The Crystal Star (37 page)

the rest of the sweet.

Tigris wiggled his toes so his feet would wake up. His skin prickled. The fanged creature snorted, woke,

and stretched.

The meeting hall suddenly fell silent. The people sat down. The slave children huddled at their feet.

Hethrir stood above them, his arms extended. The wide sleeves of his white robe spread like wings, the

edges shining with silver light.

Tigris hurriedly swallowed the last crumbs of Anakin's gift and wiped his mouth on his sleeve and urged

Anakin to sit up straight.

Instead, Anakin burrowed against his side.

"Anakin, go to sleep," he said.

"Come with me," Lord Hethrir said. He descended from the podium and strode down the aisle, looking

neither right nor left, paying no attention whatever to whether anyone was following him.

For, of course, they did follow him. Two of his Proctors ran before him to open the door, while his

guests spilled into the aisle behind him and followed him out of the lodge and trooped down the path.

They pulled the sleepy slave children along with them.

"Don't sleep yet, little brother," Tigris whispered. "Come on, we have to go." He gathered the child into

his arms and stood up. Now that the excitement of Lord Hethrir's speech was fading, Tigris felt as tired

as Anakin.

"Hey, nursemaid!" One of the Proctors pointed at Tigris, jeering. "You'll get left behind!" The Proctors

followed the crowd, laughing, letting the door slam shut behind them. Tigris had to balance Anakin on his

hip and wrestle the door open wide enough to slip through. The wolf-creature trotted after him, dragging

its chain.

Clenching his teeth, Tigris held his head high.

Leia, Rillao, Chewbacca, Jaina, Jacen, and Artoo-Detoo rode Crseih's landing field tractor to the station.

What a raiding party we make! Leia thought.

A raiding party disguised as a family outing.

She looked for the Millennium Falcon, but could not see it beneath the multitude of irregularly shaped

radiation shields.

I could ask after it, she thought, but I don't want to give myself away.

"Does the landing field have a registry of ships?" she asked the driver.

"Such a list will be stored." "How can I look at it?" "You will not." "Why not?" "The company will protect

its information." Jaina snuggled against Leia, clutching her multitool in one hand and a smart camping

blanket from Alderaan in the other. She said the camping blanket was for Anakin when they rescued him.

But Anakin did not have the habit of sleeping with a camping blanket or carrying one around.

Jaina had, when she was younger, but her blanket was back home on Coruscant. When Winter asked if

she wanted to bring it on the tour, Jaina had said she was not a baby any longer and did not need a

blanket except for camping, and besides, maybe it was lonely for the other camping blankets.

Leia had no intention of teasing her daughter about carrying the cuddly blanket.

Leia's comfort was the touch of her children, and the hope that all three would be safe in a short time.

Jacen petted the little four-winged bat, which peeked out from beneath his shirt. The bat made Leia

nervous, mildly venomous as it was. If it bit Jacen, he would have a terrible itch. But if it had been going

to bite him, it probably would have done so long since. Leia had learned to regard Jacen's explorations

with a certain Jedi-like calm that drew very little from Luke's lessons in meditation. She was working on

the same reaction to Jaina's habit of dismantling household machines.

Leia was traveling incognito, as Lelila, though this time without abandoning her real identity in the

personality of the bounty hunter. She doubted her position as Chief of State of the New Republic would

provide her much esteem on Crseih. Her hair swirled wild and long and free.

Rillao carried herself so proudly, she looked so regal in the emerald tunic, that it was possible to

overlook how rumpled the tunic, and how tired and drawn Rillao was. The tunic covered most of her

scars.

Chewbacca still limped; a bandage wrapped his leg. But he had bathed, and combed his brindled fur.

The new silver and black streaks curved into smooth patterns. He was the most presentable of the

biological members of the party.

Jaina and Jacen were clean and well dressed.

They no longer wolfed down every meal and snack.

But an aura of intensity and distress possessed them both.

Among them all, only Artoo-Detoo looked and acted exactly as Leia expected him to.

Jaina pulled at Leia's sleeve.

"Mama!" she whispered, excited. "That's one of the ships!" She pointed across the landing field toward a

shiny gold spacecraft beneath a custom-made radiation shield.

"Which ships, sweetheart?" "The ships that came to the worldcraft--right before Hethrir took Lusa

away!" Leia and Rillao looked at each other.

Leia saw hope in Rillao's eyes, and felt hope in her own heart.

"We have to go rescue Lusa, Mamaffwas Could it be this easy? Leia wondered. But. if Anakin is in that

ship, why can't I tell?

"Driver," she said, "we would like to visit that ship." She gestured toward the gold spacecraft.

"You will pay more," the arthropoid driver said.

Chewbacca growled. Leia patted his arm gently.

"That's acceptable," she said to the driver.

No one in the ship replied to the driver's signal. The crawler pressed its entry tunnel up against the ship's

gold surface. From a distance, the gold ship appeared featureless.

Close up, Leia could see its many gilded ports, peering mysteriously at her.

"Be careful, Mamaffwas Jacen said. "Mean people took Lusaffwas Jaina whispered.

Leia knocked on the outer shell of the spaceship. Her heart sounded just as loud, beating with

anticipation and fear.

Nothing happened. Leia waited, then knocked, louder, on one of the ports. She cupped her hands

around her face and tried to peer inside, but the gilding was so strong that she might be imagining the

shadows inside. She knocked a third time.

The seamless gold surface parted irregularly, softly.

"Patience, gentle, patience! What do you want?" "I'm--" It would be so easy, Leia thought, if I knew

Anakin and the other stolen children were in there. But if they were--I'd know it. Wouldn't I? It would

have been so much easier in the old days, when we knew.

"We are looking for a child," Rillao said.

"That's right," Leia said, following Rillao's direct approach, the same approach she had used to the

Indexer.

"Human?" the voice said. "You are. human?" A hairy protuberance with a starburst of fleshy tendrils

pressed through the opening and wriggled, sensing her. "Or do you prefer transspecies?" "We're looking

for Lusaffwas Jaina said.

"She has four feet, not two! She's red-gold, with white spots, and she has horns. Hornsffwas The furry

starburst inclined downward and inspected Jaina.

Jacen pulled at Leia's sleeve.

"Mama," he whispered, "Anakin isn't in the gold ship." "He--he isn't? But Jaina said..." Jacen shook his

head gravely. Leia thought back over what Jaina had said, and Jacen was right. Jaina had never said her

friend Lusa and Anakin were together. The Proctor she had questioned had let her think Anakin might be

on Crseih Station. But he had not said it was certain.

If I cannot find my little one, she thought, I'll go back to the worldcraft and--"I mean," Jacen said, "I

don't think he's there." He frowned. "Everything's so weird." He looked up at her, trusting and hopeful.

"Can't you tell where he is?" "Is Lusa here?" Jaina asked the wriggling starburst.

"I cannot say, young gentle. You must speak to my mistress, Lady Ucce." Leia stroked Jacen's hair. The

force of her disappointment shook her to her core.

"Where is Lady Ucce?" Leia asked.

"You may inquire after her at Crater Lodge." The gold skin of the spaceship healed over smoothly. Leia

knocked again, then slapped her hand angrily against the ship's skin.

But no one answered her.

Leia's raiders entered the lobby of Crater Lodge like a party of vacation tourists. They stood alone

among the spools and streams and black flagstones. A repair droid buzzed and whined over a long

ragged scrape that marred one of the tiles. The droid ignored them.

Jaina and Jacen stared around, curious. The four-winged bat clambered out of Jacen's shirt and flitted off

into the dimness.

"Hello!" Rillao called.

"You are rather late." A waterspout appeared above one of the still pools, rippling its surface.

"You will have to hurry." "Are you speaking to me?" Rillao asked.

"Yes--are you not a member of the Lord's retreat?" Rillao barely hesitated. "I am," she said.

"May I register your name?" "If you know the Lord," Rillao said, "you should know better than to ask my

name." Leia did not need Jedi abilities to feel the tension emanating from Rillao. Her abilities had taken

leave of her, as far as she could tell, leaving behind them nothing but a dull headache. She wondered if

Rillao was having the same disorienting experience.

"Your pardon," the waterspout said.

"Granted. The Lord has arrived?" "Arrived, and departed with his followers. But if you hurry you may

catch them." "I shall need a guide." "You will not." Rillao gave the waterspout a quizzical look. The

waterspout spun peacefully.

"You need only ask. For Waru." "Very well." "I will see that your servants are taken care of." "They

travel with me," Rillao said.

"Ah." The waterspout shivered, then steadied.

The Codru-bat swooped over the water, dove, splashed, and flapped upward again, a tiny fish caught in

its claws. It hovered, snacking on the tasty morsel.

"This is not the dining room!" The waterspout's tone sharpened with anger and disbelief. "Those creatures

are valuable--they are expensive!

They are part of the decor!" Chewbacca snorted.

"I'm sorry!" Jacen said. He held up his hand and the bat nestled into his palm. "He was hungry." "Put the

fish on our account," Rillao said.

"Let's go." Outside, Rillao asked the first person she encountered where to find Waru.

"This path. That airlink. You will see." The being blinked a circle of wide eyes. "But revered Waru is

resting. He has asked for peace and time." "I see," Rillao said. "Don't worry.

We'll just look." She strode down the path. Leia and Chewbacca and the children followed.

They had left the park dome before Leia noticed that Artoo-Detoo was not accompanying them through

the airlink.

Where did he go? she wondered.

She could not turn back to look for him now.

* * * The ground rose beneath Han's feet. He toiled up the hill. He was getting no help at all from Luke.

But even exhausted and overburdened as he was, he was less out of breath than he would have been if

he had tried this hike when he first arrived on Crseih Station.

"Let me go, Han," Luke said.

"Please. Let me go. I have to see Waruffwas Han dragged him behind a boulder, off the path, and

dropped him on the ground. Luke huddled in the dust, his head down, digging his fingers into the dirt.

"What the hell do you mean," Han said roughly, "asking that--t thing to heal you? After what I saw it do?

And you aren't even sick!" "I am! Something's happening to me, Han, something terrible. Can't you

see--?" "I see you're behaving like a jerk," Han said. "Why'd you tell Waru who you are?" "Han... I'm

losing my abilities.

My connection to the Force. I can't maintain my disguise. People started recognizing me. When we

talked about Xaverri--I couldn't know if you were telling me the truth! I feel like I'm deaf and blind, like

my heart's been ripped out of my body." He ran his hands through his hair, pushing it into complete

disarray. "I don't know what to do!" "Don't give yourself to Waru!" Han said.

"You don't even know what's wrong. Maybe somebody put lizards in your bed--" "There aren't any

ysalamiri here," Luke said. his--or maybe your lightsaber has blown a fuse--" "It doesn't have any

fuses--" his--or maybe it's something in the water! Or the air. Or the light!" Han wiped his sleeve across

his forehead. The material of his shirt came away soaked with sweat.

He sat down in the narrow shadow of a massive boulder.

Luke started to object again, then subsided.

He sat cross-legged, thoughtfully, resting his elbows on his knees. He ducked his head and combed his

fingers through his hair and pulled his hood up to shade his face.

"We've had plenty of vacation," Han said. "Luke, this isn't the old days.

We don't have to solve every problem and win every fight on our own. If you're sick, we'll go back to

Coruscant and get you well again." And figure out what to do about Waru from a safe distance, Han

thought. This isn't like the old days at all. In the old days, I always knew who the enemy was, and I only

had one response.

Now... everything's more complicated.

"I want to get out of here," Han said. "This place gives me the creeps." "But the Jedi--" Luke said.

"Waru--" "There aren't any lost Jedi here," Han said gently. "It was all Xaverri's reports, and her reports

are all about Waru. Not Jedi.

Waru." Luke hesitated. "Yeah." His voice sounded sad, and confused.

"Let's go collect Threepio and Xaverri and blast off out of here." "Xaverri?" An edge of anger replaced

the confusion in Luke's voice.

"Yeah--y don't expect me to leave her here, if I can get her to leave. Do you?" "What do you need her