Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [819]
The door thunked closed.
The soldier cried out, dropping the girl, rushing toward the door, obviously trying to get to it before the bar fell on the other side. “That’s the only way out! You’ll get us—”
Spook broke the man’s knees with a single crack of the dueling cane. The soldier screamed, falling to the ground. Flames burned on three of the walls, now. The heat was already intense.
The bar clicked into place on the other side of the door. Spook looked down at the soldier. Still alive.
“Leave him,” Kelsier said. “Let him burn in the building.”
Spook hesitated.
“He would have let all of those people die,” Kelsier said. “Let him feel what he would have done to these—what he has already done several times, at Quellion’s command.”
Spook left the groaning man on the ground, moving over to the secret door. He threw his weight against it.
It held.
Spook cursed quietly, raising a boot and kicking the door. It, however, remained solid.
“That door was built by noblemen who feared they would be pursued by assassins,” Kelsier said. “They were familiar with Allomancy, and would make certain the door was strong enough to resist a Thug’s kick.”
The fire was growing hotter. The girl huddled on the floor, whimpering. Spook whirled, staring down the flames, feeling their heat. He stepped forward, but his amplified senses were so keen that the heat seemed amazingly powerful to him.
He gritted his teeth, picking up the girl.
I have pewter now, he thought. It can balance the power of my senses.
That will have to be enough.
Smoke billowed out the windows of the condemned building. Sazed waited with Breeze and Allrianne, standing at the back of a solemn crowd. The people were oddly silent as they watched the flames claim their prize. Perhaps they sensed the truth.
That they could be taken and killed as easily as the poor wretches who died inside.
“How quickly we come around,” Sazed whispered. “It wasn’t long ago that men were forced to watch the Lord Ruler cut the heads from innocent people. Now we do it to ourselves.”
Silence. What sounded like yells came from inside the building. The screams of dying men.
“Kelsier was wrong,” Breeze said.
Sazed frowned, turning.
“He blamed the noblemen,” Breeze said. “He thought that if we got rid of them, things like this wouldn’t happen.”
Sazed nodded. Then, oddly, the crowd began to grow restless, shuffling about, murmuring. And, Sazed felt himself agreeing with them. Something needed to be done about this atrocity. Why did nobody fight? Quellion stood there, surrounded by his proud men in red. Sazed gritted his teeth, growing angry.
“Allrianne, dear,” Breeze said, “this isn’t the time.”
Sazed started. He turned, glancing at the young woman. She was crying.
By the Forgotten Gods, Sazed thought, finally recognizing her touch on his emotions, Rioting them to make him angry at Quellion. She’s as good as Breeze is.
“Why not?” she said. “He deserves it. I could make this crowd rip him apart.”
“And his second-in-command would take control,” Breeze said, “then execute these people. We haven’t prepared enough.”
“It seems that you’re never done preparing, Breeze,” she snapped.
“These things require—”
“Wait,” Sazed said, raising a hand. He frowned, watching the building. One of the building’s boarded windows—one high in a peaked attic section on top of the roof itself—seemed to be shaking.
“Look!” Sazed said. “There!”
Breeze raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps our Flame God is about to make his appearance, eh?” He smiled at what he obviously found a ridiculous concept. “I wonder what we were supposed to learn during this revolting little experience. Personally, I think the men who sent us here didn’t know what they—”
One of the planks suddenly flew off of the window, spinning in the air, swirling smoke behind it. Then the window burst outward.
A figure in dark clothing leaped through the shattering mess of boards and smoke, landing on the rooftop. His long cloak actually appeared to be on fire in places, and he carried a small bundle in his arms. A child. The figure rushed along