Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [908]
Yomen watched her as she entered, guards surrounding her. She could read the expectation of a trick in his eyes—yet, as always, he waited for her to act first. Hovering very close to the edge of danger seemed his way. The guards took stations at the doors, leaving her standing in the middle of the room.
“No manacles?” she asked.
“No,” Yomen said. “I don’t expect you to be here long. The guards tell me that you’ve offered information.”
“I have.”
“Well,” Yomen said, arms clasped behind his back, “I told them to bring you to me if they even so much as suspected a trick. Apparently, they didn’t believe your pleas that you want to deal. I wonder why.” He raised an eyebrow toward her.
“Ask me a question,” Vin said. To the side, Ruin trailed through the wall, stepping with an idle, unconcerned gait.
“Very well,” Yomen said. “How does Elend control the koloss?”
“Allomancy,” Vin said. “Emotional Allomancy, when used on a koloss, will bring them under the Allomancer’s control.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Yomen said flatly. “If it were that simple, someone other than yourself would have discovered it.”
“Most Allomancers are too weak to manage it,” Vin said. “You need to use a metal that enhances your power.”
“There is no such metal.”
“You know of aluminum?”
Yomen paused, but Vin could see in his eyes that he did. “Duralumin is the Allomantic alloy of aluminum,” Vin said. “Where aluminum dampens the power of other metals, duralumin enhances them. Mix duralumin and zinc or brass, then Pull on the emotions of a koloss, and he will be yours.”
Yomen didn’t dismiss her comments as lies. Ruin, however, strolled forward, walking around Vin in a circle.
“Vin, Vin. What is your game now?” Ruin asked, amused. “Lead him on with little tidbits, then betray him?”
Yomen apparently came to the same conclusion. “Your facts are interesting, Empress, but completely unprovable in my present situation. Therefore, they are—”
“There were five of these storage caverns,” Vin said, stepping forward. “We found the others. They led us here.”
Yomen shook his head. “And? Why should I care?”
“Your Lord Ruler planned something for those caverns—you can tell that much from the plate he left here in this one. He says that he came up with no way to fight what is happening to us in the world, but do you believe that? I feel there has to be more, some clue hidden in the text of all five plaques.”
“You expect me to believe that you care what the Lord Ruler wrote?” Yomen asked. “You, his purported murderer?”
“I couldn’t care less about him,” Vin admitted. “But Yomen, you have to believe that I care what happens to the people of the empire! If you’ve gathered any intelligence about Elend or myself, you know that is true.”
“Your Elend is a man who thinks far too highly of himself,” Yomen said. “He has read many books, and assumes that his learning makes him capable of being a king. You . . . I still don’t know what to think about you.” His eyes showed a bit of the hatred she had seen in him during their last meeting. “You claim to have killed the Lord Ruler. Yet . . . he couldn’t really have died. You’re part of all this, somehow.”
That’s it, Vin thought. That’s my in. “He wanted us to meet,” Vin said. She didn’t believe it, but Yomen would.
Yomen raised an eyebrow.
“Can’t you see?” Vin said. “Elend and I discovered the other storage caverns, the first one under Luthadel itself. Then, we came here. This was the last of the five. The end of the trail. For some reason, the Lord Ruler wanted to lead us here. To you.”
Yomen stood for a few moments. To the side, Ruin mimed applause.
“Send for Lellin,” Yomen said, turning toward one of his soldiers. “Tell him to bring his maps.”
The soldier saluted and left. Yomen turned to Vin, still frowning. “This is not to be an exchange. You will give me the information I request, then I will decide what to do with it.”
“Fine,” Vin said. “But, you yourself just said that I was connected