The Joiner King (19 page)

Luke leaned close to Leia and whispered, “Han dated Raynar’s mother?”

“You’d be surprised at the women Han’s dated. I always am.” Leia stepped to Raynar’s side, then said, “You must admit the collapse looks suspicious. If it was an accident, how did the Yoggoy
nest know to evacuate the area? And what about the blue Kind we saw? The ones we
killed
?”

Raynar’s breathing softened to a wheeze, and he turned to face Leia. “The only dead Kind we have found at the site was your guide.”

“The otherz must have taken the bodiez,” Saba said. “There were more than the onez Nanna killed.”

“You were mistaken,” Raynar said. “The dust was thick, the rubble was still falling. What you saw were shadows.”

“Who’re you trying to convince here?” Han demanded. He glanced at the attendant bugs, wondering whether they could have more say than he realized. Perhaps
they
were the reason Raynar was trying to deny the Colony’s responsibility. Perhaps they didn’t approve of murdering guests. “Because
we
know what we saw.”

Raynar turned back to Han. “Eyes can deceive, Captain Solo. What you say you saw is impossible.”

“Or our interpretation of it.” Luke’s voice was thoughtful. “What if it wasn’t the Kind who attacked us at all?”

“Others aren’t allowed to wander Yoggoy alone,” Raynar said. “We would know even if someone else attacked you.”

“What if you didn’t know they were here?” Leia asked.

Raynar’s eyes narrowed in thought, then he shook his head in a gesture that—for a change—seemed more Raynar than insect. “You said Yoggoy was warned to evacuate. Why would Others do that?”

“And if they did, you’d certainly know they were here,” Luke said.

Han frowned at Luke. “Don’t tell me you’re buying this?”

“Not that it was an accident,” Luke said. “But that Ray—er, UnuThul—believes it was.”

Leia caught Han’s eye, then gave a curt nod that suggested he should believe it, too. “I think we can all agree on that much,” she said. “If the Colony wanted us dead, they wouldn’t have given up after one try. The attack was supposed to look like an accident, which means somebody was trying to hide it from the Unu.”

“We’re glad you believe us, Princess,” Raynar said. “But there’s no evidence to support your theory.”

“How could you know?” Han demanded. “There hasn’t been time. The attack was less than thirty minutes ago!”

“Yoggoy workers have already cleared much of the rubble,” Raynar answered. “The only body they have—Kind or Other—is your guide’s. The evidence suggests the towers just collapsed. We are sorry it happened when you were about to pass beneath them.”

“Does that happen often?” Leia asked. “That a spire just collapses?”

“Once, when there was a quake,” Raynar said. “And sometimes storms—”

“Not what I asked,” Leia said, stepping off the hoversled. “Let me show you something.”

She took Raynar’s meaty hand, then led him up the boarding ramp into the
Falcon.
Han followed with Luke and Saba, but fortunately only a small part of Raynar’s entourage—the bug with the really long antennae and another covered in furry bristles—joined them. They caught up to Leia and Raynar in the Solos’ sleeping quarters. The pair were standing in front of the bunk, staring at the famous moss-painting hanging on the wall.

“This is
Killik Twilight
,” Leia said to Raynar. “Do you recognize anything?”

“Of course,” Raynar said. “Lizil was very excited about the painting.”

Raynar stepped to the side of double bunk—the Solos had installed it when they had realized the
Falcon
was going to be their primary home—then leaned closer to the painting and began to run his gaze over every detail.

“Thank you for showing it to us,” he said. “We wanted to ask, but our meetings have gone so badly that we didn’t want to presume.”

Han raised his brow. Maybe there was less Raynar left in that seared body than he thought. The Raynar Thul whom Han remembered had been a decent-enough kid, but his wealthy family had never taught him to do anything
but
presume.

Leia appeared less stunned than Han by Raynar’s politeness.
She smiled graciously, then said, “Sometimes, art helps us know each other better. Do you know what this painting depicts?”

Raynar nodded. “It shows an arm of the Lost Nest.” He still did not look away. “We remember it well.”

“The Lost Nest?” Luke asked.

“Remember
it?” Han gasped. “It’s ancient!”

Raynar finally tore his gaze from the moss-painting.

“We remember the
nest.”
He fixed his eyes on Leia. “When humans came to Alderaan, they called it the Castle Lands. But we knew the nest as Oroboro. Our Home.”

Han shook his head in disbelief. He liked to say that all bugs were alike, but not even he had assumed that the Kind and the Killiks were actually the same. Sure, they shared the same general body shape and had the same number of limbs, but beyond that, the Kind looked like the Killiks in the painting about as much as humans looked like Aqualish. The towers, on the other hand, were another matter. In both the painting and the Yoggoy nest, they were crooked cones with distinctly banded exteriors.

Leia did not sound surprised at all. “So the Killiks didn’t go extinct, as everyone supposed. They simply left Alderaan thousands of years ago.”

“You seem less surprised at that than Lizil was to see a painting of Oroboro,” Raynar said.

“I’ve had my suspicions since we arrived at Yoggoy,” Leia replied smoothly She turned back to the painting. “Archaeologists have dated the oldest of those spires to twenty-five thousand standard years.”

“Correct,” Raynar said. “The Celestials emptied Oroboro ten thousand generations ago—that would be twenty thousand years, as humans measure time.”

Han wanted to ask who the Celestials were—and what Raynar meant by
emptied.
He also wanted to ask if a Killik generation really passed at the rate of one every two years. But he could see by the set of his wife’s jaw that she was pursuing her own line of questioning.

“And yet, only three towers had collapsed before Alderaan was destroyed,” Leia said. “No maintenance or repairs, exposed to the elements all that time, and only three collapse. But here,
a tower just happens to collapse as we’re about to pass by. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“There is more gravity here than on Alderaan,” Raynar countered. “And the ground does not make such strong spitcrete.”

“This was still the first tower to collapse for no apparent reason,” Luke reminded him.

“There is always a first, Master Skywalker.” Raynar turned back to
Killik Twilight
and began to study it. “We cannot explain what happened. Please accept our apologies.”

Han exchanged looks of frustration with Luke and Leia, but Saba—who did not truly understand the concept of apology—made a distasteful grating sound in her throat.

“This one does not want your apology, young Thul. She does not eat humanz.” She glanced out into the corridor, where Raynar’s duo of assistant Killiks stood waiting. “And she has never cared for the taste of insectz, either.”

Raynar’s head snapped around so quickly that Han feared he was about to have bloody Barabel scales flying all over his sleeping quarters.

“Take it easy, kid. You remember how Barabels are.” Han took Raynar by the arm and started forward. “Sorry for the misunderstanding, but we still need to get under way. Why don’t you tell us about these Celestials on the way out?”

“If you like.” Raynar allowed himself to guided into the corridor. “It was after we built Qolaraloq—you Others call it Center-point Station. The Celestials were angry—”

Saba stumbled into Han’s back as he stopped dumbfounded in the corridor.

“You’re saying Centerpoint was built by
Killiks
?” Leia gasped. Finally, she sounded like something had surprised her.

Instead of answering, Raynar abruptly stopped. “We need to see the aft hold. Your Noghri are abducting Captain Juun and his first mate.”

Han winced inwardly. “Abducting? What makes you say that?”

The muffled whine of an angry Sullustan drifted up the access corridor. “… 
will
not be quiet! Let me see Captain—”

Juun’s voice fell silent, but Raynar was already out the cabin door.

Han turned to Leia.
“Abducting?”

Leia shrugged. “I told Cakhmaim to bring Juun and Tarfang to the
Falcon.
I guess they didn’t want to come.”

“A misunderstanding,” Luke said. “We’d better go explain.”

Luke led the way into the access corridor, and they caught up to Raynar and his attendants outside the aft hold. Raynar hit the touch pad, then scowled when the hatch did not open and raised his palm toward it.

“Wait!” Han leapt to the control panel and punched in the override code. “Just be patient.”

The door slid open to reveal Meewalh and Cakhmaim holding the
XR808g
’s two crew members. With one of Meewalh’s arms clamped around his throat and her other hand covering his mouth, Juun was at least still conscious. Tarfang was another matter. Still casted and bandaged from his fight with the Yoggoy guide, the Ewok was lying unconscious in Cakhmaim’s lap, with a freshly swollen eye and two new bare patches of fur.

“It’s not what you think,” Han said. “I can explain.”

“That won’t be necessary, Captain Solo.” Raynar made a humming sound deep in his throat, then turned and fixed Han with his unblinking gaze. “Just tell us why you are suddenly in such a hurry to leave.”

“Uh …” The truth was the last thing Han could tell him, but he knew how good Jedi were at detecting lies—and whatever Raynar was now, he had
started out
a Jedi. “What makes you think we’re in a hurry?”

Raynar’s noseless face grew stormy, and Han began to feel a dark weight pressing down on him inside.

It was Leia, as usual, who came to his rescue. “We have no wish to insult the Colony,” she said, “but we don’t feel safe here.”

Raynar turned to her, and the dark weight lifted.

“You are safe. We promise.”

“We don’t believe you,” Han said. That much was completely true. “Either you’re lying—”.

Leia’s face paled. “Han—”

Han raised a hand, then continued. “Or you have no idea what’s happening. Either way, we’re out of here.”

Raynar’s eyes grew so soft that they made Han think of the poor, confused kid whom the other Jedi trainees used to heckle for dressing so funny.

“Very well. You have always been free to come or go as you wish.” He turned toward the Noghri, who were still holding Juun and Tarfang captive. “The same applies to Captain Juun and his copilot. Will you be leaving with Captain Solo?”

Meewalh glanced at Leia. When she nodded, the Noghri removed her hand and arm from Juun’s mouth and throat. The Sullustan bustled to his feet and, glaring at Han, brushed himself off.

“I’ll have to think about it,” he said. “Tarfang doesn’t care for being kidnapped.”

Han’s stomach turned cold. Without Juun and his datapad, their chances of finding Jacen and the others before they turned into a bunch of Joiners went way down. Their only recourse would be to make their way to the Chiss frontier and start jumping from system to system.

Luke stepped toward Juun. “We weren’t trying to kidnap you.” He spoke in a soft monotone. “We were just—”

One of the bristly Killiks slipped forward to block Luke’s way, and Raynar said, “It would be better if Captain Juun made up his
own
mind, Master Skywalker.”

“Look, we were worried about him.” Han addressed Raynar, but he was watching Juun out of the corner of his eye. “We thought you were trying to kill us, and since he and Tarfang were the ones who helped us find this place—”

Juun’s small mouth dropped in alarm. “Don’t remind him!”

“Sorry—honest mistake,” Han said. He felt guilty about forcing the Sullustan’s hand, but Juun’s days running Colony cargo had come to an end when their guide found the transceiver that had helped the
Falcon
follow him to Yoggoy. “We were kind of worried about you. But if you
want
to stay here—”

“I’m not leaving without the
XR-eight-oh-eight-g
,” Juun said. He looked at Tarfang, who was still unconscious. “And you’ll have to lend me a copilot until Tarfang’s better.”

Han faked a scowl. “Getting kind of pushy there, aren’t you, fella?”

“You owe it to me,” Juun said. “Item twenty-two in the Smuggler’s Code.”

Han sighed, then turned back to Raynar. “There you have it,” he said. “I guess we’re stuck with ’em.”

The Jedi pilots rounded the brightly striped mass of the gas giant Qoribu and found themselves staring into the turquoise brilliance of the planet’s huge star, Gyuel. Jaina blinked instinctively, and by the time her eyes opened again, her astromech droid had darkened the StealthX’s canopy tinting. She saw the hawk-winged silhouettes of four inbound defoliators sweeping in just meters above Qoribu’s dazzling ring system, racing for the gap between the moons Ruu and Zvbo on initial approach for a dispersal run. With a four-squadron escort of clawcraft, the Chiss were clearly determined to reach their targets this time.

Rather than break comm silence, Jaina opened herself to the battle-meld and immediately knew her wingmates had done the same. Sometimes they could hear one another’s thoughts through the meld, but more often they simply
knew
what their fellows were thinking … what they were doing. And the connection had only grown stronger since coming to Qoribu. During battles, they sometimes came perilously close to sharing minds.

Jaina focused her thoughts on the impending clash. The Chiss were coming hard this time. The Jedi had to disable those defoliators quickly and withdraw before the fight turned bloody.

Jaina sensed disapproval and knew that Alema favored a more forceful approach, one that would leave the Chiss with no illusions about the consequences of attacking the Colony’s food supply. And she was not alone. Others were outraged as well. Instead of attacking outright—a violation of the Ascendancy honor code, which prohibited an unprovoked first strike—the Chiss were trying to starve the Qoribu nests into retreat. Tesar,
Tahiri, even Jacen believed that the Chiss were engaged in a campaign of species cleansing and deserved to get their noses bloodied.