Brandon SANDERSON - The Hero of Ages

“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.

Fatren, the dirty man who ruled the city, had thought to set up a triage unit – though Elend wasn’t very confident in the abilities of a group of skaa surgeons.

“Why’d they stop?” Fatren asked, standing in front of his men as Vin and Elend approached across the ash-stained ground

“I promised you a second army, Lord Fatren,” Elend said. “Well, here it is.”

“The koloss?” he asked.

Elend nodded.

“But they’re the army that came to destroy us.”

“And now they’re ours,” Elend said. “Your men did very well. Make certain they understand that this victory was theirs. We had to force that Inquisitor out into the open, and the only way to do that was to turn his army against itself. Koloss become afraid when they see something small defeating something large. Your men fought bravely; because of them, these koloss are ours.”

Fatren scratched his chin. “So,” he said slowly, “they got afraid of us, so they switched sides?”

“Something like that,” Elend said, looking over the soldiers. He mentally commanded some koloss to step forward. “These creatures will obey orders from the men in this group. Have them carry your wounded back to the city. However, make certain not to let your men attack or punish the koloss. They are our servants now, understand?”

Fatren nodded.

“Let’s go,” Vin said, eagerness sounding in her voice as she looked over at the small city.

“Lord Fatren, do you want to come with us, or do you want to supervise your men?” Elend asked.

Fatren’s eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do?”

“There is something in your city we need to claim.”

Fatren paused. “I’ll come, then.” He gave some orders to his men while Vin waited impatiently. Elend gave her a smile, then finally Fatren joined them, and the three walked back toward the Vetitan gate.

“Lord Fatren,” Elend said as they walked, “you should address me as ‘my lord’ from now on.”

Fatren looked up from his nervous study of the koloss standing around them.

“Do you understand?” Elend said, meeting the man’s eyes.