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PART ONE

HEIR OF THE SURVIVOR

I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted

1

THE ARMY CREPT LIKE A dark stain across the horizon

King Elend Venture stoodout at the enemy troops Around him, ash fell from the sky in fat, lazy flakes It wasn't the burnt white ash that one saw in dead coals; this was a deeper, harsher black ash The Ashmounts had been particularly active lately

Elend felt the ash dust his face and clothing, but he ignored it In the distance, the bloody red sun was close to setting It backlit the ardom from him

"How many?" Elend asked quietly

"Fifty thousand, we think," Haainst the parapet, beefy ar in the city, the wall had been stained black by countless years of ashfalls

"Fifty thousand soldiers" Elend said, trailing off Despite heavy recruitment, Elend barely had twenty thousand men under his co Maintaining even that s his resources If they'd been able to find the Lord Ruler's atius would be different As it was, Elend's rule was in serious danger of economic disaster

"What do you think?" Elend asked

"I don't know, El," Ham said quietly "Kelsier was always the one with the vision"

"But you helped him plan," Elend said "You and the others, you were his crew You were the ones who ca the empire, then made it happen"

Ham fell silent, and Elend felt as if he knehat theKelsier was central to it all He was the one who organized, the one who took all of the wild brain-stor and turned it into a viable operation He was the leader The genius

And he'd died a year before, on the very same day that the people—as part of his secret plan—had risen up in fury to overthrow their god e chaos Noas lookingthat Kelsier and his crew had worked so hard to accoht be even worse than the Lord Ruler A petty, devious bully in "noble" form The man who had marched his army on Luthadel

Elend's own father, Straff Venture

"Any chance you cantalk hi?" Ham asked

"Maybe," Elend said hesitantly "Assu the Assembly doesn't just surrender the city"

"They close?"

"I don't know, honestly I worry that they are That arht "Anyway, I have a proposal for theanything rash Dockson got back today, right?"

Ham nodded "Just before the army's advance"

"I think we should call aof the crew," Elend said "See if we can come up with a way out of this"

"We'll still be pretty shorthanded," Ha his chin "Spook isn't supposed to be back for another week, and the Lord Ruler only knohere Breeze went We haven't had a e from him in months"

Elend sighed, shaking his head "I can't think of anything else, Haain The ar campfires as the sun set Soon, the mists would appear

I need to get back to the palace and work on that proposal, Elend thought

"Where'd Vin run off to?" Ha back to Elend

Elend paused "You know," he said, "I'm not sure"

Vin landed softly on the daan to forrowing like tangles of translucent vines, twisting and wrapping around one another

The great city of Luthadel was still Even now, a year after the Lord Ruler's death and the rise of Elend's new free governht They feared the mists, a tradition that went far deeper than the Lord Ruler's laws