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Teera has grown up learning, reading and loving the intricacies of interplanetary law but when she is requested as a Mediator on her mother's homeworld protocol subverts her role in the world and she has to knuckle under to her family. When one of her cousins breaks an ankle, Teera is forced to uphold Clan honour by taking her place, joining the others and dancing for the Skylord.
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Dancing For the Skylord
Copyright © 2012 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-77111-174-4
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Dancing For the Skylord
Darkest Star Saga 2
By
Zenina Masters
Chapter One
“Papa, are you sure that I have to go?” Teera looked up at her father and hoped that his mind would change.
“Teera, ever since your mother passed away, I have hoped that you would grow and thrive in academia. You have. I could not be prouder that you have qualified as a Mediator, but Leffuo has requested that you return to their world and your grandfather is leading the charge.” Tekkon smiled down at her and brushed her hair away from her face.
“I don’t want to go.”
Leffuo was a gas world. The inhabitants flew around the planet on huge ships that connected and parted easily. Teera Mar’s grandfather was the head of her family’s clan. Her mother, Nalika, had lived her entire life in the clouds until she met Tekkon and the moment that they met, he had swept her from her world and into the stars.
When Teera was a child, she had visited her grandparents and was both shocked and intrigued by the attitude of the women on the clan ship. The young women tried to lose their virginity the moment that they reached adulthood. Once they had taken their first lover, he marked them with his personal design. From that moment on, they could take or leave any lover that they chose.
The price of freedom was that first night. After that mark was in place, she was a full woman of the clan. She could raise her own children and even find a husband.
It was amazing that Nalika had caught the eye of Tekkon, because the fiercely marked Asku only took virgins to wife. Something in her soul had kept her just for him and she had been a good wife until the day she died in a rockslide while on a geological survey.
“Mako has pressed his case with every government he can petition. He wants you to know your family and if hiring you as a Mediator is the only way you will become one of the Mar Clan once again, he will hire you.”
She didn’t want to whine, but Teera said, “But I don’t want to go there. Their social habits are a little risqué for my taste.”
“Just do what you feel is right, my heart. You always do.” He gave her a hug and a grin. “Know that whatever you choose, I am proud of you.”
She looked up at his dear face, the mark that symbolized her name prominent on his neck and cheek. “Thank you. Will you be all right here without me?”
Tekkon gave her a grimace. “It will be awkward dealing with the locals who have come to depend on you, pet, but I will be fine. I want you to go and start your own life. There is no future here for you.”
Teera nodded and lifted her bags. With one final hug, her father let her go and she walked up the gangplank to the shuttle that was waiting to take her to the stellar transport. There was no getting around it, she was going to have to go to her mother’s home and join her clan. The Mar Clan was waiting for her.
There was no celebration when she walked onto her mother’s clan’s floating ship. Her grandfather was waiting for her.
She walked carefully toward him, the pitch and roll of the air ship causing her legs to wobble as she made the journey from shuttle to platform.
“Teera. Welcome to the Mar Clan’s platform once again. I will show you your berth and then we have some clan matters for you to attend to.”
Teera nodded. She kept her grip on her bags and walked behind her mother’s father. The Leffuo were a very affectionate people, but Teera was not and had never been Leffuo.
Her cousins had made it clear that she was not one of them when she had come to visit when she was ten. To them, she was Asku and nothing else.
To the Asku, she was an anomaly. Few women were ever born to the guardian warrior race. Her father had taken a position on Crassos just to keep her from becoming a bone of contention amongst the warriors. As prefect, he had kept the peace and she had been free to pursue an education far beyond what she would have been able to on either the Asku home world or on Leffuo.
She had been free to learn, to familiarize herself with the laws of nineteen different races, including those of the Leffuo, and to gain degrees in all forms of law. She was capable of doing treaties, pre-nuptials and custody negotiations. They were all aspects of law that the Leffuo were most interested in.
When she was shown to her tiny room, she quickly stowed the bags and then turned to follow her grandfather through the halls of the ship.
She paid close attention, but the ship had not changed since she was a child. He was leading her to the large gathering hall in the centre of the ship.
It was a peculiar place to need legal intervention. Normally, the negotiations were held topside.
She didn’t ask her grandfather where they were going or what they were about to do, she would find out soon enough.
The entire off-duty collective was in the main hall, waiting and watching.
Surprised, Teera watched her grandfather walk to his seat in the centre of the room. When he finally turned to look at her, there were tears in his eyes. “I present to you my granddaughter, Teera Mar. Born of Nalika and her Asku mate, Tekkon. She has come back to us and shall be educated in our ways until she can act and move as one of our family once again.”
He scowled. “Unlike her last visit, I will brook no insult to her. She has come to us in the capacity of Mediator. Her legal expertise is well known and she will represent our clan and folk in the best light at all times.
“And so, I am delighted to introduce to you Teera Mar, daughter of Nalika, from Mako and Nallura. Welcome, honoured granddaughter.”
Mako smiled and inclined his head.
Following his lead, Teera took a few timid steps forward and clasped his hand. The crowd burst into applause though several of Teera’s cousins looked as if they wanted to take up the bullying where they had left off.
Teera had a slight surprise for them. Law was not the only thing that she had studied. Her right hook was far more powerful now than it had been as a child.
Her grandfather tugged her hand and she turned to face everyone, including her grandmother. Her heart tripped in her chest.
If Nalika had lived, she would have begun to turn into her mother, her hair would have silvered lightly and her ey
es would have developed more laugh lines. Nallura was the image of what her daughter could have been one day, well worn but happy.
The party started to get into full swing, drinks circulated, non-alcoholic for the women and regular beer and wine for the men.
“Go and meet your cousins again, Teera. Most of them are married, so this should definitely be a different experience for you. They will treat you as an outsider, so it would be in your best interest to find a point of commonality with them.” Mako’s voice was quiet and it showed that he was aware that, despite his speech, the women were going to act the way that women acted all over the universe.
With a curt nod to her grandfather, she stepped down into the crowd to greet the women whom had once been girls making her first visit miserable. She had heard of such things on Crassos where families were large. When you put that many fruit from the same trees in one place, they were bound to compare themselves to each other for shape, colour and general attractiveness.
Braced for what she was about to face, Teera wandered into the gathering of relatives and set about trying to introduce herself to women who didn’t even consider her to be of their species. Family gatherings were the happiest place on Leffuo.
Chapter Two
Dance. It had been her grandmother’s suggestion and while her cousins had mocked her early efforts to move as gracefully as they did, Teera got the hang of moving to the peculiar beats of the Leffuo drums within two weeks.
Now, two months later, she was almost indistinguishable from her more flamboyant cousins, at least when it came to dance.
Finding time to dance turned out to be the difficult part. Every day she received notes under her door and she met with those who wanted to make marriage arrangements or sue for custody.
Her cousins lived in the typical manner of their people. They lost their virginity early in adulthood and sought a partner later. On frequent occasions, the women became pregnant on their tagging night.
Tagging night involved the male who deflowered the female to place his mark on her, a small tattoo that she would wear for the rest of her life. If the mark was too large, it was grounds for a lawsuit. If the woman ended up pregnant, it was grounds for a custody suit. If the lover was too physical, it was grounds for a lawsuit.
Once there was a baby, the parents were carefully recorded and the marks put on the infant. In a society where folk could connect and part within hours when the treaties and contracts were struck, keeping track of who knocked up whom was definitely a full-time job and as Mediator, she was also the records keeper. On a ship with eight hundred souls on it, this meant she was very busy.
Teera rolled her shoulders and stepped to the side, twisted, clapped and rocked from side to side. She then turned and repeated the same motion. “Rashi, how am I doing?”
Her cousin smiled, her dark hair falling into her eyes as she moved. “You are doing very well, Teera. Don’t you think, Rhani?”
Rhani had been her toughest cousin to crack, but settling her paternity issue and interceding with Mako for leniency when it turned out that it was one of their third cousins had earned her the respect that the woman had been withholding.
“I think she is almost one of us. She just needs to get rid of that pesky virginity and she will be one of the Mar cousins in full.”
Teera sighed and tried to keep a pleasant expression on her face.
With her father being an Asku, her virginity was all that she had to keep herself eligible for marriage. While Asku warriors might fall in love with a woman, they would not have sex with her if she were not pure or not Asku. It was a matter of survival. Centuries earlier, a race engineered a disease that was spread through intimate contact and it had almost wiped out the population of the tattooed warriors.
Since that moment, the Asku only slept with virgins or virtual or synthetic women who could be confirmed disease free. Once a woman was in the custody of an Asku, she could find another, more suitable match, if one arose. Having been confirmed as pure and having no chance to gain contamination, she was still a viable wife to another Asku if she did not suit the one who had taken her first.
Asku relationships were complicated.
* * * *
Dirko Velu, new Skylord of Leffuo, sat and listened to his itinerary.
“First, you need to visit the Reckan Clan ship, then the Liorikai Clan and finally the Mar Clan, Skylord.” Stavos Reckan was his clan liaison and he took his job very seriously.
“I noticed that your clan was first, Stavos.”
“We are the closest, Skylord. Now, are you sure you understand the protocols that are in place for dealing with the women?”
Dirko rubbed his forehead. “I have no interest in the Leffuo women. It goes against Asku protocols.”
Stavos laughed. “That is what all the Asku say and yet two of you have already found mates with our women.”
Dirko grunted. “And here I thought all Leffuo women got rid of their virginity at first opportunity.”
“Not all, though it is encouraged to ease the mixing of bloodlines. We pride ourselves on avoiding inbreeding for the most part. Everyone is encouraged to keep track of their ancestors to avoid just that sort of thing.”
“The dancers will perform to get masculine attention and if I find one to be particularly interesting, I can give her one of the bands wearing my clan mark. So, if by any chance, there is one that I want to gift with something, I call her over and place the jewellery on her wrist or ankle. She then dances for me privately before re-joining the crowd.”
Stavos nodded. “Exactly. The women will be masked and you will be able to judge them on their grace and style.”
“And my favourite dancer gets the prize.”
He was getting used to the idea of this being his post. In the past, the Asku kept a floating warship in the gas fields to guard against intercession by those who wanted to keep the skimmed minerals and gasses for themselves. The Leffuo had asked for and received help for a moderate price.
It was considered a cushy post. Many of the past skylords had been nearing retirement and had spent their last active years floating around the mountains and the fields of endless gasses wafting up from the surface.
Each sky ship had a bubble of breathable atmosphere that was held in place with a force field, another addition from the Asku. One hundred fifty years before, the Leffuo had asked for help and the Asku had brought in technology that would allow their people to live out on the surface of their ships instead of deep inside. It increased health and physical fitness as well as life expectancy.
The dancing went back to the days when the clan ships would connect for a night and part in the morning. If a male wanted to keep his woman, he only needed to hold her in his chambers overnight and into the morning. When her family ship left, she was his. It was the fastest means to a marriage ever and only unwed women danced.
The Leffuo didn’t divorce, either. Once a woman had been claimed, she was that male’s for a lifetime and received all dues offered to a woman of his clan. If they decided that they were incompatible, she simply took over his rooms and he had to move into the bachelor’s quarters. It was his penance for making a bad decision to start with.
Dirko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. His father had suggested this posting and he suspected that his mother had quite a bit to do with it. While she was only able to reserve one suitable bride for any of her sons, Radiance was savvy enough to manipulate her children into the right place at the right time.
“Fine. Let’s get going, Stavos.”
Dirko nodded to his liaison and the man quickly spoke to the ship’s captain and the Asku airship set out to meet the first clan out of three in their immediate vicinity.
His life for the next two years was going to be a round of meeting and greeting a variety of clan leaders and mining vendors in an effort to find out what they expected and needed from the Asku in the future.
It wasn’t going to be fun, but if the overlord had sent him
here, there must be a reason.
* * * *
Nishka stood next to her husband as he worked at his desk. “Do you think he will find her?”
Doron looked up at her and he sighed. “You have done everything but give him a map to her bedroom, pet. He will find her if he wishes to. The Mar are showing her off at every opportunity. They are even being invited to mediate other clans’ business. She is making them a ton of money, so the only problem will be Dirko getting close enough to figure out who and what she is.”
The Radiance sighed and bit her nails. “I wish I could do more.”
“You are not allowed to do more. All you can do is point them in the right direction and even that is being questioned by the council. They feel you have more influence than you actually should.”
“I am a woman of power, dearest. I don’t like to remind them of that, but I will if I have to.”
As Nishka looked down at her husband, her eyes glowed and pulsed.
“Ah, my Radiance, you do not need to remind me. I am well aware of all your many talents.” He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of her wrist. His black eyes swirled slowly as heat rose between them. It always did.
She chuckled. “I know I don’t need to remind you. I refreshed your memory several times last night.”
She let him distract her with a line of kisses up her arm, but she couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of her children. While she wanted nothing but the best for them, finding it was another matter entirely.
Chapter Three
The sound of Colei’s ankle snapping when she came down on it wrong haunted Teera. The scream that followed ranked in second place in her nightmares.
“Call the clinic, have them find the doctor.” Teera swallowed her nausea and grabbed three other women. “Colei, move onto that mat and lay still. We are going to use it as a stretcher.”