He looked up at her. “What?” he asked.
“I didn’t expect there to be blood.”
OreSeur snorted. “You probably didn’t expect me to feel pain either.”
Vin opened her mouth, then paused. Actually, she hadn’t ever thought about it. Then she hardened herself. What right does this thing have to chastise me?
Still, OreSeur had proven useful. “Thank you for throwing me the vial,” she said.
“It was my duty, Mistress,” OreSeur said, grunting as he pulled his broken body up against the side of the alleyway. “I was charged with your protection by Master Kelsier. As always, I serve the Contract.”
Ah, yes. The almighty Contract. “Can you walk?”
“Only with effort, Mistress. The coins shattered several of these bones. I will need a new body. One of the assassins, perhaps?”
Vin frowned. She glanced back toward the dead men, and her stomach twisted slightly at the gruesome sight of their fallen bodies. She’d killed them, eight men, with the cruel efficiency that Kelsier had trained in her.
This is what I am, she thought. A killer, like those men. That was how it had to be. Someone had to protect Elend.
However, the thought of OreSeur eating one of them—digesting the corpse, letting his strange kandra senses memorize the positioning of muscles, skin, and organs, so that he could reproduce them—sickened her.
She glanced to the side, and saw the veiled scorn in OreSeur’s eyes. They both knew what she thought of him eating human bodies. They both knew what he thought of her prejudice.
“No,” Vin said. “We won’t use one of these men.”
“You’ll have to find me another body, then,” OreSeur said. “The Contract states that I cannot be forced to kill men.”
Vin’s stomach twisted again. I’ll think of something, she thought. His current body was that of a murderer, taken after an execution. Vin was still worried that someone in the city would recognize the face.
“Can you get back to the palace?” Vin asked.
“With time,” OreSeur said.
Vin nodded, dismissing him, then turned back toward the bodies. Somehow she suspected that this night would mark a distinct turning point in the fate of the Central Dominance.
Straff’s assassins had done more damage than they would ever know. That bead of atium had been her last. The next time a Mistborn attacked her, she would be exposed.
And would likely die as easily as the Mistborn she’d slain this night.
Order The Well of Ascension Now!
Tor Books by Brandon Sanderson
Note: Within series, books are best read in listed order.
THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE
With more than ten years spent in research, world-building, and writing, The Stormlight Archive is a true epic in the making, a multivolume masterpiece in the grand tradition of The Wheel of Time®.
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
THE MISTBORN
This modern fantasy classic dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails, and the Dark Lord takes over? What follows is a story full of surprises and political intrigue, driven by a memorable heist crew.
Mistborn
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
Three hundred years after the events of The Hero of Ages, the world is on the verge of modernity, but one scion returning from the Roughs discovers that the civilized world isn’t as civilized as he’d thought.
The Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
The Bands of Mourning
ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS
On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry gets a bag of sand in the mail—his only inheritance from his father and mother. He soon learns that this is no ordinary bag of sand when it is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who secretly rule the world. It is up to Alcatraz and his band of freedom fighters to bring an end to their tyranny.
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
Alcatraz versus the Scrivener’s Bones
Alcatraz versus the Knights of Crystallia
Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens
OTHER WORKS
Fleet, fun, and full of surprises, this is a rare epic fantasy debut that doesn’t recycle the classics. A city and people go from blessed to bewitched, but when the latest outcast arrives, he brings something new—hope.
Elantris
Elantris Tenth Anniversary Author’s Definitive Edition
By using Breath and the color in everyday objects, miracles and mischief can be accomplished—and are. But it will take considerable quantities of each for two sisters and a Returned god as they face the challenges ahead.
Warbreaker
While Joel’s mind for figures would make him a genius with the magic of Rithmatics, he doesn’t have the spark. But he could be the only one able to protect the other students when they start disappearing. A new favorite of YA readers, this fantasy has lively and feisty characters and an inventive and detailed magic system.
The Rithmatist
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This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE
Copyright © 2006 by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by Moshe Feder
Maps by Isaac Stewart
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanderson, Brandon.
Mistborn: the final empire / Brandon Sanderson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN: 978-1-4299-1456-7
I. Title.
PS3619.A533M57 2006
813'.6—dc22
2005034496
eISBN 9781429914567
The Final Empire Page 72
