Lost Tribe of the Sith 05 - Star Wars Purgatory

said, eyes darting between him and the flowers.
    “Actually, I have something for you,” he said, pointing a thumb behind him. “In honor of your Day of Dispossession.”
    “That’s ‘Dispossessed.’ ”
    “Begging your pardon.” He led her farther into the farm than she’d been before, past the mounds to a structure she’d seen only from the sky. Situated near the riverbank, the hut was larger than his dwelling and twice the height.
    Ori blanched. “What’s back there? It stinks!”
    “Manure usually does. Uvak are pretty rank,” he said, approaching the barred door. Once a stable for a previous occupant who could own uvak, now it provided him a wind-free place to store the loads of dung he needed for mixing his soil. “You don’t want to be around when I have that stuff carted in.” He opened the door.
    “Surely
this
isn’t your gift to me,” she said, squinting and covering her nose.
    “Surely not.” He reached inside the doorway toretrieve a strange-looking yoke. “It’s something I was working on. I lengthened some waterskins and attached them to part of an uvak harness.” Balancing the center straps on his hands, he showed her how the long pouches hung to either side. “You’ve always had to fly the dalsas back in a moist cloth. With these, you can carry them straight—and you won’t be soaked when you get home.”
    Ori opened her eyes wide, even as he shut the door to the rancid place. “You made that for me?”
    Jelph looked around. “Hmm. I don’t see the Grand Lord here today, so … sure. I guess it’s for you.”
    They walked back along the riverside, past the little flatboat tied at the bank. Returning from its grazing, Shyn, Ori’s uvak, flew in from above and settled in a clearing. Jelph strode assuredly toward the animal and lifted the yoke over its leathery frame. A perfect fit. Shyn, who took to no one, nodded passively.
    This is why I come here
, Ori thought. Life at court was cutthroat—this month, more than most times. But so many were motivated not by lust for power, but by fear of losing what power they had. This man had nothing and feared nothing.
    Her mother had given it a name: the Confidence of the Dead End.
    Jelph partially filled the skins with water and then deposited the clippings inside. Shyn looked like a parade animal now, festooned with flowers. That might be an idea for sometime, Ori thought—but not for tomorrow. She watched as he fastened the tops to protect the blossoms.
    “There. Fit for the Grand Lord.” He helped her aboard the uvak.
    “Jelph,” she said, looking down. “With what you can do, you really ought to be teaching the Keshiri how to grow things. Not selling them dirt.”
    “Careful,” he said, gesturing toward the composting barn. “My life’s in that dirt.” He patted Shyn’s long face and turned toward his flatboat, bobbing in the water. “And I may not be of the Tribe, but at least
I’ve
got a ship.” He laughed. “Such as it is!”

Chapter Two
    The Sith
did
have a ship, Ori knew, but she’d never seen it. No one alive had. One of Yaru Korsin’s last acts was to remove everyone from the lofty retreat to Tahv, where the newcomers could expand their numbers and reach. Aerial sentries perpetually protected the holy and forbidden Temple from violators, Sith and otherwise. But the mountain was always visible over Tahv’s now-useless protective walls, a reminder of their stellar origins.
    Ori could see the peak clearly from her mother’s new luxury compartment in the Korsinata. Multiple stadium decks rose over a pentagonal playing field, with the Grand Lord’s section highest of all. Just that morning, Ori’s mother had been awarded a coveted section in the stadium near the Grand Lord, whose balcony always faced the Temple.
    “Closer to the stars,” Ori said under her breath.
We’re moving up
.
    She studied the horizon. There, kilometers away,
Omen
sat in its protective building, waiting for the day when the Sith came for their lost tribe. But no one had come, and few explanations for why were attractive. The legendary Sith Lord Naga Sadow would have found them by now, had he won his war. If the Sithand Jedi had wiped each other out, no one might ever come.
    And what if the Jedi had won? As she had on the farm, Ori blanched just to think of it. She knew what Jedi were only from her teachers, who’d kept the story alive. Ori knew enough to hate the Jedi and everything they stood for. Weakness. Pity.