Chapter 2
Tenel Ka's eyes snapped open. "Mommy! Mommy help me!" her daughter cried from down the hall. She sprang out of bed, grabbed her lightsaber, and raced to Allana's room.
"What is it? What is wrong?" she asked when she saw no real threat.
"I had the dream again." The little girl had tears pouring down her face. She was trembling.
"Darling, I told you I would never let anything happen to you." Tenel Ka sat down on her daughter's bed and tried to comfort the child. She put her arm around Allana and hugged her tightly. When she stopped crying, Tenel Ka wiped the few remaining tears from her daughter's cheeks. "Would you feel safer if you slept with me tonight?"
Allana nodded sleepily. Tenel Ka smiled at the little girl. She would find it hard to believe that this child was indeed hers if she had not given birth to her. Allana had the same brandy brown eyes and chestnut hair as her father. Sometimes Tenel Ka swore the trademark lopsided Solo grin appeared on her daughter's face. Tenel Ka took Allana's hand and led her into the Queen's bed chamber.
The two climbed into bed. Allana was asleep as soon as her head his the pillow. Sleep didn't come to Tenel Ka as easily. She watched her daughter sleep, marveling at what she and Jacen Solo had created together. Her heart ached at the thought of him. She allowed a single tear to roll down her cheek. Every day she doubted the decision she had made. She wished Jacen could have been there with her the entire time, from the moment she discovered she was pregnant until now. But she had to do what was best for her people. Tradition stated that she marry a Hapan man. After years of being ruled by a woman from a foreign planet, the people wanted their future rulers to have more Hapan blood. They would never have accepted Jacen as her lover, let alone as her husband, and the situation would have placed Allana in terrible danger.
Tenel Ka allowed her mind to wander, wondering what Jacen was doing with his life. She imagined he must have a wife and family by now. Perhaps he had been made a Jedi master and was living on Ossus, training young hopefuls in the ways of the Force. She felt the temptation to seek him out through their strong bond in the Force but resisted. She had turned away from the Force when she turned away from Jacen. She wanted to cut all times with him and denouncing her Jedi practices was the best way to do it. All that remained to remind her of her Jedi past was her lightsaber and he severed left arm.
Allana had been having the same nightmare every night for the past two weeks. In it she was captured by a figure dressed in a black cloak. The sense of dread and fear created by her captor caused the child to wake up screaming and crying every night. Tenel Ka worried about these dreams. They would be considered the work of an overactive imagination in any other child but Allana was different. Jacen Solo's tendency to see future events through visions made Tenel Ka uneasy. She found it increasingly difficult to dismiss Allana's dreams as only dreams.