{"id":77,"date":"2013-09-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2013\/09\/09\/9-the-casting-of-stones\/"},"modified":"2013-09-09T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T14:00:00","slug":"9-the-casting-of-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/09\/09\/9-the-casting-of-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"9. The Casting of Stones"},"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
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“Hunk” by Carnivora88<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\u2026 secret societies. From the squeeze of costumed bodies, it looked as though every dancer in the Labyrinth was in attendance. All were masked. Many of the masks sprouted huge fans of woven cane, feather tufts, or carved wooden animal faces. Others sported horns, manes, or false beards. Still others displayed abstract shapes, ovals or diamonds, or a cascade of beaded fringes. It wasn\u2019t easy for so many masked dancers to fit in the tiers. Feathered and beaded shoulder blankets, necklaces coiled as thick as snakes, and full corn- husk skirts took up space.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Only his mother, indifferent as ever to convention, wore no mask, just a simple white beaded dress. She sat stiffly on the lowest tier, face-to-face with Kavio. Even at her age, she was the most beautiful woman in the room. She was also the only one in the tiers who had no closely-pressed neighbors. No one quite dared sit next to her.<\/div>\n
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Opposite her, behind Kavio, rose an adobe platform taller than any of the tiered seats. He had to twist his head to look up the seven steps to the top of the platform to see the man who stood there in full regalia, holding a rain stick. Paint divided the man\u2019s already severe features into an interlocked pattern of sharp edges and boxes. Colorful matching mazes were woven into his shoulder blanket and outlined in beads of obsidian and pearl. His massive headdress con- sisted of numerous coiled cords, horned and feathered and shelled. Beaded hoops rested around his neck, as did a gold coiled torque. The pin that held his shoulder blanket in place had also been beaten from gold, into the shape of a stylized wild horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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“Chief” by Chris Rosewarne<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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The man pounded his rain stick on the platform. He had a voice of gravel and stone.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cLet it be remembered on the Memory Stick, that in This Year, yet to be named, I, the War Chief of the Rainbow Labyrinth and head of the Society of Societies in the absence of a Vaedi, have called all of the secret dancing societies together to sit in judgment at the trial of Kavio . . .\u201d<\/div>\n
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He paused to make the ponderous trip down the seven steps to the floor of the assembly room. Even so, because Kavio had been forced to his knees, the other man had to look down to glower at him.<\/div>\n
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\u201c. . . Kavio, my own son.\u201d Even though he\u2019d expected it, his father\u2019s contempt stung. \u201cWho will cast the first stone?\u201d asked Father.<\/div>\n
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The men and women in the tiers shuffled, whispered. Most of them removed their masks from their sweat-drenched heads, and a few went so far as to fan themselves.<\/div>\n
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A woman in amber necklaces removed an orange eagle-feathered mask before she rose to her feet. She was an elder from Father\u2019s gen- eration, his brother\u2019s wife and Father\u2019s bitterest political rival. As a child, Kavio had nicknamed her \u201cAuntie Ugly.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cI will cast the first stone\u2026<\/div>\n

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

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\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/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>
Thank you Carnivora88<\/a> for the yummy hunk and Chris Rosewarne<\/a> for the grave chief. Their work can be found on devianttART and it’s worth checking out.\u00a0<\/i><\/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)   “Hunk” by Carnivora88 \u2026 secret societies. From the squeeze of costumed bodies, it looked as though every dancer in the Labyrinth was in attendance. All were masked. Many of the masks sprouted huge fans of woven cane, feather tufts, or carved wooden animal […]<\/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-77","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\/77","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=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}