{"id":54,"date":"2013-09-20T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T20:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2013\/09\/20\/20-attack-of-the-mob\/"},"modified":"2013-09-20T20:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T20:36:00","slug":"20-attack-of-the-mob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/09\/20\/20-attack-of-the-mob\/","title":{"rendered":"20. Attack of the Mob"},"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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOf course the mighty Imorvae War Chief spares his own son!\u201d someone else shouted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Father\u2019s knuckles whitened on the ledge of the balcony, but his pride would not let him stoop to correct the accusation.<\/div>\n
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\u201cLet Kavio begin his exile, here, now!\u201d cried another voice. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how long it lasts!\u201d<\/div>\n
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Ugly laughter rippled through the crowd.<\/div>\n
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\u201cLower the ladder,\u201d Father said to the Tavaedi warriors who still guarded Kavio.<\/div>\n
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Even the guards looked dubious. \u201cThe crowd will rip him apart as soon as he\u2019s down the ladder.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cLower the ladder,\u201d repeated Father.<\/div>\n
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Kavio might have expected Mother to object to this, but she had not accompanied Kavio and Father back to their house from the kiva. In her typical way, she had disappeared without a word of goodbye. I guess she hasn\u2019t forgiven me for turning down her offer<\/i>.<\/div>\n
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The warriors lowered the ladder to the street. The crowd began to cheer. Someone took up the chant again.<\/div>\n
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\u201cDeath to Kavio! Death to Kavio!\u201d<\/div>\n
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He knew his cue when he heard it, Kavio thought sardonically. He stepped forward into the torchlight and the sight of the mob.<\/div>\n
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Another roar went up in the mob, and so many people tried to press close to the ladder that it almost fell into the street. One of the men pushed back the others, shouting, \u201cLet him come down first, if he dares!\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s my invitation, I believe,\u201d he said to Father, grasping the ladder.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf new evidence or new witnesses step forward to exonerate you,\u201d Father said, \u201cYou could resume all your duties as a Zavaedi in the Labyrinth. Is there anything you want to tell me, Kavio, which you didn\u2019t want to say at the trial?\u201d<\/div>\n
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Kavio thought of Zumo, and what he might have said, did his cousin not share Auntie Ugly\u2019s unreasoning hatred of everything Kavio was. The chances that Zumo would change his testimony seemed slight. To say the least.<\/div>\n
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\u201cGoodbye, Father.\u201d<\/div>\n
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He swung his legs around and descended the ladder into the waiting crowd.<\/div>\n
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They didn\u2019t even let him climb down the ladder, but shook it and pushed it over. He flipped in the air as he fell and landed on his feet, but at once, enraged men and women assaulted him from all sides, some with their hands and feet, some with rocks and sticks. The sheer volume of kicks, sticks, punches, pinches and pummels drove him to the dust in a heap of bruised flesh.<\/div>\n
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And he thought he had been ready to die. He fought for every last breath, made them pay for every blow with two blows back of his own, but still they were winning, they were going to beat him to death right under his own balcony, as Father watched impassively from above.<\/div>\n
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A strong arm clasped and dragged Kavio back to his feet. He could breathe again.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe judgment was exile!\u201d his helper shouted at the crowd. \u201cYou will not commit murder tonight!\u201d<\/div>\n
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Blood dribbled into his eyes, so it\u2026<\/div>\n

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TO BE CONTINUED<\/i><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Download the complete book for\u00a0FREE<\/a><\/b><\/u>\u00a0or buy it on Amazon as an\u00a0ebook<\/a>\"\"\u00a0or\u00a0trade paperback<\/a>\"\":<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

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Author’s Note<\/i><\/i><\/center>
\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/center>
The artwork is by…wait, there’s no artwork today. Never mind.<\/i><\/center><\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Unfinished Song: Initiate (Start at the Beginning of the Novel) \u201cOf course the mighty Imorvae War Chief spares his own son!\u201d someone else shouted. Father\u2019s knuckles whitened on the ledge of the balcony, but his pride would not let him stoop to correct the accusation. \u201cLet Kavio begin his exile, here, now!\u201d cried another […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-initiate-excerpt","category-kavio"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","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=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}