While Soniee attempts to avoid a run in with her would be brother, another family enjoys their reunion.
"You have to go to the ball with him!" Werda exclaimed.
Soniee was seriously beginning to regret her, who cares what they say attitude of earlier that morning. Of course they had all heard about Saw falling on one knee before her and they were never going to let her live it down.
"I'm not going to the ball." She opened her mother's journal hoping for some peace and quiet to dive back in.
"Come on, Dara. You've been on two dates already and he obviously wants to go with you. He hasn't asked anyone else."
"I'm sure he will and they weren't dates." Soniee sighed. "He was worried about meeting the Senator again after their falling out and I was able to offer an outside opinion and some encouragement. That's all it was."
"If he's so worried, wouldn't it be even more encouraging to have you there? He could introduce you to Lux!" Werda grinned.
"Oh yeah. I'm sure that wouldn't be awkward." Soniee scoffed. "Hi, I'm Dara. I might be your bastard half-sister." She glanced over at Chi'ann and noticed her typing furiously.
She wasn't surprised when the message came up on her holonotebook. You're worried he'll recognize you and find out you're still alive.
Soniee didn't answer. She closed the notebook so Werda wouldn't see the message.
Werda grumbled. "Well obviously you wouldn't say it like that! But the theme of the event is all about the old Houses. It'll be just like the balls your mother attended."
For that reason alone Soniee was upset she was going to have to sit it out. That and she really would love to see Lux again. It broke her heart that he had mourned for her death. He'd been a good friend. And after all that Saw had said, she would like to speak to him herself and find out what all this business was between them...
She must have been silent long enough that Werda gave her up as a lost cause and wandered away. She looked down at the journal but before she could even find the place she had left off, the shadow girl spoke again.
"Dara, you have to see this!"
"What is it now?" Soniee, sighed and left her notebook and the journal on her bunk and crossed the dorm room to where the other girls were gathered around Chi'ann's holo tablet.
The Pantoran girl unplugged her headset so they could all hear the music that was coming from the device.
They watched as the figures of a man and woman twirled in time to the tune.
"They'll probably do this one at the ball." Werda announced. "It's an Onderonian folk dance."
Soniee rolled her eyes and very nearly went back to her translating.
But Werda went on explaining. "It's called 'The Three Lovers' it tells the story of Princess Galia and the man she was betrothed to before she met Oron Kira."
That was enough to get Soniee's attention. She watched closer as the female dancer in the red and gold gown broke away from her first partner and began to dance with the second. The motions in the first part of the dance had been stiff and proper as if the girl had been forced into it but when the second gentleman reached for her the whole feeling changed. The dancer portraying the princess still seemed to look over her shoulder, worried that her assigned partner would return but the way she and her chosen lover moved together, it was... like they were made for each other.
It reminded Soniee of her dream, only then she had been looking out of Galia's eyes and the man in the palace garden had been... Oron Kira. He had reminded her of someone with his dark skin, and his blue eyes. It had felt so real, the way he held her and promised that he would take her away from this place, away from her father, the king and all his evil plots and sorcery.
How could she know that? Soniee had heard the song Shara had sung about the couple and remembered the basics of Kason's helpful translation. But she hadn't really been paying attention then. She'd been thinking of the name, Oron. It had rattled her at the time. No, this was clearer, as if the dream had been a memory, something in her blood. "Nadd's Blood," she mumbled.
The other girls looked at her.
"What was zat?" Myat asked.
"Oh! Oh, nothing. I um..." Soniee sought for something to say. "My mother was going to be betrothed in the section of the journal that I was just reading. First to some widower who was positively ancient. She said she would sell herself to the Hutts if her parents tried that."
The other girls laughed except for Myat who looked away and sniffed as if she didn't think it was at all funny.
Soniee hurried to continue. "Her parents said they'd try to find someone closer to her own age. I think they might have tried for a marriage alliance with someone from Shara's family. At least I think it was the name Blackwell that was mentioned."
"Maybe she is your Aunt Shara after all." Werda suggested.
"Well no," Soniee reached out to Chi'ann's tablet and restarted the holo of the dance of The Three Lovers. She wanted to see it again since she wouldn't be seeing it in person at the ball. "I think someone's parents had just passed away and there was a question of who they needed to speak to for making the betrothal arrangements. Anyway my mother was a little disappointed. It sounded as if she liked the family and wouldn't have minded if the boy in question was the one her parents chose for her."
Soniee frowned still watching the dancers in the holo. "Galia and Oron lived hundreds of years ago." She mused. "It seems strange that forced betrothal was still around when my mother was young."
"Still is." Werda shrugged. "Shara's niece was betrothed to a real sleemo just a couple of years ago."
"Not the same niece who was mistakenly engaged to Saw?" Soniee asked.
Werda laughed. "She's only got the one. And yeah, how'd you find out about that?"
"Saw was telling me the story this morning." Soniee put the puzzle together. "So he pretended to be engaged to her so she didn't have to marry the other guy? But she didn't end up marrying either of them?"
"Nope. Really dodged a blaster bolt there."
"Well, I don't know. Saw's not so bad," Soniee said and instantly regretted it.
"You do like 'im." Myat grinned knowingly at her. And Chi'ann's smile spoke volumes. Werda just giggled.
"No." Soniee rolled her eyes. "It's not like that. We're friends but we're not..."
"Not going to the ball together." Werda finished for her with a disgusted expression. "Too bad." She sighed looking back holo of the dance. "He would have made a brilliant Oron Kira."
That was who he reminded her of! Soniee realized in an instant. The man in her dream! He looked like Saw! "They're not related, are they?"
"Who?"
"Saw. He's not like descended from the Kira family or something?"
They looked at her strangely. And well they should. She couldn't exactly tell the girls that she'd been having Force induced visions about long dead princesses.
"Wasn't zair an uncle?" Myat asked.
"Saw just called him uncle. They weren't actually related." Werda was still looking at Soniee curiously as if she didn't know quite what to make of her. "But Grandma Flint once said that the Gerrera's were an offshoot of House Kira. They didn't inherit the name but they've always been true beastriders."
The girls watched the rest of the dance thoughtfully and then Soniee wandered back to her translation. "Maybe I'll ask Shara about that Blackwell my mother knew."
"I hate to disappoint you." Werda shrugged. "But she may not have been up north at the time."
"Oh that's right she was originally southern." Soniee remembered. "Oh well can't hurt to ask her when I go for my lesson tomorrow."
At the sound of the outer door opening, Shara woke with a start. She and her children were really only guests here even though Saw had given them leave to make themselves at home. She had locked up tight before she put everyone to bed, but she wasn't sure who else might have the entry code. She pulled her daughter a little closer in the bed and wondered why she had decided to keep the blaster so far out of reach of her current position. She hadn't wanted the children to get a hold of it and fire it accidentally, but that hardly seemed to matter now if she couldn't get to it quickly enough to protect them from a nighttime intruder.
Living in the city was a lot different now than it had been when she was a girl, in the little rental house near the market with her father. She never remembered locking doors in those days. She had felt safe among her neighbors. And her own children had grown up in Blackhold or on one of the family's ships. The very idea of a thief or some violent criminal attempting to break in there was unthinkable.
Here and now though it was a possibility and Shara had to swallow down a moment of real panic before she heard familiar whispered voices.
"Did Emoth tell Aunt Shara we were coming?"
"He was supposed to. I forget to mention the day to expect us when I last spoke to her."
"You're here!"
"Shhhhh…"
"Sorry, Dad. Cade and Thias can sling their hammocks up in our room."
"What about Dalla?"
"I'll be fine on the couch."
"Hey, Chirn Bait can you do one more thing for me?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"Just wait here."
Then it went quiet other than the sounds of the boys getting settled with their cousins in the next room. Shara smiled. Pretending to be asleep, she rolled away from Lana. She could feel as her daughter's weight was lifted from the bed.
"You sure you'll be alright with her?" Shara heard her husband ask.
"We'll be fine, Uncle Jamos."
"Thanks, Chirn Bait."
A sleepy little voice echoed, "Fanks, Chirn Bait."
And they both tried to stifle laughter.
Then Shara heard the bedroom door close and the locking mechanism click. A moment later, after shedding his outer garments, she felt the familiar presence of her husband climb into bed with her. His body spooned around hers for the first time in over two months and she pressed back against him while he pulled her close.
"Mmmm," she crooned softly. "Finally, my secret southern lover who comes to me in the night. Just make sure my husband doesn't find out about us."
He gave her behind a playful swat and then covered her cry of surprise and glee with a long awaited kiss.
"Salt gods, I've missed you, Shar. I never, ever want to be parted from you and the kids that long ever again. Even if they miss some school, even if we miss a catch…"
"They're growing up so fast. Soon they'll be leaving us to start their own lives."
"All the more reason to stay close for as long as we can." Jamos grinned at her. He might be 40 now, his beard gone prematurely, snowy white, and his thick hair peppered with more silver than black, but he still had that little boy smile she'd fallen in love with twenty years ago.
She ran her fingers luxuriously through the thick locks, now lit by the moon spilling in from the window, and nodded. "I love you, Jamos."
The next morning when Soniee entered the old Gerrera place at the regular time for her lesson with Shara, it seemed to have increased exponentially in its level of craziness. One boy acknowledged her with a, "Hey, Dar!" as he whizzed past but that was as close as she came to gaining anyone's attention. There just seemed to be people and action everywhere in the little house and half of them she didn't recognize.
There was nothing menacing about the chaos. It had an air of celebration. If Soniee had to put it in to words she would have described it like looking down the hall of the boys wing of the dorm back at the academy in Sundari, the day after exams were over.
She smiled as she tried to catch a passing streak of humanity, "Is your mom..."
"Where's Shara?" She tried again a little louder with no better outcome. Finally she made it down the hall to the living room and found a young woman, maybe about her own age, sprawled out on the couch.
"Excuse me," Soniee tried to make herself heard over the noise. "But do you know where Shara is?"
The girl snored. How could she sleep through all this?
Soniee shook the girl's shoulder gently. "Is Shara Blackwell here?"
This earned her a mumble of vaguely nautical old Onderonian and she got a better look at the girl's face. At some point her nose had been broken and she'd never been sent to a medcenter to have it properly repaired. But the eyes stayed firmly closed and with another snore the girl rolled back over.
At this point Soniee was getting a little frustrated. She surveyed the tempest from its calm center until little Lana came running by within her reach and Soniee scooped her up.
"Hi, Dara!" the little girl grinned at her and Soniee couldn't help but smile back.
"Where's your, Momma?"
"In da kitchen." Lana squirmed to be let down again and Soniee obliged. She was off like a shot as soon as her feet hit the ground.
Soniee sighed and headed in that direction. The kitchen sometimes offered a measure of respite from the cacophony of the Blackwell brood, especially when their mother threatened them with pealing vegetables or cleaning something. The two women had often sat there to chat, sometimes practicing speaking Onderonian, sometimes just conversing about ordinary things in Basic. Of course that's where Shara would be.
And she was, standing behind the counter, her hands gripping the edge of it. Standing very close behind her was an older gentleman. He was murmuring to her in old Onderonian and he had one hand groping her under her tunic. The other hand was hidden behind the counter but whatever it was doing, Shara seemed to be enjoying, with her eyes closed, biting her lip.
"Manda!" Soniee exclaimed. "I am so sorry." She raced for the back door, studiously avoiding looking at the couple only to be met on the threshold by a mountain of gray fur which pounced on her and began the process of licking and slobbering her to death.
Her cry of alarm and the booming barks of the beast did what Soniee had been previously unable. The entire Blackwell crew was finally alerted to her presence and came running.
"Down Kasey! Down Boy!" said an unfamiliar male voice. "Let the poor girl be."
Then several pairs of hands were dragging the creature off her and several pairs of eyes were staring at her.
"You weren't kidding! She does look like..." said one of new boys before Kason jammed an elbow in his ribs.
"Are you alright?" Kason asked. He extended a hand to help her up and she took it gratefully.
"Thank you. Yes, I'm fine. That... It just startled me." She managed, gesturing toward the animal that was receiving almost as much attention as she was herself.
Lana's arms didn't quite reach around its furry neck. "Kasey! Kasey! Daddy brought Kasey!" Arkon and Cornel also greeted their pet with delight.
"It is a Norcog." Supplied another unfamiliar voice with a laugh. The speaker was a boy standing next to Emoth. Though a few centimeters shorter and with slightly lighter hair the two wore identical mischievous grins. "Northern breed of the Onderonian cognine." He expounded.
"Sort of like a Mandalorian strill?" she asked. If Emoth was anything to go by, she definitely wanted to be on the good side of this one now that 'double trouble', as she knew the rest of the family referred to the cousins, were reunited.
"A bit." the boy shrugged. "Cogs spend their infancy in their mother's pouch, they only have 4 legs in stead of 6 like the strill and they can't fly, though they are excellent swimmers. This breed starts out small as your fist but Kasey here's only two standard years old. He still has a bit of growing left to do."
Soniee nodded taking in the information then she extended her hand. "You must be the beast master I've heard about. Cade?"
"That's right." He grinned again, shaking her hand.
She turned to the dark haired, brooding one, standing with Kason, next. "And you are... Thias?" She glanced at Kason who nodded grudgingly.
Thias bent over her hand and kissed it. "And you, my dear, are every bit as beautiful as my cousin described... Ow!" He laughed as Kason elbowed him once again.
Soniee couldn't help laughing as well.
"Boys." Shara rolled her eyes and brought forward the older gentleman. "I am sorry for earlier. This is my husband Captian Jamos Blackwell."
"Captian." Soniee sobered and gave a slight curtsy. The Blackwells were a noble house after all.
"Now, none of that." He wasn't that old she realized, when he grinned a little boy smile that belied his graying hair. "Call me Jamos or Uncle Jamos or Dad." He shot a look over at his oldest son and gave Soniee a teasing wink. Then he looked back at his wife.
The way they gazed at each other made Soniee even more uncomfortable than when she had caught them earlier in the kitchen. Korkie used to look at her that way. She remembered the way he couldn't keep his hands off her, either. She and Korkie were supposed to grow old together, like these two. But he'd named her cuy'val dar. Was that any better than dar'riduur? She was dead to him. How could an official divorce make anything more plain?
"Dara?" Another unfamiliar voice broke into her train of thought. She turned and saw the girl who had been sleeping on the couch when she entered the house. "That's your name right?"
Soniee nodded.
The girl smiled and it lit up her face like a Coruscant night. There was an open friendliness in her eyes that more than made up for the broken nose and crooked teeth. "I'm Dalla."
Soniee had the feeling she had just met a kindred spirit.
Coming soon: Polaris, the tale of the Blackwells of Blackhold and the Onderonian Northern Sea.
spin off novel co-authored by Lux's Sister.