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Elend spun, watching a large group of Straff's men--thousands of them--rush toward the wall Elend stood near Tin Gate, at the north of the city, nearest Straff's ar toward Pewter Gate, a little to the east

"Archers!" Elend yelled "Men, where are your bows?"

His voice, however, was lost in the shouting Captains anize the men, but apparently tooa lot of the archers trapped in the courtyard below

Why? Elend thought desperately, turning back toward the charging arreeotten wind of Elend's plan to play both sides of the conflict? Perhaps there really was a spy in the inner crew

Either way, Elend could only watch hopelessly as the aret off a pathetic volley of arrows, but it didn't do an to zip up toward the wall, roup

Elend cursed, ducking down below a ainst the stonework A few soldiers fell Elend's soldiers Killed because he'd been too proud to surrender the city

He peeked carefully over the wall A group of , their bodies carefully protected by men with shields The care probably s, a suspicion confirate That was not the blow of ordinary men

Hooks followed next Shot up toward the wall by Coinshots below, falling far more accurately than if they'd been thrown Soldiersthe ate continued to thu

And so we fall, Elend thought With barely a hint of resistance

And there was nothing he could do He felt i down lest his white unifor, all of his preparations, all of his dreams and his plans Gone

And then Vin was there She landed atop the wall, breathing hard, aroup of wounded men Coins and arrows that came near to her deflected back out into the air Men rallied around her,to remove hooks and pull the wounded to safety Her knives cut ropes, dropping the determined, then moved as if to leap over the side of the wall and confront the Thugs with their battering ram

Elend raised a hand, but someone else spoke

"Vin, wait!" Clubs bellowed, bursting out of the stairwell

She paused Elend had never heard such a forceful coeneral

Arrows stopped flying The boo with a frown as the army retreated back across the ash-strewn fields toward their camp They left a couple of corpses behind; Elend's ed to hit a feith their arrows His own army had taken far heavier casualties: some two dozen men appeared to be wounded

"What?" Elend asked, turning to Clubs

"They weren't putting up scaling ladders," Clubs said, eyeing the retreating force "This wasn't an actual attack"

"What was it then?" Vin asked, frowning

"A test," Clubs said "It's common in warfare--a quick skirmish to see how your enemy responds, to feel out their tactics and preparations"

Elend turned, watching the disorganized soldiers make way for healers to care for the wounded "A test," he said, glancing at Clubs "My guess is that we didn't do very well"

Clubs shrugged "Far worse than we should have Maybe this will scare the lads into paying better attention during drills" He paused, and Elend could see solanced out over the wall, watching the retreating army Suddenly, it made sense It was exactly the kind ofwith Straff would take place as planned However, before it happened, Straff wanted Elend to know so

I can take this city any time, the attack seemed to say It's mine, no matter what you do Remember that

He was forced into war by a --and always claiht as well as any man

26

"THIS IS NOT A GOOD idea, Mistress" OreSeur sat on his haunches, watching Vin unpack a large, flat box

"Elend thinks it's the only way," she said, pulling off the top of the box The luxurious blue dress lay wrapped within She pulled it out, noting its co screen and began to disrobe

"And the assault on the walls yesterday?" OreSeur asked

"That was a warning," she said, continuing to unbutton her shirt "Not a serious attack" Though, apparently, it had really unsettled the Assembly Perhaps that had been the point Clubs could say all he wished about strategy and testing the walls, but froained most was even more fear and chaos inside Luthadel