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"Then we are a sorrier people than we may appear"

The room fell silent

"There was another reason why1 I ca up "Tell me, have any of your people died recently inodd circued Terrisman asked

"Mist deaths," Sazed said "Men who are killed by si the day"

"That is a tale of the skaa," one of the other erous"

"Indeed," Sazed said carefully "Do you send your people out to work in theht hours, when the mists have not yet retreated for the day?"

"Of course we do," said the younger Terrisman "Why, it would be foolish to let those hours of work pass"

Sazed found it difficult not to let his curiosity work on that fact Terrismen weren't killed by the daymists

What was the connection?

He tried to suy to think on the issue, but he felt traitorously apathetic He just wanted to hide so of him Where he wouldn't have to solve the probleious crisis

He almost did just that And yet, a little part of hiive up He would at least continue his research, and would do what Elend and Vin asked of him It wasn't all he could do, and it wouldn't satisfy the Terris at him with needful expressions

But, for the moment, it was all Sazed could offer To stay at the Pits would be to surrender, he knew He needed to keep

"I'er "But this is how it inal plan, I remember how much he confused us all with his ends of a mystical metal that would let one slay the Lord Ruler--and that Kelsier hih intense research

Nobody really knehat Kelsier did in the years between his escape from the Pits of Hathsin and his return to Luthadel When pressed, he simply said that he had been in "the West" Sos he discovered stories that no Keeper had ever heard Most of the crew didn't knohat to ht have been the first seed that in to question his leadership

23

IN THE EASTERN LANDS, near the wastelands of grit and sand, a young boy fell to the ground inside a skaa shack It was many years before the Collapse, and the Lord Ruler still lived Not that the boy knew of such things He was a dirty, ragged thing--liketo be put to work in theaway fro about with the packs of children who foraged in the dry, dusty streets

Spook hadn't been that boy for some ten years In a way, he are that he was delusional--that the fever of his wounds was causing him to co his y

And so, he ree e compared with Spook--stood1 over hirime of a miner The man spat on the dirty floor beside Spook, then turned to the other skaa in the roo lines of cleanliness on her cheeks, washing away the dust

"All right," the large lanced at each other One quietly closed the shack's door, shutting out the red sunlight

"There's only one thing to be done," another man said "We turn him in"

Spook looked up Hethe where of what?" Spook de a boot against Spook's neck, pushing hih wood "You shouldn't have let hiel Damn boy is barely coherent now"

"What happens if we give him up?" asked one of the other men "I mean, what if they decide that we're like him? They could have us executed! I've seen it before You turn so for everyone that knew him"

"Problems like his run in the farew quiet They all knew about Spook's fahtened man "You know they will! I've seen them, seen them with those spikes in their eyes Spirits of death, they are"

"We can't just let him run about," another man said "They'll discover what he is"

"There's only one thing to be done," the largedown on Spook's neck even harder

The room's occupants--the ones Spook could see--nodded soleo But, nobody would ator would ask twice about a dead child found in the streets Skaa died all the time

That was the way of the Final Empire

"Father," Spook whispered

The heel came down harder "You're not my son! My son went into the mists and never came out You must be a mistwraith"

Spook tried to object, but his chest was pressed down too tight He couldn't breathe, let alone speak The roorow black And yet, his ears--supernaturally sensitive, enhanced by powers he barely understood--heard so