SOLVED. Juvenile Fantasy. Read before 2012. Two(?) children hiding behind a sand dune witness the ritual removal of someone’s limb. [s]

[Danelle]

Not a lot of detail on this one, sorry. It’s just this one scene in my mind that sticks out. There’s two kids (I think two, possibly a girl and a boy) hiding out in a desert when they see a caravan of people coming towards them. One of the people has no legs and either one or two arms, he’s carried on a platform held up by others. The group gets to their location and cuts off the arm of the guy on the platform, leaving him with either one arm or no arms. There was a ritual to it, and a sense that he was proud of getting his limbs cut off. The kids wondered what would happen once someone had no limbs left to give, and I think the answer was that the final sacrifice was cutting off their head? I don’t remember the reason why or what they did when the severing was complete. The guy with minimal/no limbs was high up in their society/cult/group because of the honor of giving up his limbs.
I originally thought this scene might be in Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, but I just reread that whole series and the scene did not show up.

[Pimmer1]

Was it Geek Love by Katherine Dunn?

[Danelle]

No, but that sounds like a good book!

[Danelle]

Bump

[Emily]

I don't think it quite fits everything you said, but maybe Brisingr or Inheritance by Christopher Paolini?
The High Priest has no limbs and there's other ritual limb removal.

[Kris]

Link for Emily's suggestion - Brisingr (book 3) of the Interitance Cycle series by Christopher Paolini.

[Danelle]

Emily, yes!! That’s it! Thank you so much!!! Props to you for being able to connect that to my obviously warped memory of the scene