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She gritted her teeth, shoving aside the exhaustion for a h the an to dash toward them

She couldn't jump; she was out of steel She couldn't even run very fast, but as she forced her body tooff the dull nu

She burst out of an alleyway, skidding in the snow, and found a s party There were six of the beasts, serous Even as Vin watched, one of the creatures cut down an elderly irl, sla

Vin dashed forward, past the fleeing skaa, whipping out her daggers She still felt exhausted, but adrenaline helped her so To stop was to die

Several of the beasts turned toward her, eager to fight One swung for her, and Vin let herself slide in the slush--slipping closer to hi He howled in pain as her knife got caught in his baggy skin She

I feel so slow! she thought with frustration, barely sliding to her feet before backing away from the creature's reach His sword sprayed chill water across her, and she juer in the creature's eye

Suddenly thankful for the tiht the side of a building to steady herself in the slush Then she threw herself forward, shouldering the koloss with the wounded eye--he was clawing at the dagger and yelling--into his coirl turned, shocked, as Vin raer into his back He didn't drop, but he did let go of the child

Lord Ruler, these things are tough! she thought, cloak whipping as she grabbed the child and dashed away Especially when you're not tough yourself I need soed as a koloss howl sounded, and Vin spun, flaring her tin to keep herself froue The creatures weren't following, however--they were arguing over a bit of clothing the dead ain, and this time, Vin realized, it had coan to screaain Vin looked up, only to find those she'd just rescued facing down an even larger group of koloss

"No!" Vin said, raising a hand But, they'd run far while she'd been fighting She wouldn't even have been able to see them, save for her tin As it was, she was able to see painfully well as the creatures began to lay into the sroup with their thick-bladed swords

"No!" Vin screa as a reminder of all the deaths she'd been unable to prevent

"No No! No!"

Pewter, gone Steel, gone Iron, gone She had nothing

Orshe had one thing Not even pausing to think on what pro at the beasts

It was as if hershattered Vin skidded to a halt, shocked, child still in her arms as the koloss stopped, frozen in their horrific act of slaughter

What did I just do? she thought, tracing through herto connect why she had reacted as she had Was it because she had been frustrated?

No She knew that the Lord Ruler had built the Inquisitors with a weakness: Remove a particular spike from their back, and they'd die He had also built the kandra with a weakness The koloss had to have a weakness, too

TenSoon called the kolosshis cousins, she thought

She stood upright, the dark street suddenly quiet save for the whi skaa The koloss waited, and she could feel herself in their minds As if they were an extension of her own body, the sa she had felt when she'd taken control of TenSoon's body

Cousins indeed The Lord Ruler had built the koloss with a weakness--the saiven himself a way to keep them in check

And suddenly she understood how he'd controlled the years

Sazed stood at the head of his large band of refugees, snow and ash--the t indistinguishable in thearound hi drowsy He'd lost too much blood; a iven Sazed a cloak, but he had used it to wrap the coh be barely tapped his brassmind for warmth, Sazed hi too numb to care

He held two hands up before hiht of the group's single lantern Koloss approached froht

Sazed's soldiers backed away There was little hope left in them Sazed alone stood in the quiet snow, a spindly, bald scholar, nearly naked He, the one who preached the end He, who should have had the s A few minutes of power A few athered The beasts grew strangely silent in the night They stopped approaching They stood still, a line of dark, ht

Why don't they attack! Sazed thought, frustrated

A child whiain Sazed tensed, but the creatures didn't walk forward They split, and a quiet figure walked through the center of them

"Lady Vin?" Sazed asked He still hadn't had a chance to speak with her since she'd saved hiate She looked exhausted