eventually.'

'I'm not certain, Lord Breeze. This place. . it's different from the other cities we've visited. The leaders aren't as desperate, and the people are more subservient. We won't have an easy time of it here, I think.'

Allrianne poked Breeze's arm. 'Breezy, do you see that, over there?'

Breeze squinted against the light, and Sazed leaned forward, glancing out the side of the carriage. A group of people had created a bonfire in the courtyard. The massive blaze sent a twisting line of smoke into the air. Sazed reflexively looked for a tinmind to draw upon and enhance his vision. He shoved the impulse aside, instead squinting against the afternoon light.

'It looks like. .'

'Tapestries,' said one of their soldiers, marching at the side of the carriage. 'And furniture-rich things that are signs of the nobility, according to the Citizen. The burning was staged for your benefit, of course. Quellion probably keeps storehouses of the stuff so that he can order them burned at dramatically appropriate times.'

Sazed froze. The soldier was remarkably well informed. Sazed looked closely, suspicious. Like all of their men, this one wore his cloak hood up against the falling ash. As the man turned his head, Sazed could see that-oddly-he wore a thick bandage tied across his eyes, as if he were blind. Despite that, Sazed recognized the face.

'Spook, my dear boy!' Breeze exclaimed. 'I knew you'd turn up eventually. Why the blindfold?'

Spook didn't answer the question. Instead, he turned, glancing back at the burning flames of the bonfire. There seemed a. . tension to his posture.

The cloth must be thin enough to see through, Sazed thought. That was the only explanation for the way Spook moved with ease and grace, despite the cloth. Though, it certainly seemed thick enough to be obscuring. .

Spook turned back to Sazed. 'You're going to need a base of operations in the city. Have you chosen one yet?'

Breeze shook his head. 'We were thinking of using an inn.'

'There aren't any true inns in the city,' Spook said. 'Quellion says that citizens should care for one another, letting visitors stay in each other's homes.'

'Hmm,' Breeze said. 'Perhaps we'll need to camp outside.'

Spook shook his head. 'No. Follow me.'

'The Ministry Canton of Inquisition?' Sazed asked, frowning as he climbed out of the carriage.

Spook stood ahead of them, on the steps leading into the grand building. He turned, nodding his strange, cloth-wrapped head. 'Quellion hasn't touched any of the Ministry buildings. He ordered them boarded up, but he didn't ransack or burn them. I think he's afraid of Inquisitors.'

'A healthy and rational fear, my boy,' Breeze said, still sitting inside the carriage.

Spook snorted. 'The Inquisitors aren't going to bother us, Breeze. They're far too busy trying to kill Vin. Come on.'

He walked up the steps, and Sazed followed. Behind, he could hear Breeze sigh with an exaggerated sound, then call for one of the soldiers to bring a parasol against the ash.

The building was broad and imposing, like most Ministry offices. During the days of the Lord Ruler, these buildings had stood as reminders of imperial might in every city across the Final Empire. The priests who had filled them had mostly been bureaucrats and clerks-but, then, that had been the real power of the Final Empire. Its control of resources and management of people.

Spook stood beside the building's broad, boarded-up doors. Like most structures in Urteau, it was built of wood, rather than stone. He stared up, as if watching the falling ash, as he waited for Sazed and Breeze. He had always been a quiet one, even more so since his uncle's death during the assault on Luthadel. As Sazed arrived, Spook began to rip boards free from the front of the building. 'I'm glad you're here, Sazed,' he said.

Sazed moved to help pull off boards. He heaved, trying to get the nails undone-yet, he must have chosen one of the more stubborn boards, for though the ones Spook grabbed came free with ease, Sazed's refused to even budge. 'And why is it you're glad I am here, Lord Spook?'

Spook snorted. 'I'm no lord, Saze. Never did get Elend to give me a title.'

Sazed smiled. 'He said that you only wanted one to impress women.'

'Of course I did,' Spook said, smiling as he ripped free another board. 'What other reason would there be to have a title? Anyway, please just call me Spook. It's a good name.'

'Very well.'

Spook reached over, using a single, casual hand to pull off the board Sazed had tried to budge. What? Sazed thought with shock. Sazed was by no means muscular-but, then, he hadn't thought that Spook was either. The lad must have been practicing with weights.

'Anyway,' Spook said, turning, 'I'm glad you're here, because I have things to discuss with you. Things that others might not understand.'

Sazed frowned. 'Things of what nature?'

Spook smiled, then threw his shoulder against the door, opening it into a dark, cavernous chamber. 'Things of gods and men, Sazed. Come on.'

The boy disappeared into the darkness. Sazed waited outside, but Spook never lit a lantern. He could hear the young man moving around inside.

'Spook?' he finally called out. 'I can't see in there. Do you have a lantern?'

There was a pause. 'Oh,' Spook's voice said. 'Right.' A moment later, a light sparked, and a lantern began to glow.

Breeze sauntered up behind Sazed. 'Tell me, Sazed,' he said quietly, 'is it me, or has that boy changed since we last saw him?'

'He seems far more self-confident,' Sazed said, nodding to himself. 'More capable as well. But, what do you suppose is the purpose of that blindfold?'

Breeze shrugged, taking Allrianne's arm. 'He always was an odd one. Perhaps he thinks it will disguise him and help keep him from being recognized as a member of Kelsier's crew. Considering the improvement in the boy's disposition-and diction-I'm willing to deal with a quirk or two.'

Breeze and Allrianne entered the building, and Sazed waved to Captain Goradel, indicating that he should make a perimeter outside. The man nodded, sending a squad of soldiers up to follow Sazed and the others. Finally, Sazed frowned to himself and entered the building.

He wasn't certain what he had been expecting. The building had been part of the Canton of Inquisition-the most infamous of the Ministry's arms. It wasn't a place Sazed relished entering. The last building like this he'd entered had been the Conventical of Seran, and it had been decidedly eerie. This building, however, proved to be nothing like the Conventical-it was just another bureaucratic office. It was furnished a little more austerely than most Ministry buildings, true, but it still had tapestries on the wooden walls and broad red rugs on the floor. The trim was of metal, and there were hearths in every room.

As Sazed followed Breeze and Spook through the building, he was able to imagine what the building had been like during the days of the Lord Ruler. There would have been no dust, then, but instead an air of crisp efficiency. Administrators would have sat at those desks, collecting and filing information about noble houses, skaa rebels, and even other Ministry Cantons. There had been a longstanding feud between the Canton of Orthodoxy, which had administered the Lord Ruler's empire, and the Canton of Inquisition, which had policed it.

This was not a place of fear at all, but rather a place of ledgers and files. The Inquisitors had probably visited this building only rarely. Spook led them through several cluttered rooms toward a smaller storage chamber at the