The Unfinished Song: Taboo by Tara Maya Read Free Book Online Page A

Zumo replied. He had a handsome face, but his eyes were strangely light in color, like bleached bone. “Do not make the mistake of thinking I am her puppet. I act on my own behalf. For too long all Morvae have been made to feel ashamed because of the excesses of the Bone Whistler. Enough, I say! I intend to lead the Morvae back to greatness…”
    “Ah, yes, you’re the grandson of the Bone Whistler, aren’t you?” Hertio said. “I’d forgotten.”
    “If so, you’re the first person in the seven tribes.”
    “Zumo the Cloud Dancer.” Brena forced this title through pinched lips. “You have also earned a Shining Name at a remarkably young age. Just like your cousin.” She glanced at the young man who sat to Hertio’s right. “ Are you also able to perform the Rain dance?”
    “Yes,” said Zumo. He appeared at ease, but from her vantage, Dindi noted the tension across his shoulders and jump of the vein in his neck. “Can’t let my cousin better me.”
    “How is it possible for you to perform the Rain dance, given you are a Morvae ?” Brena pressed. “Which Chroma did you say you danced?”
    “ I didn’t ,” he said. He lifted a jug to his mouth and took another swig of his beer. “But there’s nothing an Imorvae can do that a Morvae can’t. Don’t believe all the lies the Imorvae spread about their supposed superiority.”
    The other guest, an elder, cleared his throat. “Er, I’ve heard that you’re the one to thank for a special treat this evening, Zavaedi Brena.” 
    Dindi stared. She knew that voice—she recognized the man from the Visions. It was Danumoro! Twenty years older, of course, but unmistakable . . .
    “Yes, of course,” Brena said. “The serving maiden is already here.”
    Zavaedi Brena turned and motioned Dindi forward.
    Oh, yes, the sugar loaves. Dindi glided up to the table with the platter on her head.
    Zumo glanced in her direction, then did a double take. On his second examination, his gaze traveled from her head to her toes and back up again.
    “Desert looks delicious,” he said.
    Something in his tone made the other young man at the table, the guest of honor, turn sharply to look first at him, then at Dindi. He too stared at her, not in appreciation, but in simple surprise.
    She stumbled in such shock a t recognizing him she lost her balance. The platter of carefully pyramided loaves careened forward, dashing a rainstorm of flying sugar loaves all over Kavio.
Kavio
     
    One minute, Kavio turned to see Dindi standing before him, poised gracefully with a platter upon her head, her shapely silhouette backlit by the fires from the cooking courtyard. The next minute, calamity unfolded as if in slow motion.
    “No!” Brena wailed from down the table.
    Time tripped and caught up with itself and the next thing Kavio knew, rock-hard sugar loaves pelted him. A loaf landed in his headdress, another in his soup. Many of the hard candy blocks shattered upon impact. Sticky sugar powder coated his skin and hair. He was nearly buried in the crystallized brown candy. The res t landed in the dirt.
    Dindi turned ever-deepening shades of pink. The only one who enjoyed the debacle was Zumo, who laughed openly at his cousin’s predicament.
    “Looks like the maiden is sweet on you,” he mocked.
    Kavio shot his cousin a dark look.
    Dindi hurried to his side, blushing and babbling apologies. “Oh, no, it’s all over you!” she said, rubbing her finger on his cheek. She put the finger in her mouth and sucked. “You’re covered in sugar!”
    Transfixed by the sight of her licking her finger, Kavio lost whatever he’d been planning to say to reassure her. His cheek tingled where she’d touched him.
    Looking as mortified as if she had spilled the loaves herself, Brena rushed to attack the fallen loaves.
    “Forgive the Initiate,” Brena said, while doing her best to tidy up and salvage as many loaves as possible. “She’s inexperienced. I’ll send her down the hill at