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She fell with the rain

Vin hit hard, but ed to land on her feet The Inquisitor hit the cobblestones back-first, her daggers still in his chest But he stood up easily, tossing the daggers aside, shattering them on the cobblestones

Then he moved suddenly Too quickly Vin didn't have ti her by the throat

I've seen that speed before, she thought as she struggled Not just from Inquisitors Froth Marsh used earlier

That was the reason for the new spikes These other Inquisitors didn't have as th Speed Each of these creatures was, essentially, another Lord Ruler

You see? Ruin asked

Vin cried out, duralu herself out of his grasp The ernails, and she had to down another vial of metals--her last--to restore her steel as she hydroplaned across the wet ground

Feruchees run out, she told herself Even Allomancers makeheavily as she caround, up to the wrist in cold rainwater Kelsier had struggled fighting one Inquisitor What was she doing fighting thirteen?

Sodden-robed figures landed around her Vin kicked, sla a foot into an Inquisitor chest, then Pulled herself off to spin away from another one She rolled across the slick cobblestones, an obsidian axe nearly taking off her head as she came up and kicked tter-enhanced feet at the knees of an opponent

Bones crunched The Inquisitor screamed and fell Vin pushed herself to her feet with one hand, then Pulled on the spires up above, throwing herself up about ten feet to dodge the s that carabbing the handle of the fallen Inquisitor's axe She swung it up, spraying water, her skin stained et ash as she blocked a blow

You cannot fight, Vin, Ruin said Each blow only helpsherself forward in a reckless attack, shouldering aside one Inquisitor, then sla, but she stayed a step ahead, barely dodging their attacks The one she had knocked down stood back up, his knees healed He was s

A blow she didn't see too1k her in the shoulder, throwing her forward She felt war down her back, but pewter deadened the pain She threw herself to the side, regaining her feet, clutching her axe

The Inquisitors stalked forward Marsh watched quietly, rain dripping down his face, spikes protruding from his body like the spires of Kredik Shaw He did not join the fight

Vin growled, then Pulled herself into the sky again She shot ahead of her foes, and bounded fro their metal as anchors The twelve Inquisitors followed like a flock of ravens, leaping between spires, robes flapping, taking different paths than she She lurched through the mists, which continued to spin around her in defiance of the rain

An Inquisitor landed against the spike she was ai her axe in an overhand blow as she landed, but he Pushed off--dodging her swing--then Pulled hi both herself and her opponent sprawling into the air Then, she grabbed his robe as they fell

He looked up, teeth clenched in a s her axe out of her hand with an inhu the unnatural bulk of a Feruche her neck He didn't even notice as Vin Pulled theh the air

They hit one of the lower spikes, thethe surprised Inquisitor's chest Vin wrenched herself to the side, out of the way, but hung on to his head, her weight pulling hih his body, but when she hit the ground below, she was holding only a head A disembodied spike splashed into an ashen puddle beside her, and she dropped the dead creature's head beside it

Marsh screaer Four more Inquisitors landed around her Vin kicked at one, but it rabbed her by the ar her way free, but a third one grabbed her, his grip enhanced by both Alloth The other three followed, holding her with claw-like fingers

Taking a deep breath, Vin extinguished her tin, then burned duralumin, steel, and pewter She Pushed outith a sudden wave of power; Inquisitors were thrown back by their spikes They sprawled, falling to the ground, cursing

Vin hit the cobblestones Suddenly, the pain in her back and her throat see She flared tin to clear her mind, but still stumbled, woozily, as she climbed to her feet She'd used up all of her pewter in that one burst

Shein front of her Marsh was silent, though another wave of lightning lit thefrom a wound that probably would have killed anyone else She was desperate

Okay Now! she thought as Marsh slapped her The blow threw her to the ground

Nothing happened

Co to draw upon the ure in the night Please!

Each time the mists had helped her, they had done so when she was h it seemed: to put herself in more trouble than she'd ever been in before, then count on the mists to help her As they had twice before

Marsh knelt over her Ih her tiredaon her as she huddled in a dark corner, her side aching fro toward her as they stood at the top of Keep Hasting, one of his hands dripping a slow stream of blood

Vin tried to scramble away across the slick, cold cobblestones, but her body wasn't working right She could barely crawl Marsh sla the bone, and she cried out in shocked, icy pain No pewter terab one of Marsh's spikes, but he snatched her leg--the broken one--and her own effort just ony

Now, Ruin said in his kindly voice, ill begin Where is the atium, Vin? What do you know of it?

"Please" Vin whispered, reaching toward the mists "Please, please, please"

Yet, they remained aloof Once, they had swirled playfully around her body, but now they pulled back instead Just as they'd done for the entire last year She was crying, reaching for the her like a victiue