{"id":48,"date":"2013-09-24T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2013\/09\/24\/24-little-girl-blue\/"},"modified":"2013-09-24T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T14:00:00","slug":"24-little-girl-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/09\/24\/24-little-girl-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"24. Little Girl Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Unfinished Song: Initiate<\/i><\/a>\"\"<\/i><\/p>\n
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(Start at the Beginning of the Novel<\/a>)<\/div>\n
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Rthan<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“Little Girl” by\u00a0Ragnhidcharly<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u2026glowing faintly blue by his side.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The six with him were all Blue Tavaedies, and they could see her, not as Meira, but as an azure radiance too brilliant to bear. They knew he sometimes called her by his dead daughter\u2019s name, and because of that and because her power frightened them, her pres- ence spooked them. They backed away now, shielding their eyes.<\/div>\n
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\u201cShould we break camp?\u201d asked Rthan\u2019s second in command, Dorthamo. The man\u2019s gaze slipped past the shimmering blue girl, back toward the lean-tos and campfire along the shore of the frozen tarn. \u201cIf we don\u2019t leave now, we won\u2019t have time to do the primary hex.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf we hex the Yellow Bear tribehold, but leave their allies unmo- lested, their allies will still be free to come to their aide during the attack,\u201d Rthan said.<\/div>\n
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Dorthamo\u2019s face sagged. \u201cYes…\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cBut if we stay longer, the pass will freeze over and we won\u2019t be able to return at all,\u201d Rthan said. \u201cWe must break camp. We must cast the primary hex. Or call off the venture entirely.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think the War Chief would agree to canceling.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cNeither do I,\u201d said Rthan. He waved. \u201cGo ahead. Break camp. I need a moment to speak to…\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cHer?\u201d Dorthamo still wouldn\u2019t look at Meira. Rthan nodded. Dorthamo swallowed hard. \u201cIs she angry?\u201d Afraid to hear the answer, he scuttled away before Rthan could\u00a0reply. The others hastened after him, and began to disassemble the hide tents.<\/div>\n
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The little blue girl slipped her hand into Rthan\u2019s, just as his daughter had so many times.<\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m not mad at you, Daddy,\u201d she said.<\/div>\n
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\u201cDon\u2019t call me that. I can\u2019t…\u201d He pulled his hand away. \u201cYou said Kavio the Rain Dancer did this. Then the Rainbow Labyrinth must know of our spell. They will try to retaliate.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cNo.\u201d A breeze lifted strands of her hair to play in a chilly wind. Dark, inhuman power shone from her eyes, belying the innocence of her child\u2019s face. \u201cThey are fools. As for Kavio….\u201d<\/div>\n
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She smiled at him, but it wasn\u2019t the smile of a mortal child. The coldness of glaciers and the ruthlessness of typhoons glinted in that cruel smile. He shivered. He loved her. She was all he had, since the murder of his family. He had to admit, though, she terrified him even more than she frightened the others. He knew her better.<\/div>\n
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Kavio<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Three days out from the tribehold, Kavio found his first fight. Rovers, men who had left their birth clan, but not yet married into a new allegiance, often traveled together in packs, like wild dogs, and like dogs, they hunted. Sometimes for need, sometimes for pleasure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Three dropped onto the path in front of Kavio. One was missing his nose and ears, which meant he was probably a mariah<\/i>, a captive destined for human sacrifice, who had escaped in the middle of his torture. The other two were undoubtedly exiles like Kavio, judging by the whip marks\u2026<\/div>\n
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TO BE CONTINUED<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Unfinished Song: Initiate (Start at the Beginning of the Novel)   Rthan “Little Girl” by\u00a0Ragnhidcharly \u2026glowing faintly blue by his side. The six with him were all Blue Tavaedies, and they could see her, not as Meira, but as an azure radiance too brilliant to bear. They knew he sometimes called her by his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,286,437],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-initiate-excerpt","category-kavio","category-rthan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}