Part 14 (1/2)

He looked over at her, then stood, ash falling from his eleven-foot, overly muscled blue figure. Even with the number of creatures she'd killed, even knowing she controlled this one completely, Vin had a moment of reflexive fear as she stood before the ma.s.sive beast with its tightly stretched skin and bleeding rips.

”Why did you come to camp?” she said, shaking off her panic.

”I am human,” he said with his slow, deliberate tone.

”You're koloss,” she said. ”You know that.”

”I should have a house,” Human said. ”Like those.”

”Those are tents, not houses,” Vin said. ”You can't come to camp like this. You have to stay with the other koloss.”

Human turned, glancing toward the south, where the koloss army waited, separate from the humans. They remained under Elend's control, twenty thousand in number, now that they'd picked up the ten thousand that had been waiting with the main bulk of the army. It made more sense to leave them under Elend's control, since-in terms of raw power-he was a much stronger Allomancer than Vin.

Human looked back at Vin. ”Why?”

”Why do you have to stay with the others?” Vin asked. ”Because you make the people in the camp uncomfortable.”

”Then they should attack me,” Human said.

”That's why you're not a human,” Vin said. ”We don't attack people just because they make us uncomfortable.”

”No,” Human said. ”You make us us kill them instead.” kill them instead.”

Vin paused, c.o.c.king her head. Human, however, just looked away, staring at the human camp again. His beady red eyes made his face hard to read, but Vin almost sensed a . . . longing in his expression.

”You're one of us,” Human said.

Vin looked up. ”Me?”

”You're like us,” he said. ”Not like them.”

”Why do you say that?” Vin asked.

Human looked down at her. ”Mist,” he said.

Vin felt a momentary chill, though she had no real idea why. ”What do you mean?”

Human didn't respond.

”Human,” she said, trying another tactic. ”What do you think of the mists?”

”They come at night.”

Vin nodded. ”Yes, but what do you think of them. Your people. Do they fear the mists? Does it ever kill them?”

”Swords kill,” Human said. ”Rain doesn't kill. Ash doesn't kill. Mist doesn't kill.”

Fairly good logic, Vin thought. Vin thought. A year ago, I would have agreed with it. A year ago, I would have agreed with it. She was about to give up on the line of reasoning, but Human continued. She was about to give up on the line of reasoning, but Human continued.

”I hate it,” he said.

Vin paused.

”I hate it because it hates me,” Human said. He looked at her. ”You feel it.” feel it.”

”Yes,” Vin said, surprising herself. ”I do.”

Human regarded her, a line of blood trailing out of the ripped skin near his eye, running stark down his blue skin, mixing with flakes of ash. Finally, he nodded, as if giving approval to her honest reply.

Vin s.h.i.+vered. The mist isn't alive, The mist isn't alive, she thought. she thought. It can't hate me. I'm imagining things. It can't hate me. I'm imagining things.

But . . . once, years ago, she had drawn upon the mists. When fighting the Lord Ruler, she had somehow gained a power over them. It had been as if she'd used the mist itself to fuel her Allomancy instead of metals. It was only with that power that she'd been able to defeat the Lord Ruler.

That had been a long time ago, and she'd never been able to replicate the event. She'd tried time and again over the years, and after so many failures, she was beginning to think that she must have been mistaken. Certainly, in more recent times, the mists had been unfriendly. She tried to keep telling herself that there was nothing supernatural about it, but she knew that wasn't true. What of the mist spirit, the thing that had tried to kill Elend-and then had saved him by showing her how to make him into an Allomancer? It was real, of that she was certain, even if she hadn't seen it in over a year.

What of the hesitance she felt toward the mists, the way they pulled away from her? The way they stayed out of buildings, and the way they killed. It all seemed to point to what Human had said. The mists-the Deepness-hated her. And, finally, she acknowledged what she had been resisting for so long.

The mists were her enemy.

They are called Allomantic savants. Men or women who flare their metals so long, and so hard, that the constant influx of Allomantic power transforms their very physiology.

In most cases, with most metals, the effects of this are very slight. Bronze burners, for instance, often become bronze savants without knowing it. Their range is expanded from burning the metal so long. Becoming a pewter savant is dangerous, as it requires pus.h.i.+ng the body so hard in a state where one cannot feel exhaustion or pain. Most accidentally kill themselves before the process is complete, and in my opinion, the benefit isn't worth the effort.

Tin savants, however . . . now, they are something special. Endowed with senses beyond what any normal Allomancer would need-or even want-they become slaves to what they touch, hear, see, smell, and taste. Yet, the abnormal power of these senses gives them a distinct, and interesting, advantage.

One could argue that, like an Inquisitor who has been transformed by a Hemalurgic spike, the Allomantic savant is no longer even human.

16.

SPOOK AWOKE TO DARKNESS.

That was happening less and less frequently lately. He could feel the blindfold on his face, tied tightly across his eyes and over his ears. It dug into his overly sensitive skin, but it was far better than the alternative. Starlight was as bright as the sun to his eyes, and footsteps in the hallway outside his room could sound like thunderclaps. Even with the thick cloth, even with his ears plugged with wax, even with the shutters drawn tight and hung with a cloth, it was sometimes hard for him to sleep.

The m.u.f.fling was dangerous. It left him vulnerable. And yet, lack of sleep would be even more dangerous. Perhaps the things he'd done to his body by burning tin would kill him. Yet, the more time he spent among the people of Urteau, the more he felt they were going to need his help to survive the dangers that were coming. He needed an edge. He worried that he'd made the wrong decision, but at least he'd made a decision. He would continue as he had, and hope that it was enough.

He groaned quietly, sitting up, taking off the cloth and pulling the wax from his ears. The room was dark, but even the faint light creeping through the shutters-their gaps stuffed with cloth-was enough for him to see by.

Tin flared comfortably in his stomach. His reserve was nearly gone, burned away during the night. His body now used it as instinctively as it drew breath or blinked. He had heard that Thugs could burn pewter to heal their bodies even if they were unconscious from their wounds. The body understood what it needed.

He reached into a small pail beside his bed, pulling out a small handful of tin dust. He'd brought a lot with him from Luthadel, and augmented this by buying more through the underground. Fortunately, tin was relatively cheap. He dumped his handful into a mug on his nightstand, then moved to the door. The room was small and cramped, but he didn't have to share it with anyone. That made it lavish by skaa standards.

He squeezed his eyes shut, then pulled open the door. The luminosity of a sunlit hallway crashed against him. He gritted his teeth against the light, intense despite his shut eyelids, and felt about on the ground. He found the jug of fresh water-drawn from the well for him by the inn's servants-and pulled it inside, then shut the door.

He blinked, walking across the room to fill his mug. He drank it, was.h.i.+ng down the tin. It would be enough for the entire day. He took an extra handful and stuffed it into a pouch, just in case.