Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)(191)
Kelsier’s face took on a troubled expression. He turned, sitting himself so he was directly in front of her. “Do it now, then. Tell me what metal I’m burning.”
Vin closed her eyes, ?aring bronze, listening…feeling, as Marsh had taught her. She remembered her solitary trainings, time spent focusing on the waves Breeze, Ham, or Spook gave off for her. She tried to pick out the fuzzing rhythm of Allomancy. Tried to…
For a moment, she thought she felt something. Something very strange—a slow pulsing, like a distant drum, unlike any Allomantic rhythm she’d felt before. But it wasn’t coming from Kelsier. It was distant…far away. She focused harder, trying to pick out the direction it was coming from.
But suddenly, as she focused harder, something else drew her attention. A more familiar rhythm, coming from Kelsier. It was faint, dif?cult to feel over the pulsing of her own heartbeat. It was a bold beat, and quick.
She opened her eyes. “Pewter! You’re burning pewter.”
Kelsier blinked in surprise. “Impossible,” he whispered. “Again!”
She closed her eyes. “Tin,” she said after a moment. “Now steel—you changed as soon as I spoke.”
“Bloody hell!”
“I was right,” Vin said eagerly. “You can feel Allomantic pulses through copper! They’re quiet, but I guess you just have to focus hard enough to—”
“Vin,” Kelsier interrupted. “Don’t you think Allomancers have tried this before? You don’t think that after a thousand years’time, someone would have noticed that you could pierce a coppercloud? I’ve even tried it. I focused for hours on my Master, trying to sense something through his coppercloud.”
“But. .” Vin said. “But why…?”
“It must have to do with strength, like you said. Inquisitors can Push and Pull harder than any regular Mistborn— perhaps they’re so strong that they can overwhelm someone else’s metal.”
“But, Kelsier,” Vin said quietly. “I’m not an Inquisitor.”
“But you’re strong,” he said. “Stronger than you have any right to be. You killed a full Mistborn tonight!”
“By luck,” Vin said, face ?ushing. “I just tricked her.”
“Allomancy is nothing but tricks, Vin. No, there’s something special about you. I noticed it on that ?rst day, when you shrugged off my attempts to Push and Pull your emotions.”
She ?ushed. “It can’t be that, Kelsier. Maybe I’ve just practiced with bronze more than you….I don’t know, I just…”
“Vin,” Kelsier said, “you’re still too self-effacing. You’re good at this—that much is obvious. If that’s why you can see through copperclouds…well, I don’t know. But learn to take a little pride in yourself, kid! If there’s anything I can teach you, it’s how to be self-con?dent.”
Vin smiled.
“Come on,” he said, standing and holding out a hand to help her up. “Sazed is going to fret all night if you don’t let him ?nish stitching that cheek wound, and Ham’s dying to hear about your battle. Good job leaving Shan’s body back at Keep Venture, by the way—when House Elariel hears that she was found dead on Venture property…”
Vin allowed him to pull her up, but she glanced toward the trapdoor apprehensively. “I… don’t know if I want to go down yet, Kelsier. How can I face them?”
Kelsier laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. If you didn’t say some stupid things every once in a while, you certainly wouldn’t ?t in with this group. Come on.”
Vin hesitated, then let him lead her back down to the warmth of the kitchen.
“Elend, how can you read at times like this?” Jastes asked.
Elend looked up from his book. “It calms me.”
Jastes raised an eyebrow. The young Lekal sat impatiently in the coach, tapping his ?ngers on the armrest. The window shades were drawn, partially to hide the light of Elend’s reading lantern, partially to keep out the mists. Though Elend would never admit it, the swirling fog made him just a bit nervous. Noblemen weren’t supposed to be afraid of such things, but that didn’t change the fact that the deep, caliginous mist was just plain creepy.
“Your father is going to be livid when you get back,” Jastes noted, still tapping the armrest.
Elend shrugged, though this comment did make him a little bit nervous. Not because of his father, but because of what had happened this night. Some Allomancers had, apparently, been spying on Elend’s meeting with his friends. What information had they gathered? Did they know about the books he’d read?
Fortunately, one of them had tripped, falling through Elend’s skylight. After that, it had been confusion and chaos—soldiers and ballgoers running about in a semi-panic. Elend’s ?rst thought had been for the books—the dangerous ones, the ones that if the obligators found he possessed, could get him into serious trouble.
So, in the confusion, he’d dumped them all in a bag and followed Jastes down to the palace side exit. Grabbing a carriage and sneaking out of the palace grounds had been an extreme move, perhaps, but it had been ridiculously easy. With the number of carriages ?eeing the Venture grounds, not a single person had paused to notice that Elend himself was in the carriage with Jastes.