Mistborn

Chapter One Ash fell from the sky. Vin watched the downy flakes drift through the air. Leisurely. Careless. Free. The puffs of soot fell like black snowflakes, descending upon the dark city of Luthadel. They drifted in corners, blowing in the breeze and curling in tiny whirlwinds over the cobblestones. They seemed so uncaring. What would that be like? Vin sat quietly in one of the crew's watch-holesa hidden alcove built into the bricks on the side of the safe house. From within it, a crewmember could watch the street for signs of danger. Vin wasn't on duty; the watch-hole was simply one of the few places where she could find solitude. And Vin liked solitude. When you're alone, no one can betray you. Reen's words. Her brother had taught her so many things, then had reinforced them by doing what he'd always promised he wouldby betraying her himself. It's the only way you'll learn. Anyone will betray you, Vin. Anyone. The ash continued to fall. Sometimes, Vin imagined she was like the ash, or the wind, or the mist itself. A thing without thought, capable of simply being, not thinking, caring, or hurting. Then she could be . . . free. She heard shuffling a short distance away, then the trapdoor at the back of the small chamber snapped open. "Vin!" Ulef said, sticking his head into the room. "There you are! Camon's been searching for you for a half hour." That's kind of why I hid in the first place. "You should get going," Ulef said. "The job's almost ready to begin." Ulef was a gangly boy. Nice, after his own fashionnaive, if one who had grown up in the underworld could ever really be called "naive." Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't betray her. Betrayal had nothing to do with friendship; it was a simple fact of survival. Life was harsh on the streets, and if a skaa thief wanted to keep from being caught and executed, he had to be practical. And ruthlessness was the very most practical of emotions. Another of Reen's sayings. "Well?" Ulef asked. "You should go. Camon's mad." When is he not? However, Vin nodded, scrambling out of the crampedyet comfortingconfines of the watch-hole. She brushed past Ulef and hopped out of the trapdoor, moving into a hallway, then a run-down pantry. The room was one of many at the back of the store that served as a front for the safe house. The crew's lair itself was hidden in a tunneled stone cavern beneath the building. She left the building through a back door, Ulef trailing behind her. The job would happen a few blocks away, in a richer section of town. It was an intricate jobone of the most complex Vin had ever seen. Assuming Camon wasn't caught, the payoff would be great indeed. If he was caught . . . Well, scamming noblemen and obligators was a very dangerous professionbut it certainly beat working in the forges or the textile mills. Vin exited the alleyway, moving out onto a dark, tenement-lined street in one of the city's many skaa slums. Skaa too sick to work lay huddled in corners and gutters, ash drifting around them. Vin kept her head down and pulled up her cloak's hood against the still falling flakes. Free. No, I'll never be free. Reen made certain of that when he left. "There you are!" Camon lifted a squat, fat finger and jabbed it toward her face. "Where were you?" Vin didn&Sanderson, Brandon is the author of 'Mistborn ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780765350381 and ISBN 0765350386.