Dockson got back today, right?”Ham nodded. I’ll try to talk them out of doing anything rash. “Anyway, I have a proposal for the meeting in two days. That army has frightened them, Ham.” And with good reason, he thought.

“Assuming the Assembly doesn’t just surrender the city.”“They close?”“I don’t know, honestly. talk him out of attacking?” Ham asked.“Maybe,” Elend said hesitantly.

The man who had marched his army on Luthadel.Elend’s own father, Straff Venture.“Any chance you can. Lose it to a tyrant who might be even worse than the Lord Ruler. Now it was looking more and more like he would lose everything that Kelsier and his crew had worked so hard to accomplish. Elend had taken the throne in the ensuing chaos. The genius.And he’d died a year before, on the very same day that the people-as part of his secret plan-had risen up in fury to overthrow their god emperor. He was the one who organized, the one who took all of the wild brainstorming and turned it into a viable operation. You were the ones who came up with a strategy for overthrowing the empire, then made it happen.”Ham fell silent, and Elend felt as if he knew what the man was thinking. “Kelsier was always the one with the vision.”“But you helped him plan,” Elend said. As it was, Elend’s rule was in serious danger of economic disaster.“What do you think?” Elend asked.“I don’t know, El,” Ham said quietly. If they’d been able to find the Lord Ruler’s atium, perhaps things would be different. Maintaining even that small number was straining his resources. Despite heavy recruitment, Elend barely had twenty thousand men under his command-and they were peasants with less than a year of training. Like everything in the city, the wall had been stained black by countless years of ashfalls.“Fifty thousand soldiers.” Elend said, trailing off. It backlit the army that had come to take Elend’s kingdom from him.“How many?” Elend asked quietly.“Fifty thousand, we think,” Ham said, leaning against the parapet, beefy arms folded on the stone. In the distance, the bloody red sun was close to setting. The Ashmounts had been particularly active lately.Elend felt the ash dust his face and clothing, but he ignored it. It wasn’t the burnt white ash that one saw in dead coals this was a deeper, harsher black ash. Around him, ash fell from the sky in fat, lazy flakes. Chapter 1The army crept like a dark stain across the horizon.King Elend Venture stood motionless upon the Luthadel city wall, looking out at the enemy troops.

The well of ascension mistborn book two