Part 14 (1/2)
Damaya got off her rancor and led Han up the steps toward the fortress.
The nine women hesitated at the landing to watch them pa.s.s, studying Han intensely. Their leader, an older woman with graying hair at her temples, had glittering green eyes, and the hollows of her cheeks were a sickly yellow hue. She smiled at Han, causing him to s.h.i.+ver.
”Tell me, offworlder, where your s.h.i.+p is,” she said to his back.
Han's heart hammered, and he turned. ”It's, uh, over?” he started to point, and the messenger Damaya spun violently on her rancor.
”Tell her nothing!” Damaya commanded, and her words were like a knife slicing through some invisible cord that held Han's throat. He realized suddenly that the old woman had used Luke's Jedi trick of commanding those with weak minds.
His face must have reddened, for Damaya said, ”There is no need to be embarra.s.sed. Baritha has a powerful gift for forcing minds.”
The old woman, Baritha, laughed at him, and Han turned away, angry. She followed him two steps, then swung the haft of her spear up from behind, tapping his crotch experimentally.
Han spun, fists clenched, and the old woman whispered under her breath, chanting, and held her hand out in a clutching gesture. Han felt both of his fists caught in an invisible vise, and joints cracked under the pressure.
”Don't be so quick to anger, you morsel of a man,” Baritha cackled.
”Respect your betters, or next time, it will be an eye?or something equally as valuable to you?that I crush.”
”Keep your filthy hands off me!” Han growled. Han's guide, Damaya, casually pulled out her blaster, aimed it at the old woman's throat and said something in her own language.
The old woman released her grip on Han. ”I was only admiring your prisoner. From behind he looks so . . . tasty. Who could resist?”
”We of the Singing Mountain clan suffer your presence here,” Damaya said, ”but our hospitality has limits.”
”You of the Singing Mountain clan are weak-minded fools,” the old woman croaked, sticking her head forward and raising her eyebrows so that her face unwrinkled somewhat. ”You couldn't throw us out if you had to, and so you will suffer our presence, and submit to our demands. I despise your pretensions of civility! I spit on your hospitality!”
”I could shoot you in the throat,” Damaya said longingly.
”Go ahead, Damaya,” the old woman said, pulling open her robes, revealing a shriveled breast, ”shoot your dear aunt! I don't love life anymore since you cast me out of your clan. Shoot me. You know how much you want it!”
”I won't let you goad me into it,” Damaya said.
The old woman cackled, said in a pouting voice, ”She won't let me goad her into it,” and the robed sisters behind her laughed. Han found himself unreasonably angry, wis.h.i.+ng that Damaya would raise the blaster and plug a few of them. Instead, she holstered the blaster, and tapped Han on the shoulder, urging him to walk ahead of her so that she placed herself between him and the nine hooded sisters.
The fortress turned out to be even more hammered than Han had seen from below. Everywhere around the patchwork of blast s.h.i.+elding the rock was cracked and pounded. Many of the cracks had been patched with some dark green, gummy substance so that the basalt took on a marbled appearance.
Chunks of red sandstone lay scattered on the walkways outside, and Han wondered where the sandstone had come from?all the mountains nearby seemed to be volcanic in origin. Someone had to have carried the stones several kilometers.
Two guards at the door to the fortress peeled from their posts and led the way. Han glanced back: A dozen Singing Mountain warriors followed on foot, guarding the robed women. They entered the dark chambers of the fortress, which was honeycombed with halls and stairways. The walls were covered with thick tapestries and lit by sconces. They quickly turned to a room carved into the corner of the fortress so that windows opened on two sides.
The huge room was nearly triangular in shape, with six openings looking out to the prairie. Blaster rifles lay stacked near each window, flak jackets had been tossed in piles on the floor, and a solitary blaster cannon poked out toward the mountains to the east. A huge dent showed where something had smashed its housing, so that green liquid coolant lay puddled beside it on the floor. The cannon was useless. In the center of the room a cooking pit was filled with bright embers. A large animal roasted above the coals while two men basted it with a pungent sauce and turned the spit.
The room was filled with a dozen women in glittering robes of reptile hide, all in helms. Near the back of the crowd, dressed as one of the warriors, Han saw Leia.
One of the women stepped forward. ”Welcome, Baritha,” she said to the old crone, ignoring Han. ”On behalf of my sisters, I, Mother Augwynne, welcome you to the Singing Mountain clan.” The greeter stepped forward, and despite her kind words, her face was cold, somewhat guarded. Augwynne wore a tunic of glittering yellow scales, a hide robe with black lizard shapes sewn around its hem. Her headdress was made of smooth golden wood and decorated with cabochons of gleaming yellow tigereye.
”You needn't bother with formalities,” Baritha said, and the old woman tossed her broken spear to the floor, the purple veins in her head throbbing. ”The Nightsisters have come for General Solo and the other offworlders. We captured them first, and by all right they belong to us!”
”We found no Nightsisters with them,” Augwynne answered, ”only Imperial stormtroopers trespa.s.sing on our land. We killed them, and have offered their prey sanctuary among us as equals. I'm afraid we can't honor your claims to owners.h.i.+p.”
”The stormtroopers were our slaves, working under our direction, as you well know,” Baritha answered. ”They were bringing the offworlders to prison for interrogation.”
”If you only want to interrogate General Solo, then perhaps I can help you. General Solo, why did you come to Dathomir?” Augwynne's eyes flashed to the pouch at Han's belt, and he took the cue.
”I own this planet and everything on it,” Han said. ”I came to check out my real estate.”
As one, the Nightsisters began hissing, shaking their heads, and Baritha spat, ”A man claims to own Dathomir?”
Han fumbled in his pouch for the deed, found the box and pressed its switch. The holo of Dathomir appeared in the air above his palm, his name clearly registered as owner.
”No!” Baritha shouted, waving her hand. The box flew from Han's grip, tumbled to the floor.
”That's right,” Han said, ”I own this world, and I want you and your Nightsisters off my planet!”
Baritha glared at him. ”Gladly,” she said. ”Provide us a s.h.i.+p, and we will leave.”
He felt an odd tugging in his mind, fought the urge to divulge the location of the Falcon.
”Enough of this,” Augwynne said. ”You have your answer, Baritha. Tell Gethzerion that General Solo will remain with the Singing Mountain clan, as a free man.”
”You cannot free him,” Baritha breathed threateningly. ”We of the Nightsisters claim him as our slave!”
Augwynne answered calmly, ”He has won his freedom by saving the life of a clan sister. You cannot claim him as a slave.”
”You lie!” Baritha said. ”Whose life has he saved?”
”He saved the life of clan sister Tandeer, and earned his freedom.”
”I have never heard of a clan sister by that name,” Baritha argued. ”Let me see her!”
The women of the Singing Mountain clan parted, revealing Leia in the shadows. She wore a tunic of s.h.i.+mmering red scales, a helm of black iron decorated with small animal skulls. Baritha studied her face doubtfully.
”Have I seen this one before?”
”She is new to us, a spellcaster from the Northern Lakes region, and an adopted clan sister. Speak the words to the spell of discovery, and you will know that all I say is true.”
Baritha glared at the women in the room. ”I do not need the spell of discovery to tell me what is true,” she said. ”You base your arguments for General Solo's owners.h.i.+p upon technicalities!”
”We base our arguments upon laws that you and your kind have never respected,” Augwynne countered.
Baritha growled, ”The Nightsisters dispute your right to these slaves.
Release them to us, or we will be forced to take them!”
”Do you threaten bloodshed?” Augwynne asked, and suddenly the room filled with humming, dozens of women all around Han mumbling with half-closed eyes. The Nightsisters retreated into a circle, backs to each other, and held hands, chanting, eyes closed, heads half-concealed in the shadows of their robes.