nod.
This seemed to rattle the apprentices into action. Aron once more knocked on the small gate, while Marilia’s apprentices moved onto the arena floor. Two older Stone Brothers entered, and together with Morgan and the apprentices, they lifted Marilia’s body. In a quick, steady procession, Marilia was removed from the grounds to the House of the Judged, to await the dispatching of her essence after all combat had been completed.
The small gate swung closed.
The arena audience waited another breath or two before taking their seats.
Once she settled herself beside Raaf, it took Dari one long, awful moment to realize the bells were ringing again, sending Stormbreaker and the rapist Laird Reese to the arena floor.
The bit of her awareness on the other side of the Veil almost tumbled back to her, leaving Aron exposed. She had to breathe, and breathe again, and draw up images of her home and her sister and anything that might calm her to maintain her own control. It would be a sad thing if Aron ended up shielding her during the fight.
Dari’s teeth dug into her lip, and she realized she had spent too much time training Aron and searching for Kate, and not enough time practicing skills with her own mind-talents. The time might come when she would have to use them at levels that would demand precision and complete readiness. After today, she would do better, even if she had to sleep less.
Heartbeat by heartbeat, she caught hold of herself, and kept that all-important shield around Aron, just in case. All the while, she was far too aware that Laird Reese had a broadsword, long and heavy, befitting his muscled arms and massive frame. Stormbreaker had both of his jagged blades drawn, and after the ritual bow, he crossed them to cradle Reese’s bigger weapon.
The crowd remained mostly silent in the wake of Marilia’s death, and Dari felt her own essence whisper into near nothingness as the two new combatants stared each other down.
Dari had never seen Stormbreaker so focused. His loose stance belied the storm in his essence, and she knew he was having to spend some energy, at least, holding back the weather that wanted to burst from his mind.
Laird Reese gave the ear-crushing battle roar of a desert bandit, leaning forward into Stormbreaker’s face even as Dari and most of the audience leaned back to escape the noise.
Stormbreaker remained as still as an ancient mountain.
Courtesies were over. The battle had begun.
Reese moved back from his opponent faster than Dari would have thought possible. He raised his huge blade two-fisted, high above his head.
Dari’s blood seemed to stop flowing in her veins.
Kill-stroke. First blow landed—usually the last.
She almost jumped up and screamed, but Raaf chose that moment to whisper, “Stupid.”
Before the boy finished pronouncing the word, Stormbreaker had darted forward and scissored his blades at Reese’s vulnerable neck. Onlookers gasped as the big man’s head flew from his shoulders and rolled away across the dirt. Blood sprayed outward from the mangled bone and flesh, spattering the ground like a steaming red rain.
This time, Dari couldn’t keep any of herself on the other side of the Veil. Her awareness rejoined completely just in time for her to turn her head and try to wipe the visual image of Reese’s decapitated corpse from her mind. The sound of body striking earth did little to help with that, but the relieved shouts of the crowd helped shore her strength.
“Not even a minute this time,” Raaf observed as shouts became cheers, and Stone’s bells rang out for Stormbreaker’s victory. “That’s worthy of recording, even for Stormbreaker.”
Apprentices swept forward to remove Reese’s body. Aron was on his feet, essence the exact color it was supposed to be, going to meet his master and take Stormbreaker’s blades for cleaning once the third combat ended.
Which, mercifully, didn’t take long.
Coryn Kull, the third criminal who elected combat, apologized to his victim’s family again. Then, instead of bowing and crossing swords, he knelt before his Stone Brother and bared his neck for a quick, painless death.
Raaf shrugged this off as he stood to leave. “A lot of them do that. Remorse or terror—who can say.”
He actually sounded disappointed.
As soon as the last corpse had been removed, Lord Baldric marched to the center of the arena and raised his hands once more. “This Judgment Day has ended,” he boomed, barely completing his sentence before the castle bells gave a long set of peals to underscore its finality.
Dari got to her feet,