Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [767]
This was not a place of fear at all, but rather a place of ledgers and files. The Inquisitors had probably visited this building only rarely. Spook led them through several cluttered rooms toward a smaller storage chamber at the back. Here, Sazed could see that the dust on the floor had been disturbed.
“You’ve been here before?” he asked, entering the room after Spook, Breeze, and Allrianne.
Spook nodded. “As has Vin. Don’t you remember the report?” With that, he felt about on the floor, eventually finding a hidden latch and opening a trapdoor. Sazed peered down into the dark cavern below.
“What’s he talking about?” Allrianne whispered to Breeze. “Vin’s been here?”
“She did reconnaissance in this city, dear,” Breeze said. “To find . . .”
“The cache,” Sazed said as Spook began to climb down a ladder into the darkness. He left the lantern behind. “The supply cache left behind by the Lord Ruler. All of them are underneath Ministry buildings.”
“Well, that’s what we’re here to recover, isn’t it?” Allrianne asked. “So, we’ve got it. Why bother with that Citizen fellow and his crazy peasants?”
“There’s no way we could get these supplies out of the city with the Citizen in control.” Spook’s voice drifted up, echoing slightly. “There’s too much down here.”
“Besides, my dear,” Breeze said. “Elend didn’t just send us to get these supplies—he sent us to quell a rebellion. We can’t have one of our major cities in revolt, and we particularly can’t afford to let the rebellion spread. I must say, though, it does feel odd to be on this side of the problem—stopping a rebellion, rather than starting one.”
“We may have to organize a rebellion against the rebellion, Breeze,” Spook’s voice echoed from below. “If that makes you feel any more comfortable. Anyway, are you three coming down or not?”
Sazed and Breeze shared a look, then Breeze gestured toward the dark pit. “After you.”
Sazed picked up the lantern and climbed down the ladder. At the bottom, he found a small stone chamber, one wall of which had been pulled back to reveal a cavern. He stepped inside, Breeze reaching the ground behind him, then helping Allrianne down.
Sazed raised the lantern, staring quietly.
“Lord Ruler!” Breeze said, stepping up beside him. “It’s enormous!”
“The Lord Ruler prepared these caches in case of a disaster,” Spook said, standing ahead of them in the cavern. “They were meant to help the empire through what we’re now facing. They wouldn’t be much good if they weren’t created on a grand scale.”
“Grand” was correct. They stood on a ledge near the ceiling of the cavern, and a vast chamber extended out below. Sazed could see row upon row of shelves lining the cavern floor.
“I think we should set up our base here, Sazed,” Spook said, moving toward stairs that led down to the cavern floor. “It’s the only defensible place in the city. If we move our troops into the building above, we can use this cavern for supplies—and can even fall back in here in an emergency. We could defend this even against a determined assault.”
Sazed turned, regarding the stone doorway into the chamber. It was small enough that only one man could pass through at a time—which meant that it would be very easy to guard. And, there was probably a way to shut it again.
“Suddenly I feel a whole lot safer in this city,” Breeze noted.
Sazed nodded. He turned, regarding the cavern again. In the distance, he could hear something. “Is that water?”
Spook was moving down steps. Again, his voice echoed hauntingly in the chamber. “Each cache has a specialty—something it contains more of than all the others.”
Sazed moved down the steps as Goradel’s soldiers entered the chamber behind Breeze. Though the soldiers had brought more lanterns, Breeze and Allrianne stuck close to Sazed as they descended.