Part 6 (1/2)

Obi-Wan sprawled in a sleeping heap next to him, his breathing soft and regular. No cause for concern there, even though dried blood discolored his beard and his face was marred by cuts, sc.r.a.pes, and bruises. Slivers of shadow striped him where light from the new day slid between the warped shutters covering the storeroom's single small window.

The new day. Going by Lanteeban time, that meant they'd slept without stirring for nearly twenty local hours. The good news was he definitely felt refreshed. The bad news-there always had to he bad news-was that his empty belly was rumbling like a rockslide. With luck there'd be breakfast.

But we can V stay here after that. We have to get back in the fight. So the question is, what's next?

Obi-Wan opened his eyes. ”Well? How are your bruised bruises this morning?”

”Surly, ” Anakin said. ”Yours?”

”I'll live. ”

And so would he, but not comfortably. Everything hurt. And in the unfortunate absence of pain meds... ”Hey. Don't suppose you could...”

”Sorry, ” said Obi-Wan, sounding genuinely regretful. ”Miraculous overnight healing is likely to raise eyebrows. ” Wincing, he threw back his blanket and rolled untidily to his feet. ”Never mind. We'll manage. Now, what are your impressions of this village?”

Anakin watched Obi-Wan tug the window's shutter aside and stare through the scratched and warped transparisteel at the dwellings beyond. They were even more dilapidated than Gardulla the Hutt's Mos Espa slave quarter, where he and his mother had lived before being sold to Watto. Small, featureless boxes with flat roofs and shuttered windows. No gra.s.s to soften the hard ground, or flowers to give even the illusion of cheer. What a sad place this was. But despite its sunken, sunbaked sorrow- ”I think we're fine, ” he said. ”At least for the moment. Obi-Wan, we have to get a message to the Temple. ”

”You're reading my mind, ” said Obi-Wan nodding. ”With the mine active and supplying damot.i.te, the village must possess some kind of comm center. The question is...”

”Will they let us use it?” He shrugged. ”Probably not. So I say we don't even bother asking. We can just...”

Prompted by m.u.f.fled footsteps outside the storeroom door, Obi-Wan turned. ”It appears our hostess is up and about. I suggest we go and make friends. We'll need her support while we're here. ”

”And if we don't get it?” said Anakin, slowly getting lip off his mattress. His sc.r.a.pes and bruises really were surly. ”What then? You try a little gentle persuasion?”

”I'm not certain that would work, ” Obi-Wan said at last. ”This Teeba has a very definite personality. If she's unprepared to offer further hospitality, we'll have to see if someone else will take us in. And if that doesn't work, then we'll simply have to find another settlement where the natives are friendlier. ”

27.”Except we're in the middle of nowhere already and I can't sense another village anywhere close by. Can you?”

Obi-Wan grimaced. ”Right now I can't sense much beyond the need for a 'fresher. ”

Good point. His own unhappy body was making urgent demands, too. With elaborate courtesy he opened the storeroom door and stood back. ”After you, Cousin Yavid. ”

They found Teeba Jaklin in her small kitchen, slicing a rough loaf of mixed-grain bread. Putting the knife down, she considered them with her wary, pale blue gaze. ”So. There you are. I was beginning to wonder if you'd died. ”

Her demeanor was odd. Not hostile, but not exactly friendly, either. More than anything, Anakin sensed a resigned resentment in the woman. As though their arrival on her doorstep was just one more burden in a long and disappointing lifetime of burdens.

Undaunted, Obi-Wan pressed his hand to his heart and offered her his most polite bow. ”We certainly slept like the dead, Teeba.

Again, you have our most humble thanks. I think my cousin and I were ready to lie down in the road. ”

From the look on her face the Teeba wasn't sure whether to believe him. She sniffed. ”I think you were too, Teeb. But likely you'd have been safe enough. There's no convoy due for a few days yet. Still... ” She wrapped the remaining uncut bread in a cloth and dropped it into a bin on the bench. ”Better safe than sorry. ”

”Indeed, ” said Obi-Wan. ”Ah-Teeba...”

She pointed through the kitchen's other door. ”The 'fresher's down the corridor there. Can't offer you the tub today. No body bathing till tomorrow. ”

Anakin swallowed a groan. His skin was tacky with dried sweat and blood and grime. We might as well be back on Tatooine. ”Your water's rationed?”

”That's right, ” she said, indifferent to his dismay. ”First, second, and third priority's the mine. Then beasts and crops and drinking.

Wis.h.i.+ng bodies and clothes comes a long way last. ”

”That's quite all right, Teeba Jaklin, ” Obi-Wan said quickly. ”You've given us shelter and sustenance. We don't expect you to launder us as well. ”

Teeba Jaklin stared at Obi-Wan, steadfastly refusing to be softened by his charm. ”You get a splash of wet in the bottom of the 'fresher basin for the worst of the stink. No more than a splash, mind. I'll know otherwise. There's a gauge. ”

”A splash, ” said Obi-Wan. ”Yes, of course. ”

She frowned at his cuts and bruises. ”Not brawling each other, were you? We don't hold with brawling here. ”

”No, Teeba, ” said Obi-Wan. ”As we said last night, there was an accident. We're not trouble, my word on it. ”

”In that case there's a pot of salve in the cupboard over the basin. Use what you need of it. I make it myself. ”

Obi-Wan bowed again. ”That's very generous. Thank you. Markl-you go first. But don't dawdle. ”

”I won't, Yavid, ” Anakin murmured, the obedient younger cousin, and left Obi-Wan to his closer reading of the Teeba and their current predicament.

Like the dingy, cramped kitchen, the cottage's refresher was run-down and hardly big enough to turn around in. As he washed his flesh-and-bone hand and his face at the tiny basin, using no more than the requisite miserly splash, he stared at his wobbly reflection in the cracked mirror. Could be worse. A thin cut along his hairline. Bruising along his left cheekbone and under his eye. A sc.r.a.pe on his chin. Tugging his s.h.i.+rt open, he counted more bruises. His right collarbone ached viciously, as did two of his ribs and both knees.

Perhaps it was for the best that the tub was denied him. He had the feeling he was a patchwork of purple and green bruises and red blaster blisters, which would make for a depressing sight.

Still. If looking awful makes us seem less threatening... more vulnerable... that's all to the good.

He daubed himself liberally with Teeba Jaklin's stinking, sticky green salve. It stung like fire. Then he returned to the kitchen. Upon his arrival Obi-Wan withdrew, leaving him alone with their hostess.

28.Obi-Wan's right. Her mind's about as pliable as durasteel. Whatever we need from her we'll have to get with old-fas.h.i.+oned cajolery.

And hadn't his mother always told him he could coax the stars down from the sky if he put himself to the trouble? Didn't Padme say the same, not always so admiringly?

He offered the plain, tough woman his most winsome, winning smile. ”Thank you, Teeba Jaklin. It's very good of you to help us like this. If we hadn't come across your village when we did, or if you'd turned us away as vagabonds, I'm not sure how we would've survived. ”

With an unimpressed glance the Teeba fired up her kitchen's clunky old stove. ”We keep ourselves to ourselves in Torbel, young Teeb, but that don't make us cruel. I took you in for it was the right thing to do. ”

”And the right thing for us to do is be grateful for it, ” he replied, meaning it. ”Kindness isn't found everywhere, Teeba Jaklin. ”

She hesitated, then shook her head. ”No. It's not. ”

”Have you lived here all your life?”

”No, ” she said, fiddling with the stove's k.n.o.bs. ”Twenty- one seasons. Came here with my man. He died a miner. I stayed. Took to teaching. ”

Behind her laconic reply Anakin sensed an aching well of memory-and was sharply reminded of Bant'ena Fhernan. This was turning into a mission overrun by sad women.

Or maybe it's just that n.o.body anywhere can truly call themselves happy.

”Twenty-one seasons in the same place, ” he said, to fill the silence. ”Hard to imagine. It's almost longer than I've been alive. ”

She sniffed again. ”Practically a boy, you are. ”