too, faces struck with misery and grief.
There was no denying this outcome.
Marilia Deadeye had lost her combat.
The Stone Sister remained on her feet for another few seconds, then toppled forward, falling like a tree hacked in a forest. She struck the arena floor as hard as lifeless wood, no spark of existence left in her.
Dari felt absolutely numb. Her senses switched off completely, except for her vision, but she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.
A Stone Sister defeated in combat. Had such a thing ever happened in recent history? Dari was almost certain it had not. If Stone Brothers were deadly, then Stone Sisters were a moving apocalypse. Yet Marilia Deadeye lay before the crowd in the Judgment Arena, already gone from this world and waiting for the next.
Dari was too stunned to cry, and too frozen to look at Stormbreaker. Her eyes turned to Aron, who stood as if the backs of his legs had been iced to the apprentice bench in the deepest freeze of winter.
Lord Baldric moved from behind that bench and walked slowly into the arena. When he reached Zane Morgan, he touched the man’s shoulder with his left hand and raised his right hand toward the clear summer sky.
Triune’s bells gave three booming rings, unlike any Dari had ever heard before in her tenure at the castle. She flinched from the noise each time. None of the Stone Brothers or apprentices had any physical response, but to Dari’s horror, Aron’s essence gave off a brilliant sapphire flash, like a shooting star rising from the very top of his head. Even as she drove herself through the Veil and used the bulk of her energy to shield Aron’s legacy from view, her gaze whipped toward Lord Altar.
His head turned in Aron’s direction.
By the time the dynast lord fully focused on Aron, Aron’s essence had gone back to the same dull blue he usually maintained, and Dari’s control reinforced the perception.
Cayn’s teeth! She barely managed to cloak her thoughts to keep them silent. Did he see?
She felt half-battered from the emotion of Marilia’s defeat and the fear that her distraction might have just cost Aron his safety. If Lord Altar had noticed—what then?
Dari cursed herself a hundred times for not keeping her awareness on the other side of the Veil, and keeping a forced contact with Aron. Lord Altar might have sensed something amiss, but he wouldn’t have been able to discover what it was, not in the limited time afforded by Judgment Day.
Lord Baldric had his back to the bench as he stood with Zane Morgan, and Dari knew he hadn’t seen what happened with Aron. Stormbreaker must have noticed, though, because Dari heard thunder far in the distance. If she could have made thunder, she would have brought an entire storm. As it was, she divided her awareness as best she could, and kept a bit of her essence very close to Aron’s.
I’m sorry, came his quiet, anguished whisper through the Veil. It won’t happen again.
Through their mental connection, Dari could almost taste his sadness at Marilia’s death, and the anger of another loss dredged out of his depths. Images flashed through her awareness—Lord Brailing’s face, a group of people that could only be Aron’s dead family, the Brailing Guard contingent Aron had almost killed. A wave of rage battered against Dari’s control, but she knew Aron wasn’t fighting her on purpose. In fact, he was battling with all of his will to stop his own emotional reactions. Shame and humiliation mingled with his anger, and Dari did her best to withdraw her essence as far as she dared, to give him his privacy.
On this side of the Veil, Aron looked at the ground.
Bit by bit, his awareness receded from Dari, until his thoughts were once more completely his own.
“Zane Morgan, by the will of fate, you are deemed innocent.” Lord Baldric’s voice was as forceful as ever, though his features seemed pulled down, toward the bloody dirt at his feet. “As is my right and duty, I restore to you your full rights as a citizen of Eyrie. You are free to depart from Triune.”
In the preternatural calm of the arena, Morgan’s voice sounded as loud as Stone’s bells. “With your leave, I would stay until the lady’s essence is dispatched.” His voice faltered, and for a moment, his head drooped. When he gathered himself, he added, “I would like to be in her honor escort.”
Lord Baldric granted the man’s wish with a