The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,137

MeLaan came next. Wayne and Telsin took the rear, keeping Wax’s sister as far from Uncle Edwarn as possible.

“You sure about this?” Marasi asked as they passed rubble, strewn spears, and darts.

Wax didn’t answer. He thought furiously about what his uncle could be planning. What had Wax missed? He had several theories by the time they reached the door.

Edwarn stood before it, looking the symbols up and down. “Push on that one,” he said, pointing toward one of the engraved circles. “With Allomancy.”

Wax cleared everyone back save Wayne. The shorter man nodded, wearing the bracelet that would let him heal great amounts, speed bubble at the ready in case somehow Edwarn planned the activation of the door to be a trap.

Wax Pushed. Something clicked.

“Now there,” Edwarn said, pointing. “The one with the triangular shape.”

Click.

“Finally this one,” Edwarn said, tapping one with the back of his hand.

“That’s it?” Wax said.

“Get them wrong and the thing freezes shut, I’m told,” Edwarn said idly. “It has a clockwork timer. Won’t be ready again for ten years. You could spend a lifetime guessing, and still have only a small chance of opening it.” He looked at Wax and smiled. “Apparently these symbols spell out something the Lord Ruler would have understood.”

Wax glanced back at Allik, who shook his head, baffled. “They really make no sense to me.”

Wax turned around, held his breath, and Pushed on the final symbol. It clicked. Then, with a deep scrape of stone on metal, the entire thing slid to the side, opening a path. Edwarn stepped toward it, but Wax leveled his gun, causing the man to hesitate.

“I’ll have you know,” Edwarn said, “that I worked a very long time to find what was in this place. It seems unfitting that another should pass that door before me.”

“Tough,” Wax said, grabbing Telsin’s shoulder as she tried to slip by him and enter. “MeLaan?”

“Right,” the kandra said. Rusts, she limped as she passed through the door. One of her legs was longer than the other, because of the breaks. She said she didn’t feel pain, but if she chose to lie to him, he’d never know.

She stepped into the other room, which had a soft blue glow coming from it. More of those glass lights in the walls.

“Nothing hit me on the way in,” she said from within. “Want me to walk around a bit?”

“Just around the doorway area,” Wax called to her, gun still held on Edwarn. “Make sure it’s safe for us.”

They waited a tense few moments. No traps activated in the other room that he could hear.

“How can you wait?” Telsin asked. “Knowing what could be back there? A wonder beyond understanding.”

“It isn’t going anywhere.”

“You never want to know what’s beyond the door,” Telsin whispered. “You never did chase the horizon. Where is your curiosity?”

“It’s alive and well. The things I’m curious about are simply different from the ones you find exciting.”

“All clear,” MeLaan said from the other room.

Wax nodded for the others to go first, everyone but him and Edwarn. “Stay near the door,” he told them.

Once they were inside, he stepped closer to his uncle.

“Threatening,” Edwarn said, looking him up and down. “You separated us from the others, Waxillium. Planning a little intimidation?”

“I care for the people in that room,” Wax said softly. “I suspect more than a monster like you can ever know.”

“You think me emotionless?” Edwarn said, his voice stern. “I tried to spare your life, Waxillium. I argued before the Set on your behalf. There was a time when I loved you like a son.”

Wax raised Vindication again.

“When we’re done with this,” Wax said, “you’re going to give me names. The others in the Set. I’m going to drag you back to Elendel, and there you’ll talk.”

“And you’d brutalize me to get those names, no doubt,” Edwarn said.

“I follow the law.”

“Which can be changed—or bent—to suit your needs. You call me a monster; you hate me because I seek rule. And yet you serve those who do the very same things as I. Your senate? It strangles the life from children with its economic policies.” Edwarn stepped forward, a motion which put the barrel of Wax’s gun right at his temple. “The longer you live, Waxillium, the more you’ll know I am right. The difference between good and evil men is not found in the acts they are willing to commit—but merely in what name they are willing to commit them in.”

“Waxillium?” Marasi appeared at the stone doorway. “You’ll want to see