often lacked.
Instead, he felt more insignificant and unsettled than ever, a fraud amongst fellows who had better earned their station at Triune.
Lord Baldric stood in front of the crowd, and he held up a simple cloth bag that looked much older than the Lord Provost. The bag’s sides were threadbare, and the runes marking the cloth had worn down to patches of darker coloration. Even the strings gathering the bag’s neck were frayed, and it seemed to strain beneath the weight of the stones contained within its depths.
Aron had expected a speech and a lengthy ceremony—something to match the formality and pageantry of Judgment Day—but Lord Baldric’s next words dismissed that assumption.
“Here we are again, to do our sacred duty for the land of Eyrie. Even if Eyrie abandons us or treats us poorly, we’ll maintain our responsibility.”
A murmur of assent rippled through the room, and Aron heard himself agreeing. His stomach twisted as he tried to accept the fact he would be leaving at sunrise, that he might never find his way back to this place, or see many of these people, his family in name and deed, again.
“Reach in, Brothers and Sisters.” Lord Baldric moved to the first Stone Brother in Aron’s line. “Choose quickly, and choose well.”
The Stone Brother, a man Aron didn’t know, thrust his hand in the bag and drew out a white pebble marked with delicate runes.
“Fate favors the just and the strong,” Lord Baldric said, then waited as the Brother examined his stone, repeated the name he read quietly, then placed the stone in his pouch.
Lord Baldric moved down the line toward Aron, watching as each Brother or Sister in the front lines collected their new assignments, and repeating his benediction each time a selection was made. Stormbreaker had told Aron that each guild member had a sense for how many Judged they could hunt or fight, and they drew stones when instinct and fate compelled them, or when the number of stones in their pouch dropped below what they could manage. Stormbreaker would not be collecting the name of a new target this night. He was here only to see Aron draw his first stone.
When Aron’s turn came, he wouldn’t let himself hesitate. As quickly as his peers had done, he slid his hand into the aged bag, feeling pebbles slide past his fingers. One slipped into his palm, and he closed his hand around the stone and drew it out.
“Fate favors the just and the strong,” Lord Baldric said, then paused as Aron lifted his stone and studied the runes etched into the pale white surface. It took him a moment to spell out the name waiting for him in the Language of Kings, but when he did, he read it again, several times, to be certain he had not made a mistake.
With a pleased smile, Lord Baldric moved on down the line, then to the lines behind Aron, and Aron couldn’t stop reading and rereading the tiny runes placed on the smooth white pebble by masons with a talent for jewel-crafting and finely detailed work.
“Hold your stone tightly,” Stormbreaker murmured from beside him, ever the teacher, even if Aron was no longer his apprentice. “Feel it. Let its energy flow through every level of your essence, every aspect of your personality and existence. This is your stone, your new destiny, and the destiny of your Judged.”
Many of the Judged were already in residence in nearby cells, awaiting Judgment Day tomorrow, but some were like Aron’s, convicted in their absence, since they had not been captured, and they had failed to turn themselves in to Stone of their own volition. Sometime after sunrise tomorrow, when the bells rang to announce the flight of the hunted, those judged In Absence would be considered no different than any criminal who had chosen to leave Triune and take their chances with fate.
Aron read the name again, then showed the stone to Stormbreaker, since no rule prevented him from doing so.
Stormbreaker’s low whistle surprised him, and when he met the man’s bright green eyes, Stormbreaker was regarding him with both reverence and pride. “Fate has given you the proof your heart seeks, Aron. You have earned your place at Triune. You are one with us, and we are one with you.”
Aron didn’t argue with him, or even reject Stormbreaker’s assertion in his mind. He was too taken aback by what he had drawn from the bag. Snakekiller leaned over and examined Aron’s stone, and Aron