Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [74]
Vin’s eyes narrowed.
Kelsier rolled his eyes. “I’m not trying to trick you, Vin. People serve on my crews because they want to, and I’m effective because they can rely on one another. No distrust, no betrayals.”
“Except one,” Vin whispered. “The betrayal that sent you to the Pits.”
Kelsier froze. “Where did you hear that?”
Vin shrugged.
Kelsier sighed, rubbing his forehead with one hand. That wasn’t what he wanted to do—he wanted to scratch his scars, the ones that ran all along his fingers and hands, twisting up his arms toward his shoulders. He resisted.
“That isn’t something worth talking about,” he said.
“But there was a traitor,” Vin said.
“We don’t know for certain.” That sounded weak, even to him. “Regardless, my crews rely on trust. That means no coercions. If you want out, we can go back to Luthadel right now. I’ll show you the last two metals, then you can be on your way.”
“I don’t have enough money to survive on my own,” Vin said.
Kelsier reached inside of his cloak and pulled out a bag of coins, then tossed it onto the seat beside her. “Three thousand boxings. The money I took from Camon.”
Vin glanced at the bag distrustfully.
“Take it,” Kelsier said. “You’re the one who earned it—from what I’ve been able to gather, your Allomancy was behind most of Camon’s recent successes, and you were the one who risked Pushing the emotions of a obligator.”
Vin didn’t move.
Fine, Kelsier thought, reaching up and knocking on the underside of the coachman’s chair. The carriage stopped, and Sazed soon appeared at his window.
“Turn the carriage around please, Saze,” Kelsier said. “Take us back to Luthadel.”
“Yes, Master Kelsier.”
Within moments, the carriage was rolling back in the direction it had come. Vin watched in silence, but she seemed a little less certain of herself. She eyed the bag of coins.
“I’m serious, Vin,” Kelsier said. “I can’t have someone on my team who doesn’t want to work with me. Turning you away isn’t a punishment; it’s just the way things must be.”
Vin didn’t respond. Letting her go would be a gamble—but forcing her to stay would be a bigger one. Kelsier sat, trying to read her, trying to understand her. Would she betray them to the Final Empire if she left? He thought not. She wasn’t a bad person.
She just thought that everybody else was.
“I think your plan is crazy,” she said quietly.
“So do half the people on the crew.”
“You can’t defeat the Final Empire.”
“We don’t have to,” Kelsier said. “We just have to get Yeden an army, then seize the palace.”
“The Lord Ruler will stop you,” Vin said. “You can’t beat him—he’s immortal.”
“We have the Eleventh Metal,” Kelsier said. “We’ll find a way to kill him.”
“The Ministry is too powerful. They’ll find your army and destroy it.”
Kelsier leaned forward, looking Vin in the eye. “You trusted me enough to jump off the top of the wall, and I caught you. You’re going to have to trust me this time too.”
She obviously didn’t like the word “trust” very much. She studied him in the weak lanternlight, remaining quiet long enough that the silence grew uncomfortable.
Finally, she snatched the bag of coins, quickly hiding it beneath her cloak. “I’ll stay,” she said. “But not because I trust you.”
Kelsier raised an eyebrow. “Why, then?”
Vin shrugged, and she sounded perfectly honest when she spoke. “Because I want to see what happens.”
Having a keep in Luthadel qualified a house for high noble status. However, having a keep didn’t mean that one had to live in it, especially not all of the time. Many families also maintained a residence in one of Luthadel’s outskirt cities.
Less crowded, cleaner, and less strict in its observance of imperial laws, Fellise was a rich town. Rather than containing imposing, buttressed keeps, it was filled with lavish manors