Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [497]
Vin paused. She knew the story; Kelsier had used Demoux as an example to the rest of the army in a fight with a skeptic, directing his blows with Allomancy, making Demoux seem as if he had supernatural powers.
“Oh, I know about Allomancy now,” Demoux said. “But…I felt him Pushing on my sword that day. I felt him use me, making me more than I was. I think I can still feel him, sometimes. Strengthening my arm, guiding my blade….”
Vin frowned. “Do you remember the first time we met?”
Demoux nodded. “Yes. You came to the caverns where we were hiding on the day when the army was destroyed. I was on guard duty. You know, my lady—even then, I knew that Kelsier would come for us. I knew that he’d come and get those of us who had been faithful and guide us back to Luthadel.”
He went to those caves because I forced him to. He wanted to get himself killed fighting an army on his own.
“The destruction of the army was a test,” Demoux said, looking up into the mists. “These armies…the siege…they’re just tests. To see if we will survive or not.”
“And the ash?” Vin asked. “Where did you hear that it would stop falling?”
Demoux turned back to her. “The Survivor taught that, didn’t he?”
Vin shook her head.
“A lot of the people are saying it,” Demoux said. “It must be true. It fits with everything else—the yellow sun, the blue sky, the plants….”
“Yes, but where did you first hear those things?”
“I’m not sure, my lady.”
Where did you hear that I would be the one to bring them about? she thought, but she somehow couldn’t bring herself to voice the question. Regardless, she knew the answer: Demoux wouldn’t know. Rumors were propagating. It would be difficult indeed to trace them back to their source now.
“Go back to the palace,” Vin said. “I have to tell Elend what I saw, but I’ll ask him not to tell the rest of the crew.”
“Thank you, my lady,” Demoux said, bowing. He turned and hurried away. A second later, Vin heard a thump from behind: OreSeur, jumping down to the street.
She turned. “I was sure it was him.”
“Mistress?”
“The kandra,” Vin said, turning back toward the disappearing Demoux. “I thought I’d discovered him.”
“And?”
She shook her head. “It’s like Dockson—I think Demoux knows too much to be faking. He feels…real to me.”
“My brethren—”
“Are quite skilled,” Vin said with a sigh. “Yes, I know. But we’re not going to arrest him. Not tonight, at least. We’ll keep an eye on him, but I just don’t think it’s him anymore.”
OreSeur nodded.
“Come on,” she said. “I want to check on Elend.”
37
And so, I come to the focus of my argument. I apologize. Even forcing my words into steel, sitting and scratching in this frozen cave, I am prone to ramble.
Sazed glanced at the window shutters, noting the hesitant beams of light that were beginning to shine through the cracks. Morning already? he thought. We studied all night? It hardly seemed possible. He had tapped no wakefulness, yet he felt more alert—more alive—than he had in days.
Tindwyl sat in the chair beside him. Sazed’s desk was filled with loose papers, two sets of ink and pen waiting to be used. There were no books; Keepers had no need of such.
“Ah!” Tindwyl said, grabbing a pen and beginning to write. She didn’t look tired either, but she had likely dipped into her bronzemind, tapping the wakefulness stored within.
Sazed watched her write. She almost looked young again; he hadn’t seen such overt excitement in her since she had been abandoned by the Breeders some ten years before. On that day, her grand work finished, she had finally joined her fellow Keepers. Sazed had been the one to present her with the collected knowledge that had been discovered during her thirty years of cloistered childbirth.
It hadn’t taken her long to achieve a place in the Synod. By then, however, Sazed had been ousted from their ranks.
Tindwyl finished writing. “The passage is from a biography of King Wednegon,” she said. “He was one of the last leaders who resisted the Lord Ruler in any sort of meaningful combat.