Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [945]
Like me, Elend thought, smiling wryly.
“The mists are gone,” Yomen said.
Elend nodded. “Both day and night.”
“The skaa fled inside when the mists vanished. Some still refuse to leave their homes. For centuries, they feared being out at night because of the mists. Now the mists disappear, and they find it so unnatural that they hide again.”
Elend turned away, looking back out. The mists were gone, but the ash still fell. And it fell hard. The corpses that had fallen during the night hours were nearly buried.
“Has the sun always been this hot?” Yomen asked, wiping his brow.
Elend frowned, noticing for the first time that it did seem hot. It was still early morning, yet it already felt like noon.
Something is still wrong, he thought. Very wrong. Worse, even. The ash choked the air, blowing in the breeze, coating everything. And the heat . . . shouldn’t it have been getting colder as more ash flew into the air, blocking the sunlight? “Form crews, Yomen,” Elend said. “Have them pick through the bodies and search for wounded among that mess down there. Then, gather the people and begin moving them into the storage cavern. Tell the soldiers to be ready for . . . for something. I don’t know what.”
Yomen frowned. “You sound as if you’re not going to be here to help me.”
Elend turned eastward. “I won’t be.”
Vin was still out there somewhere. He didn’t understand why she had said what she had about the atium, but he trusted her. Perhaps she had intended to distract Ruin with lies. Elend suspected that somehow, the people of Fadrex owed her their lives. She’d drawn the koloss away—she’d figured something out, something that he couldn’t even guess at.
She always complains that she’s not a scholar, he thought, smiling to himself. But that’s just because she lacks education. She’s twice as quick-witted as half the “geniuses” I knew during my days at court.
He couldn’t leave her alone. He needed to find her. Then . . . well, he didn’t know what they’d do next. Find Sazed, perhaps? Either way, Elend could do no more in Fadrex. He moved to walk down the steps, intending to find Ham and Cett. However, Yomen caught his shoulder.
Elend turned.
“I was wrong about you, Venture,” Yomen said. “The things I said were undeserved.”
“You let me into your city when my men were surrounded by their own koloss,” Elend said. “I don’t care what you said about me. You’re a good man in my estimation.”
“You’re wrong about the Lord Ruler, though,” Yomen said. “He’s guiding this all.”
Elend just smiled.
“It doesn’t bother me that you don’t believe,” Yomen said, reaching up to his forehead. “I’ve learned something. The Lord Ruler uses unbelievers as well as believers. We’re all part of his plan. Here.”
Yomen pulled the bead of atium free from its place at his brow. “My last bead. In case you need it.”
Elend accepted the bit of metal, rolling it over in his fingers. He’d never burned atium. For years, his family had overseen its mining—but, by the time Elend himself had become Mistborn, he’d already either spent what he’d been able to obtain, or had given it to Vin to be burned.
“How did you do it, Yomen?” he asked. “How did you make it seem you were an Allomancer?”
“I am an Allomancer, Venture.”
“Not a Mistborn,” Elend said.
“No,” Yomen said. “A Seer—an atium Misting.”
Elend nodded. He’d assumed that was impossible, but it was hard to rely on assumptions about anything anymore. “The Lord Ruler knew about your power?”
Yomen smiled. “Some secrets, he worked very hard to guard.”
Atium Mistings, Elend thought. That means there are others too . . . gold Mistings, electrum Mistings . . . Though, as he thought about it, some—like aluminum Mistings or duralumin Mistings—would be impossible to find because they couldn’t use their metals without being able to burn other metals.
“Atium was too valuable to use in testing people for Allomantic powers anyway,” Yomen said, turning away. “I never really found the power all that useful. How often does one have both atium and the desire to use it up in