Elend shook his head. “We don’t have enough information to judge her yet. Felt thinks she’s a thief, but there have to be other reasons a group like that would send someone to balls. Maybe she’s just an informant. Or, maybe she is a thief—but not one who ever intended to rob me. She spent an awful lot of time mixing with the other nobility—why would she do that if I was her target? In fact, she spent relatively little time with me, and she never plied me for gifts.”
He paused—imagining his meeting Valette as a pleasant accident, an event that had thrown a terrible twist into both of their lives. He smiled, then shook his head. “No, Jastes. There’s more here than we’re seeing. Something about her still doesn’t make sense.”
“I . . . suppose, El,” Jastes said, frowning.
Elend sat upright, a sudden thought occurring to him—a thought that made his speculations about Valette’s motivation seem far less important. “Jastes,” he said. “She’s skaa!”
“And?”
“And she fooled me—fooled us both. She acted the part of an aristocrat almost perfectly.”
“An inexperienced aristocrat, perhaps.”
“I had a real skaa thief with me!” Elend said. “Think of the questions I could have asked her.”
“Questions? What kind of questions?”
“Questions about being skaa,” Elend said. “That’s not the point. Jastes, she fooled us. If we can’t tell the difference between a skaa and a noblewoman, that means that the skaa can’t be very different from us. And, if they’re not that different from us, what right do we have treating them as we do?”
Jastes shrugged. “Elend, I don’t think you’re looking at this in perspective. We’re in the middle of a house war.”
Elend nodded distractedly. I was so hard on her this evening. Too hard?
He had wanted her to believe, totally and completely, that he didn’t want anything more to do with her. Part of that had been genuine, for his own worries had convinced him that she couldn’t be trusted. And she couldn’t be, not at the moment. Either way, he’d wanted her to leave the city. He’d thought that the best thing to do was break off the relationship until the house war was through.
But, assuming she’s really not a noblewoman, then there’s no reason for her to leave.
“Elend?” Jastes asked. “Are you even paying attention to me?”
Elend looked up. “I think I did something wrong tonight. I wanted to get Valette out of Luthadel. But, now I think I hurt her for no reason.”
“Bloody hell, Elend!” Jastes said. “Allomancers were listening to our conference this night. Do you realize what could have happened? What if they’d decided to kill us, rather than just spy on us?”
“Ah, yes, you’re right,” Elend said with a distracted nod. “It’s best if Valette leaves anyway. Anyone close to me will be in danger during the days to come.”
Jastes paused, his annoyance deepening, then he finally laughed. “You’re hopeless.”
“I try my best,” Elend said. “But, seriously, there’s no use worrying. The spies gave themselves away, and likely got chased off—or even captured—in the chaos. We now know some of the secrets that Valette is hiding, so we’re ahead there too. It’s been a very productive night!”
“That’s an optimistic way of looking at it, I guess. . . .”
“Once again, I try my best.” Even still, he would feel more comfortable when they got back to Keep Venture. Perhaps it had been foolhardy to sneak away from the palace before hearing the details of what had happened, but Elend hadn’t exactly been thinking carefully at the time. Besides, he’d had the previously arranged meeting with Felt to attend, and the chaos had made a perfect opportunity to slip away.
The carriage slowly pulled up to the Venture gates. “You should go,” Elend said, slipping out of the carriage door. “Take the books.”
Jastes nodded, grabbing the sack, then bidding Elend farewell as he shut the carriage door. Elend waited as the carriage rolled back away from the gates, then he turned and walked the rest of the way to the keep, the surprised gate guards letting him pass with ease.
The grounds were still ablaze with light. Guards were already waiting for him at the front of the keep, and a group of them rushed out into the mists to meet him. And surround him.
“My lord, your father—”
“Yes,” Elend interrupted, sighing. “I assume I’m to be taken to him immediately?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Lead on, then, Captain.”
They entered through the lord’s entrance on the side of the building. Lord Straff Venture stood in his study, speaking with a group of guard officers. Elend could tell from the pale faces that they had received a firm scolding, perhaps even threats of beatings. They were noblemen, so Venture couldn’t execute them, but he was very fond of the more brutal disciplinary forms.
Lord Venture dismissed the soldiers with a sharp gesture, then turned to Elend with hostile eyes. Elend frowned, watching the soldiers go. Everything all seemed a little too . . . tense.
“Well?” Lord Venture demanded.
“Well what?”
“Where have you been?”
“Oh, I left,” Elend said offhandedly.
Lord Venture sighed. “Fine. Endanger yourself if you wish, boy. In a way, it’s too bad that Mistborn didn’t catch you—they could have saved me a great deal of frustration.”
“Mistborn?” Elend asked, frowning. “What Mistborn?”
“The one that was planning to assassinate you,” Lord Venture snapped.
Elend blinked in startlement. “So . . . it wasn’t just a spying team?”
“Oh, no,” Venture said, smiling somewhat wickedly. “An entire assassination team, sent here after you and your friends.”
Lord Ruler! Elend thought, realizing how foolish he had been to go out alone. I didn’t expect the house war to get so dangerous so quickly! At least, not for me . . .
“How do we know it was a Mistborn?” Elend asked, gathering his wits.
“Our guards managed to kill her,” Straff said. “As she was fleeing.”
Elend frowned. “A full Mistborn? Killed by common soldiers?”
“Archers,” Lord Venture said. “Apparently, they took her by surprise.”
“And the man who fell through my skylight?” Elend asked.
“Dead,” Lord Venture said. “Broken neck.”
Elend frowned. That man was still alive when we fled. What are you hiding, Father? “The Mistborn. Anyone I know?”
“I’d say so,” Lord Venture said, settling into his desk chair, not looking up. “It was Shan Elariel.”
Elend froze in shock. Shan? he thought, dumbfounded. They’d been engaged, and she’d never even mentioned that she was an Allomancer. That probably meant . . .
She’d been a plant all along. Perhaps House Elariel had planned to have Elend killed once an Elariel grandson was born to the house title.
You’re right, Jastes. I can’t avoid politics by ignoring it. I’ve been a part of it all for much longer than I assumed.