Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [479]
He heard rustling from behind, and a moment later Vin landed on one of his stacks of books, somehow managing to balance atop it. Her mistcloak tassels hung down around her, smudging the ink on his letter.
Elend sighed.
“Oops,” Vin said, pulling back the mistcloak. “Sorry.”
“Is it really necessary to leap around like that all the time, Vin?” Elend asked.
Vin jumped down. “Sorry,” she repeated, biting her lip. “Sazed says it’s because Mistborn like to be up high, so we can see everything that’s going on.”
Elend nodded, continuing the letter. He preferred them to be in his own hand, but he’d need to have a scribe rewrite this one. He shook his head. So much to do….
Vin watched Elend scribble. Sazed sat reading, as did one of Elend’s scribes—the obligator. She eyed the man, and he shrank down a little in his seat. He knew that she’d never trusted him. Priests shouldn’t be cheerful.
She was excited to tell Elend what she’d discovered about Demoux, but she hesitated. There were too many people around, and she didn’t really have any evidence—just her instincts. So, she held herself back, looking over the stacks of books.
There was a dull quiet in the room. Tindwyl sat with her eyes slightly glazed; she was probably studying some ancient biography in her mind. Even Ham was reading, though he flipped from book to book, hopping topics. Vin felt as if she should be studying something, too. She thought of the notes she’d been making about the Deepness and the Hero of Ages, but couldn’t bring herself to get them out.
She couldn’t tell him about Demoux, yet, but there was something else she’d discovered.
“Elend,” she said quietly. “I have something to tell you.”
“Humm?”
“I heard the servants talking when OreSeur and I got dinner earlier,” Vin said. “Some people they know have been sick lately—a lot of them. I think that someone might be fiddling with our supplies.”
“Yes,” Elend said, still writing. “I know. Several wells in the city have been poisoned.”
“They have?”
He nodded. “Didn’t I tell you when you checked on me earlier? That’s where Ham and I were.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I thought I did,” Elend said, frowning.
Vin shook her head.
“I apologize,” he said, leaned up and kissed her, then turned back to his scribbling.
And a kiss is supposed to make it all right? she thought sullenly, sitting back on a stack of books.
It was a silly thing; there was really no reason that Elend should have told her so quickly. And yet, the exchange left her feeling odd. Before, he would have asked her to do something about the problem. Now, he’d apparently handled it all on his own.
Sazed sighed, closing his tome. “Your Majesty, I can find no holes. I have read your laws over six times now.”
Elend nodded. “I feared as much. The only advantage we could gain from the law is to misinterpret it intentionally—which I will not do.”
“You are a good man, Your Majesty,” Sazed said. “If you had seen a hole in the law, you would have fixed it. Even if you hadn’t caught the flaws, one of us would have, when you asked for our opinions.”
He lets them call him “Your Majesty,” Vin thought. He tried to get them to stop that. Why let them use it now?
Odd, that Elend would finally start to think of himself as king after the throne had been taken from him.
“Wait,” Tindwyl said, eyes unglazing. “You read over this law before it was ratified, Sazed?”
Sazed flushed.
“He did,” Elend said. “In fact, Sazed’s suggestions and ideas were instrumental in helping me craft the current code.”
“I see,” Tindwyl said through tight lips.
Elend frowned. “Tindwyl, you were not invited to this meeting. You are suffered at it. Your advice has been well appreciated, but I will not allow you to insult a friend and guest of my household, even if those insults are indirect.”
“I apologize, Your Majesty.”
“You will not apologize to me,” Elend said. “You will apologize to Sazed, or you will leave this conference.”
Tindwyl sat for a moment; then she stood and left the room. Elend didn’t appear offended. He