Did Wayne have a better idea?
Actually … actually he did. He looked out at the ocean and realized something. This ship here … well, this was a lot like a lone mesa. It fit way better than the Shaw had. Yes, a solitary mesa in the middle of flat lands …
And it needed to gobble up the hero.
“You said that this bomb,” Wayne said, “it blows up big if detonated proper. But one part of it is ettmetal, right?”
“Harmonium,” Wax said. “Yes. And?”
“And that stuff is so unstable, it blows up if water touches it. Except in a smaller explosion? One that won’t level cities and such?”
“It’s still bad,” Wax said. “But not catastrophic. But if we fiddle with one of the devices by pouring water into it to detonate the ettmetal, the others will simply go off.”
“Unless,” Wayne said, “we were using a speed bubble. See, there’s that device on the wall, right? And if we fiddle with one of the bombs, it’s going to detonate the other ones?”
“Right,” Wax said.
“So, what if we put up a speed bubble that leaves out the device on the wall? We could work on one of the barrels, detonating the harmonium in it so the real explosion can’t happen. We set that explosion off, then kick that barrel out of the speed bubble. It’ll send a warning to the other two barrels, but that signal will have to pass along the wires outside the speed bubble, to reach the box on the wall. So the signal will be frozen in time and can’t come back! We could work on the other barrels during that time.”
“Wayne,” he said, “do you have any idea how quickly electricity moves? Even assuming you could do something incredible — like speed up time by a factor of a thousand — that wouldn’t be nearly fast enough to outrun an electrical signal.”
Oh.
Wait, Harmony said to them. This could work. I have a way. Wax, I gave you a vial with a red cork.
“I have it,” Wax said, fishing in his sheath of metal vials. He frowned, and came out with … a handkerchief.
“Barely used,” Wayne said.
“Wayne…”
Wayne grinned and handed Wax his rifle, then fished in his pocket. “I thought it needed to be somewhere safe. So I made a nice little trade.”
“Harmony,” Wax said, “if you can make this work, it will still detonate the ship, right?”
Yes.
“Wayne,” Wax said, “… setting off the smaller explosions would kill everyone in that room. An ettmetal blast like that isn’t something you survive, even if you had full metalminds.”
“Ah,” Wayne said as the ship hit a wave, water spraying up along the side. “I’d figured out that part. I just needed to know if the idea worked. And I needed to confirm one other thing.”
“Which is?” Wax said.
“That the plan doesn’t need you, mate,” Wayne said, and he Pushed. Shoving Wax — via the barrel of the rifle he was holding — outward off the ship and through the mists. Wayne felt real proud of that Push. He did it like Wax did, crouching down first to give it a little lift.
His friend gave him a look of outrage … and maybe regret … as he vanished into the misty darkness over the waters.
“Land safely, mate,” Wayne whispered. “And survive.”
He tipped his hat, then pulled out the red-corked vial. “What the hell is this, anyway?”
Earlier in the week, you all conducted a test, Harmony said. Splitting harmonium.
“Same test our enemies have done a hunnerd or more times.”
Yes, but this one was different. I have no idea what happened, but Wax did something different from everyone else trying this. Because he didn’t merely blow up the room. He created something. Something amazing.
Wayne held up the vial, staring at the metal dust settled at the bottom.
That, Harmony said, is the faintest bit of lerasium, Wayne. A metal from legend. A metal found by Vin at the Well of Ascension, and used to make Elend Venture a Mistborn. A metal that hasn’t existed for centuries, and as far as I know, hasn’t been made in millennia. Drink that vial and you’ll be a Mistborn, able to use all of the metals. There’s a little of each one in there.
“Why didn’t you have Wax drink it earlier?”
I don’t want to reveal this happened, as I don’t know why or how. I don’t know what he did. Besides … he might have already had a dose, inhaled during the explosion.
Huh. That explained a few things.
Wayne knocked back the vial. Then he waited. Nothing happened.
“That’s anticlimactic,” he muttered.
You have to burn the lerasium, Wayne.
Oh, right. He searched, and found a new metal reserve. Neat. He reached out and burned it.
A flash of light.
A fire in his veins.
A feeling like a kick to the face.
Damn.
“How does this help?” he asked.
You can now burn duralumin.
“That fancy metal that not-Wax was using to make those big Steelpushing explosions?”
Exactly.
“I don’t need to Push though.”
Wayne, using duralumin burns all the metals in you at once. Every single bit. The more you have, the more powerful it is. It doesn’t just work on steel. It works on any Allomantic metal.
Wayne paused, the ship rocking, then whistled softly, understanding. “You mean…”
How much bendalloy do you have left?
He fished a pouch out of his pocket.
Hmm. Maybe enough to—
Wayne fished another pouch out of his other pocket.
Okay, and—
And the pouch in his sock. Uncomfortable, but handy.
Wayne, how many pouches do you have?
“Seventeen,” he said. “I’m a fancy rich guy now. Will that be enough?”
Oh, Wayne. Yes. I think it will.
Wayne turned and took the steps down at extra-fast speed — grabbing a canteen off one of the corpses. He swallowed mouthfuls of metal beads on his way, stuffing himself with bendalloy. Echoing noises warned him about sailors trying to break into the room to detonate the bomb, but they didn’t have a key. He dealt with both men, then burst back into the room. Electric lights flickered on the walls, and he could hear the chugging of the engines somewhere farther inside the ship.
… And suddenly he wasn’t alone. A figure — mostly transparent — stood beside him, a tall bald man. Terris. And another darker fellow stood behind him. Not in the skin tone sense or anything. Like … this other one was a shadow. It mimicked Harmony as he held out his hands to Wayne.
“I knew,” Harmony said softly, “that I had to bring Wax to Elendel. It is possible to see future needs. I understood it would be good to make this choice, though one doesn’t always know why. Even if one is a god.” He hesitated. “I thought I only needed Wax. It seems that I was wrong.”
Wayne tossed up a speed bubble, so that time didn’t move so quickly. He needed a moment to compose himself.
“It should be Wax,” Wayne said. “He’s the one that fixes messes like this.”
“No,” Harmony said. “You have practiced all your life with speed bubbles, Wayne. Wax would be brand new at them. You might be the only person in the world who could do this.”
“That’s kind of depressing,” Wayne said, turning to Harmony. “Really, I’m the best you could do? Ain’t you God?”