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Lyrical chimes carried over the air, mingling with the sounds of uncounted musicians coursing through the park and the noise of the crowd. Lyra perked up at the sound and held out the paper wrapper full of crumbs from her luncheon sandwich. "Come on, it should be about time."
"Time for what?" Taz asked, tossing their wrappers and empty drink pouches into the mouth of a refuse recycler that poked out of a precisely manicured lahsotakili bush. Lyra led him toward a row of benches by the eastern end of the pool. The stone palace stretched more than four hundred meters to their right.
They found the benches already packed with onlookers, but Lyra steered him toward a big sakoola with a bright leafy canopy that offered refuge from the mid-day sun.
Taz leaned against the smooth, brownish-gray bark and Lyra nestled against him. "What are we going to see?"
She pointed toward the palace steps. The Parahanei guardians here wore even more elaborate uniforms, their caps completely encircled by tall iridescent feathers. Two of them unfurled a long beryl runner down the steps across the courtyard, and right to the edge of the pool. Twenty more stood arrayed on the steps at rigid attention, shouldering aurodium-plated rifles. Above the palace's western entrance a huge holoprojection flickered to life, filling the air.
A woman, tall and regal, appeared at the top of the steps. Her tiyaka was almost blindingly white, The pale yellow sleeves of her long jacket verging to gold at the cuffs. Perhaps in a nod to modesty, she wore a gauzy pink underskirt. Thick lustrous black hair flowed down her back, falling to her knees. Woven into the tresses, an intricate network of gold thread captured green leaves and five-petaled sakoola blossoms.
"The Chieftess?" Taz guessed.
"Mm hmm. That's Lady Savireya, the head of the Pindu clan, and Chieftess of Inusagi." Elegantly dressed men and women surrounded her. "All the Sajoku clans' representatives are on the dais." The clan deputations stood in two rows behind Lady Pindu, and behind them, many more of the royal staff.
Lyra started, uttering a little gasp.
"What is it?"
She pointed toward two women in the holoprojection standing in the row behind the Chieftess. One was tall and important-looking, the other bent, frail, and infirm. "It's Senna and my aunt."
"That's Lady Nimor?" Taz gaped. "She looks like she should be in a hospital," he offered delicately.
"She's as stubborn as a navawood root and twice as tough, despite how she looks."
"Even so..."
"It's our way, Taz. The final day of the sakoola festival is nearly sacred. Not appearing just isn't an option."
"She could have sent a representative, couldn't she?" He remembered what she'd told them about how Lyra's family had been made to attend in the clan chieftess's place.
Lyra had a wan look. "She knows she won't see another one."
Taz uttered a solemn noise. "Are you alright?"
"She's my great aunt and the head of the clan, but whatever affection I had for that woman was spent a long time ago," she answered bitterly. "I despise her as much as my cousin." She wasn't about to let either of the Nimor women ruin the festival for her, though. In a brighter tone she added, "I'm here for you, not for them."
Taz wrapped his arm around her waist. Standing beside the Chieftess was a small group of Rayeths. Savireya bent her head toward the nearest one and said a few words. The Rayeth responded by stretching forth an arm toward the pool.
"Watch." Lyra sounded excited again and looked to the left.
A group of seven Rayeths broke the surface at the center of the pool and skimmed over the water in that graceful, powerful way Taz had seen a few days before. They danced over the surface, drawing gasps and delighted noises from the crowd encircling the pool. Behind that group, another seven Rayeths appeared, and after them another seven. They whirled and intersected, curving into the air, then turning and diving beneath the still water with barely a ripple, only to reappear seconds later, bursting from the pool and scattering misty droplets that refracted the afternoon sunlight into brilliant rainbows. The crowd showed their appreciation with enthusiastic cheers and sustained applause.
After a minute of their dance the Rayeths flew to the east end of the pool, then rose delicately out of the water and walked up the steps, folding their arms around them as they went. The ceremonial guardians saluted by snapping their long rifles off their shoulders and holding them stiffly at arm's length as the aquatic beings ascended, spreading themselves in a double row that formed an arc at the foot of the elevated dais where Inusagi's monarch stood.
She stepped forward with outstretched arms and spoke in Ka-rayet. Simultaneous translations in Inusago and Basic ran in a crawl below her image on the holo. «Greetings, ambassadors of the honored Rayeth people. I welcome you in the name of Sajoku Pindu and on behalf of all Inusagasa. Gather with us in comity and felicity.» Chieftess Savireya bowed, the attendants right after. The assembled Rayeths returned her gesture.
Most of the onlookers applauded and cheered, though the Gray Caps refrained, and some of the lower castes folded their arms. Lyra joined the applause; today of all days, she didn't want to think about politics.
Taz applauded behind her. "Is that part of the festival? The Rayeths' arrival, I mean."
"Yes, though I don't remember this many coming before, or putting on such an extravagant show."
"Maybe it's a sign that relations are improving?"
"When the Empire sent their governor I heard the Rayeths were barred, and they weren't allowed to attend until two years ago."
Taz wore a disgusted scowl for a moment, then wiped it away with a smile. "I'm glad they're back."
"Me too," Lyra said and held out her hand to him. The dignitaries and their guests retired into the palace while the crowds returned to the venues and festival stalls.
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In the evening there was a big procession that started at the palace gates and wound around the pool. Huge wooden scaffolds borne by scores of young men supported dancers, singers, and performers who amazed the crowd with spectacles like fire-eating, juggling, tumbling, and prestidigitation. The most popular, at least with the children, were the ones who threw candy treats into the air so that it rained down on the laughing, eager audience.
Interspersed with the platforms were fabulous mechanical automata, all made of carefully carved and joined sakoola wood. Brightly painted, accented with metal plates, and festooned with flags and streamers, the creations ambled along on legs connected to a wondrous arrangement of cogs and gears. They were powered exclusively by women of various ages, all suspended within the structures, turning cranks with their hands and feet, treading inside huge wheels, or pumping furiously at long levers.
Among the procession were bands playing horns and stringed instruments, huge barrel-shaped drums establishing the time with driving beats and intricate rhythms. When the last of these entered the gates, the revelers fell in behind, forming a serpentine train over three thousand meters long that processed around the pool. By the time the parade had ended, Inusagi's sun had just dipped below the hills around the city, throwing the last orange light against a few faint clouds in the indigo sky.
Jostled by the throng, Lyra felt nostalgia and an uneasy jumble in her stomach. Following the parade had always been the favorite part of the festival for her and Allegra, since Mum and Dad would let them join the crowd to catch candy while they claimed spaces on the broad parkland for the skyshow. She gripped Taz's hand harder and smiled, but she could feel the sadness creeping closer. All day she'd managed to hold it at bay, even though every smell, every sight and sound, brought to mind recollections of one year's festival or another. Now each step seemed like a replay of those times with Allegra and her parents, leading toward something dreadful.
Her legs felt stiff and reluctant to move, but they eventually found their way to rows of benches and sat among a throngs of off-worlders. Sera and Reiko joined them, edging through the dense, lively crowd.
A symphony of musicians floated into the center of the pool on some unseen conveyance so that they appeared to be suspended on the water's placid surface. The music played for twenty minutes while the sky darkened and a chill began to steal into the evening air. Lyra showed Reiko the zippered compartment at the bottom of their cylindrical purses, and they withdrew delicate silk shawls with thermal linings to drape over their shoulders. Rei leaned against Sera and yawned.
Taz smiled at his two friends and put his arm around Lyra's shoulder. "Are you alright?" he asked for what seemed like the twentieth time.
"Yeah," she lied, like she had every other time he'd asked. She wouldn't be alright until the day had passed. But she didn't want to sour the others' moods. "Thank you, Taz. I... didn't think I'd ever want to see another sakoola festival after that day—" The sudden lump in her throat stopped her from saying more.
He squeezed her shoulder and said in a quiet voice, "I'm glad I got to see it with you, Lyra."
"So am I," Reiko added with a sympathetic smile. She reached for Lyra's hand and held onto it.
The music faded. A few seconds later a faint stream of light launched high into the air and a burst of brilliant, cascading stars exploded against the backdrop of darkening sky at the very instant the symphony began a driving overture. The crowd cried out their surprise and delight with each explosion, each wave of whistling, spiraling rockets bedazzling the sky with gold and purple, red and green, white and blue. The display went on for a half-hour, every volley of scintillating coruscations more spectacular than the last, all accompanied by soaring music and booming blasts that reverberated through the ground.
Then suddenly, a curtain of silvery sparkles descended from high in the sky and seemed to fall into the pool. The music fell away to a lone flute. The soloist played a mournful aria.
A voice issued from hidden speakers, weaving the tale of the starbird, a thing of myth, alive within the heart of every star. And upon the star's death, the starbird would perish too, crumbling into stardust. The musicians joined the soloist, expanding the orchestral movement into a lofty crescendo that turned bright and joyous. The narrator continued, revealing the triumphant rebirth of the majestic creature as the stardust gave way to new stars.
At the very end of the tale, the sky erupted with light. The likeness of a gigantic crested bird with outstretched flaming wings rose from the water and climbed high overhead to the astonished exclamations of the thousands below. Taz, Rei and Sera recognized it immediately, for it was the very symbol of their Rebellion.
The music soared heavenward as its flaming wings beat and its long scintillating tail trailed behind. The starbird circled four times before it faded into the dark night. The revelers sat, riveted and awestruck as the last of the creature vanished and the final strains of the music died away. Then from all around the pool, the hundreds of thousands in attendance burst into vigorous, gleeful applause.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Lyra wiped the tears spilling down her cheek, only realizing at that moment how tightly she'd been clinging to Taz's arm. He said something soothing, but she couldn't hear him over the roar of the crowd. She nodded anyway and smiled as best she could. Memories overwhelmed her and for a moment she could only sit, frozen in place while they played out in her mind.
Reiko's ecstatic claps and cheers brought Lyra back to the present. She sniffled deeply and shook her shoulders in a bid to dispel the melancholy. It worked, if only a little. She got up from the bench and stretched to hide her trembling. Turning to the others, she ventured, "Did you enjoy it?"
"It was incredible!" Reiko exclaimed, enfolding her in a big hug. The engineer's ebullience made the gloom recede and she remembered a little of the amazed wonder she felt as a girl at the end of every festival— joyful, tired, relieved, and sad all at the same time. Lyra realized she was feeling that way now, only a hundred times more intensely.
Taz took her hand again, his eyes full of empathy. "Come on, let's get to the gate. I'll call Seelam for a pickup. We still have to fly back to Pratikaya."
Lyra patted his hand, letting its warmth refresh her. Still feeling somber, she said, "Let's stay in the city tonight. We'll go back tomorrow."
They joined in with the festival-goers moving away from the pool. Vendors hawked the last of their wares at the edges of the long crowd heading for the exits, promising deeply discounted prices. The normal Inusagian tendency toward stratification was surrendered by all; the Tavits mixed indiscriminately with each other and off-worlders. They shuffled forward by the thousands toward the gates and the endless queue of zip ports destined for Lankash's inns, or directly to the overcrowded spaceport where transports and passenger liners sat packed nearly hull to hull on the permacrete.
Even at the exclusive Sajoku gate the crowd slowed to a crawl, though it had thinned considerably. Lyra kept hugging Taz's arm while they ambled along. She listened as Reiko reviewed her entire day in delighted detail and they watched dragon moths hover and drift among the sakoola branches. Their luminescent bodies glowed pale green and yellow, a silent, ethereal counterpoint to the dynamic skyshow. Reiko exclaimed and clapped with quiet enthusiasm when she saw them. It made Lyra smile, but she couldn't shake the heaviness weighing on her heart.
When they finally cleared the gate and settled into the speeder, she was glad that the Nimor compound was only a couple of kilometers distant. In the expansive house's entry foyer she bade the others goodnight and gently but firmly rejected Taz's offer to stay with her. Then while the servants prepared the guest quarters, Lyra went to see Cousin Manu. Most of her interaction with Senna's brother was a haze of barely-remembered courtesies that she disgorged by rote through her distraction and the clamor of sadness she couldn't dispel.
It had been some time since she'd slept in the guest wing, but not so long that she couldn't find her way through the darkened halls. A bare splash of light spilled from the open door as she entered. Lyra greeted the aged Shirumon chambermaid who'd laid out her bed and appointed it with fresh satin sheets and a thick blanket. The woman helped her out of the long silky wraps of her tiyaka and hung it in the wardrobe, carefully smoothing the fabric as she looped it repeatedly over the hanger. The chambermaid bowed and intoned a respectful salutation before sliding the door panel closed.
Lyra pulled back the bedsheets, though she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. Instead, she slipped into a black silk sayaka and took the blanket. Treading quietly, she went outside, footfalls crunching on the curving stone path around the back of the guest house and over a footbridge that spanned a running stream. Water whispered through a rocky labyrinth and gurgled as it flowed toward the river.
She wrapped the heavy blanket around her shoulders to ward off the night's chilly air and sat on a thick bench carved from navawood. The surface was full of fissures, worn smooth from age and long use. It felt warm and solid against the palm of her hand, like something her father would have made.
She took an unsteady breath and looked heavenward. On this one night of the year when the city's lights were all extinguished, only a wisp of cloud here and there disrupted the perfect sable sky. The milky galactic arm cut a brighter arc through the ocean of stars.
Fourteen years before, she'd sat on that very bench staring up at the same sky, nestled between her mother and Allegra. Lyra closed her eyes. She could almost feel their hands; Allegra's soft, smooth skin, and her mother's warm fingers wrapped gracefully around hers. Lyra's breath caught, and she had to force a gasp.
"Mum, Allegra," she breathed, shuddering as she said the names. Sudden tears marked chilly tracks down her face. She curled her fingers in the cold, empty air. "To hold your hands again—" She shook, uttered despondent sobs, and pulled the blanket tighter, wishing with all her heart that it could have been her mother's arms.
A low shuffling of stones made her turn. Taz stood some meters away, hugging himself against the cold. The dim lanterns threw just enough light for her to see how sheepish he looked.
"Spying on me, Oktos?" Her voice carried none of her normal verve.
"Sorry, I... wanted to see if you were alright. I didn't mean to bother you."
She turned back to the sky. "You don't have to keep checking on me, you know," she insisted, but after a few seconds she opened the blanket, offering its warmth to him.
The wooden slats creaked under him as he sat next to her and wrapped the thick wool around his shoulders. "Sorry," he repeated quietly.
Lyra sighed and shook her head. Part of her resented the intrusion. Her sorrow, deep and unrelenting as it was, felt like something she needed to experience alone. But at the same time, he was a steady anchor for her turbulent, wavering emotions.
After a while, she sniffed. "Mum used to bring out tea and we'd all watch the stars 'til Allegra and I fell asleep. Then Dad would come out and they'd carry us to bed. I never realized how much I missed little things like that."
Taz gave her a look that mirrored the sadness she felt. His arm slipped around her and gathered her closer. Her fingers clenched the silk of his robe and she leaned against his shoulder, quietly crying. Eventually, she wiped her tears, then watched the stars in stillness for a long time.
"I wish," he started in a soft, husky half-whisper, "I wish I could give them back to you. Even if it means I'd never have met you." When he looked at her, Lyra saw the glint of tears in his eyes.
"Hey, I'm supposed to be the sad one," Lyra said, touching his cheek.
"I know how much it hurts that they're gone," he told her, his voice gruff and raw. "I know. But you're not alone, Lyra. You're never alone." He kissed her fingers, then her neck and mouth while he pulled her closer.
She relaxed into the embrace, his lips moving ardently against hers. She uttered a wordless moan and his kisses turned her sadness into a desperate kind of ache. Her arousal echoed his, and suddenly she was on the ground, staring up at Taz, his face a mask of primal desire. Urgent and frenzied, their hands clutched at each other's robes, their naked bodies tangled in a torrid struggle punctuated by pleasured, climactic cries carried on the cool night air.
Sometime later, the spent lovers nestled against each other, wrapped in Lyra's big blanket with their robes folded into pillows. Her body hummed, torpid after their lovemaking. She rested her head on his shoulder. "We keep ending up outside."
"It does seem to be a habit," he said with a low chuckle as he stroked her back.
"I don't think I'd be here without you, Taz."
"Oh, I'm sure you'd have made it back home eventually."
Lyra shook her head. "On Jakku—" She bit her lip. The months since those terrible, desolate days seemed far distant in a way, but as painful as if no time had passed at all. "I traded my food rations, clothes, pretty much everything I had, to get those scrappers to take me to the Imperial checkpoint. I thought if I could just get back to friendly lines, I could get off that rock, maybe find my way home. When they turned me away, I..." Her heart hammered in her chest. Reliving it even now made her curl up and cling to him.
Taz held her closer. "It's alright."
She managed a nod. As painful as the memory was, she wanted him to hear it, to understand. "I walked back to the camp, feeling destroyed, on the edge of starvation. My family was gone. I had no one, nowhere to go, no purpose. My life had amounted to nine years of useless service and a half-collapsed shack on a sandpit. That day when you came by—" She sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to say it— "I was going to walk out into the Sinking Fields and just keep going, until..." Her voice trembled, nearly inaudible. "I just wanted to be with my family again."
"Lyra!" Taz quietly exclaimed.
"So you see?" she went on to a flood of new tears, "You saved me. You saved me, Taz." She buried her face in his shoulder and began sobbing while she held onto him desperately. "Please don't let me go."
"Oh, Lyra," he uttered, "I love you and I'll never let you go."
"I miss them so much!" she wailed, shaking and inconsolable.
"I know you do. I know." He realized it might have been the first time in years that she'd really let herself feel the loss. He held her, whispering and soothing her until her grief was spent and she drifted asleep.
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The morning brought the threat of overcast skies, but Surai's sunbeams skimmed under a cloud bank and woke Lyra with their orange rays. Far off, she heard the ships lifting from Lankash's spaceport, carrying the multitudes of visitors back to Inusagi's far-flung prefectures and to their homeworlds beyond Inusagi's star system. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she wiped her cheeks to scrub away the remains of the tears she'd shed.
Taz dozed quietly beside her, his breathing deep and steady. Her affection for him bubbled over; the feel of his body against hers, his strength and the tenderness he'd shown her, left her nearly breathless. She wanted more than anything to touch him, to love him again the way they'd loved last night, but he looked so placid, she feared disturbing him.
She looked around. The courtyard wasn't as expansive as it had seemed in the dark, and though it was still early, Lyra knew the compound's servants might appear at any second. She didn't particularly care, but she decided she'd rather not give Cousin Manu any grist for his sister's grievance mill.
She regarded Taz with soft eyes. Moons, he's beautiful. Attending the festival of blossoms with him, Rei, and Sera, gave her hope that those terrible days could find an honored place in her heart, without the crippling sadness that had hounded her for a decade and hollowed out her heart. She breathed a reluctant sigh and gave his shoulder a gentle nudge.
He stirred beside her. "Mmm. Morning, Ensign Nimor."
"Good morning, Officer Oktos." Lyra's coppery eyes shone brilliantly in the sun.
Taz sat up and stretched his arms, looking refreshed. "How are you feeling?"
She looked impish. "Like I want to spend all morning with you wrapped in this blanket— " Her voice fell to a whisper— "doing what we did last night." She reinforced the notion with a lingering kiss. "But..." Lyra cast a conspicuous glance toward the compound. "The staff will be crawling all over this place any minute now."
"Point taken." They scrambled into their robes, and Taz had just folded the blanket over his arm when the groundskeepers appeared. They gave the two of them harsh looks.
Lyra and Taz reacted like a couple of kids who'd been caught doing something naughty. She grabbed his hand and pulled him, laughing, toward the guesthouse.
Rounding the corner, they almost blundered into Rendix. She leaned against a stout column beside the door to the guest wing, chewing on a tasty-looking honey biscuit. In her hand was a mug of something steaming and fragrant. "Morning Doc, Nimor."
"Hi Sera," Taz greeted her with a wide smile.
She glanced at the sloppily folded blanket and the stray leaf caught in Lyra's hair. "Guess the staff won't need to make up your rooms." The commando's green eyes danced.
"Shut up, Rendix," sniped Lyra, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.
Sera slurped from her mug. "Glad you're back to your prickly self. You know, you're really no fun when you're sad." She gave Lyra the mordantest of mordant grins.
"Where's your better half, Rebel?"
"Already up. Itching to get back to work on your ship, I might add."
Taz's smile got even bigger. "Guess we'd better double-time it."
"You go on. I'll be right in."
"I'll save room for you in the shower," Taz murmured in Lyra's ear. Then he kissed her and went inside.
The two women watched the groundskeepers sweeping the stone paths free of stray leaves and detritus with straw brooms. Sera wiggled her mug at the workers. "Wouldn't sonic sweepers or vacs be more efficient?"
"Sure," Lyra said, relieving Sera of her mug and taking a drink. She nearly choked on the bittersweet, smoky, eye-watering beverage. "Moons! What is that?"
"Lithingow whiskey and khaff, brewed extra strong. Had to show the cook how to do it." Sera flashed a grin. "Gets you fired up in the morning."
Lyra wore a sickened look. "I think I'm going to vomit."
Sera laughed. "Maybe remember that the next time you want to steal someone else's drink." Lyra's scowl only made her laugh harder. She took the mug back. "You were saying?"
"It's traditional. They could use vacs, cleaning droids, or sonics, but straw brooms are how it's been done for centuries. Inusagians don't like change."
"Seems like that would hold you back."
"It does," Lyra answered. "It's part of the reason I left."
Sera made a thoughful nod. "Rei-sha's really enjoyed it here, and I can see how much Doc has, too. You're really good for him."
Lyra's scalp tingled at the thought. "What makes you say that?"
"The look in his eyes when he said he'd wait for you in the shower, for one thing," she answered, wearing a huge smile. "It's been a long time since I've seen him as happy as he is when he's with you. He's a hopeless romantic, you know."
"I know," Lyra smiled and shivered with renewed desire.
"I'm glad you let him talk you into returning. Probably wasn't easy for you."
"Being here brought back a lot of memories. I hate being reminded of everything I've lost." She glanced at the tall warrior, who was watching a flock of brightly colored ringtings above the park that bordered the compound. They winged their way from tree to tree, snatching insects from the air. "But having you here... I've lost a lot, but I've gained some things too. Good things." Her smile was as happy as it was melancholy. She put a hand on Sera's arm.
Sera looked a little nonplussed at her pilot's unexpected earnestness. "Listen, don't go getting all warm and fuzzy on me, Imp. I might actually have to treat you like a friend."
"A Rebel commando, friends with an Imperial officer?"
"Don't see how that could ever work."
"It'd crack the universe in half."
They shared a little laugh. "Go on," Sera ordered, leaning into Lyra's shoulder. "I wasn't kidding about Rei-sha wanting to get back, and Doc's gonna get all wrinkly if you keep him waiting too long." She pulled open the door and angled her head.
"Hah!" Lyra jabbed her elbow into the ex-soldier's side as she passed, then dashed for Taz's room.