Star Wars - Crystal Star

by The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

  "I'll go back to the receiveg room," she said.

  "I'll finish my appointments. If we haven't heard from--if we haven't heard anything by sundown--" "By morning, please, madam." The chamberlain's face was anxious. "By morning, I assure you, we'll have instructions." "I'll finish my appointments." Leia left the waiting room.

  "Leia--" Dr. Hyos said.

  "Madam--" the chamberlain said.

  "What!" She faced them both, glaring.

  Mr. Iyon gestured, unhappily, ^wlessly, at her bloody hands, her muddy skirt.

  I've met ambassadors and heads of state in worse clothes than this, Leia thought. Worse clothes, and dirtier.

  Leia scrubbed Chewbacca's blood from her hands. Her gown was a lost cause, bloodied and mud stained, its delicate fabric slashed by the grass blades. She threw it into the recycler, and her slippers after it. In her bathing room, as she stood in her shift, she started to tremble. She lowered her eyelids, blotting out the reflection of her own disarranged hair and stark face and staring eyes, reaching for calm, reaching for certainty.

  The fluting warble of Artoo-Detoo drifted into the room. The droid came closer. At the same time, Leia heard a person's voice, high and childish and uncertain.

  "No, I don't remember, I don't remember..." Artoo-Detoo sang.

  Leia hurried toward the voices. As she entered her bedchamber, the silk rugs soft beneath her bare feet, a young Codru-Ji, a native of this world, backed erratically into the room.

  "I don't know, I don't remember," she said.

  Artoo-Detoo's front foot preceded his cylindrical body; finally his domed head and his rear feet appeared in the doorway. He was herding the Codru-Ji to her.

  "I only saw that the small ones were gone, and the large one was hurt, I only ran for help." It was the page who had reported the kidnapping. The blood had been washed from her face, and her abrasions treated, and her torn clothes replaced by a hospital gown.

  Leia hurried forward. "Oh, my dear--" The page did not react. Leia touched her upper shoulder.

  Startled by the touch, the page jumped straight up and turned around in the air. She came down with all four hands clenched into fists behind her, and backed rapidly away.

  She saw Leia. Her eyes widened.

  "Forgive me, forgive me--" Leia took her gently by one lower arm and urged her into the room.

  "Why are you out of bed?" Leia asked. "You should be resting--healing." "The small droid came to me, and I saw I must beg your forgiveness--" "Artoo, how could you?" Leia said. "Fetch Dr. Hyos--qklyffwas The droid warbled, backed up, came forward, hesitated.

  "Hurry!" With a descending trill, the droid scooted through the doorway.

  Leia led the page to a couch and tried to help her to sit. At first the page resisted.

  "No, I mustn't sit--" "It's all right," Leia said. "Please don't stand on ceremony." Leia tried to urge her to sit, but the page's knees locked. Leia allowed her to remain standing, and stood beside her. "You saved Chewbacca's life," Leia said. "And you gave the alarm--" The page stared at her, uncomprehending.

  "Milady, I'm sorry, I cannot hear..." She put her hands to her ears. She started to cry, her sobs shaking her silently.

  "I don't know what happened," she said, her ^ws broken by tears. "They were there, playing, and then--" She shuddered and flinched; Leia wondered if she was experiencing the pressure bomb all over again. "I... I must have fallen asleep, madam. I should be exiled! And when I awoke the small ones were gone, and--" She touched the shells of her ears. She made a high-pitched whistling sound in her own language. "That is to say, Mr. Chewbacca was hurt, and--and I cannot hear, madam!" Leia held her--awkwardly, because of the difference in their forms, but tenderly--and tried to soothe her.

  Dr. Hyos arrived, indignant that her patient had been disturbed.

  "I can't imagine what Artoo was thinking, to bring her here," Leia said. "Of course she shouldn't be up--" "She shouldn't be down," Dr. Hyos said cryptically. "But you are correct, she must rest and recover." The page broke away from Dr. Hyos and grasped Leia's hands.

  "I am so sorry," she said.

  "I forgive you," Leia said, slowly and carefully. "I forgive you. Do you understand me?" The page hesitated, then nodded, and allowed the doctor to take her away.

  Artoo-Detoo remained in Leia's apartment, whistling unhappily and arcing back and forth while Leia dressed. His noise irritated her, but he would not stop and he would not stay still and he would not tell her what was wrong. He followed her from her apartments. When they came to an intersection of corridors, he rolled along one that led outside, while Leia squared her shoulders and trudged toward the meeting room.

  Artoo-Detoo whistled insistently.

  "I can't," Leia said. "I have to. pretend." She walked into the receiveg room. The herald, usually so efficient, glanced at her, dismissed her with his gaze, took a step toward her to show her out, then snapped to attention, recognizing her at last despite her rough clothes.

  "Chief of State of the New Republic, daughter of--" "No time for the whole li/!" Leia said. The herald fell silent. Everyone in the room, her aides and advisers and native Codru-Ji alike, stared at her in confusion. The chamberlain took a hesitant step toward her.

  Leia crossed the receiveg room, her boots loud on the polished stone floor. She took her place in the circle of chairs, leaned back, and crossed her legs. The heavy fabric of her stiff new hiking trousers rasped against itself. She forced herself to look relaxed.

  "Your pardon, Ambassador Kirl," she said to the representative from the province of Kirl. "Thank you for your patience. We had a slight... a slight domestic upset." She forced her most charming smile. "You know how it is--" Her voice suddenly failed her.

  The handsome Kirlian ambassador, who took his name from his province, spread all four hands.

  He returned her smile.

  "I do know how it is," Kirl said. "Many's the time I've interrupted my work--z you say, for a slight domestic upset. No apology is necessary, though you are notably gracious to offer it!" Always before, his grandiose manner had amused and sometimes even charmed her. Now it felt to Leia as if his ^ws went on forever, each one dragged out like molasses.

  The day continued, interminably. Munto Codru's convoluted politics meant that she had to receive ambassadors from an endless number of independent political entities. No wonder the world lay at the edge--outside the edge--of importance to the Republic. It spent most of its energy facing its own international disagreements.

  Its citizens had little time or attention left over for the larger questions of interplanetary cooperation.

  They had taken years to agree to choose a chamberlain, another year to settle on Mr.

  Iyon.

  When the evening bell rang, the ambassador bowed and withdrew. As the aides shut the doors of the receiveg chamber, the people left in the waiting room whistled and sighed in the native language. The doors closed, shutting off the sound.

  "Any ^w?" Leia asked, her voice tight.

  "No, madam," the chamberlain said.

  "But we must not expect to hear before morning. That is the tradition." "Those other people," Leia said. "What did they want? Are you sure they weren't the kidnappers, trying to talk to me?" "What other people?" "The people still in my waiting room." "Nothing and no one of importance, madam," Mr. Iyon said. "Small matters--many invented so the petitioner may go home and say, "I met the princess--I spoke to the Chief of State of the New Republicffby '" "Nevertheless, I'd like to speak with them." "They will return. Come, now, you must eat.

  Tomorrow you'll negotiate with the ransomers, and the children will come home, and everything will be as it was." Leia forced herself to unclench her hands from the arms of her chair.

  Her fingernails had torn small crescents into the heavy satin upholstery.

  Leia hurried toward the silent surgery.

  Inside, Dr. Hyos stood at her desk. The doctor's eyes were closed. She dozed, standing up, with all four arms slightly extended, shifting s
ubtly as if in a slow-motion dance or a soft breeze, balancing her. Leia had never seen a native of Munto Codru sleep.

  What an odd position, Leia thought. Is that normal? Or unique to Dr. Hyos? Maybe she just fell asleep standing up. I'm about to do the same.

  The wyrwulf lay at the doctor's feet.

  It raised its horrible head and gazed at Leia with its horrible bright eyes. It snorted and laid its head back on its frontmost paws. But it did not close its eyes. Leia had no reason to be frightened of the wyrwulf, but it disconcerted her nonetheless.

  Leia let the doctor sleep. Walking softly, giving the wyrwulf a wide berth, she entered Chewbacca's sickroom.

  He lay in a hammock that cradled his huge form. Regeneration bandages covered his leg. Leia had been afraid she would find him immersed in a bacta tank, suspended and unable to communicate.

  Leia sat in a chair nearby and watched him, impatient with his sleep. His breathing was shallow and fast. She wanted him to wake. She wanted to talk to him, to find out what he had seen, to find out if he too had lost two hours or if he had observed what had happened and could confirm her suspicions about these events.

  Andof course she wanted to reassure him, to tell him she did not blame him-- A wave of fury rushed across her, so powerful that she gasped.

  She did blame him. She was furious at him. There was nothing at all in the world that she could say to him.

  Leia rose and backed out of the room. She closed the door, turned, and very nearly ran into Dr. Hyos.

  "Oh--! I saw you sleeping, I didn't want to wake you." "Did you speak with Chewbacca?" "No, I--" How could she admit how she felt about her husband's oldest friend? "Isn't he sedated?" "Of course. He is badly injured." "Have you treated Wookiees before?" "No, Chewbacca is the first of his kind to visit our world." "Then how did you know how to treat him?" "It's my job to know. I have never treated a human, either, but when your mission was announced, I made it my business to learn something of the people who would visit us." "He's lucky," Leia said. He has no worries, she thought, just oblivion. By the time he's healed, and awakes, I'll know... and I'll have lived through every hellish moment.

  "He's very badly hurt," Dr. Hyos said.

  "And he lost a great deal of blood. If he were lucky, he would not have been injured." "Can you wake him? Just for a moment? If he saw something, anything--" "The page saw nothing. She heard nothing. I doubt Chewbacca saw anything either. It would be a great risk to wake him." "But he might--" "An unnec risk." Dr. Hyos turned Leia toward the front of the surgery and led her away from Chewbacca's room.

  "You've had a long, terrible day," the doctor said. "Try to rest. A coup abduction is never easy. But tomorrow--" A high keening sound cut off her ^ws. She hurried into a nearby room. Leia followed, all too aware that the wyrwulf followed too. Its claws clacked loudly on the floor.

  The page stood in the center of the room, still wearing the soft hospital gown, steadied in her upright position by a harness. The doctor stopped beside her, stroked her soft short hair, soothed her. They spoke to each other in their own language, whistles and warbles that passed beyond the range of Leia's hearing. Soon the page dozed again. Dr. Hyos left her, looking worried.

  "Will she be all right?" "Are you still here?" "Will she?" "The bomb damaged her hearing." "But you were talking to her--she heard you. She'll heal, won't she?" "I fear she will never recover the highest range. And yet she will live." "I'm glad," Leia said.

  "Are you?" Dr. Hyos exclaimed.

  "That she'll live? Of course!" "Our hearing is more sensitive than yours, and more delicate. Our most intimate communications take place in the upper ranges," Dr.

  Hyos said softly. "Imagine your body numb.

  Imagine all your senses reduced by half.

  All. Perhaps you humans could endure such an existence, but her future will be... difficult." "Oh," Leia said. "I didn't know. I'm so sorry." She glanced toward the page with renewed sympathy. "Wouldn't she be more comfortable lying down?" "Adults don't sleep lying down." The wyrwulf raised its head and gazed at Leia.

  "Go," Dr. Hyos said kindly. "Rest."

  Leia flung herself onto her bed with a cry of despair. How had she survived this intolerable, interminable day? Her muscles ached with tension that she could not dispel. She regretted, as she had regretted so often in the past, the duties that had kept her from studying the way of the Jedi.

  I'll bet Luke just says to his body, Enough, no more being stiff, Leia thought uncharitably. Or he says to himself, I don't feel any pain, and he doesn't.

  How can I wait till morning to hear from the kidnappers?

  She believed the chamberlain's assurances that a coup abduction was not meant to hurt its victims.

  And yet she believed her children were in mortal danger. If the kidnappers had, somehow, allied themselves with a practitioner of the dark side.

  It must be. The chamberlain and Dr. Hyos, whom Leia thought admirable, considered coup kidnappers honorable. But the kidnappers of Leia's children were ruthless and cruel: they had injured Chewbacca and the page when they were already unconscious, helpless.

  The pressure bomb! Leia thought. It wasn't detonated to aid the kidnapping--it was detonated to destroy evidence. Evidence that someone used the dark side..

  She lay on her back and let the tears come.

  Above her, the translucent stone ceiling shone with pearlescent light, its delicate, intricate carvings a mystery to her as to everyone. The contemporary societies of Munto Codru used the ancient castles as provincial capitals, or avoided them as haunted places. But a previous civilization had built the labyrinthine palaces. The civilization had written its history on rock walls carved so thin that they looked like water-worn glass. The civilization had disappeared, leaving only its castles and its unreadable stories.

  The carvings blurred beyond Leia's hot tears.

  In the outer room of Leia's apartment, the annunciator chimed. Leia dragged herself to her feet.

  Perhaps there's a message! she thought.

  She hurried out of her bedroom. Mr. Iyon stood in the doorway.

  "You've heard?" "No, madam," he said. "Please, I assure you, they'll communicate by morning." "They could be anywhere by then!" "No, they'll be near." "They aren't near!" Leia insisted. "Sir, we've waited long enough. By now they've surely escaped!" "But, madam, escape is unnec--m convenient to stay near. Especially with young children.

  They could even be in the castle." "In the castle? How could they be? They aren't!" "What better place to hide than right beside our ears? The castle is thousands of years old. Its basements and tunnels extend into the ground--even into the mountain--" "I'd know! Don't you see, I'd know if they were near! We must begin a search." Mr. Iyon gazed at her solemnly.

  Gently he took her arm and guided her to a chair. When Leia was seated, Mr. Iyon sat facing her, perched gingerly on the edge of the soft couch.

  "If you order it, madam, I will of course obey--" "I do order it!" his--but I wish to be certain you understand what you are asking." "I--" She hesitated. "You have more to tell me." He inclined his head in a slow nod. He gazed at the elaborately patterned carpet.

  "If anything disturbs the negotiations," he said, "everyone loses face. The kidnappers will be forced to recoup." "By hurting the children?" "They would sacrifice their own ambitions, if they injured anyone of noble birth." He stopped, and continued with difficulty. "But if you refuse to negotiate, the kidnappers may feel inclined to make some sacrifice--ffdemonstrate their sincerity." Leia could not understand what he meant. How could the kidnappers make a sacrifice, if their own traditions forbade them to hurt her children?

  "Your wyrwulf," she said. "You're afraid they'll sacrifice your wyrwulf." Mr. Iyon raised his head and looked her in the eyes. He said nothing.

  "But it isn't coup kidnappers!" Leia said. "Don't you understand, no one from Munto Codru is involved!" "Are you certain, madam?" She was--she had been--but she was so tired, and she was so torn by grief, so tempted to believe tha
t in the morning, everything would be resolved, the children would be safe.

  I won't answer yet, Leia thought. For a few minutes, I can think about what Chamberlain Iyon has said.

  Mr. Iyon clapped his two left hands together. One of his aides entered, carrying a tray that bore a delicate antique stone pot, a teacup, a plate of cookies. Light shone through the sides of the teapot, liquid gold moving gently among carvings of the same vintage as the castle.

  "I took the liberty of bringing you some tea.

  It is soothing." She had eaten nothing all day. A moment ago she would have sworn she could never eat again, but her dry mouth suddenly watered and her stomach growled, most inelegantly, when she smelled the fragrant tea and the thin nut cookies.