Aresh, by Denise Norton (Equal 1st) Judges' report
"Aresh" is a very accomplished YA fantasy, written in a literary style leavened with dry humour. The society emerging in the first chapter is original; a mixture of the strange and the familiar. Aresh, the title character, is very appealing and very believable, both as a teenaged girl and as a "spinster".
Judge's comments: 'This is class.' 'Truly professional.' 'Excellent style (doesn't need copyediting)'. 'I empathised with Aresh.' The ideas were intriguing.' 'Well written.'
Two excerpts below. (1) shows a scene from "the procession of the dead". (2) introduces Aresh.
EXCERPT (1) from "Aresh".
Without waiting for Father Simnan’s signal, the procession halted in
the middle of the bridge, the casket-bearers lowered their burden to the ground
and the congregation knelt to hear the prayer. There was no question when it
came to a bridge. If a priest didn’t nail the soul to the body with a prayer,
the spirit, unhinged as it was, might float off down the river to wash up heaven
knows where. No one wanted to risk an unhinged spirit floating around the
neighbourhood.
There was no hesitation, either, when they reached the next
intersection, though the ground where they knelt was muddy
after the spring rains. The crossroads ran right across the main street of the
village, heading east to Tallis village and west past Reyna towards the town of
Garl. It was, indisputably, a crossroads and the case for a crossroads was as
clear as that for a bridge.
It was only when Father Simnan finished this prayer and the bearers picked up their burden again that the sense of anticipation rose. Rightly or wrongly, Father Simnan’s character would be judged for all time by what he did when they got to the Farnon turnoff.
EXCERPT (2)
Aresh
did not attend the Procession of the Dead. That would have been ill-omened. A
bride did not see her husband on their wedding day until that moment when she
walked through the doors of the church, resplendent in her wedding gown and
crown, and raising her eyes, saw her groom awaiting her beneath the statue of
the three-horned bull.
Instead
her father had brought Aresh to the church early, before returning to join in
the procession, leaving Aresh to compose herself in solitary prayer before her
coming nuptials. This Aresh
dutifully did, to the best of her ability, until becoming aware that the
procession approached and taking herself off behind the church so that none
might see her before the proper moment.
By
the time the procession reached the church, the corpse, protected in his box,
was the only one not liberally daubed with mud. He was dressed in a white linen
shirt with full sleeves ending in cuffs thickly embroidered in red. The shirt
was fastened with twenty-one loops, each loop secured around a “wedding
knot”. His pants were also of white linen and around his waist was a thick
sash woven in bands of red, blue and yellow.
As
the congregation settled into their seats and Father Simnan exchanged the
dogs-head mask for the bulls-head, the casket was carried to the front of the
church and stood at an angle of seventy degrees. It was placed so that it faced
the back of the church to allow the groom to witness the approach of his bride.
*
As a winner, Denise wins the prize package offered at PRIZE for 1st place.
