“I’m really sorry,” Ahsoka said, “but I’ve forgotten which name goes with which of you.”
Instantly, a babble of giggles and names assaulted her. Ahsoka held up her hands in protest.
“One at a time!” she said. “That’s probably why I could never keep you straight in the first place.”
“No one ever keeps us straight,” said a girl who was older than Hedala, but not by much. “That’s how we avoid the law.”
“Too many secrets, lovelies,” Fardi said. He’d come up behind them and was laughing. “But there’s no problem telling Ashla your names. Just get out of my hair while you do it. You babble worse than my own sisters.”
The girls reacted to the perceived insult to their mothers by attacking, and Fardi pressed a hasty retreat toward his office. While they pursued him, Hedala stood quietly next to Ahsoka. She took the opportunity to warn the girl to be careful.
“I need you to tell me about the shadow,” she said. “But you mustn’t tell anyone else, do you understand?”
Hedala nodded, small and solemn.
“We’ll talk later,” Ahsoka said. She took the little girl’s hand. “Come on, let’s go save your uncle.”
It took very little to divert the girls. They brought Ahsoka out into the courtyard, where they all sat on colorful pillows. The high walls made Ahsoka feel safe, even though she knew an Imperial walker could blast right through them. The oldest Fardi girl appeared with a tea tray that held an enormous pot and more than a dozen little cups.
“I’m Chenna,” she said, pouring a cup and handing it to Ahsoka. Despite the heat of the day, the tea was very hot, and Ahsoka blew on it before taking a sip.
Chenna passed out all the cups, naming each girl as she received hers. It was really quite lazy to say they all looked the same. Similar, yes, but that was genetics. Ahsoka catalogued each name as she heard it, linking it with something unique to each girl. Finally, Chenna got to Hedala.
“And this is Hedala,” she said. “But you already knew that, because everyone always remembers Hedala’s name.”
“She will have trouble with the law,” said Makala in a singsong voice.
“You’ll have trouble with the law,” said Chenna, “if you don’t pay more attention to your pilot lessons.”
Makala went off to sulk while the rest of the girls laughed. They started talking about learning to fly, a family requirement, and all the other things they’d done since Ahsoka had left. Eventually, as the sun lowered in the sky, they began to wander off in search of their dinners, and just Chenna, Ahsoka, and Hedala were left sitting in the courtyard. Hedala was seated on Chenna’s lap, and the older girl was brushing her fingers through Hedala’s straight black hair. By this time, Ahsoka had figured out that Chenna was Hedala’s sister and took special care of her on that account.
“Did you see terrible things out there, Ashla?” Chenna asked. “You can tell me in front of Hedala. Nothing scares her.”
“Yes,” Ahsoka said. It was important that Hedala know, but Chenna needed to hear it, too, if she wanted to survive. “The people I met suffered, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.”
“So you left them?” Chenna asked. She held Hedala tighter, and the little girl squirmed.
“It was more complicated than that,” Ahsoka said. “They went into hiding, and I couldn’t hide with them.”
“Why not?” Chenna asked.
Ahsoka considered it for a moment and then selected a lie that held just enough truth to be reasonable.
“There aren’t so many Togruta at large in the galaxy that I fit into a crowd,” she said. “It would be different if I were Twi’lek, and it would be very different if I were human, but I’m neither. I’m not ashamed of who I am, but I have to be extra careful because of it.”
“We all look like each other, everyone in my family,” Hedala said. She had the manner of someone reciting a lesson, which Ahsoka reasoned was why she sounded suddenly mature. “Our long hair and our brown skin. People don’t try to tell us apart, and we fool them. It helped us avoid the shadow, and it keeps us safe from the law. I wish you looked like us, too.”
“My smart baby sister,” Chenna said. Her tone was full of warmth, and it made something inside Ahsoka ache. Hedala was too young to be so wise, and she would never get to prove her cleverness to Master Yoda like she should. “It’s probably all thanks to my influence.”
Ahsoka laughed, and the Fardi girls laughed with her. She was safe enough for now.
Chapter 18
IT WAS FIVE DAYS before Ahsoka managed to get Hedala alone. She spent that time working on one of the bigger Fardi transports, tuning the engine and installing a new compressor. She didn’t ask what the cargo would be. The Fardis were welcoming because she was useful, but they weren’t about to tell her the secrets of their operation. Frankly, Ahsoka wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
In the end, Hedala sought her out, padding into Ahsoka’s tiny room in the family compound after she was supposed to be in bed. Ahsoka had wanted to turn down the offer to stay in the family house but couldn’t think of a way to do it politely. Her old house had been taken over by someone else, and she couldn’t sleep on the ship. It wasn’t like she had a lot of options. The house was loud and noisy, but at least she could keep an eye on things.
“Sit, little one.” She said it the way she might have spoken to a Jedi youngling.
Hedala sat down on Ahsoka’s bed platform. She crossed her bare feet and put her hands on her knees. It was Ahsoka’s favored position for meditation, and she mirrored the little girl without thinking about it.
“Hedala, I need you to tell me about the shadow,” Ahsoka said. “Anything you can remember about it. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Hedala said. “I never saw it, but I knew that it was here, in the city.”
“How did you know?” Ahsoka asked. “I mean, how did you know if you couldn’t see it?”
“I could feel it,” Hedala said. “Like I feel the sun when it’s too hot, only dark, not light.”
“And then one day it was just gone?” Ahsoka asked.
“Yes.” The little girl tapped her fingers on her knees.
Ahsoka considered how best to proceed. She didn’t want to terrify the child completely, but she did want her to be cautious. She wished she’d spent more time with younglings. Master Yoda always seemed good at talking to them. She tried to imagine what he would say and then found herself fighting off unexpected giggles when she remembered Master Yoda’s unique way of talking. Maybe that was why the younglings had liked him so much.
“You were very smart to stay out of the shadow’s way,” Ahsoka told her. “It’s always wiser to wait and learn when something is unfamiliar and scary.”
“I didn’t tell anyone,” Hedala said. “Do you think that was foolish? I didn’t think they would believe me.”
“But you knew I would?” Ahsoka asked.
“Chenna says that well-traveled people always believe more things,” Hedala said matter-of-factly. “They have seen more, so they have bigger imaginations.”
“Chenna might be right,” Ahsoka said. “I think you were right to keep the shadow to yourself. It’s easier to hide from something like that if no one else is looking for it.”
“I’m very good at hiding,” Hedala said.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ahsoka told her. “But I think you should get to bed before someone comes looking for you, just to save your reputation.”
Hedala giggled and went on her way, leaving Ahsoka with her thoughts.
The shadow was almost certainly one of the dark side’s creatures. Ahsoka had no idea what sort of thing it might be, but whatever it was couldn’t be that powerful, because it hadn’t been able to track down Hedala. That ruled out Palpatine himself, not that the Emperor could just show up on a planet without causing a great deal of alarm. It also ruled out whatever Palpatine was using to track down surviving Jedi. Ahsoka had heard rumors of a dark lord who served the Emperor, but nothing confirmable. As usual, she felt rather cut off without her former channels of intelligence. At least Hedala said the shadow was gone.