Page 100 (1/2)

The two had an uneasy truce, but the field of koloss outside was ether Elend had the larger ar increasingly outnumbered as more andon the sanitation problem," Yomen continued once they were out of the men's earshot "An army exists on two principles: health and food Provide those two things, and you will be victorious"

Elend s in Scale A few years earlier, he would have agreed with Yomen, and the tould probably have spent the afternoon discussing the philosophy of leadership in Yos in the last few years that he siet from his studies

Unfortunately, that meant he really couldn't explain them to Yomen--particularly not in the time they had So, instead, he nodded down the street "We can move on to the infirmary now, if you wish, Lord Yomen"

Yomen nodded, and the two turned toward another section of the city The obligator had a no-nonsense approach to just about everything Probleood ments

As they walked, Elend was careful to keep an eye out for soldiers--on duty or off--in the streets He nodded to their salutes, es caused by the increasingly powerful earthquakes Perhaps it was just in Elend's mind, but it seemed that the soldiers walked a little taller after he passed

Yoator still wore the robes of his station, despite the little bead of atiuship The tattoos on the man's forehead alned with it insoldiers, do you, Yoator raised an eyebrow "I know more than you ever will about tactics, supply lines, and the running of armies bet1ween distinct points"

"Oh?" Elend said lightly "So, you've read Bennitson's Armies in Motion, have you?" The "distinct points" line was a dead giveaway

Yo that we scholars tend to forget about, Yomen, is the impact emotion can have on a battle It isn't just about food, shoes, and clean water, necessary as those are It's about hope, courage, and the will to live Soldiers need to know that their leader will be in the fight--if not killing enes personally from behind the lines They can't think of hi out aand pondering the depths of the universe"

Yoh streets that, despite being cleaned of ash, had a forlorn cast to them Most of the people had retreated to the back portions of the city, where the koloss would go last, if they broke through They were cas were unsafe in the quakes

"You are aninteresting man, Elend Venture," Yomen finally said

"I'm a bastard," Elend said

Yomen raised an eyebrow

"In composition, not in teamation of what I've needed to be Part scholar, part rebel, part nobleman, part Mistborn, and part soldier Soetting all those pieces to work together And, just when I'ured out, the world up and ends on me Ah, here we are"

Yo--which, in Elend's opinion, showed that Yos weren't so sacred to hie that they were the best facilities for taking care of the sick and wounded Inside, they found physicians tending those who had survived the initial clash with the koloss Yomen bustled off to speak with the infirmary bureaucrats--apparently, he orried about the number of infections that the men had suffered Elend walked over to the section with the e at the soldiers who had suffered because of his foolishness How could he havethat Ruin could take the koloss back? It made so much sense And yet, Ruin had played its hand well--it hadhi the koloss Making him feel the koloss could be counted on

What would have happened, he thought, if I'd attacked this city with theinally planned? Ruin would have ransacked Fadrex, slaughtering everyone inside, and then turned the koloss on Elend's soldiers Now the fortifications defended by Elend and Yoh pause to

I have doo beside the bed of a man who had lost his arm to a koloss blade

It frustrated hiht decision And, in truth, he'd rather be inside the city--al it, and winning For he knew that the winning side wasn't always the right side

Still, it ca frustration at his inability to protect his people And, despite Yomen's rule of Fadrex, Elend considered its people to be his people He'd taken the Lord Ruler's th1rone, named himself emperor The entirety of the Final Eood was a ruler who couldn't even protect one city, let alone an empire full of them?

A disturbance at the front of the infirhts, then bid farewell to the soldier He rushed to the front of the hospital, where Yomen had already appeared to see what the ruckus was about A wo uncontrollably with the fits

One of the physicians rushed forward, taking the boy "Mistsickness?" he asked

The wo, nodded "I kept him inside until today I knew! I knew that it wanted him! Oh, please"

Yomen shook his head as the physician took the boy to a bed "You should have listened to me, woman," he said firmly "Everyone in the city was to have been exposed to the mists Now your son will take a bed that we may need for wounded soldiers"

The woh Elend could see the concern in the matic one In addition, his wordssomeone inside all of their lives, just because of the possibility that they ht fall to the ht idly, glancing at the boy in bed He had stopped convulsing, though his face isted in an expression of pain It looked like he hurt so much Elend had only hurt that ure out what this ht The mist spirit had never returned to hi

"Yo hieons "Did any of your people ever figure out the reason for the mist-sickness?"

"Reason?" Yomen asked "Does there need to be a reason for a sickness?"

"There does for one this strange," Elend said "Did you realize that it strikes down exactly sixteen percent of the population? Sixteen percent--to the ged "Makes sense"