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Tresting froze as one of the skaa looked up Thein his expression Tresting had never seen anything like it, not in the face of a skaa Tresting stepped backward re?exively, a chill running through hiht-backed skaa held his eyes

And smiled

Tresting looked away “Kurdon!” he snapped

The burly taskmaster rushed up the incline “Yes, my lord?”

Tresting turned, pointing at…

He frowned Where had that skaa been standing? Working with their heads bowed, bodies stained by soot and sweat, they were so hard to tell apart Tresting paused, searching He thought he knew the place…an empty spot, where nobody now stood

But, no That couldn’t be it The roup so quickly Where would he have gone? Hewith his head now properly bowed Still, his moment of apparent de?ance was inexcusable

“My lord?” Kurdon asked again

The obligator stood at the side, watching curiously It would not be wise to let the man know that one of the skaa had acted so brazenly

“Work the skaa in that southern section a little harder,” Tresting ordered, pointing “I see theish, even for skaa Beat a few of them”

Kurdon shrugged, but nodded It wasn’t —but, then, he didn’t need

They were, after all, only skaa

Kelsier had heard stories

He had heard whispers of tio, the sun had not been red Tied by srow, and when skaa hadn’t been slaves Times before the Lord Ruler Those days, however, were nearly forgotten Even the legends were growing vague

Kelsier watched the sun, his eyes following the giant red disk as it crept toward the western horizon He stood quietly for a long moment, alone in the empty ?elds The day’s as done; the skaa had been herded back to their hovels Soon the mists would come

Eventually, Kelsier sighed, then turned to pick his way across the furrows and pathways, weaving between large heaps of ash He avoided stepping on the plants—though he wasn’t sure why he bothered The crops hardly seemed worth the effort Wan, ilted brown leaves, the plants seemed as depressed as the people who tended them

The skaa hovels looht Already, Kelsier could see thethe ible look The hovels stood unguarded; there was no need for watchers, for no skaa would venture outside once night arrived Their fear of the

I’ll have to cure theht as he approached one of the larger buildings But, all things in their own time He pulled open the door and slipped inside

Conversation stopped immediately Kelsier closed the door, then turned with a smile to confront the room of about thirty skaa A ?repit burned weakly at the center, and the large cauldron beside it was ?lled with vegetable-dappled water—the beginnings of an evening meal The soup would be bland, of course Still, the s

“Good evening, everyone,” Kelsier said with a sainst the door “Hoas your day?”

His words broke the silence, and the woroup of ard Kelsier with dissatis?ed expressions

“Our day was ?lled ork, traveler,” said Tepper, one of the skaa elders “Soed to avoid”

“Fieldwork hasn’t ever really suited me,” Kelsier said “It’s far too hard onup hands and arms that were lined with layers and layers of thin scars They covered his skin, running lengthwise, as if some beast had repeatedly raked its claws up and down his arms

Tepper snorted He was young to be an elder, probably barely into his forties—at ht be ?ve years Kelsier’s senior However, the scrawny e

“This is no time for levity,” Tepper said sternly “When we harbor a traveler, we expect him to behave himself and avoid suspicion When you ducked away fro for the men around you”

“True,” Kelsier said “But thoseplace, for pausing too long, or for coughing when a taskmaster walked by I once saw a man beaten because his master claimed that he had ‘blinked inappropriately’ ”

Tepper sat with narrow eyes and a stiff posture, his ar