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One of the guards lowered a spear at her, and Vin stopped right in front of him

"I know you," she said quietly "You endured the es You knew that someday they would kill you, and leave your fauilty but deterlanced at each other, confused

"The light behind me comes from aup against the Lord Ruler I don’t bla Those rebels could use your training and your knowledge Go to theather in the Square of the Survivor"

"The…Square of the Survivor?" a soldier asked

"The place where the Survivor of Hathsin was killed earlier today"

The four ed looks, uncertain

Vin Rioted their euilt anymore"

Finally, one of the men stepped forward and ripped the syht The other three paused, then followed--leaving Vin with an open entrance to the palace

Vin walked down the corridor, eventually passing the sa past a group of chatting guards without hurting any of theuards shook off their surprise and called out in alarainst the lantern brackets, hurling herself down the hallway

The , they wouldn’t be able to keep up with her She reached the end of the corridor, then let herself drop lightly to the ground, enveloping cloak falling around her body She continued her resolute, unhurried pace There was no reason to run They’d be waiting for her anyway

She passed through the archway, stepping into the dome-roofed central chamber Silver murals lined the walls, braziers burned in the corners, the floor was an ebonyher path

Vin strode quietly through the roooal

"We search all this ti voice "And you co about twenty feet in front of the pair They loo and confident

Vin burned atiu a double handful of arrowheads into the air She flared steel, Pushing powerfully against the rings of metal wrapped loosely around the arrowheads’ broken hafts Theacross the roo disdainfully against the s free fro the bits of metal backward The arrowheads theer Pushed from behind, but still carried by a deadly momentum

The Inquisitor opened his mouth in surprise as two dozen arrowheads struck hi on to snap against the stone wall behind his

The lead Inquisitor jerked, spas on his feet, but wobbling a bit on the weakened leg Vin dashed forward, flaring her pewter The re Inquisitor moved to block her, but she reached inside her cloak and threw out a large handful of pewter dust

The Inquisitor stopped, confused To his "eyes" he would see nothing but ato a speck of metal With so many sources of metal concentrated in one place, the lines would be virtually blinding

The Inquisitor spun, angry, as Vin dashed past hi it away, but as he did so, Vin whipped out a glass dagger and flipped it toward hithe dagger, and it took hi in a crackly voice

Good thing that worked, Vin thought, leaping over the groaning body of the first Inquisitor Wasn’t sure about those eyes of theirs

She threw her weight against the door, flaring pewter and tossing up another handful of dust to keep the re any ht the two further--not with the trouble one of the creatures had given Kelsier Her goal this infiltration wasn’t to kill, but to gather infor-within-a-building, nearly tripping on a rugthe cha for whatever the Lord Ruler hid inside of it

It has to be here, she thought desperately The clue to defeating hi on the Inquisitors being distracted by their wounds long enough for her to search out the Lord Ruler’s secret and escape

The rooh--and a hearth burned in the center of the cha froe patterns There were a few old paintings, their colors faded, their canvases yellowed

Vin searched quickly, urgently, looking for anything that could prove to be a weapon against the Lord Ruler Unfortunately, she saw nothing useful; the roon, but unremarkable In fact, it had a comfortable hoe objects and decorations--like the horns of soe pair of shoes with very wide, flat bottoms It was the room of a pack rat, a place to keepchair stood by the hearth, and it spun slowly, revealing the wizened old man who sat in it Bald, with liver-spotted skin, he appeared to be in his seventies He wore rich, dark clothing, and he frowned angrily at Vin

That’s it, Vin thought I’ve failed--there’s nothing here Ti to dash away, however, rough hands grabbed her frolanced down at the Inquisitor’s bloodied leg Even with pewter, he shouldn’t have been able to walk on it She tried to twist away, but the Inquisitor had her in a powerful grasp

"What is this?" the old

"I’m sorry, Lord Ruler," the Inquisitor said deferentially

Lord Ruler! But…I saw hihis hand

"My lord," the Inquisitor said "This child is…of special interest Might I keep her for a time?"

"What special interest?" the Lord Ruler said, sighing as he sat again