The Crystal Star (39 page)

Youth.

Anakin would ascend in one step to the highest level.

Or he would die in the purification ritual.

Behind Tigris, the terrified centaur child reared and screamed and tried to escape. Her hooves slipped

and scraped on the stone.

The fanged creature pulled forward till its collar slipped from Tigris's grip. It ran after Anakin, howling

piteously.

And Tigris thought: None of Hethrir's guests brought any of their own children.

None of the children has any choice. It isn't fair! I would choose--Waru rippled its scales. They

shimmered, liquefying.

Anakin sank into the molten gold, shrieking in terror.

"Tigis! Tigisffwas The little boy stretched his arms toward Tigris.

I would choose to give myself to Waru, Tigris thought. I don't care about the danger! But Anakin didn't

choose.

Tigris darted forward, grabbed Anakin, snatched him from the altar of Waru's body, and turned to run.

"What are you doing?" Hethrir cried.

Waru rose, its body elongating enormously, scarlet ichor flowing from its flesh.

The being roared, a cry of protest, and anger, and desperation.

The roaring shriek of the strange gold being overwhelmed Leia's cry when she saw Anakin.

A youth pulled her little son away from the writhing gold creature. The youth stumbled backward, trying

to flee. Mr. Iyon's wyrwulf crouched at the foot of the altar, growling.

Leia ran toward the youth, toward Anakin.

Han was right behind her.

Leia ran through the crowd, through the ragged path the people had left clear when they knelt. Some

were struggling to their feet. All the adults were human, but the children with them were of many other

species.

Leia and Han reached the youth who had rescued Anakin.

"Papa! Mamaffwas Anakin cried. His face was streaked with tears, flushed with anger and terror.

The youth--This must be Tigris, Leia thought, oh, my, he looks like Rillaoff--was crying, too.

Anakin struggled from Tigris's grasp. He leaped and fell into Leia's arms. She hugged him with desperate

gratitude. She held him against her, kissing his sticky face. Han touched Anakin's hair, gently, with

wonder.

"It's all right now, sweetheart," Leia said. "I'm here, Papa's here--" The golden being stretched itself

toward them. Leia had never seen anything like it. She backed away, bumping into Han. He, too, backed

away, holding Leia and Anakin.

Anakin scrambled over Leia's shoulder and flung his arms around his father's neck. Han held him gently,

radiant with relief and joy.

A white-robed man--Hethrir, Leia thought --grabbed Tigris by the collar and shook him.

"You fool! Wretched, worthless fool!" "Waru!" Luke ran past them all, passing Tigris, leaping onto the

altar.

"Luke, no!" He's empty-handed! Leia thought. He's attacking--defending--without even his lightsaber!

"Stop!" Hethrir cried.

Luke leaped onto the dais, onto the border of gold scales.

"Waru!" Luke said.

"What do you want, Skywalker?" Waru said, its voice rumbling. "I am in pain, I have no gifts to give my

followers." Hethrir stared at Luke in confusion and anger.

Then his expression changed to astonishment and recognition.

"Skywalker!" Hethrir said. "Waru, take him. Luke Skywalker is a trained Jedi.

He is Vader's son!" The great gold being loomed. Luke faced it, completely open, his arms spread wide.

His boots sank into the liquefying gold. The gold being's form widened. It formed a concave surface, with

great rough wings curving forward to surround Leia's brother. Luke's reflection in the scales was

distorted, inverted, misshapen.

"Yes," Luke whispered. "Take me." The being roared again, but its voice was softer, a great sigh of

satisfaction.

"Luke!" Leia cried.

Before she could react, the gold wings collapsed, falling onto Luke, inundating him. The gold scales

liquefied, surging forward like waves, pulling back like the tide.

Luke disappeared.

"No!" Leia cried, horrified. This was all too much like seeing Han trapped in the carbon-freeze--Anakin

was safe in Han's arms. Han stared at Waru, the joy in his face turning to grief.

Leia brushed her fingers quickly against his cheek.

Han looked down at her.

Leia turned toward the roiling, clenching mass of molten gold that imprisoned Luke.

She ran after her brother.

Leia dived beneath the surface of the golden sphere.

Leia swam in golden light, her hair fanning all around her. At a great distance, she saw Luke, straining and

twisting between great rippling shields of solidified gold. She plunged toward him. He wrestled futilely.

She remembered his time in the regeneration tank, where he slept, and dreamed nightmares, and

struggled to escape.

Leia's breath burned in her lungs. She was afraid to breathe, afraid of drowning in the thick and

honey-colored light. But she had no choice.

She gasped, and the warm thick radiance poured oxygen into her lungs. She exhaled, and breathed

again. It was hard work, but she was not drowning.

The gold shields twisted and danced between Leia and Luke. She tried to push one aside, but it turned

edge-on to her and slashed at her like a blade. Her sleeve ripped. Leia tumbled backward, then kicked

upward, outward--she could hardly perceive gravity in the strange environment --and avoided one of the

shields. Another whirled toward her. She met it with her boots. She kicked it. It shattered. Its fragments

shattered again, and disintegrated into fine glittering gold dust, and disappeared.

She slid between two other shining plates, and reached Luke's side.

"We can't stay here, Chewieffwas Jaina cried.

"Mama's down there, and Papa too, and Uncle Luke," Jacen said.

"We have to help them." Something was wrong, she knew it. But she could not tell what. Her head hurt

so much.

Chewbacca's growl turned to a cry. He was as upset about being left out here, as anxious to go inside

and help, as Jaina and Jacen. He had already moved halfway down the hill, as Jaina and Jacen pulled at

his hands, but there he stopped.

Mama left him here to protect us, Jaina thought. To protect the children.

The dome reverberated with a mournful howl.

"Chewie! That's Mr. Chamberlain's wyrwulf!" He glared down the slope, whuffling with indecision.

Another child screamed.

"It's Lusaffwas she cried. "Oh, Chewie, please--!" She pounded at his leg, desperate, trying to make him

go down the hill, trying to make him let her down. He glanced down at her.

She stopped. She saw that she had hurt him, and she was horrified at herself for hitting him. "I'm sorry!

I'm so sorry!" She patted his fur, trying to straighten it around the bandage. "But it's Lusa, they're cutting

off her horns, please, we've got to hurry!" She pulled out of his grasp and ran.

Chewbacca roared. He grabbed Jaina and stopped her. He lifted her, and Jacen, onto his shoulders, and

he loped down the hill with amazing speed.

Chewbacca crossed beneath arches and entered the building. He had to push his way into the theater

past a line of Hethrir's Proctors, who barred the way of a crowd of people fighting to get out. The people

were in fancy robes and jewelry. They all shoved and shouted, in a panic. Chewbacca pushed straight

through them. Jaina was afraid of the Proctors. But they could not even turn on their lightsabers!

Jaina could not use her abilities, either. But Chewbacca was not afraid of them at all. He walked through

their line and hardly even slowed down.

Everyone was shouting and screaming and running around.

All the children Hethrir had sent away were right here, crying in fear. Even though they had no place to

run, they were all trying to run away.

Except Lusa. She was running, but she was not running away. She ran right up to one of the Proctors and

turned her back on him and kicked him so hard with her back feet, with her cloven hooves, that he fell

down. He lay on the floor, groaning. Mr. Chamberlain's wyrwulf followed, watching curiously.

Jaina laughed with delight. "Lusa!" The noise was so loud in the theater that Jaina did not know if Lusa

could hear her. Jaina could hardly hear herself.

Chewbacca never paused. He strode to the front of the theater, where Papa stood holding Anakin. They

were both safe, and both of them were crying.

"Anakin!" Jaina shouted with joy. "Papa!" She reached down from Chewbacca's shoulder to touch her

father, to make sure he was real. "Don't cry! You're not dead, I knew all along you weren't dead!

Where's Mama? Did you see Mama? Where's Uncle Luke?" Nearby, Tigris looked confused and hurt

and unhappy. The Firrerreo stood between him and Hethrir.

She launched herself at Hethrir. She grabbed him by the throat and knocked him down.

Papa put Anakin into Chewbacca's arms.

"Take care of the kids," he said.

Jaina had never heard Papa's voice sound like that before. He looked at Jaina, and at Jacen, just a quick

look that did not even last a second.

"I love you," he said. "I'll always love you." He turned around and ran away and leaped up at a huge

quivering gold sphere.

He disappeared beneath its surface.

"Papa!" Anakin buried his face against Chewbacca's fur and bawled.

It was so beautiful--! Jaina wondered if Papa would come out of the sphere all covered with gold like

Threepio.

Lusa ran up beside Chewbacca. "Jaina!

Isn't this fun? It's fun to kick Proctors." "I'm so glad to see you! They didn't cut off your horns!" "No--but

they were going to feed me to that monster, that monster can eat people." "F-feed--?" Jaina whispered.

She stared at the gold sphere where Papa had disappeared, and she was afraid she knew what had

happened to her mama and Uncle Luke.

* * * Tigris fell back against the dais. Waru's transformation roiled and shook above him. Shock

paralyzed him. He had not ever expected to see his mother again. Hethrir had told him she was dead.

She had been executed for betraying the Empire.

For refusing to support the Empire Reborn.

And Tigris had been glad.

Before him, she fought Hethrir bitterly.

He should help his lord. But he could not move.

Hethrir snatched his lightsaber from beneath his robe. Instead of turning itself on at his command, it

reacted with an electronic screech and an assault of sparks and ozone. Hethrir cursed and dropped it. It

spun across the floor and crashed into the wall. It shattered, melting the stone beneath it.

Rillao clawed at Hethrir's face. The second, smaller lightsaber fell from his belt.

Rillao leaped away from Hethrir. They faced each other, panting, scraped, bleeding. Rillao feinted, and

when Hethrir leaped to the attack, she ducked away from him and grabbed the fallen lightsaber.

She did not engage it. She slipped it beneath her robe. In her moment of inattention, Hethrir leaped onto

her back. She staggered.

He choked her with his arm, and when her knees trembled, Hethrir bared his sharp teeth. He would bite

her spine, snap it, paralyze or kill her--"No!" Tigris shouted. He grabbed Hethrir's robe and pulled him

back. The Lord's teeth snapped together, biting air, gashing his own lip. Rillao escaped his grasp and fell

forward, panting.

"Foolish boy! Foolish! She's a traitor!" Blood gushed down his chin.

"Please don't kill my mother, my lord." Hethrir snorted in disgust. "She's a traitor! She betrayed the

Empire--she betrayed you!" Rillao struggled to her feet. "You are the traitor," she said.

Tigris glared at her, furious. "How dare you say that to Lord Hethrirffwas She looked at Tigris sadly, then

faced Hethrir again. "You could not tell him, could you, Hethrir?" "Do not speak my name!" he said.

To Tigris, she said, "He is a traitor to you." Tigris shook his head, confused.

"Hethrir is your father."

Han swam toward Leia and Luke, flailing through the thick light. He swam forever, until his muscles

ached.

Waru was far larger inside than outside. The creature's circulation whirlpooled around a central point of

darkness. It looked like the black hole and its accretion disk.

Han wondered, Could the black hole open a portal to another universe? Is that where Waru came from?

Nothing could escape the black hole's gravity... but the singularity distorted time and space around it-None of that mattered. All that mattered was getting to Leia, to Luke. They swam back to back, fending

off creatures that looked now like knife blades, now like streamlined predators with hides of molten gold.

Han plowed through the ring of attackers, succeeding in his blind rush because Waru's predators were so

intent on the prey at the center of their circle.

"Han--!" Leia's warm fingers wrapped around his. He melded into a circle with his love and his friend.

They swam, back to back, kicking, twisting, fighting.

The whirlpool swept them around and pulled them inward, toward the point of utter darkness.

"Swim!" Han yelled. He knew--How do you know? he asked himself, and answered, I don't know, I

only know what I know--t if they touched the darkness, they were doomed forever.

He thought he could hear the ghosts of the people Waru had killed.

He kicked, a swimming kick. He tried to propel himself and Leia and Luke away from the center, out of

the maelstrom, to Waru's molten skin. Leia joined his efforts.

But Luke floated between them, strangely quiescent, holding them back.