Author's Note:
Thanks for your continued faithful reviews, Falcona SkyWolf. (Though I'm fighting to stay a few chapters ahead of
you… ) Yes. Poor 'Dan'. Yni's behavior will be explained
in a few more chapters. There's actually a (questionably) good reason
behind her prodding. (Hint: Yni's my character. And not
all her ignorance is feigned. Guessed who she is yet? :D I'm
picking on you, I know. I mean it nicely.)
And a little more info appears about the mysterious Queen and her handmaidens…
Next chapter comes when I get a review. (I'd stop
putting this, but I'd hate for anyone to forget. :)
Enjoy! :)
Chapter Ten
"You cannot keep this up, Your Majesty. We are few."The Naboo Queen watched her redheaded handmaiden with keen eyes. Understatement. Why do Force-users always underestimate? Light Side, Dark Side. Both did the same in their arrogance.
"I am well aware of your limited number, Clee Rhara." Limited, indeed. Two. She wondered what this one would say if she knew of Sokor. "You need not fear that I have forgotten it."
"You certainly act as if you forget it!" Temperamental one, this Light Side user. Never used the Dark Side, though. Didn't understand the Dark Side, either.
"Don't be so certain, Little Clee." The blonde finally moved away from the window, releasing a puff from her pipe. She'd been standing there for hours. "Her Majesty knows more of the Dark Side than you might think."
Knowing hazel eyes bore into her. She suppressed a shiver, face souring. Yes, she remembered her parents quite well. She had seen what her mother had done to her daughter.
"Educate me, then!"
Rhara's fuse had become too short for the Queen's liking. "There is no need to pressure Yadmi when the palace library is at your disposal."
The redhead's sharp green eyes glared at her, knowing full well what she wanted to know could not be found in the library. "Excuse me, Your Highness—perhaps you'd prefer if I was a fighter escort rather than bodyguard!" the handmaiden snapped.
"You'd certainly prefer it," she replied dryly. "Go ahead and transfer, if that would make you any more sociable."
Rhara scowled.
"That would be an order, Clee Rhara."
The Queen released her breath when the woman left her presence. "Are you certain we cannot exchange her, Yadmi?"
The blonde shook her head calmly, pulling on her pipe, again. "Not without getting too much attention. Clee as yet does not know there are others. Those who we could trust to hold their tongues are already taken—assigned, or captured."
"Any assigned to—"
"One. Another stays close."
"And the other Master is ill."
Yadmi, as the blonde called herself for this generation, nodded sharply. "And the two who could replace the first two have of course gotten themselves captured."
She gave the handmaiden a questioning glance.
"The woman is impetuous. He abandons his own caution to keep her safe. Often gets himself in her messes because of it."
The Naboo Queen sighed, rubbing her temples as she approached the very window from which Amidala had watched the Trade Federation invade. "We cannot let this continue. I cannot let the Dark Side control my world."
"Yet you dare not ask for Jedi help. We reach an impasse."
She scowled at Yadmi's not-so-subtle jab at the Queen's non-Force-sensitive bias. The handmaiden had a point; she relied on Force users for her life, but still…
"A Jedi would kill Noxia."
"You were considering ways of assassinating her, not so long ago, Majesty."
"Yes, but—" Her hands shook. Here she was, manipulating all her sources for her own private goals. Like her father.
She sighed, leaning against the window. "I need a vacation. Take Sokor to some planet where I won't have to worry about who sees him…" Where no one knows my parentage…
Yadmi added something else to her pipe, and the smoke gained an acrid fragrance. The Queen occasionally wondered if the aromas were manipulative, but couldn't afford to spend much time worrying about much besides Shadow Academy and its hold on Naboo.
"You will need a Jedi protector, Majesty. Little Clee cannot reveal herself in public… and it would be better for all of us if I didn't, either."
She drew a sharp breath. Jedi… Jedi to defend her? She closed her eyes. Her parents' philosophies had gotten to her more than she liked. A Jedi bodyguard would be good for her, help her fight them. But still… "Have I no other option but to ask…"
She thought Yadmi coughed at that, but couldn't be certain. The woman might have just been clearing her throat. "Ask for the nephew."
The Queen turned sharply on her handmaiden.
The blonde smirked. And drew on her pipe.
She couldn't move.
Tenel Ka opened her eyes.
She rotated in an energy field, her eyes and lips the only things free.
"So you decided to join us."
Her gray eyes found the speaker, an aristocratic Human male. The well-preserved old woman stood beside him.
He stepped towards her containment field. "You should feel honored. You're the first selected for our new program."
"Say that to Hapan security."
The man looked puzzled. "I beg your pardon?"
"I am Queen Mother of the Hapes Cluster."
He frowned. "But you volunteered."
A Force-nudge brushed her mind. She easily deflected it, glaring stonily at the man. "Not a fact."
He raised an eyebrow. "No? I think you need your memory refreshed." Leaning forward, he moved his fingers slightly in a movement she knew full well. "You volunteered."
"I am a Jedi."
The man lost his composure a moment, obviously surprised. "But you're a Queen. You cannot be a Jedi."
"I am."
Whatever he disbelieved about her statement, he wasn't about to argue. He nodded deferentially. "We thank you for your offer. Your new duties will begin immediately."
Tenel Ka didn't flinch as the energy binders sent pain shooting up her arm. "They will not."
They faced each other, unmoving, for a long moment.
Finally, the man smiled regretfully. "If you insist." He nodded at the woman who'd kidnapped her.
Blackness fell once more.
Mother smiled. "If it is all right with their parents, they can come."
The fourteen-year-old boy excitedly bounced. "Thanks, Mom!"
"Be careful, Sokor," she whispered.
He smiled slightly in that vaguely puzzled way he'd recently picked up from Tira. "Of course."
Mother smiled wanly, her dark eyes worried. "Later, then."
"Later." He slapped off the comm unit, eager to go tell Tira and Wiala they could come with him on vacation…
The average-seeming girl stared with dark narrowed eyes at her target, aligning her dart just right—
"No." Her companion, a tall teen with a commanding presence, halted her arm. Taking the dart from her, she saw her friend's inconspicuous muscles ripple as the young woman casually snapped her entire left arm, making a bullseye. "You need your arm. Your wrist won't be enough."
Nodding slowly, she took another dart in her soft hand. "But my hands are stronger than my arms."
"Then you must strengthen your arms," was the brusque reply. "A petal is only as strong as its stem."
She suppressed a wince at the other's analogy. She was supposed to be incognito, but she had a nagging feeling this girl had guessed what she was.
Which would be a Fallanassi.
Monarch.
Author's Note:
I have not invented the Fallanassi. I have taken their existence on an entirely new level which will (barring unexpected plot developments) have its premise brought forward somewhere in… well, probably several chapters.
How am I doing on the mystery/suspense? I mean, is this just an interesting little ditty or are you guys eagerly awaiting the next chapter? (Or neither?)