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Keepon, as if each step were in atonement for what he had done to the city After a short tie on his arm

He blinked "Beldre?"

"I betrayed you," she said, looking down "But, I didn't have a choice I couldn't let you kill hi," Spook said "So, Beldre It had your brother It alh The lair is close Just up the ramp"

She supported hiot there He saw the light, and felt the heat He and Beldre cli, for she was nearly as battered as he was However, Spook knehat he would find

The Ministry building, like soSazed stood before it, hand raised before his eyes To Spook's overenhanced senses, the brilliance of the flareat that he had to look away The heatjust inches froet closer to the building, but was forced back He turned toward Spook, shielding his face "It's too hot!" he said "We need to find some water, or perhaps soet below"

"Too late" Spook whispered "It will take too long"

Beldre turned, looking over her city To Spook's eyes, sht sky, reaching up, as if toash

He set his jaw, then stumbled forward, toward the fire

"Spook!" she cried out But, she needn't have worried The fla that he had to pull back before he'd crossed even half the distance He stu quietly, blinking tears His heightened senses made it even more difficult for hi we can do here," Sazed said "We ather crews and come back"

"I've failed," Spook whispered

"No more than any of us," Sazed said "This is my fault The emperor putsecurity to the city," Spook said "Not destruction I should be able to stop those fires But, it hurts too much"

Sazed shook his head "Ah, Lord Spook You are no god, to command fire at your whim You are a man, like the rest of us We're all justmen"

Spook allowed theht, of course He was just a man Just Spook Kelsier had chosen his creith care He'd left a note for them, when he died It had listed the others--Vin, Breeze, Dockson, Clubs, and Ham He'd spoken of them, of why he'd picked them

But not Spook The only one who didn't fit in

I named you, Spook You were h?

Spook froze, forcing the others to stop Sazed and Beldre looked at hiht The fires burned The s fully lucid for the first ti's violence had started He pulled hi building

"Spook!" Two voices yelled in the night

Spook approached the flarew hot The fire was bright--consuht for it Then, at the uished his tin

And became numb

It happened just as it had before, when he had been trapped in the building without anyhad expanded his senses, but now that he wasn't burning it at all, those sa feeling or sensation

He burst through the doorway into the building, fla around him

His body burned But, he couldn't feel the flaht enough that even his weakened eyes could still see He dashed forward, ignoring fire, heat, and smoke

Survivor of the Fla hi after the pain should have rendered hi and sliding down the broken ladder

The cavern was dark He stu his way past shelves and furniture,with a desperation that warned hiht anyer had pewter

He was glad for the d1arkness As he finally stuainst Sazed's machine, he knew that he would have been horrified to see what the fla quietly, he felt for and found the lever--or, through nuer worked So, he siears as required

Then he slid down to the ground, feeling only cold and dark

PART FIVE

TRUST

I do not knoent on in the minds of the koloss--what memories they retained, what human emotions they truly still knew I do know that our discovery of the one creature, who named hile to becoht never have understood the link between the koloss, Hey, and the Inquisitors

Of course, there was another part for his considered

59

URTEAU HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS

Vin certainly did her work here well, TenSoon thought as he padded through the city, shocked at the destruction About two years ago--before he'd been sent to spy on Vin--he had been Straff Venture's kandra, and had often visited Urteau While it had neverpoverty, it had been a fine city, worthy of being the seat of a Great House

Now, a good third of the city was a burned ruin Those buildings that hadn't burned doere either abandoned or overcrowded--an odd mixture, in TenSoon's opinion Apparently, noble hos were overpacked