POV: lestibournes
Summary
Spook swims back into himself out of a dream he half-remembers: a voice he loves telling him he has a clue no one else has, that the pieces of this thing are scattered to the winds, and that he absolutely must send a message before they are lost. He coughs, hears gasps somewhere far above him, and opens his eyes to a face. Not the face he had been hoping for. *Breeze,* he tries to say, and the word comes out as a croak. Breeze cries — actually cries — and announces to the room that the boy is awake.
Beldre's face is the second above him, and that one is the right one. He whispers to her, but he cannot move; only his left hand will twitch when he asks it to. She tells him gently that Sazed strapped him down in casts and bandages, that the burns are not as bad as they look, that he is alive. *I wasn't expecting that,* Spook croaks back, and a relieved smile passes between her and Breeze.
A square jaw and a wide grin lean into his view: Captain Goradel, beaming. *Survivor of the Flames indeed,* Goradel says — proud, the way a soldier is when his commander wakes up. Spook asks where Sazed is and is told he has already gone south with Vin's kandra. Spook asks after the city. Beldre tells him most of Urteau is safe — the canals flooded, her brother organised fire brigades, the buildings that burned were largely empty already — and Goradel tells him, simply, *You saved it, my lord.* Spook does not feel that. He asks about the ash. The three faces look at each other and answer that question without speaking it.
He has to send a message to Vin. Breeze tries to soothe him, gently. Beldre tells him to rest. He stares up at the ceiling — the only direction his head will look — and tells Breeze to listen. *Something was controlling me and the Citizen,* he says. *I saw it — the thing Vin released at the Well of Ascension. The thing bringing the ash down on us. It wanted this city. We fought it off. I have to warn her.* Breeze tells him gently that travel is difficult right now. Beldre tells him to rest.
A quieter voice — Goradel — says: *I'll take it.* He says it because Vin once saved his life in the Lord Ruler's palace garrison on the night of the Survivor's rebellion; she could have left him with the mob, or killed him herself, and instead she stopped to talk to him and brought him over to her side. He owes her this. If she needs the message, he will get it to her, or he will die in the ash trying. Spook tries to nod and cannot — the wrappings hold his head — but he can flex his hand, and that is enough.
He meets Goradel's eyes. *Go to the armoury,* he tells him, *and have a sheet of metal pounded thin. Then come back with something I can use to scratch it. These words must be written in steel, and I cannot speak them aloud.* Whatever the thing in his chest can hear, it cannot read what is sealed in metal. The warning will travel safely if it travels in its blind spot.