The Unfinished Song: Initiate
By Tara Maya
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
DEADLY INITIATION
A DETERMINED GIRL...
Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.
AN EXILED WARRIOR...
Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don't kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father's wars and his mother's curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her... assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.
Tara Maya
Tara Maya has lived in Africa, Europe and Asia. She's pounded sorghum with mortar and pestle in a little clay village where the jungle meets the desert, meditated in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas and sailed the Volga river to a secret city that was once the heart of the Soviet space program. This first-hand experience, as well as research into the strange and piquant histories of lost civilizations, inspires her writing. Her terrible housekeeping, however, is entirely the fault of pixies.
Read more from Tara Maya
The Unfinished Song: Omnibus (Initiate, Taboo, Sacrifice) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfinished Song(Book 4): Root Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSacrifice – Trust (Book 3-Episode 3) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConmergence: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfinished Song: Taboo (Book 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sacrifice-Book 3-Episode 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unfinished Song: Sacrifice (Book 3) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unfinished Song (Book 6): Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfinished Song (Book 7): Mask Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFaerie Tale (The Unfinished Song Serial) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Unfinished Song
33 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Looking at the cover of The Unfinished Song: Initiate and the author’s name, I figured that this was some fluffy romance disguised as fantasy, and that I’d probably hate it. Then I figured it was free, so why not get it. I’m glad I did.Dindi is a young girl that is nearing her Initiation. She hopes to be picked to join the Tavaedi, who are highly skilled magical dancers. However, everyone she knows thinks that she’s awkward and unskilled, and that she will never make it. The other main character, Kavio, is a skilled dancer that is exiled from his tribe for a crime that he did not commit. His travel is in the hopes that he will find a new home in another tribe.This is a pretty short book, and it whizzed by. It is supposed to be the first of a 12-part series, so be warned! It was pretty light reading, but each character was really well fleshed out. Everyone was hiding some kind of secret and seemed to be much more than what they appeared to be on the surface. I was amazed at the distinctiveness of each character, especially given that the book is so short and there were quite a few characters. Dindi was a very lovable protagonist, and I can’t remember meeting any protagonist quite like her. I also enjoyed the characters of Gwenika and her sister and mother. Vessia was fascinating, and I can’t wait to find out more about her. I also enjoyed the little touches of detail given to extremely minor characters like Ula and Great Aunt Sullana.There were a few romantic undertones in this book, but no outright romance yet. I suspect that I will not like the upcoming romantic bits, but there’s definitely enough meat on this story for me to overlook that.The world of The Unfinished Song is a fascinating amalgamation of customs that I recognised from very different cultures. I enjoyed how it all worked together, and I was glad to read the author’s note at the end about the author’s inspiration for the world.There are a lot of questions and mysteries in this book, and a lot of characters whose actions that I can’t quite predict. I look forward to reading the rest of the series to find out!Originally posted on my blog.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a very unique story with a lot of threads that lead up to one heck of a cliffhanger. At first, it took a while to get into because it is told from so many points of view, but once everyone is introduced and the exposition is over, the story really picks up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Initiate by Tara Maya is the first book in the Unfinished Song series. It's approximately 188 pages long. This book introduces us to several characters but the main two are Dindi and Kavio. Dindi is a bit of a klutz. She often gets things wrong but the one thing she loves to do is dance. She wants so desperately to become a Tavaedi, which is a warrior dancer who is very powerful. Her only option is to get married. Dindi doesn't want that so she practices day and night to become the first dancer in her tribe. Dindi is also very unique because she can see pixies. Kavio is the son of a chief. He is blamed and exiled for a crime that he didn't commit and is sent out to wander the world. Kavio accepts his fate gracefully. Kavio is brave and also very clever. The story is told from multiple points-of-view, not only between Dindi and Kavio but several other key players in this book. This helps build the story and also the world in which Dindi and Kavio live. Their world is somewhat primitive but also very fascinating. Fair warning, the ending to Initiate stops unexpectedly. It also ended in a way that was unexpected. However it does make you want to start reading the second book in the series as soon as possible. While most of Initiate is a fairly clean read it has some violent scenes. I would recommend this book for an older audience.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I had no idea what to expect going into reading this novel, except I knew it wasn't finished, I mean I knew there were other stories. Four so far. But the name -The Unfinished Song kind of gives it away for anyone that takes a look at the title. You should be able to deduce that the story will not be ending with this novel. I'm glad! I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised by how sucked into this novel I got. It's got fairies in it, but they're kind of on the periphery for now. I think they'll be a bigger part of the story further down the line. Initiate is made up of seven serials that flow together very nicely. I asked the author why there were individual stories and then this book and she said she didn't want people to have to wait. The serials are like chapters in the book. Right now, The Unfinished Song: Initiate is FREE so you might want to catch that deal while you can. Personally, I have all four books and I'm glad I do because Maya knows how to write!The story has a lot of different characters, but it isn't hard to keep up. Their stories are separate and you know they are from separate tribes and areas. Dindi is a young girl who can see fairies, a rarity among humans. Her dream is to become a Tavaedi a secret warrior dancer who can heal, or make it rain or change the course of a river depending on the strength of the magic inside the dancer. The Tavaedi dance a history of her people who killed the beautiful fairy race, the Aelfae and were victorious. But I honestly couldn't tell if it was a dance of victory or just history. It didn't seem celebratory. In any case, Dindi is one of only many characters who get chosen to be an initiate this year. With each character we hear the story from their point of view. I don't remember reading a novel from so many different points of view, but in this novel, it works very well.The time isn't stated, but it's fairly primitive. Spears, flint arrows and pottery bowls are used. Gold is prized and there are tribal feuds and wars. There are also a lot of politics and that's where the "hero" Kavio gets caught. Accused in his own father's court of a crime he didn't commit, something we don't know, he is exiled and forced out of his home. He saves Dindi's life and they are drawn to each other, but it isn't insta love. They go days without seeing each other and he isn't considered worthy of her because he is exiled. He has no clan, no tribe. But, that might change. And she might help Kavio make the biggest decision of his life.There are some truly heinous villains in this novel, too. Villains posing as friends. And it's sickening to think what they want to do, but I guess such was war back then. I still have high hopes that Kavio can save the day. There is so much action in this book! If you like action, this one is full of it. It's not really character driven. There are too many characters, so I guess I'd say it's plot driven because the whole plot is to become an initiate and make it to the destination where they will decide who they are to become. But a lot more than that happens.I'm really excited to read the next three books in this series! I have to say this is different than anything I've ever been asked to read before. The time is past the cave man era, but still it's fairly primitive. There are mentions of a lot of different types of fae, some good, some bad. And I'm just really enjoying the magic and the war and the really tough decision Kavio is going to have to make. Oh and Dindi has visions of the Corn Maiden, a woman named Vessia of unmatched beauty who doesn't understand anything in this world, whenever she touches the totem she was given. It's an ugly dried up husk of a doll that all the girls laughed at when they saw it.Another mystery to figure out!This is not for the younger YA reader. There are some scenes in it of harsh treatment of women as you can imagine happened in more primitive times during war. And there are some scenes about sex that younger readers shouldn't read. Nothing explicit, but told in a way that you wouldn't want them to read. Sixteen and up crowd.Well, I'm off to read the next book!! Thanks Tara Maya for finally writing something different and interesting!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Initiate had a slow start, but after the first couple of chapters, I couldn’t put it down.All of Dindi’s dreams are surrounded by her love to dance. She wants to become a Tavedi, one of a group of highly respected dancers in her tribe. There is only one problem, Dindi is very clumsy if she knows people are watching her, so the only people who know how well she can dance are the faeries. Which brings her to the second problem, Dindi should not be anywhere near the faeries, because dancing with faeries can quickly lead you into the dance of death.Dindi was an interesting character, she was flawed but there is obvious room for growth and the way Maya laid the story down we can easily see where that growth will occur. I loved Dindi because she is a dreamer, she frequently forgets her chores in favour of dancing with faeries and when she lets the faeries help her out, it usually has disastrous results.Initiate started out slowly, as with any fantasy the world needs to be set up. The first few pages is what stopped me from getting into this story for a long time, I kept putting Initiate down because of all the new terminology. But after slugging through those first two chapters I got lost in Dindi’s world.Maya’s writing style is one that I will need to get used to, it was a little jerky and with her terminology had me rereading certain paragraphs a few times to make sure I understood what I was reading, the story however was what kept me going.Maya seamlessly weaves two other plots into the story behind Dindi, Kavio the disgraced Tavedi, who has been banished from his tribe and the story of Vessia, the Corn Maiden. Once again, Kavio’s first chapters were ones of mounting confusion, the terminology, figuring out why he was in disgrace and the familiar frustration of realising that a characters family has turned on them.The Corn Maiden’s story however was so well started and written that for a few chapters I was only reading to get to the next part of her story rather than Dindi’s.I did experience mild disappointment however after Initiate got the ball rolling. After such a big promise of faeries in this story, there were hardly any. Dindi dances with them a couple of times and they mess up her chores for her once but after that they hardly make an appearance unless they are elemental (such as water fae trying to drown the humans)Initiate while having a slow start, finished strongly (not to mention the cliff-hanger) and although it was quite short it is a magnificent start to what promises to be a fantastic series. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next in this series, Taboo.Find this review at storywings.com
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In all honesty I am having a somewhat difficult time reviewing this book. While reading the first couple of pages of this book I was so confused as to what was going on because Tara had introduced so many different terms that I was unfamiliar with (ie. krall, aurochsen, etc.) and therefore I would have to reread sentences trying to use the words context in order to determine what they meant and a lot of the time I was unable to do so. Furthermore, in the beginning I was quite confused by the politics of the world/ how all of the different people were situated in comparison to all of the other, though this confusion did ease up with time. On the other hand, this story was super unique/ intriguing and unlike any fae-ish/ tribal story I have ever read before, the characters were quite believable and relate-able, and the cover? Super gorgeous (I think that I read that that Tara created the cover herself!).Aside from Kavio, my favourite character was hands-down Gwenika (mainly because I can relate to her). Kavio was such an interesting male character, he seemed to always be pulling a new talent out of his repertoire and I think that he can definitely be added to the 'swoon-worthy' list! And Dindi was also a very interesting character, she was so caring and patient with all of the people around her (I know I could never be as patient as she was). I loved how fast paced and action-packed the second half of this book was- I am looking forward to the next book in this series mainly because this book ended on a complete cliffhanger.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dindi is of The Lost Swan clan, one of three human clans who defeated the high fae ~ the Aelfae. Dindi is considered a little strange by her clan members. Her chores are always mixed up, if they are completed, as she rather dance with the pixies than work and then they help her finish her chores which are done wrong. Dindi loves to dance and when the Tavaedi Dancers are in town performing she is on her way to sneak in and watch. Dindi has a plan, not only to enjoy the dances she sees but to memorize them as she wants to be a Tavaedi Dancer, and she's waiting for her initiation to come. The only thing... none from her clan has ever passed the initiation to become a magical dancer of the Tavaedi. On day while traveling on her initiate journey, the girls were teasing her and in the end she became in a dire situation. A young exiled man who is taken by Dindi's aura earlier that day, saves her. But he might be in more trouble than he expected or maybe he'll find a place he could be welcomed.The world weaved here if full of fae in which many humans can not see them. There are a few who can but people seem to look down upon that. I enjoyed the idea of humans having magical colorful auras and magical abilities in which dancing is how it is brought to life and used. I enjoyed the magical world when it started to iron out for me.The story read as a young adult book. With the young characters and innocents here among them. And the fae playing with the young that can see them. With this being the beginning of the book, I could suggest it to be a read that Young Adults could read as well.I did have just a few small hang-ups. As I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first half, I realized I was caught up in trying to differentiate the clans and magical uses and the fae world. And by the second half I seemed to understand the set up more. The other part that distracted me slightly was at one point towards the end the view point changed. We went from Dindi's view point being described as 'she' or 'Dindi' and her voice of talk to the view point of 'you'. I'm sure with the part it was at was meant to enunciate the part, but caught me off guard at first. Then it was switched back to normal view point afterward.Other than these small things to me, I enjoyed the story idea. I like the magic being in colors and viewed by those who have the abilities in them, and the dance being the way to draw the abilities to surface and work ~ almost reminds me of Native Americans dances or tribal dances.After finishing the book I'm left with questions as to what will happen with the characters along with the puzzles that they know of. A cliffhanging ending to have you jump into the next book, which should be out now.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dindi is a young woman living in a tribal community. She has come of age to be given the test her future as an adult. Will she become a Tavaedi, a dancer, or just a woman. To find out she must undergo an initiation. There is more going on than just a simple rite of passage.Kavio is a warrior and Tavaedi who has been exiled from his tribe for a crime that he did not commit. He is undergoing a journey that crosses paths with Dindi.I love the tribal community that Maya has set up. I kept looking for clues as to whether it was Native American or African in nature. But, I would say that she has created her own mix and created a new and unique tribal community.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This coming of age fantasy was a quick light read. Dindi has a dream of being accepted as a magic-using dancer for her tribe even though nobody in her clan has ever been selected for that honor. Kavio is a warrior-dancer with considerable magic who is exiled from the clan after being convicted of a crime he did not commit. His cousin accused him because he wants his place in the clan. Both are traveling (separately) to a neighboring tribe. Dindi is going to go through the initiation ceremony to determine her future life role; Kavio is going to see if he has a place in that tribe. The world is sort of like the American Southwest but with the addition of magic. Ends on a major cliffhanger!
Book preview
The Unfinished Song - Tara Maya
Initiate
The Unfinished Song
Book One
Tara Maya
Copyright Tara Maya 2011
Published by Misque Press at Smashwords
Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Tara Maya
Cover Design by Tara Maya
Misque
Misque Press
First North American Edition: December 2010.
Second Edition: February 2011.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real
persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Smashwords License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Also by Tara Maya:
Conmergence
The Painted World, Stories, Vol. 1
Tomorrow We Dance
The Unfinished Song:
Initiate (January, 2011)
Taboo (April, 2011)
Sacrifice (June, 2011)
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Dance
Chapter Two: Rover
Chapter Three: Doll
Chapter Four: Hex
Chapter Five: Yellow Bear
Chapter Six: Stone Hedge
Chapter Seven: Test
Author's Note
Excerpt from The Unfinished Song, Book Two: Taboo
Contact Me
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Dance
Dindi
Dindi scanned the crowd, hoping to slip into the plaza unnoticed. Barter Hill swarmed with people because aunties from the three clans met here to trade every half-moon. A kraal at the bottom of the hill held aurochsen and horses. Interconnected rectangular adobe buildings created a square around the top of the rise. The old uncles, to suit their dignity, leaned against the wall on a log bench, under the shade of the eaves of the buildings, drinking corn beer, chatting amiably. They hid their thighs with waist blankets and caped themselves in shoulder blankets that reached the ground. Dindi slithered by them.
Unfortunately, the first person Dindi locked eyes with was Great Aunt Sullana. Though the whole plaza separated them, Great Aunt Sullana tore across the market like a tornado on the Purple Plains. She would demand to examine Dindi’s basket, and finding nothing in it except a kitten, pinch her cheek until Dindi stuttered some explanation. The natural and obvious defense would be to lie, but frankly, Dindi had always been a terrible liar. Her whole face ripened like a tomato, her eyes slid this way and that, she couldn’t convince a child honey was sweet never mind fool Great Aunt Sullana, who ate secrets for morning meal.
Evasion her only option, Dindi darted past a couple of elder women haggling over an exchange of vegetables for pottery. Married women, with their salt-and-pepper hair coiled in stacked rings atop their heads, sat with their wares on blankets arranged all around the dancing platform. Dindi wove a path around multifarious piles of tubers and bone awls, behind bunches of water gourds hung like grapes over racks of smoked venison. Aunties shouted and tried to call her attention to bargins by slapping her calves with horse-hair whisks.
Great Aunt Sullana changed course to track her. Dindi hopped behind a group of bare-chested warriors who mock-fought one another, to the annoyance of an auntie whose tower of baskets they upset. A gaggle of girls giggled at their antics. Great Aunt Sullana kept walking in the wrong direction. Dindi sighed in relief.
A slow drumbeat reverberated throughout the market square. The Tavaedies! No one could see the drum, but each beat shook the ground like earth tremors. Heads jerked up and eyes began to sparkle. Rattles and flutes supplemented the drumbeat. From a hole in the ground in a clear space just in front of the dancing platform, a line of masked dancers emerged. Each costume was slightly different, determined by the dancer’s color of magic and the dance the troop performed that day. A large headdress and a matching mask of either cloth or paint disguised each face. Each Tavaedi wore a costume entirely dyed and painted in shades of one of the primordial six colors.
Dindi had never told anyone she aspired to become a Tavaedi. She wasn’t interested in reaping snickers or commiseration. Besides, what did she care what the others thought of her? She knew how hard it was, but she had a plan.
Every head in the square was riveted on the Tavaedies. Drum, rattle, and flute flared into dramatic music. The masked men and women leaped into motion. Occasionally, to emphasize the moves, the dancers chanted or shouted as well.
Dancing wove magic. Some ritual dances, or tama, ensured bounty, others averted drought. This tama, Massacre of the Aelfae, recalled history. The Tavaedies only performed it once a year, and as a child, it had been her favorite—until she understood what it was really about.
Half the Tavaedies wore wings. We are the Aelfae, we are the Aelfae,
they chanted.
The other half of the dancers carried spears. We are the humans, we are the humans.
The dance showed a clan of Aelfae, the high faery folk who had lived in the Corn Hills before humans came. High fae were not like low fae, pixies and brownies and sprites and such, but possessed grace and grandeur beyond anything human. In form they were as tall, or taller, than humans, although more beautiful, a strange, glowing people, with wings like swans. There had once been seven races of high fae, and of them all, the Aelfae had been the most beautiful and powerful and wise.
The fake Aelfae took the stage first. They flapped imitation wings. To pretend they were flying, they engaged in numerous acrobatic flips, handsprings, handless cartwheels, and somersaults over each others’ backs. The fake Aelfae flitted about the platform until the human
dancers with spears arrived.
She had to focus. She had to get this right, every move, every detail. She intended to teach herself everything she could from watching them, so when the time came they would invite her to join their secret society. She wasn’t supposed to know, but she had eavesdropped on enough conversations to learn one secret about the Initiation. Each Initiate would be asked to dance a tama, and only those with magic would perform it correctly.
The two sides began to mock-fight. They punched and kicked and crossed spears, they threw one another and made dramatic vaults over one another’s heads to attack from the rear. The humans began to slaughter the Aelfae. Maybe the dance exaggerated the humans’ prowess, but the Aelfae fled, wailing, across the stage. None escaped the humans.
While they danced, Dindi reproduced tiny imitation movements with her hands and feet—nothing noticeable to anyone watching her—to help her commit the steps to memory so she could practice them on her own later. At first, when Dindi had started observing the dances with the object of learning them, she had missed most of the steps. Every moon, she noticed more.
Lately, as the Tavaedies danced, she had begun to see the most amazing thing. The interactions between the dancers were not random. They formed rows and columns, circles and chevrons, shaped arrangements of dancers. And these patterns glowed. It was as if the dancers created ribbons of living light by their movements, tracing out incandescent symbols with their bodies. The dancers themselves glowed too, in the same color as whichever costume they wore. Even now that Dindi knew what to look for, she couldn’t see it all the time, only if she concentrated.
The human dancers encircled the last of the Aelfae dancers, who fell into an artful pile of corpses.
The Aelfae are no more, the Aelfae are no more,
victors and corpses droned in a mournful dirge.
The chant hit her with a wave of melancholy. The interlocking patterns of light the dancers had created rippled outward like disturbed water, and when the light hit her, vertigo robbed Dindi of her balance. She stumbled, nearly fell.
For a moment, instead of the Aelfae dancers, she saw beautiful beings with wings like swans, and instead of stylized flips and leaps, she witnessed atrocities she could barely comprehend. Aelfae men forced to eat their own intestines, Aelfae women with bloody thighs pinned down under grunting human males, Aelfae babes clutched by their tiny wings and smashed face-first into walls…. Underlying it all, she sensed not one battle, but decades of skirmish and ambush, truce and betrayal, wearing the Aelfae down, driving them to their final extinction, not just in the Corn Hills, but across all of Faearth.
She blinked, and the double vision cleared. Tears streaked her cheeks. It was not just a dance. Though the events reenacted had happened long ago, they were real. Her people had done this, wiped out the most beautiful and powerful faeries in the world, pushed them all to extinction save one. In all the world, except for the White Lady, who was the last of her kind, the Aelfae were no more.
On stage, the triumphant humans split into three groups. One carried a full basket, another a basket split into two halves, and a third a swan feather. They represented the three clans who now lived in the Corn Hills—the victors in the war with the Aelfae. That was the end of the dance. The Tavaedies formed a line and snaked back down into their hole, to their kiva beneath the square.
Ooooh, look, it’s the goose from Lost Swan,
said a catty voice. Dindi whirled around.
Kemla and a few of her cousins stood there, young women from Full Basket clan who were always harassing Dindi.
Crying because when Initiation comes, you won’t be invited to become a Tavaedi like me?
Kemla taunted. She always wore as much scarlet as a non-Tavaedi could get away with, and had arranged cardinal feathers in her breast bands to show off her cleavage.
Hastily, Dindi wiped her face. You don’t know that.
It’ll never happen, goat-legs,
snickered Kemla. No one in your scraggly clan has ever been chosen as a Tavaedi. The closest Lost Swan clanholders come to dancing magic is to go mad and run off with the fae.
The Full Basket girls laughed. Dindi flushed.
Goat-legs! Goat-legs!
The girls formed a circle and shoved Dindi back and forth, finally pushing her into the dust. They laughed and flounced away.
The dust tasted like dung. They were right. No one from Lost Swan Clan had ever passed the test given during the year children disappeared for Initiation rites. She could be taken for Initiation any day now, Dindi thought. And all omens indicated she’d fail miserably. Like her mother. And her grandmother. And every single person in her whole clan since the days of the Lost Swan Clan’s great-mother.
Her basket had fallen. A tiny meow and skritching came from inside. She pulled her kitten out of the basket. His fur stood on end and he looked outraged. She’d rescued the kitten from a grolwuf, a cat-eating goblin, who had already devoured mama cat and the other kits. The little thing had been snow white, eyes sticky shut, but since then his ears, nose, paws and tail had darkened to black, as if he’d pranced in mud, so she’d named him Puddlepaws. She petted and kissed him until his fur settled and he purred to let her know the upset basket was forgiven.
The purring kitten on her shoulder and the beauty of the day rinsed away her gloom on the walk home. Rolling green hills stretched out in every direction under a perfect blue sky marked only with the V of migrating swans. Everything smelled fresh. The corn was shoulder high, while inside the pale green husks, the kernels flushed deeper gold with each passing day. Innumerable clouds of tiny willawisps hazed the fields like sparkling mists. Maize sprites clambered nimbly to the tips of the straight-backed stalks to wave at Dindi when she brushed by them. Pixies of every color fluttered on luminous wings around her head, making her dizzy. Puddlepaws batted at them.
Wait up, Dindi,
called her cousin, Hadi, puffing behind her. Aunt Sullana asked me to find you.
He posed with his spear, in an attempt to look stern. Unseen by Hadi, a pixie banged the butt of Hadi’s dangling spear on his knee.
Ow.
He dropped the spear and hopped about on one foot. He glowered suspiciously at his spear when he picked it up, and then at Dindi. There aren’t any fae around, are there?
Hardly any,
Dindi assured him.
The pixies laughed as he plowed right past them without seeing them. Most people could not see the fae. Kittens could. Puddlepaws leaped from her shoulder, trying to catch a pixie, missed, of course, and flipped in the air before landing in the dirt.
I’m not a wayward goat,
said Dindi. I don’t need herding.
I’m older than you and I’m the closest you have to a brother, so yes, I am your keeper,
he said, brandishing his spear. Once I pass Initiation, and I am a Man, my duty will be to protect your honor from all who threaten it—
The mischievous purple pixie crouched at his feet, fiddling with the laces to his legwals. While Dindi tried to guess what the fae was up to, the pixie untied two pairs of laces on either of Hadi’s legs, then retied the wrong strings together. Meanwhile, another pixie buzzed around his ear to distract him. Though Hadi couldn’t see the fae, and couldn’t make out the words, he could hear the hum of pixie voices.
You little fiends!
Hadi waved his spear. I know you’re here somewhere! I’ll get you!
Hadi, don’t…!
When Hadi tried to lunge, he tripped because his calves were tied together. He fell face first into the moist soil.
You mucky faeries!
He pounded the mud where he’d fallen. The pixies cheered and jumped up and down on his back while congratulating each other on their victory over the foe. Puddlepaws pounced on the pixie. Very proud of himself, he held the pixie by the back of its little tunic and brought it to Dindi.
Bad kitty! Bad kitty!
cried the pixie.
Dindi scooped up the kitten, freed the pixie, and shouted back over her shoulder, as she took off down the row of maize, I’ll just go on ahead.
Dindi! You are not to leave my sight!
He squirmed in the mud but only managed to dig himself into a shallow trench. Dindi! Dindi, get back here this instant! I’m in charge of you!
She just laughed. The empty basket bounced on her back as she ran. The fae followed Dindi in a cloud.
Come dance with us! Come dance with us!
they urged in a babble of flute voices.
I can’t this afternoon, friends,
Dindi apologized. I have to gather soap roots, tallow and ash to make soap and pick and juice blueberries, all by middle meal.
A purple pixie fragile as a butterfly, landed on Dindi’s shoulder. She twined her tiny lavender hands in Dindi’s black hair.
Chores are boring, Dindi,
she said.
That’s why they call them chores.
Don’t let those humans tire you out, Dindi,
chided a green pixie. He landed on Dindi’s other shoulder. A red shoved him off and claimed the shoulder for his own. That enraged the purple, who raced over Dindi’s nose to attack the red pixie. All this activity excited Puddlepaws, who squirmed in Dindi’s arms. She kept her grip firm on the furry pixie-hunting predator.
Do you mind?
Dindi said. It’s very difficult to walk when you’re using me as a battleground.
Then come dance with us!
Yes, yes!
agreed a yellow dandelion sprite. He parted the corn stalks to skip at Dindi’s feet. You dance with us and in exchange, we’ll do your chores for you.
Mm. Just like you milked the bull for me and winnowed the sugar out of the gravel for me, and wove a sitting mat I was to give to Uncle Lubo out of prickly pear thorns?
Friends,
the green pixie said to the others, anyone would think she wasn’t grateful for all our help.