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Once, this city had felt like ho out in the dust, where the laas soes a frivolity What would Lessie have thought of one of these horseless contraptions, with the thin wheelson a city’s fine paved streets? Vehicles that ran on oil and grease, not hay and horseshoes?
He turned about on his perch It was difficult to judge locations in the dark and the e of a youth spent in this section of the city Things had changed, but not that ed the direction, checked his steel reserves, then launched himself out into the darkness
He shot outward in a grand arc above the city, flying for a good half a irders The skyscraper became a shadowed silhouette behind him, then vanished Eventually, his ih the rew close--and he could see that nobody was below hier
The jolt punched hi his descent He Pushed off the birdshot in the ground to slow him further; he landed easily in a soft crouch He noticed with dissatisfaction that he’d all but ruined so stones with the shot
Haretting used to I’h a narrow un back under his coat I need to learn hs, he’d been considered a refined gentleman Here, if he didn’t watch himself, he’d soon prove himself to be the uncultured brute that most of the nobility already assumed that he was It--
Gunfire
Wax responded iate, then ducked in a roll He caht hand, his left steadying the shotgun in its sleeve in his coat
He peered into the night Had his thoughtless shotgun blasts drawn the attention of the local constables? The guns fired again, and he frowned No Those are too distant Soave him a thrill He leaped into the air and down the street, Pushing off that sa; this area was filled with three- and four-story apartment structures that had narrow alleyways between How could people live without any space around thes--it was handy that the rooftops were flat--and then stopped to listen His heart beat excitedly, and he realized he’d been hoping for so like this It hy he’d been driven to leave the party, to seek out the skyscraper and cli, as the town grew larger, he’d often patrolled at night, watching for trouble
He fingered his Sterrion as another shot was fired, closer this ti and Pushed hiht to three-quarters and left it there You needed soht effectively
Thehi out the ht could be humid and chill, and yet not a wisp of in dry as brittle leaves, but the ht, and so visibility was still good Another crack broke the silence There, Wax thought Steel burning with a comfortable warmth within him, he leaped over another street in a flurry ofwind
He landed softly, then raised his gun in front of hie and looked down Just below hie behind a pile of boxes near the ht, Wax couldn’t make outon a box The barrel was pointed toward a group of people down the street ore the distinctive dohtly fro up his steel bubble A latch on a trapdoor at his feet rattled as his Allo upon the constables It would be good to do so of actual value in this city, rather than just standing around chatting with the overdressed and the overprivileged
He dropped a bullet casing, and his Allomancy pressed it down onto the rooftop beneath hi hiht dra hiht in the middle of the alleyway
With his steel, he could see lines pointing toward four different figures in front of hi toward hihted on the first of the street thugs The ht itself
Wax heard a wo
He froze, hand steady, but unable to move The h and flooded his le shot Blood on the redbrick walls
The street thug jerked his rifle toward Wax and fired The steel bubble barely deflected it, and the bullet tugged through the fabric of Wax’s coat, justhis ribs
He tried to fire, but that whiht, appalled at hiround, then Pushed on the bullet and threw himself backward, up out of the alleyway
Bullets pierced the mists all around him Steel bubble or not, he should have fallen to one of them It was pure luck that saved his life as he landed on another roof and rolled to a stop, prone, protected froasped for breath, hand on his revolver Idiot, he thought to himself Fool He’d never frozen in coreen Never This, however, was the first time he’d tried to shoot someone since the disaster in the ruined church
He wanted to duck away in shae of the roof The athering and preparing toto do with an Allomancer
He aimed at the apparent leader However, before Wax could fire, the unfire from the constables In moments, the alleyarmed with men in unifor deeply
I could have fired that time, he told himself It was just that one ain He told himself this several times as the constables pulled the malefactors out of the alley one at a ti he’d heard had been a gang member who’d taken a bullet before Wax arrived Thein pain as they took him away
The constables hadn’t seen Wax He turned and disappeared into the night