Star Wars - Lost Tribe of the Sith 04 - Savior

sharp. And Nida seemed fond of him. Adari took her son aside and exchanged quiet words.
    Adari turned back to Korsin. “I’m sorry, but I have business in town.”
    “Will I see you again?”
    “What, today?”
    “No, I meant,
ever?”
Korsin laughed again.
She’s uneasy
, he thought. He wondered why. “Of course, today. We’re in the same city now, aren’t we?”
    Adari rolled her eyes at the colossal building behind them. “That’s a lot of effort just to have me around more.” She managed a smile.
    “Well, just know that I
won’t
be here tomorrow,” Korsin said. “Seelah’s medcenter is moving here from the temple. I’ll head up in the morning to inspect the whole place before we close everything down. It’s only for a day.”
    Absorbing his words, Adari touched his hand. “I should be going.”
    As she stepped away, Korsin looked again at his daughter, across the yard. Nida had paused to watchJariad and his humbled combatants marching deliberately to their own mounts.
    And Tona, he saw, was watching her.
    “Your son should be careful, Adari,” Korsin said. “He’s been spending a lot of time with Nida.” He smirked. “It’s that Korsin charm that keeps you Vaals around.”
    “Well, not today, Your Grand Lordship,” Adari said, gesturing to her approaching son. “Tona’s coming with me. Family business.”
    “I understand,” Korsin said.
Family business
. Watching Jariad fly off to the north, he wished he had less of it himself.
    Years before, Izri Dazh had been her tormentor. Inquisitor for the Neshtovar, Dazh had branded Adari Vaal a heretic for not hewing to the legends about Kesh’s creation—and the role in it of their gods from above, the Skyborn.
    Dazh was long dead. But now his sons and grandsons sat silently across from Adari in Dazh’s candlelit drawing room. Adari’s resistance movement had met in various places over the years, from beneath an aqueduct to the back of an uvak stable Tona ran in Tahv. But seldom had they met in such luxury—or what had been considered luxury, before Adari brought people claiming to be the Skyborn into their midst to reshape the Keshiri’s standards. Now, in the dwelling that had once temporarily housed Grand Lord Korsin himself, Neshtovar and heretic together decided the fate of the Keshiri people.
    “This will work,” she said. “What you’ve taught me about uvak—what we’ve arranged for your people to do. This will work.”
    “It had better,” rumbled the eldest male. “We’re giving up a lot.”
    “You’ve
already
given up a lot. This is the only way back.”
    Adari knew she’d taken a chance by bringing members of the Neshtovar into her circle. But it had to be done, while the older Neshtovar still remembered what had been taken from them by the Sith. The memory of the benefits her old society had unfairly heaped on the uvak-riders had gained their cooperation now.
    Adari had recently realized that the uvak were the key. The Sith were powerful; one, acting alone, could keep scores of Keshiri at bay, perhaps even an entire village. But they had to
reach
the village first. And here, Kesh, with its sprawling landmass, worked against them.
    The Sith numbered nearly six hundred now, almost double what they had arrived with. But the villages of Kesh were more numerous still. Maintaining order required the Sith to make frequent uvak-flights to the hinterlands. Neshtovar fliers of another era had united the continent by surmounting the many natural barriers. Now the Sith used the same strategy, dispatching circuit riders to make appearances and consult with local bureaucracies, mostly staffed by onetime members of the Neshtovar.
    But while they were the Sith’s lieutenants on the ground, the Neshtovar were now also
grounded
. Though the Sith had taken the strongest uvak for themselves soon after their arrival, that still left teeming thousands of domesticated beasts to the Keshiri. Most had been employed as animal labor, but the Neshtovar were still allowed to fly uvak on visits to the Sith mountain retreat, among other administrative chores.
    That had ended after the disaster at the lakes. Uvak-riders were the Keshiri’s traditional news bearers, but the Sith wanted no word spread but theirs. Former riders not reduced to police work were now keeping thestables, nurturing creatures they would never be allowed to ride. Their uvak belonged to Sith probably still in the crèche. Adari had been allowed to keep Nink so that