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“Poor Jess,” a nearby woman said, her voice booming in Kelsier’s enhanced ears. “That child of hers was a curse. It’s better for skaa not to have pretty daughters.”
Tepper nodded. “Lord Tresting was sure to send for the girl sooner or later. We all knew it. Jess knew it.”
“Still a shame, though,” another man said.
The screams continued in the distance. Burning tin, Kelsier was able to judge the direction accurately. Her voice was moving toward the lord’s manor. The sounds set something off within him, and he felt his face flush with anger.
Kelsier turned. “Does Lord Tresting ever return the girls after he’s finished with them?”
Old Me
That was the Lord Ruler’s command. He couldn’t afford to have half-breed children ru
The screams waned, but Kelsier’s anger only built. The yells reminded him of other screams. A woman’s screams from the past. He stood abruptly, stool toppling to the ground behind him.
“Careful, lad,” Me
Kelsier glanced toward the old man. Then, through the screams and the pain, he forced himself to smile. “I’m not here to lead a rebellion among you, Goodman Me
“What good could that do?”
Kelsier’s smile deepened. “New days are coming. Survive a little longer, and you just might see great happenings in the Final Empire. I bid you all thanks for your hospitality.”
With that, he pulled open the door and strode out into the mist.
Me
Me
How would Lord Tresting react? He was said to be particularly harsh with anyone who interrupted his nighttime enjoyments. If Kelsier had managed to disturb the master’s pleasures, Tresting might easily decide to punish the rest of his skaa by association.
Eventually, the other skaa began to awake. Me
But not today. He could see too much fear in the eyes of the skaa—they knew that Kelsier’s nighttime activities would bring trouble. They needed Me
And so he did. Once he started moving, the pains of age decreased slightly, and he was able to shuffle out of the hovel toward the fields, leaning on a younger man for support.
It was then that he caught a scent in the air. “What’s that?” he asked. “Do you smell smoke?”
Shum—the lad upon whom Me
“I always smell smoke, lately,” Shum said. “The Ash-mounts are violent this year.”
“No,” Me
At the center of the group of people, he found Jess. Her daughter, the one they all assumed had been taken by Lord Tresting, stood beside her. The young girl’s eyes were red from lack of sleep, but she appeared unharmed.
“She came back not long after they took her,” the woman was explaining. “She came and pounded on the door, crying in the mist. Flen was sure it was just a mistwraith impersonating her, but I had to let her in! I don’t care what he says, I’m not giving her up. I brought her out in the sunlight, and she didn’t disappear. That proves she’s not a mistwraith!”
Me
By the time he arrived, others had noticed the twisting line of smoke that was just barely visible in the morning light. Me
The manor house was gone. Only a blackened, smoldering scar remained.
“By the Lord Ruler!” Me
“He killed them all.”
Me
“They were dead when he brought me out,” she said. “All of them—the soldiers, the taskmasters, the lords... dead. Even Lord Tresting and his obligators. The master had left me, going to investigate when the noises began. On the way out, I saw him lying in his own blood, stab wounds in his chest. The man who saved me threw a torch in the building as we left.”
“This man,” Me
The girl nodded silently.
“What kind of demon was that man?” one of the skaa muttered uncomfortably.
“Mistwraith,” another whispered, apparently forgetting that Kelsier had gone out during the day.
But he did go out into the mist, Me
Kelsier’s words from the night before sounded in his ears.
New days are coming....
“But, what of us?” Tepper asked, terrified. “What will happen when the Lord Ruler hears this? He’ll think that we did it! He’ll send us to the Pits, or maybe just send his koloss to slaughter us outright! Why would that troublemaker do something like this? Doesn’t he understand the damage he’s done?”
“He understands,” Me
“But, why?”
“Because he knew we’d never rebel on our own, so he gave us no choice.”
Tepper paled.
Lord Ruler, Me
But what other choice was there?
Me
“Where will we go?”
“The caves to the east,” Me
Tepper paled further. “But ...we’d have to travel for days. Spend nights in the mist.”
“We can do that,” Me
Tepper stood frozen for a moment, and Me
Me
New days indeed.