Chapter 6: Shadows
It was a sleepy, quiet night. In the middle of the summer season on Dathomir, the air was hot and heavy, even for the natives, and not a single fire was lit that evening in an attempt to at least pretend they were cooler. Many members of the tribe had spent much of the day at the river, lolling about in a rare lazy day. But as darkness fell, everyone slowly made their way back to their own huts, trying, usually with little luck, to move in slow enough actions to keep the heat at bay.
The heat, Saede could handle. But the humidity gave the native desert dweller a hard time. She, Niara and Kyrshi had spent the day relaxing in the shallows, stripped down to the waist and chatting amicably about nothing in particular. Saede had studiously avoided Niara’s subtle, and not so subtle hints and questions when it came to Kyrshi and his status within her hut. She hadn’t been so blunt to come right out and say it, in respect for her friend’s strange off-worlder sense of propriety, but Niara was puzzled as to the lack of physical affection that passed between Kyrshi and Saede. The young man had lived with Saede for some months now, and while no one had said anything, there was a distinct distance between the two. Oh, not emotionally. They had become close friends, Saede slowly but surely drawing the dark young slave out of his shell, revealing the fun loving, at times sarcastic, and usually cheerful man beneath. But everyone noted that no casual touches like those that passed between lovers were to be seen between them. Koranthis of course had several snide comments to make about that, but by and large was ignored as several of the women tried to figure out why Saede wouldn’t take him into her bed as she had taken him into her hut.
She had tried to explain it to Niara once, but her friend had merely stared at her, uncomprehending.
“But he’s gone!” She protested, putting out her hands in a helpless gesture. “It’s alright to mourn for one who is dead Karina, but he’s alive, and he was the one who did the leaving,” she pointed out. Saede had merely nodded, but nothing had changed in her hut.
Surprisingly enough, Kyrshi seemed content enough with the arrangement, though it was always difficult to tell with him. Every now and then, she would turn to say something to him, only to find him looking at her with an oddly melancholy look on his face. As soon as he would realize that she was looking at him, the look would vanish, and his usual calm and comfortable smile would replace the look of longing that she thought she had seen for a fleeting moment. She tried to ignore it, tried to pretend that she didn’t see the looks, didn’t have some idea of what they meant for him. But it was harder than Saede realized to ignore when someone had fallen in love with you.
And so things had continued, even to the point of Niara pointedly saying something about Karina’s bed obviously not being warm enough, even considering the weather. This Saede also studiously ignored, instead interesting herself in watching the water swirl and ebb about the three of them, head tilted slightly. It was the curling red hair in the water that alerted her to how long her hair had grown.
For a moment she paused, looking at her reflection in the water, rather than at the water itself. Indeed, when she stood, her hair reached past her waist now. It was funny how one barely noticed such things, she thought to herself, pushing the thick strands of red away from her face. Her skin was darker too, the freckles more pronounced with her constant exposure to the elements. Green eyes darted over the reflection, taking in all of the changes that had occurred since the last time she’d thought to look at her own reflection, probably sometime before she came to Dathomir. A firmer set to her mouth, a more steamline face, something more angular, as though any softness she’d had, had long since vanished, stared back at her. Her cheek bones were more pronounced, giving her a haughtier appearance than she remembered. A long, pale pink scar bisected her right eyebrow, and her fingers reached up to trace along the mark Koranthis had left on her. Another, smaller scar left a white crescent just at the edge of her chin, another testament to her rival. Other than a small crystal necklace hanging around her neck, she was naked from the waist up. Her eyes lingered for a moment on the reflection of the seemingly inconsequential piece of jewelry.
She was broken out of her critical appraisal by Niara standing up slowly, shaking the water from herself absently, merely eyeing the two of them.
“I’m going to get some sleep,” she announced into the twilight. “Nothing else will get done today,” she said with a smirk. Then, with a quick wink and waggling of eyebrows, she departed, heading back toward the village.
After another moment or two, Kyrshi and Saede followed suit, Saede stretching languidly, water coursing down her body as she stood. She again caught that look from Kryshi as she turned toward him, but he busied himself with wrapping his loincloth, and Saede dined to ignore it as well. In all honesty, she was a little flattered by the attention. But at the same time…. He wasn’t Nico. He never could be. On the other hand, Niara was right. He wasn’t coming back. She pushed that thought away, instead contenting herself to a quick conversation with Kyrshi about what there was in the hut to eat that required no cooking.
The rest of the evening passed with the same indolent slowness, the air like wet velvet covering everything, making everyone contentedly lazy. Even Koranthis couldn’t conjure up an insulting thing to mutter at Saede as they passed her hut, content enough to simply give her enemy a dirty look before lounging back against her outer wall.
Slipping into sleep happened just like everything else that day, with little thought and even less movement. Saede and Kyrshi actually fell asleep on the ground just outside of the hut, stretched out in an attempt to catch a stray gust of wind coming off the higher parts of the mountain.
Saede awoke with a start sometime after the first of Dathomir’s moons had set for the night, making dawn still several hours away, but approaching. She lay stock still for a moment, breathing in heavily, as though a great beast were sitting on her chest, before she even fully realized that she was awake. Ever so slowly, she sat up, not sure what had awakened her. Dathomir’s nights being so long, her night vision had greatly improved in the time she’d been here, and emerald eyes cast about in the darkness, just the light of one moon, half hidden behind clouds illuminating the village around her. With a glance at the sleeping Kyrshi, she rose to her feet silently, taking slow, measured steps further into the village, bare feet making no noise against the packed dirt ground.
A shadow flitted off to her right, and her dagger was half out of her belt before she realized that it was Niara. Sidling up to her friend, she made a complicated number of signs, asking if something had woken her up as well. A single nod was enough to tell her yes, and the two continued their trek through the village, moving as living shadows from the edge of one dwelling to the next. Long minutes stretched in front of them, but they found nothing out of the ordinary, a fact which puzzled them both. If it had only been one of them awakened, then they might have passed it off for dreaming. But Alannari had been the one to point out that their danger sense was unmatched, always seeming a step ahead of bad omens that the elders might interpret in the stars or in the movement of the herds.
While nothing had presented itself, no threat jumping out from the night, they both silently agreed to wake some of the others, starting with Saede’s mentor. The older woman rubbed her eyes for a moment, but was alert quickly, watching their hands weave their concerns. With a quick nod, she was up as well, helping to raise the others, trusting in their senses completely.
But Alannari had barely reached the first hut, the two friends heading on to the one beyond it when a sudden ear splitting shriek ripped through the night. Niara and Saede both clamped their hands over their ears, ducking their heads as the sound ripped painfully through their minds. Lana however was already moving with a speed that belied her age, leaping into the nearest hut and emerging with a clutch of spears and another of the elders. She grabbed Saede’s shoulder, thrusting the spear into her hands just moments before what seemed like hundreds of shadow demons lept out of the darkness and into their lives.
Her hand was clutching the spear with little thought and in a fraction of a second the weapon was whirling dangerously in her hands at the closest of the shadow beings, smacking it solidly across the side of the head, felling it in one blow. On closer inspecting, of which Saede had little time for, but felt was important anyway, the shadow was revealed to be one of the Nightsisters, the outcasts of the clans. Those condemned to exile until the time that they could atone for their transgressions. But these were unrepentant, unwilling to give up the special flavor of power that came from using their abilities out of anger and hatred. The deep bruising and broken blood vessels across the otherwise young face on the ground was all she needed to confirm their attacker’s identities.
Eyes widening slightly, Saede was up like a flash, already sprinting toward her own hut. Toward Kyrshi.
By the time the small, unassuming dwelling was in sight, the entire camp was up in arms. Torch light flared, battle cries echoed within the wet air, incorporeal bodies twinned in deadly combat in the half light cast by the hastily lit fires. Saede was already casting about with her senses, trying to keep from being engaged, but occasionally having pause long enough to deter a would be combatant. When she reached her hut, she was already launching herself at the strange woman who had a knarled hand wrapped around Kryshi’s wrist, trying to drag him from the door. To his credit, he was putting up one hell of a fight, both of them bleeding from several places, Kryshi trying to land a blow on the Nightsister’s arm with a dagger he’d grabbed from one of the shelves. With a strangled cry, Saede used the spear head as a club, crashing the thick wood against the older woman’s face, the Nightsister scrambling away as quickly as possibly with the wish to live another day, try another slave.
As much as she wanted to, Saede didn’t have time to see to Kryshi’s wounds. The battle was becoming fierce within the village, the sounds of dying and killing reaching out from both sides of the conflict. She did pause long enough to push him back into the hut and into the far corner. Handing him a spear, she stopped, looking at him just long enough to catch the look he sent her. The look that made her promise in her head that she would come back.
Without another thought as to the exact ramifications of that, she darted out the door, two daggers and a second spear heavier. Much of the fighting had moved out of the village over the last several minutes, the Singing Mountain Clan presumably pushing the Nightsisters back toward the cliffs that rimmed one side of the village. That was where most of the noise was coming from now, and Saede brooked no haste in making her way toward the fighting.
Everything was so spread out against the cliffs, the trees growing right up to the jagged edges that it was difficult for Saede to get a bead on where the thickest of the fighting was. It was obvious that her clanswomen would win in the end, outnumbering the attackers two to one once the tribe was roused. But at what cost? She sidled through the trees, aiding where she could, staying back when she obviously wasn’t needed.
The young woman broke free of the tree cover into a small glen that bumped up right against the cliff. Two women were fighting just on the edge, the darkness obscuring who was who, but Saede was nearly positive that the figure with her back to the cliff was Koranthis. She’d fought the woman enough times to know her style, know the way her body moved when locked in a test of strength. But it was obvious that the Nightsister had gained the upper hand, with each blow forcing Koranthis further into a frantic defensive, her foot finding scant purchase at the cliff face.
With little thought, Saede took several running steps toward the fight, lashing out with the blade of her spear toward the woman’s ankles. But the Nightsister moved with barely a breath to spare, turning to lash out with a swift kick backward toward Saede. It took the young woman by surprise, and she was barely able to duck the incoming blow, using the downward momentum to land on her fingertips, pivoting her hips the sweep the other woman’s feet from under her. The Nightsister landed heavily, and Koranthis was on her in a flash, white teeth gleaming in the moonlight, dagger flashing down into the other woman’s soft abdomen. The Nightsister’s death scream echoed out over the cliffs, ripping from her throat as though reluctant as her soul to leave her body.
But the surprise was for Koranthis. Even as their enemy drew her last breath, she used her failing strength to launch herself from the ground at Koranthis, the only thing between her and the cliff edge. Watching in stunned silence, Saede watched the Nightsister catch the taller woman in the knees, barreling them both over the precipice. In a flash she was at the cliff’s edge, peering over into the dark. There was no sign of the enemy, but Koranthis was there, a determined look on her face, one hand hanging grimly onto a tiny ledge no thicker than Saede’s thumb.
Quickly getting down on her stomache, Saede leaned out over the edge, reaching down to the older woman, both hands extended to try to help her back up. The look on Koranthis’ face gave her pause though, and she stared down at her in confusion. One by one, Koranthis unfurled her fingers, eyes staring into Saede’s as though telling her, no, I will at least have my death without being indebted to you.
But even as she let go, Saede was already reaching out to touch the living Force as Lana had taught her. Koranthis closed her eyes, tilting her head back as though in anticipation of the drop to an honorable warriors death. No such drop came. Saede moved back from the cliff’s edge, scooting back a meter, her entire concentration on the woman on the other side of the stone. As soon as Koranthis realized what was going on, she started to struggle, screaming obscenities at Saede, her voice getting more and more frantic. Did she really want to die so badly? Saede wondered, gritting her teeth as the Force lashed out against her, pushing her back as though that would stop her.
When Koranthis’ feet were on solid ground again, Saede released her grip, sitting back heavily against the ground. The older woman lay on the dirt, breathing heavily from the exertion of fighting back against Saede more than from the initial fight. She moved shakily to her feet, a certain burning hatred flaring in her eyes as she made a step toward the exhausted red head in front of her.
But the sound of voices stopped her, and she looked up to see several of their sisters hurrying toward them, already exclaiming over Saede’s actions, several hugging her as though they were happy she had survived. Her fists shook at her sides, and she seethed within, watching as they made a hero of Saede, making a mockery of her attempts at death, even if that had not been their intent.
The rest of the battle was quickly cleaned up, most of the Nightsisters retreating back into the darkness, melting into the forest as though they had never been there. The only evidence of their excursion were several dead on both sides and a number of injuries of varying degrees that impeded the warriors short trek home. Saede found herself limping slightly, though she didn’t remember receiving the wound on her thigh, when she reached her hut, Kryshi already rushing out to meet her, ushering her into their home without a word, only a concerned expression on his face.
She sat in silence, contemplating the actions of the evening and what they would mean. What would saving Koranthis’ life mean for their interactions? Saede doubted that it would improve them, as much as she would like. The look of horror combined with sheer, unadulterated hatred on Koranthis’ face had told all, and the measured steps she’d taken toward Saede before she knew that others were watching… it was only a matter of time before she tried to kill her now, she realized, fingers straying up to the crystal necklace that had a permanent place around her neck.
When her fingers came up empty, her eyes flew open. Her necklace. The necklace Nico had given her on their last morning together. It was gone. It had been there just earlier that day, at the river…. Her eyes locked with Kryshi’s, but not really seeing him. Sometime during the fight, the chain must have broken… it could be anywhere.
Kryshi looked up at her, kneeling at her feet as he wrapped the laceration that cut across her mid thigh, a concerned expression on his face, but not understanding the look of utter and total loss that sat plainly on his Master’s face. A slight quiver of her lower lip gave it away completely, and in a moment, he had surged to his feet, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly to him, her face buried in his bare chest. He marveled for a moment at the sudden display of emotion. He’d never seen her cry, and yet here she was, sobbing uncontrollably into him, her shoulders shaking in wracking sobs for some reason he simply couldn’t understand. He didn’t know the significance of the necklace, didn’t understand the utter sense of loss that went with its disappearance. All he understood were the heart wrenching tears that slid down her face, warm against his skin.
His hand reached out, cupping her chin gently and lifting her head up. Her eyes darted back and forth over his face, barely seeing him through the cloud of grief, as though someone had died within her in that moment. Without a thought as to the consequences, he lowered his mouth to hers, stilling the quivering, hand cupping at the back of her neck. For a moment she stiffened, hands balling into fists as though to push him violently away. But something about the awful display of emotion had taken something out of her, and he felt her melt into his arms, her mouth slowly kissing him back but with none of the reluctance he might have expected.
Kryshi didn’t know what or who she mourned for, but he promised her and himself in that moment that he would do everything in his power to never see her cry again.
*****
The next day dawned just as heavy as the day before, but now there was a certain sorrow throughout the camp. They had won, yes, but several of their own had died, and one woman would never walk again. That day was spent picking up the pieces, though Kryshi emerged from the hut later than usual, Karina not with him. She had been sleeping so peacefully, he’d seen no reason to wake her, and had slipped out to help as much as he was able. Niara gave him an approving look, as though she already knew what had happened. Of course, he reflected, she very well might. She and Karina were closer than sisters, always seeming to know what exactly was happening with the other. He grinned sheepishly at her before pitching in next to her, helping to push several of the fire pit stones back into place at the center of the village.
A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he looked up only to see Koranthis watching the two of them from across the yard. He paused, staring back at her, marveling at how he wasn’t afraid of her any longer, how being with Karina had given him a new view on the woman who’d been his master. Instead of fearing her, or hating her, he was sorry for her, wondering if there was anything that could have been done to save her from herself. A gleam in the morning light at her throat distracted him, and he felt his eyes widen slightly. It was Karina’s necklace. He knew it all too well, for how much he watched her, learning every move she made. She never took it off, and last night she’d lost it in the fight…. And now, Koranthis had it, and was looking rather smug for it as well. But something else lurked behind his former master’s expression. A bitterness, a darkness welling beneath the surface that threatened the boil out at any moment like the tar pits.
Kryshi shuddered, unable to take his eyes away for a moment until Koranthis turned and stalked away. Turning his head, he looked at Niara, who’s gaze was following the retreating woman. She’d seen it to. Both the necklace and the darkness. Their eyes met for a moment, a concerned look passing between the two of them for what that look would mean for Karina. Kryshi didn’t relish the thought of telling Karina that he’d found her necklace. But he dreaded the thought of the look on Koranthis’ face more.
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