Read Online Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson - Free Book Online Page B

take him," Elend said. "I worry about you out there, every night, pushing yourself so hard."
    "I can handle it," Vin said. "Someone needs to watch over you."
    "Yes," Elend said, "but who watches over you?"
    Kelsier . Even now, that was still her immediate reaction. She'd known him for less than a year, but that year had been the first in her life that she had felt protected.
    Kelsier was dead. She, like the rest of the world, had to live without him.
    "I know you were hurt when you fought those Allomancers the other night," Elend said. "It would be really nice for my psyche if I knew someone was with you."
    "A kandra's no bodyguard," Vin said.
    "I know," Elend said. "But they're incredibly loyal—I've never heard of one breaking Contract. He'll watch out for you. I worry about you, Vin. You wonder why I stay up so late, scribbling at my proposals? I can't sleep, knowing that you might be out there fighting—or, worse, lying somewhere in a street, dying because nobody was there to help you."
    "I take OreSeur with me sometimes."
    "Yes," Elend said, "but I know you find excuses to leave him behind. Kelsier bought you the services of an incredibly valuable servant. I can't understand why you work so hard to avoid him."
    Vin closed her eyes. "Elend. He ate Kelsier."
    "So?" Elend asked. "Kelsier was already dead. Besides, he himself gave that order."
    Vin sighed, opening her eyes. "I just. . .don't trust that thing, Elend. The creature is unnatural."
    "I know," Elend said. "My father always kept a kandra. But, OreSeur is something, at least. Please. Promise me you'll take him with you."
    "All right. But I don't think he's going to like the arrangement much either. He and I didn't get along very well even when he was playing Renoux, and I his niece."
    Elend shrugged. "He'll hold to his Contract. That's what is important."
    "He holds to the Contract," Vin said, "but only grudgingly. I swear that he enjoys frustrating me."
    Elend looked down at her. "Vin, kandra are excellent servants. They don't do things like that."
    "No, Elend," Vin said. " Sazed was an excellent servant. He enjoyed being with people, helping them. I never felt that he resented me. OreSeur may do everything I command, but he doesn't like me; he never has. I can tell."
    Elend sighed, rubbing her shoulder. "Don't you think you might be a little irrational? There's no real reason to hate him so."
    "Oh?" Vin asked. "Just like there's no reason you shouldn't get along with Dockson?"
    Elend paused. Then he sighed. "I guess you have a point," he said. He continued to rub Vin's shoulder as he stared upward, toward the ceiling, contemplative.
    "What?" Vin asked.
    "I'm not doing a very good job of this, am I?"
    "Don't be foolish," Vin said. "You're a wonderful king."
    "I might be a passable king, Vin, but I'm not him ."
    "Who?"
    "Kelsier," Elend said quietly.
    "Elend, nobody expects you to be Kelsier."
    "Oh?" he said. "That's why Dockson doesn't like me. He hates noblemen; it's obvious in the way that he talks, the way he acts. I don't know if I really blame him, considering the life he's known. Regardless, he doesn't think I should be king. He thinks that a skaa should be in my place—or, even better, Kelsier. They all think that."
    "That's nonsense, Elend."
    "Really? And if Kelsier still lived, would I be king?"
    Vin paused.
    "You see? They accept me—the people, the merchants, even the noblemen. But in the back of their minds, they wish they had Kelsier instead."
    "I don't wish that."
    "Don't you?"
    Vin frowned. Then she sat up, turning so that she was kneeling over Elend in the reclined chair, their faces just inches apart. "Don't you ever wonder that, Elend. Kelsier was my teacher, but I didn't love him. Not like I love you."
    Elend stared into her eyes, then nodded. Vin kissed him deeply, then snuggled down beside him again.
    "Why not?" Elend eventually asked.
    "Well, he was old, for one thing."
    Elend chuckled. "I seem to recall you making fun of my age as