The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson [2]
A body rolled off the top of the blacksmith’s shop and thumped down to the ground with a puff of red dust. Wax blinked, then raised his gun to chest level and moved over behind the fence again, crouching down for cover. He kept an eye on the blue Allomantic lines. They could warn him if someone got close, but only if the person was carrying or wearing metal.
The body that had fallen beside the building didn’t have a single line pointing to it. However, another set of quivering lines pointed to something moving along the back of the forge. Wax leveled his gun, taking aim as a figure ducked around the side of the building and ran toward him.
The woman wore a white duster, reddened at the bottom. She kept her dark hair pulled back in a tail, and wore trousers and a wide belt, with thick boots on her feet. She had a squarish face. A strong face, with lips that often rose slightly at the right side in a half smile.
Wax heaved a sigh of relief and lowered his gun. “Lessie.”
“You knock yourself to the ground again?” she asked as she reached the cover of the fence beside him. “You’ve got more dust on your face than Miles has scowls. Maybe it’s time for you to retire, old man.”
“Lessie, I’m three months older than you are.”
“Those are a long three months.” She peeked up over the fence. “Seen anyone else?”
“I dropped a man up on the balcony,” Wax said. “I couldn’t see if it was Bloody Tan or not.”
“It wasn’t,” she said. “He wouldn’t have tried to shoot you from so far away.”
Wax nodded. Tan liked things personal. Up close. The psychopath lamented when he had to use a gun, and he rarely shot someone without being able to see the fear in their eyes.
Lessie scanned the quiet town, then glanced at him, ready to move. Her eyes flickered downward for a moment. Toward his shirt pocket.
Wax followed her gaze. A letter was peeking out of his pocket, delivered earlier that day. It was from the grand city of Elendel, and was addressed to Lord Waxillium Ladrian. A name Wax hadn’t used in years. A name that felt wrong to him now.
He tucked the letter farther into his pocket. Lessie thought it implied more than it did. The city didn’t hold anything for him now, and House Ladrian would get along without him. He really should have burned that letter.
Wax nodded toward the fallen man beside the wall to distract her from the letter. “Your work?”
“He had a bow,” she said. “Stone arrowheads. Almost had you from above.”
“Thanks.”
She shrugged, eyes glittering in satisfaction. Those eyes now had lines at the sides of them, weathered by the Roughs’ harsh sunlight. There had been a time when she and Wax had kept a tally of who had saved the other most often. They’d both lost track years ago.
“Cover me,” Wax said softly.
“With what?” she asked. “Paint? Kisses? You’re already covered with dust.”
Wax raised an eyebrow at her.
“Sorry,” she said, grimacing. “I’ve been playing cards too much with Wayne lately.”
He snorted and ran in a crouch to the fallen corpse and rolled it over. The man had been a cruel-faced fellow with several days of stubble on his cheeks; the bullet wound bled out his right side. I think I recognize him, Wax thought to himself as he went through the man’s pockets and came out with a drop of red glass, colored like blood.
He hurried back to the fence.
“Well?” Lessie asked.
“Donal’s crew,” Wax said, holding up the drop of glass.
“Bastards,” Lessie said. “They couldn’t just leave us to it, could they?”
“You did shoot his son, Lessie.”
“And you shot his brother.”
“Mine was self-defense.”
“Mine was too,” she said. “That kid was annoying. Besides, he survived.”
“Missing a toe.”
“You don’t need ten,” she said. “I have a cousin with four. She does just fine.” She raised her revolver, scanning the empty town. “Of course, she does look kind of ridiculous. Cover me.”
“With what?”
She just grinned