Mistborn: secret history

This. He’d missed this.

The con. The excitement of playing people like flutes, twisting them about themselves, tying their minds

in knots. He hurried through the forest, listening to the shouts of fright, the calls of soldiers to one

another, the snorts and cries of the horses. The patch of dense vegetation had become demonic

disharmony.

Nearby, one of the wizened men was gathering soldiers and his colleagues, calling for them to keep their

heads, and started leading them back in the direction they’d come, perhaps to regroup with those that

had been lost when the line first scattered.

Kelsier – still wearing the robe and holding his stolen satchel over his shoulder – lay down on the ground

in their path, and waited until someone spotted him.

“There!” a guard said. “It’s–”

Kelsier sank himself down into the ground, leaving the robe and satchel behind. The guard screamed at

the sight of one of the ancients apparently melting to nothing.

Kelsier crept up out of the ground a short distance away as the group gathered around his robe and

satchel. “She disintegrated, ancient one!” the guard said. “I watched it with my own eyes.”

“That’s one of Alonoe’s robes,” a woman whispered, hand pulled to her breast in shock.

Another of the ancients looked in the satchel. “Empty,” he said. “Merciful Domi… What were we

thinking?”

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“Back,” Elrao said. “Back! Everyone get your horses! We’re leaving. Curse Alonoe and this idea of hers!”

They were gone in moments. Kelsier strolled through the forest, stepping up beside the discarded robe –

which they’d left – listening to the main bulk of the expedition crash through the jungle in their haste to

escape him.

He shook his head, then took a short walk through the underbrush to where Alonoe and her lone guard

were now trying to follow the sounds of the main body. They were doing a pretty good job of it, all things

considered.

When the ancient one wasn’t looking, Kelsier grabbed the guard around the neck and hauled him into the

darkness. The man thrashed, but Kelsier got him in a quick lock and hold, knocking the man out without

too much trouble. He pulled the body back quietly, then returned to find the solitary ancient one standing

with lantern in hand beside her horse, turning frantically.

The jungle had become eerily still. “Hello?” she called. “Elrao? Riina?”

Kelsier waited in shadow as the calls became more and more frantic. Eventually the woman’s voice gave

out. She slumped down in the forest, exhausted.

“Leave it,” Kelsier whispered.

She looked up, red-eyed, frightened. Ancient or not, she could obviously still feel fear. Her eyes darted to

one side, then the other, but he was too well hidden for her to spot him.

“Leave it,” Kelsier repeated.

He didn’t need to ask again. She nodded, trembling, then took off her satchel and opened it, dumping out

a large glass orb. The light from it was brilliant, and Kelsier had to step back lest it reveal him. Yes, there

was power in that orb, great power. It was filled with glowing liquid that was far purer, and far brighter,

than what the ancients had been drinking.

Exhaustion evident in her every move, the woman went to climb back onto her horse.

“Walk,” Kelsier commanded.

She looked toward the darkness, searching, but didn’t see him. “I…” she said, then licked her wizened

lips. “I could serve you, Vessel. I–”

“Go,” Kelsier ordered.

Wincing, she unhooked the saddlebags and – lethargically – threw them over her shoulder. He didn’t stop

her. She probably needed those jars of glowing liquid to survive, and he didn’t want her dead. He just

wanted her to be slower than her companions. Once she found them, they might compare stories and

realize they’d been had.

Or perhaps not. Alonoe struck out into the jungle. Hopefully they’d all conclude that Ruin had indeed

bested them. Kelsier waited until she was gone, then strolled over and picked up the large glass orb. It

showed no discernible way of being opened, other than shattering it.

He held the glowing orb before him and shook it, gazing at the incredible, mesmerizing liquid light

within.

That was the most fun he’d had in ages.

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