The Courtship Of Princess Leia Part 20

"Our business leaders tend to measure everything in terms of growth, profits, output. I have seen worlds operated by businesspeople, and they take little thought for those people who are seen as a drain on their economy?the artists, the priests, the infirm. I would prefer to let such leaders run their businesses."

"You complain about a mercenary att.i.tude among businesspeople, yet only a moment ago you called your mother a predator?" Luke said. "What is the difference between her and someone in business?"

"My mother was a good leader for her time," Isolder said. "Your Old Republic was falling apart. We needed someone brutal to fend off the Empire, and when we could not fend them off any longer, we needed someone strong enough to hold our worlds together under the pressure of Imperial rule. My mother met those needs. But her day is past. Now we need a queen mother strong enough to fight off my aunts, yet gentle enough to lead through kindness."

Teneniel was still rubbing the rancor down, and the huge beast leaned into her, seeking her ministrations. "I don't profess to understand all of your argument," Teneniel said, "yet you call us barbarians because women rule this world and you men have no power. But if you are led by a queen mother, then how can you be any less barbaric than us? Men hold no power on either of our worlds, so what is the difference?"

"In a sense, I hold ultimate power," Isolder said. "For although I am only a man, I will choose the next queen mother."

Leia gritted her teeth. It was the same stupid argument that repressed people came up with in every society. One way or another, they satisfied themselves that they held some control even though they relinquished it to others. You often couldn't argue with people who were so thoroughly grounded in their own culture.

But Leia realized that something else made her angry: The fact that she happened to fit all of Isolder's specifications for a perfect queen mother. He claimed to love her, and he was one of the most attractive men she'd ever seen. But maybe he was one of those people who only let themselves fall in love when they met someone who had the right qualifications. If this were the case, Leia didn't know how she felt about that.

Perhaps Teneniel had the right answer. She just looked at Isolder and laughed. " 'I will choose the next queen mother,' " she mocked, feigning his accent surprisingly well. " 'I have all the power!' " She shot a wicked smile over her shoulder as she rubbed down the rancor, and she laughed, "You're so dumb!"

In the back of the cavern, Han suddenly began shouting and firing his blaster. Luke leaped to his feet, pulled his lightsaber. "There's a monster back there in the pond!" Han yelled as he rushed up to the fire, blaster still smoldering. "It's big and green and it's got tentacles! It tried to eat me."

"Oh, yes," Teneniel said, "I forgot about her."

"You mean you knew there was a monster there," Han shouted, "and you didn't tell me about it?"

"The clan sisters put her in the lake several years ago," Teneniel said.

"We thought when she grew large enough, she would make a good meal for the rancors."

Teneniel patted Tosh's flank, whispered into her ear. The rancor regarded her calmly a moment, a feral light gleaming in her eyes, then she roared and the small herd took off at a run, heading for the lake. The humans moved in close to the fire and began eating roasted nuts.

The fire was cozy, warm, and they talked softly among themselves for a few minutes as the last of the sunlight faded and the cave seemed to darken and close in around them. For a while, Leia felt comfortable, but suddenly her heart began to pound, and she felt stifled, suffocating. She stood up, looked behind her. A woman in black stood at the mouth of the cave, holding a great staff.

"What are you doing here?" Barukka demanded, walking toward the light.

When Leia had first spotted her, the staff had made the woman appear old and infirm, but as she got close, Leia saw that Barukka was a young woman, perhaps no more than thirty. Still, Leia could feel an aura of dark power around her, something that made her feel worn, ageless.

Barukka's piercing blue eyes were very intent, and she watched them all warily from beneath a hood. "I must warn you that I am forsaken, and that this is my house you have entered. I cannot welcome you or offer you shelter."

"Then perhaps we can welcome you, and offer you shelter and some dinner,"

Luke said, rising from his seat, "Please," Teneniel said, "we've come for your help!"

Barukka stayed outside the light of the fire, watching them like some wild animal. Her face was badly bruised. "You are in danger," Barukka said at last. "Gethzerion has been summoning the Nightsisters for a war.

I can feel her summons, pulling at me. You are her enemies." Barukka's voice was strangely contemplative, as if she were studying her own feelings.

"But we are not your enemies," Luke said.

"Mother Augwynne told me that you pet.i.tioned to join the Singing Mountain clan," Teneniel said. "We would like to welcome you back fully as a sister some day."

"Yes," Barukka said distantly. "She has chosen to leave the Nightsister clan." She said it as if she were speaking of someone else, someone who was not in the cave, and Leia knew that this woman was not sane.

"You chose to leave the Nightsisters," Teneniel said.

"Yes," Barukka whispered, as if remembering.

"Will you help us?" Teneniel asked. "We need to go to the prison, to find some parts for a ship. Can you tell us where to look?"

Barukka stood unmoving for a long moment, frowning in concentration. She began to tremble, and whispered, "No, I can't."

"Why can't you?" Luke said. "Gethzerion has no power over you."

"She does!" Barukka said. "Can't you hear her calling me? She hunts me!

Even now, she is stalking me!"

"Does she call to you?" Luke asked. "Do you hear her voice in your head?"

"Yes," Barukka said.

"What does she say?"

"She rails against me, curses me," Barukka answered. "Sometimes I hear her at night, as if she is standing by my bed."

"You two must have been close," Luke said.

Teneniel said, "Gethzerion is her sister."

"Barukka," Luke said softly. "She was your sister, but the part of her that you loved is either gone or has been hidden very deeply."

Barukka looked down at the floor, as if gazing into the depths of the earth, then looked up at Luke. "Who are you? You are more than you seem.

I feel your presence."

"He is a Jedi Knight from the stars?" Teneniel said.

"?Come to put an end to our world!" Barukka hissed, suddenly fierce.

"Yes! Yes! The prison! I have been there!" She spun into motion, began to make hissing and spitting noises. She pointed her staff at the cave floor and swirled it. Leia's heart pounded in fear, and she suddenly realized that the spitting sounds were words, an incantation. The ground at Barukka's feet buckled and rose to form a miniature chain of mountains as high as her knees, stretching from one side of the cave to the other.

Suddenly the dust swirled darkly and buildings arose at Barukka's feet: nestled in the mountains was a long building with six sides, with a great courtyard in the center. Cell blocks ran around the inside of each wall, tiny windows and doors showing in minute detail. Small round guard towers rose at each corner of the prison, and perfectly sculpted guard droids swiveled in chairs, keeping watch with their miniature blasters. Small Imperial walkers stood guard at one end, figures made of dust that walked impossibly along the grounds. Outbuildings rose near them, and at last a single large tower formed from the ground near the prison, with a walkway of dirt leading through the air from the upper levels of the prison to the top of the tower. On the far side of the prison, the dust roiled in waves, as if a small lake had formed.

Chewbacca roared in fear and pointed: tiny humanoid figures of dust walked around the perimeters of the prison, some dressed as stormtroopers, others dressed in the robes of witches. Barukka stood over her creation, sweat running down her face, panting. Her eyes were glazed, and the firelight flickered in them. Leia could tell that only a great act of concentration let the woman manipulate the dirt this way. It was a talent beyond anything that Leia had ever seen in Luke, and it frightened her. If Barukka could do this, what kind of power did some of the other Nightsisters have?

"These are the entrances to the prison," Barukka said, stabbing toward doors on the east and west of the prison. "And here are its guardians."

She stabbed the tower guards with her staff, smashed the Imperial walkers, squashed an outpost on the western edge of the desert.

"Gethzerion has long sought to a.s.semble a complete ship so that she can escape," Barukka said, "and she keeps the components here, in the bas.e.m.e.nt beneath her tower." She jabbed her staff into the base of the tower.

Han and Luke went to the living map, studied it thoughtfully. "That tower is too heavily guarded for us to come at it in the open," Han said. "In fact, the whole eastern valley here is just too exposed."

They looked at the lake to the west of the hills. "I'd say our best bet is to hike through the hills here on the north or south," Luke agreed, "then sneak to the prison from the back side. Once we're in, it's an easy walk through the prison blocks, over the walkway and into the tower."

"Yeah," Han said. "And they've got a hover craft and a couple of speeder bikes parked out front. Once we get our parts, we should be able to just load them up and leave."

On top of the tower, a tiny figure of a Nightsister walked through a door, stood looking up at the sky for a moment, as if staring directly into Barukka's face. Barukka suddenly shrieked, "Gethzerion!" and spun, smashing the figure with her staff.

The perfect living replica of the prison crumbled into sand, and Barukka fell to her knees, sobbing. Luke reached over to her, gingerly touched her back, and held her.

"It's all right," Luke said. "She won't hurt you anymore. She won't hurt you anymore."

Barukka looked up at him, and her face was a ma.s.s of purpled bruises.

"But what of me?" she cried. "When will my scars heal?"

Luke touched her face. "Those who use the dark side of the Force to harm others often do harm to themselves," he said softly. He ran his fingers over the bruises, and immediately the puffiness diminished. "Sit with me tonight," Luke said, "and together we can begin your healing."

For a long time that night, Leia stretched out on a blanket. The chorus "Han Solo, / What a man! Solo," played over and over in her mind until she had a fierce desire to take a hammer to Threepio. Had he known it would affect her this way? Had he known it would get caught in her mind and play over and over again until she thought she'd scream?

To calm herself, she lay awake and listened to Luke as he taught Teneniel, Barukka, and Isolder. "The Jedi uses the Force only for knowledge and defense, never to injure or gain power."

"But with the spells of our clans," Teneniel countered, "the words of the spells are the same whether we cast them for darkness or light. How will we know whether we are using them rightly?"

"It's not the words that give you power, it is your intent," Luke said.

"When you remain calm, when you feel at peace, when you show mercy and justice to those who make themselves your enemies, then you will know that you are using the Force correctly. But if you surrender to hate, or despair, or greed, then you give in to the dark side and it will dominate your destiny, take control of you."

"I have . . . friends among the Nightsisters," Teneniel said. "As a child I played with Grania and Varr, and I considered them dear friends. Even Gethzerion gave gifts to me during Winterfest. We cast her out of our clan only seven years ago. I cannot think of them as all lost."

"Some of them you may win back from the dark side," Luke said. "If you feel good in them still, then you must awaken them to that if you can.

But don't be fooled. The dark side can be compelling, and some turn completely from the light, become agents of evil. Remember the good that was once in them if you can, love them for it, but don't let them sway you. The agents of evil seldom reveal themselves willingly."

"You said that those who follow the dark side can be won back. But what if you yourself become tainted?" Barukka asked quietly. "How can you free yourself?"

"Then you must turn away from the dark side with your whole heart. Give up your anger, give up your greed, give up your despair."

Leia looked over at Barukka, saw that the woman's brow was furrowed and a tear glimmered in her eye. Though Leia could not imagine what was going through the woman's mind, she somehow felt grateful not to have Barukka's problems.

Luke reached out and touched Barukka's chin, raised her face and said softly, "And in time, you must give up your guilt."

Chapter 19.

Gethzerion isn't with them," Teneniel said with certainty the following evening as they looked from the hills toward the prison. She nodded toward a long line of marching stormtroopers and Imperial walkers that picked their way across the brown flatlands like a flock of ungainly metallic birds. Secretly, she'd wished that Gethzerion were with the small army. Teneniel did not like the idea of going into the prison complex knowing that she might meet Gethzerion around any corner. The flatlands around the complex appeared dry. What was a lake in winter became a plain in summer. Patches of cane grew tall around frequent mud holes where burra fish had dug down into the lake bed, h.o.a.rding water as long as possible.

"I count about eighty Imperial walkers and maybe six hundred stormtroopers," Isolder said. "Too bad we don't have a way to send a message back to the clan sisters."

I can send a message," Teneniel said. She closed her eyes and half-whispered, half-sang the spell for talking at great distances.

"Augwynne," she said. "Hear my words, see with my eyes. These are the forces that the Nightsisters send against you." Teneniel felt the easy sense of contact with Augwynne, let the woman see the marching Imperials from her own eyes.

"How long do you think it will be before they reach Singing Mountain?"

Isolder asked. Teneniel broke contact.

"Two days," Teneniel said. "We should get back before they do." They stood on a hill, hidden by the green fanning leaves from tall waxbrush.

Eight kilometers off, the lights of the prison gleamed like stars on the horizon. A tall guntower that seemed made of gla.s.s thrust up from the earth like a thorn. The black steel walls of the prison squatted on the green hills. Teneniel whispered a slight spell to sharpen her vision, looked off toward the prison. She could see several witches in their black robes outside the fortress. On towers over the prison walls and at the top of the gleaming city, guardian droids swiveled constantly, covering the prison compound with their guns. A large craft floated in the air in front of the compounds. It looked just as Sister Barukka had showed them.

Luke took his macrobinoculars from his utility belt. "They've only got one speeder out there, and the hover car is gone. I see some sensor arrays up on the towers, nothing fancy. Still, Artoo and Threepio will need to stay here. We can't risk having them get a whiff of our electronics. This being a prison, we've got to figure that they'll have a full array of biosensors. If we're going to make it in unannounced, we'll need to stay out of their range as long as possible, circle south to the hills. Once we make it there, the rock will screen us out."

Artoo began whistling and rocking in his housing. "Sir," Threepio translated, "Artoo is picking up communications between Zsinj's starships and the prison."

"Well, what do they say?" Han asked.

"I'm afraid the transmissions are coded," Threepio answered. "However, the code does appear to be based on one that the Rebel Alliance broke several years ago. If you give me a few hours, I may be able to translate it for you."

"Sorry, Threepio," Luke said, "I'd like to know what they're saying, but we can't wait that long. Why don't you work on it while we're gone?"

"Very well, sir," Threepio said. "I'll devote my full resources to the task."

"Good," Luke said. "Chewie, you take care of the droids for us. We'll see you soon."

Chewbacca growled and patted Han on the back as they said their good-byes. Teneniel unharnessed her rancors, told them to go into the forest to hunt. As always here on Dathomir, the sun fell away suddenly, and in the purple twilight Han, Leia, Luke, Isolder, and Teneniel headed across the plain, keeping the cane patches between them and the towers of the city. Teneniel whispered spells to sharpen her hearing and her sight, but for the first few minutes, the only sound was the occasional croak of a lizard or the splashing of burra fish in their mud holes, until in the distance, she heard Tosh roar, a lonely wailing call bidding them farewell.

They headed for the barren hills to the south, reached them in two hours just as the first of Dathomir's small moons rose, and then raced northward through the washes and gullies. The rocks and soil reflected the dull silver light of the moon and still radiated dry heat from the day, but a cool wind from the mountains whispered through the dead gra.s.ses. In one wash, they met a pair of horned creatures digging their way out of the sand, and Luke stopped. The husky saurians thrashed their tail spikes in surprise, but did not seem frightened enough to fight.

Instead they retracted their heads beneath their armored sh.e.l.ls, shook the last of the dirt from their backs, then ambled over a hill, heading toward the cane fields for dinner and a drink.

Soon after that, the company turned a corner in a wash and found the guard post?a white, covered tower perhaps fifteen meters high. The tower had two chairs on a platform, and a mount for a blaster cannon. But the cannon had been taken off its mount, and no one was stationed at the guard post.

"What do you think is going on?" Leia said. "Where are the guards?"

"We saw quite a few stormtroopers marching off," Han said. "Maybe the prison is only running a skeleton crew, so some of the guards got pulled."

"No," Luke said. "Look at the sensor array up on that tower. The dish is rusted over." He suddenly realized that none of the others could have spotted that kind of detail in the dark. Luke was straining his Jedi senses to their fullest. "I don't think they're using this post at all anymore and haven't put a guard out here in years. Think about it: since the Emperor interdicted this planet, everyone here is a prisoner. Even if someone runs away, they can't really go anywhere."

"Still," Leia said, "they wouldn't want murderers and thugs running loose." There was a wrongness to her thought, and Luke considered, trying to decide what it might be, but needed to focus his attention elsewhere at the moment.

Luke sighed. "Well, this is it. Let's go see what we can find," and he headed up the draw, past the guardhouse. A moment later they came out of the draw and found a wide brown river. He'd expected a lake. During their trip through the winding gullies, they'd actually crossed the small chain of hills.

Up to the north a kilometer, a dozen giant droids bristling with arrays of shovels and clippers and multiple hands worked at moving irrigation pipes over several well-manicured fields. Barukka's map had not shown the droids. So there were subtle differences. Beyond that, he could see only the east wall to the prison, a lofty black wall that even a rancor couldn't climb. On each of two towers, vaguely humanoid droid gunners handled the blaster cannons. Both droids faced inward, guns trained on the courtyards.

"I don't see much out there," Luke said, surveying the ground with his macrobinoculars. "There's some harvester droids and a pumping station. I see the sally port at the back of the prison, but it's hard to tell how well guarded it might be."