Page 191 of The Well of Ascension

“Silent,” Elend said. “It’s strange, Vin. This isn’t like him—those assassins were so blatant. I’m not sure what to make of them.”

“The assassins,” Vin said, sitting back in the bed. “You’ve identified them?”

Elend shook his head. “Nobody recognizes them.”

Vin frowned.

“Maybe we aren’t as familiar with the noblemen out in the Northern Dominance as we thought we were.”

No,Vin thought.No, if they were from a city as close as Urteau—Straff’s home—some of them would be known, wouldn’t they?“I thought I recognized one of them,” Vin finally said.

“Which one?”

“The…last one.”

Elend paused. “Ah. Well, I guess we won’t be able to identify him now.”

“Elend, I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“What?” Elend asked. “Vin, I’ve seen death before. I was forced to attend the Lord Ruler’s executions, remember?” He paused. “Not that what you did was like that, of course.”

Of course.

“You were amazing,” Elend said. “I’d be dead right now if you hadn’t stopped those Allomancers—and it’s likely that Penrod and the other Assemblymen would have fared the same. You saved the Central Dominance.”

We always have to be the knives….

Elend smiled, standing. “Here,” he said, walking to the side of the room. “This is cold, but Sazed said you should eat it when you awoke.” He returned with a bowl of broth.

“Sazed sent it?” Vin asked skeptically. “Drugged, then?”

Elend smiled. “He warned me not to taste it myself—he said it was filled with enough sedatives to knock me out for a month. It takes a lot to affect you pewter burners.”

He set the bowl on the bedstand. Vin eyed it through narrowed eyes. Sazed was probably worried that, despite her wounds, she’d go out and prowl the city if she were left on her own. He was probably right. With a sigh, Vin accepted the bowl and began to sip at it.

Elend smiled. “I’ll send someone to bring you more coal for the stove,” he said. “There are some things I need to do.”

Vin nodded, and he left, pulling the door shut behind him.

When Vin next awoke, she saw that Elend was still there. He stood in the shadows, watching her. It was still dark outside. The shutters to her window were open, and mist coated the floor of the room.

The shutters wereopen.

Vin sat upright and turned toward the figure in the corner. It wasn’t Elend. “Zane,” she said flatly.

He stepped forward. It was so easy to see the similarities between him and Elend, now that she knew what to look for. They had the same jaw, the same wavy dark hair. They even had similar builds, now that Elend had been exercising.

“You sleep too soundly,” Zane said.

“Even a Mistborn’s body needs sleep to heal.”

“You shouldn’t have been hurt in the first place,” Zane said. “You should have been able to kill those men with ease, but you were distracted by my brother, and by trying to keep the people of the room from harm.Thisis what he’s done to you—he’s changed you, so that you no longer see what needs to be done, you just see what he wants you to do.”

Vin raised an eyebrow, quietly feeling beneath her pillow. Her dagger was there, fortunately.He didn’t kill me in my sleep,she thought.That has to be a good sign.

He took another step forward. She tensed. “What is your game, Zane?” she said. “First, you tell me that you’ve decided not to kill me—then you send a group of assassins. What now? Have you come to finish the job?”

“We didn’t send those assassins, Vin,” Zane said quietly.

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