Part 9 (2/2)

Still, she remained remarkably cordial over dinner. She talked with Luke Skywalker, laughed disarmingly in all the right places. She kept her veil down, yet managed to be seductive. Isolder wondered if the Jedi would sleep with her. It was obvious that she wanted him, and like all the Mothers before her, she kept her age well. She was very beautiful.

But Skywalker seemed not to notice either her beauty or her veiled attempts at seduction. Instead, his pale blue eyes seemed to scrutinize the s.h.i.+p, as if he wished he could take a gander at its technical readouts. The first queen mother had begun constructing Star Home nearly four thousand years earlier, basing the floor plan for the s.h.i.+p on her castle estate. Plasteel interior walls were all covered with a facade of dark stone, and the minarets and crenellated towers were all capped with crystal domes. The castle on Star Home perched on a great hunk of wind-sculpted basalt that the ancients had hollowed out so that they could hide the dozens of giant engines and hundreds of weapons in its a.r.s.enal.

Though Star Home was no match for one of the new Imperial Star Destroyers, it was unique, more impressive in its way, and certainly more beautiful. It tended to awe foreigners, especially at times like this, when they were dining peacefully near some planet, and the brilliant light of dancing stars refracted in the ancient crystal domes.

”It must be fascinating to do your kind of work,” Ta'a Chume said to Luke as they finished the last course. ”I've always been very provincial, staying close to home, but you?traveling across the galaxy, searching for records of the Jedi.”

”I really haven't been doing it long,” Luke said, ”just the past few months. I'm afraid I haven't found anything of value. I'm beginning to suspect that I never will.”

”Oh, I'm sure there are records on dozens of worlds. Why, I remember when I was younger, my mother once granted refuge to some Jedi, a group of fifty or so. They hid out in the ancient ruins of one of our worlds for a year, running a small academy.” Her voice became rough. ”Then Lord Vader and his Dark Knights came to the Hapes cl.u.s.ter and hunted the Jedi down.

After Vader killed the Jedi, he merely sealed them in the ruins at Reboam, I hear. Perhaps they kept some records of their doings, I don't know.”

”Reboam?” Luke asked, suddenly intense. ”Where is that?”

”It's a small world, harsh climate, relatively uninhabited?not unlike your own Tatooine.”

Isolder could see a sudden, unreasoning hunger in Luke's eyes, as if he wanted to discuss this more. Ta'a Chume offered, ”When this is all over and you've rescued Leia, come to Hapes. One of my counselors, who is getting quite old now, could show you the caves. You would be welcome to keep anything you find in them.”

”Thank you, Ta'a Chume,” Luke said, and he stood, obviously too excited to eat. ”I think I'd better prepare to go now. But before I do, may I ask you one more small favor?”

Ta'a Chume nodded, inviting him to ask.

”May I see your face?”

”You flatter me,” Ta'a Chume said, laughing lightly. Behind her golden veils, her beauty was hidden, and in all of Hapes no man would ever have been so bold as to ask. But this Luke was simply a barbarian who did not know he was asking for something that was forbidden. To Isolder's surprise, his mother pulled up her veil.

For one eternal moment, the Jedi gazed into her startlingly dark green eyes, the cascades of red hair, and held his breath. In all of Hapes, few women could vie with the Ta'a Chume for beauty. Isolder wondered if perhaps Skywalker had noticed his mother's discreet advances after all.

Then Ta'a Chume dropped her veil.

Luke bowed low, and in that moment his face seemed to go hard, as if he had peered into Ta'a Chume and did not like what he'd seen. ”Now I see why your people venerate you,” he offered casually, and he left.

The hair p.r.i.c.kled on the back of Isolder's neck, and he recognized that something important had just happened, something he had missed. When Isolder saw that Luke was well out of hearing range, he asked, ”Why did you tell the Jedi that lie about an academy? Your mother hated the Jedi as much as the Emperor ever did, and she would have relished hunting them down.”

”The Jedi's weapon is his mind,” Ta'a Chume warned. ”When a Jedi is distracted, when he loses his focus, he becomes vulnerable.”

”So you plan to kill him?”

Ta'a Chume rested her folded hands on the table. ”He represents the last of the Jedi. Listen to him talk of his precious records. We don't really want to see the Jedi rise from their graves, do we? The first band was troublesome enough. I won't have our descendants bowing to his, ruled by an oligarchy of spoon benders and readers of auras. I have nothing against the boy personally. But we must make certain that those of us who are best trained to rule, continue to rule.” She shot Isolder a glare, as if daring him to challenge her reasoning.

Isolder nodded. ”Thank you, Mother. I think I had best get ready for my journey.” He rose from his chair, hugged his mother and kissed her through the veil.

He knew that he should have left Star Home immediately, headed for his own s.h.i.+p. Instead he hurried down to the guest docking bay, found Skywalker at his X-wing fighter, preparing to disembark. ”Prince Isolder,” Luke said. ”I was just getting ready to leave, but I can't find my astromech droid. Have you seen it?”

”No,” Isolder said, glancing about nervously. A technician came in from a side corridor with the droid.

”Your droid started throwing sparks,” the technician said. ”We found a shorting circuit to his motivator.”

”Are you all right, Artoo?” Luke asked.

Artoo whistled the affirmative.

”Mr. Skywalker,” Isolder said, ”I . . . wanted to ask you something.

Dathomir is what, sixty, seventy pa.r.s.ecs?”

”About sixty-four pa.r.s.ecs,” Luke answered.

”The Millennium Falcon will have to travel a twisted course through hypers.p.a.ce to make that kind of jump,” Isolder said. ”What kind of man is Solo? Will he take the most direct route?”

Computing a jump in hypers.p.a.ce was a laborious task. The nav computers tended to take ”safe” routes, routes where the black holes, asteroid belts, and star systems were well charted. But such routes were often long, tediously twisted. Still, a long route was far better than a short, dangerous trip through uncharted s.p.a.ce. ”If it were just him,” Luke said, ”yeah, Han might take a shorter route. But he wouldn't put Leia at risk, not knowingly, anyway.”

Luke had an odd tone to his voice, as if he were not saying all that he knew. ”Do you think Leia is in danger?” Isolder pressed.

”Yes,” Luke said huskily.

”I heard of the Jedi Knights when I was a child,” Isolder said. ”I was told that you had magical powers. I have even heard that you can pilot stars.h.i.+ps through hypers.p.a.ce without the aid of a nav computer, and that you can take the shortest routes. But I have never believed in magic.”

”There's no magic to what I do,” Luke said. ”The only power that I have is what I draw from the life Force around us. Even in hypers.p.a.ce I can feel the energy inherent in suns and worlds and moons.”

”Do you know that Leia is in danger?” Isolder asked.

”Yes. I've felt a sense of urgency for her. That's why I came.”

Isolder made up his mind. ”I think you are a good man. Will you take me to Leia? Perhaps you could shave a few pa.r.s.ecs off our trip. We might even be able to reach Dathomir before Solo.”

Luke studied the prince, said doubtfully, ”I don't know. He's got a big head start.”

”Still, if we could reach Han Solo first . . .”

”First?”

Isolder shrugged, gestured to the fleet of Star Destroyers and Battle Dragons just outside the energy field. ”If my mother reaches Solo before we do, she will kill him.”

”I suspect you're right, and she does not wish me well, either, though she seems friendly enough,” Luke said, surprising Isolder. So the Jedi had sensed his mother's intent.

”Take care of yourself, Jedi, and meet me on my s.h.i.+p,” Isolder whispered, knowing that in all probability his mother would hear of his betrayal of her within the hour.

”I'll be careful,” Luke said, and he patted his R2 droid lovingly and stared at it, as if gazing through its metal exterior.

Chapter 11.

Leia stormed up into the Millennium Falcon, threw her helmet to the floor so that it bounced and clattered into a corner. Han followed her up the ramp, around to the lounge where Chewbacca and Threepio were playing games on the holo board.

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