moment of admiration and pride, that Aron had used his legacy so efficiently, and concealed it so very well.
“I have nothing to add,” she admitted to Lord Baldric. “Aron read Lord Altar better than I did.”
Lord Baldric clenched his jaw, then released it and spoke more to Stormbreaker than anyone else. “Altar’s displeasure with Brailing’s crime wasn’t sufficient to sway him from allying with the old bastard to start a war. If I’m not here when this is all over and the recriminations begin, remember that.”
“Lord Altar believes the war is necessary,” Aron said, keeping his gaze on the door. “He believes he’s right, and that we’re all fools or cowards here at Triune.”
“Cayn take him and his Thorn cousin, too,” Lord Baldric snapped, waving a hand to dismiss them all.
As Aron waited for Stormbreaker and Windblown to exit ahead of him, he seemed absolutely in control of himself, except for the way he stared out the now-open wooden chamber door—as if he could see through halls and walls and track Lord Altar’s every move. His fingers, long fingers, a man’s fingers, twitched as if his entire essence itched to take an action he knew he had to avoid.
Blath was more right about Aron than I imagined. Perhaps than even she imagined. Dari studied Aron with a new and anxious wariness.
Aron was almost grown. Soon enough, Lord Altar and Lord Brailing might make his acquaintance more directly, and discover that for themselves.
CHAPTER FORTY
DARI
The six stone pillars marking the Judgment Arena loomed like gray arms reaching toward the morning sun. Dari eyed them as she approached. Her heart pounded louder with each step, drowning out the happy chatter of sheltered boys who liked to help out on Judgment Day.
Triune’s lower grounds overflowed with apprentices and Stone Brothers making preparations. By now, the Stone Sisters in residence would have withdrawn to guard the living quarters of the sheltered, as many who sought refuge at Stone would not feel safe out on the grounds when the public was permitted inside, even only as far as the arena. Abused women, children who had fled their homes in terror—Stone determinedly fended off any lingering threat to those they accepted for protection.
Dari wanted to stop at the House of the Judged, a large building on the north side of the arena. She usually remained there with a handful of older Stone Brothers to dispatch the spirits of the dead, as need arose, because she had no interest in watching combat. Worse yet, if Stormbreaker was involved in one of the fights, she would have to live through each blow and strike, and feel it nearly as if it were her own.
Today, though, she had no option about attending, thanks to Lord Altar’s visit. She had to go into the arena and keep an eye on Aron, since Iko couldn’t very well show himself to the multitudes without creating a total political disaster for Lord Baldric.
Dari kept her feet firmly on Triune’s main byway, and moved with the increasing swell of castle occupants heading southward toward the arena’s entrance. The younger children beside her were all laughter and bluster, but the older sheltered and the few Stone Brothers had grim expressions to match her own. This was no festival, despite the busy, noisy atmosphere. Men would die today—women, too, though women amongst the Judged were few. Dari had noted that for a woman to be given over to Stone for judgment, her crimes had to be heinous indeed, and Stone Sisters usually took the draw for such cases. Even behind the walls of Triune, where some of the fiercest female warriors in the land resided, the unspoken code of men that prohibited them from harming women remained a powerful force. It was difficult to persuade a Stone Brother to pick up weapons to strike down a woman, no matter how many people that woman might have murdered.
The arena’s gates stood open, and the sight of the barrier made Dari’s chest that much tighter. She slipped inside with the other spectators, then sought a view of the roof of the House of the Judged, barely visible over the north wall, to get her bearings. The Judged, who had been carried to Triune in barred wagons across the cycle, would enter from a small gate in that wall. Beside the smaller gate, there was a set of rooms where the Stone Brothers and Stone Sisters readied themselves to perform their duties. Apprentices sat on benches outside the rooms, prepared