The Courtship Of Princess Leia Part 26

"What are you looking at?" Teneniel shouted. "You miserable weakling!"

Upstairs, one of their clan sisters shrieked, her voice cut short. "Get out of here. Go on and fight! Your sisters are dying!"

"Your face," Kirana Ti whimpered. "You've burst a vessel!"

Teneniel stopped, touched her cheek, felt the tender bruise beneath her eye. The mark of a Nightsister. Her mind reeled at the thought, and she realized that she'd murdered those Nightsisters in rage. She turned and ran blindly up the flight of stairs, past the warriors' chambers, and her footsteps rang on the stone.

She turned a corner at the top of the stairs, heard Nightsisters above her singing their spells. She looked around, surprised to find them so high in the fortress. There were no more open rooms this high?nothing but a few sealed sleeping and storage chambers. If the Nightsisters had not come up the stairs, they could have entered only by using the Force to break through the stone walls. And the only thing of value up this high was the Millennium Falcon.

Teneniel raced upstairs, running silently in the guttering torchlight past the faded tapestries of clan sisters long dead, rounded the corner to the upper chamber where the Falcon was stored.

The Nightsisters huddled there?twelve hooded figures muttering their spells, hands outstretched. They had torn the north wall asunder, and the cracked stone opened into the maelstrom.

Into the storm the Nightsisters sent the Falcon, floating on a field of Force. It was halfway through the crack in the wall, drifting out through s.p.a.ce. The hatch door was closed. On the far side of the room, a lone Nightsister crouched over the still form of Isolder, binding his wrists, unable to resist the impulse to steal such a handsome slave.

Teneniel halted, backed against the wall, thinking. She could not fight so many, and if she tried to stop them from stealing the Falcon now, breaking their concentration on the spell, the s.h.i.+p would simply tumble out the rent in the wall, fall over the cliffs. Even with her powerful gift, her ability to move objects, she could not manage to save such a heavy s.h.i.+p and still fight the Nightsisters.

Her only hope was that Leia and Han were all right, hidden inside the s.h.i.+p. She reached out with her mind, calling for Leia. "Please," she whispered. "Fire your engines."

She inhaled a deep breath, turned and ran through the room, and channeled the Force to Isolder, using it to levitate his unconscious body. She bowled his captor aside, grabbed him and leaped against the stone wall, s.h.i.+elding Isolder with her body.

The Falcon's engines flamed, filling the room with white fire. The Nightsisters shrieked in the inferno, but Teneniel channeled the Force, let the flames flow around her. The Falcon shot off through clouds of brown smoke.

Teneniel slumped to the floor. The flames had burned her, singed her clothing. She did not feel damaged so much as just in pain.

The flames had blasted the rooms. A shelf of parchments burned in one corner. Tapestries of ancient clan sisters smoldered. Among the Nightsisters, only one woman had been strong enough to survive the fire.

She crawled, stunned, on her hands and knees, hair singed, face reddened as with a sunburn.

Leia piloted the Falcon through the dust and swirling debris of the Force storm. They had been working desperately to get the anticoncussion field generators on line, and had not even managed to get the first generator mounted. The gravel cras.h.i.+ng into the Falcon's sensor array forks was taking its toll, yet Leia didn't dare try to rise above the storm. The flas.h.i.+ng lightning from the static electricity, the soot and acc.u.mulated garbage in the sky, was all she had to protect them from being detected by Zsinj's wars.h.i.+ps above the atmosphere.

She circled the fortress once, twice. From this alt.i.tude, she could see the sun rising through the storm, so she headed back over the valley beneath the fortress, flying low. Han rushed up from the hold and shouted, "What are you doing to my s.h.i.+p? You can't stay in this storm!"

He took the copilot's seat, and they headed low over the valley. Artoo was whistling and beeping in the back, and Threepio came out. "King Solo, Your Highness, good news! I've emptied all the coolant into the hyperdrive generators!"

"Great, Threepio," Han muttered. "Can you think of a way to stop this storm?"

"I'll have to work on that," Threepio said.

Leia looked down at the ground, at the tilled fields of the Singing Mountain clan. Just ahead, at the limit of vision, a dozen Imperial walkers and perhaps two dozen Nightsisters marched down a wooded road.

Han spotted them.

"Boy, I hate messing up a good road," Han said as he launched his proton torpedoes. Leia only hoped the energy s.h.i.+elding would hold through the blast.

The proton torpedoes blossomed into a field of white, and Leia looked away. An incredible sonic boom shook the s.h.i.+p, echoed between the hills over and over. When the light faded enough so that she could see, gravel and soot began raining from the sky, long trails of debris that glittered in the morning sun like golden waterfalls.

Han whooped and laughed, ran his fingers through his mussed hair. For one eternal moment, Leia realized that they had struck a major blow. The Force storm was over. Han's torpedoes had taken out some of the Nightsisters' major talent.

In the fortress, Teneniel sat up, and the whole mountain suddenly shook with a huge explosion. Down below her in the valley outside, a cheer of victory arose. As quickly as the Force storm had erupted, it stopped.

Soot and debris rained from the sky in dirty streams. Yet out above the residue of clouds, Teneniel watched the sunrise, a golden seam where land met sky.

Teneniel crawled to the wounded Nightsister on the floor where the Falcon had been repaired, and the hag looked up, tried feebly to whisper a spell, but collapsed. Teneniel flipped the woman onto her back, looked into her eyes. The Nightsister flinched, frightened. Her breath rasped through burned lungs, weakening. She had been standing in the wrong place, right behind the Falcon's exhaust ports as it blasted off.

"Don't worry," Teneniel said, stroking the creature's soot-stained face.

"I won't hurt you. I've killed too many of your kind already today. No matter what you do to me afterward, I want you to have this." Teneniel looked at the horrible woman, a victim of her own evil, and Teneniel channeled the last of her strength, granting her enough life force that given time and care, the Nightsister might live.

Han gazed at the streaming sunlight, and his heart leaped within him. For one moment, he thought he'd won.

Then, the darkness blossomed. On the far horizon, a circular black spot appeared, and then another beside it, and another, as if the sky had been lit with ten thousand glowglobes and someone suddenly was switching them off.

Within thirty seconds, the Millennium Falcon hovered beneath a sky void of light. Only flames from burning fields and crops illuminated the ground below. Chewbacca roared and shook his head in frustration, eyes wild.

"King Solo, help!" Threepio shouted urgently. "My photoreceptors are registering a most startling phenomenon: Dathomir's sun appears to be going dead!"

"No kidding," Han said.

"Hey," Leia said, her voice betraying her nervousness. "What is this?"

"Something far beyond the power even of the Nightsisters," Han answered with certainty, looking up at a ceiling of perfect night.

Chapter 24.

Han set the Falcon down, shut off the engines. The night was absolutely black, and he looked up at the sky, wondering if perhaps something was wrong with the view-screen. He thought about pounding it, just to see what would happen.

He glanced at sensor panels. "Oh man," he said. "That little ride of yours through the storm cost us dearly. The sensors are gummed up bad. I can hardly get any readings at all."

"Would you rather be dead?" Leia asked.

"No," Han conceded. "Where's Isolder?"

"I don't know," Leia answered. "He went out to put up the sensor window.

I think the Nightsisters got him."

"Got him? What do you mean, got him? Killed him?"

"I, I don't know. He was lying on the floor when we blasted off. Teneniel was with him. She told me to get out of there."

Han looked at her; the s.h.i.+p's lights revealed the lines of dread etched in her face. What she'd done was tantamount to human sacrifice, and she knew it. He said, "We'd better get the medkit and go back. Make sure he's okay. How far do you figure we are from the fortress?"

"I did a lot of circling," Leia answered. "It couldn't be more than half a kilometer."

Han turned to Chewie. "Leia and I are going back to the fortress. You and Threepio see if you can get those generators mounted. Artoo, see if you can get some sensor readings, tell us what's going on. If you learn anything, I want to hear about it immediately."

Chewie roared an affirmative, and Han went back for the medkit, grabbed a heavy blaster and a helmet. He gave Leia a flashlight, and together they hurried down the gangplank, through the valley.

Dust and soot still filtered down on them, and here and there across the valley they could see fires burning. On the far side of the valley, green running lights showed four Imperial walkers scurrying off in retreat, ghoulish little figures running beside them.

Leia didn't turn on the flashlight. Instead, they ran along the road guided only by the feeble light from fires. What had seemed a long, b.u.mpy ride in the Falcon turned out to be only a short run back to the fortress. When they reached it, the battle was over.

Grim-faced men milled about the fortress, torches in hand, staring at the total darkness with trepidation. Rancors roared in agony on the stairs, and Leia flashed her light over them. A dozen of them lay in a b.l.o.o.d.y heap like small hills at the top of the stairs, and Tosh struggled to drag the corpse of her son away, roaring her anguish.

Han and Leia hurried upstairs in the fortress, running past the dead. In the upper chamber, they found Teneniel sprawled over the body of a Nightsister. Leia flipped Teneniel on her back, and the girl breathed deeply. Han examined her. Outside of burn marks on her robe, he could find no injuries.

"Where's Isolder?" Leia asked, but Teneniel didn't move. Leia played her light across the room. A splash of white revealed Isolder in a corner.

Leia rushed to him.

Han brought the medkit, but when he got near, he found Isolder snoring.

Leia shook him awake, and Isolder snapped to sudden awareness.

"Where am I?" he asked. "What's going on?" Then he scanned the room, noticed the bodies of the Nightsisters, seemed to recall. He gazed into Leia's eyes. "Wow! What a beautiful face to wake up to." Isolder put his arm around Leia, kissed her quickly.

"All right," Han said. "No mushy stuff. We've got work to do." Han glanced up through the breach in the stone wall, saw the fires out in the surrounding valley. It was like gazing out of some primitive observatory.

Augwynne said, "There you are!" Han turned. The clan leader held a torch, and several children stood at her elbow. She moved feebly, as if weary.

Leia helped Isolder up, and Augwynne stopped to inspect Teneniel in the darkness, said to one of the children, "Go, run get the healer."

"What's going on?" Han asked.

Augwynne looked out at the night, nodded. "I was hoping you could tell me," she said. "Gethzerion has retreated to the city. I saw the headlights of her hover car speeding through the forest. Over a dozen of our clan sisters lie dead, and several others are missing, as is Luke Skywalker."

Leia started, gave an involuntary whimper, looked around the room as if Luke might suddenly appear.

"Do you have any idea where Luke is?" Han asked Augwynne.

"We saw him chase after some Nightsisters when the attack first started,"

Augwynne said. "He leaped down over the cliffs."

"Luke can take care of himself," Han said, trying to sound confident for Leia's sake. "Let's give him a few more minutes. I'm sure he'll make it back." But Leia was frowning, staring out over the valley into the blackness.

Augwynne limped over to the crack in the stone wall, searched the sky fearfully. "Few of our common folk were hurt, and for that we can be grateful. I fear that this darkness is all that saved us. It turned back the Nightsisters' attack.

"I'll be down in the war room," Augwynne said. "I'll wait for my sisters to regroup." She walked wearily downstairs.

Han and Leia waited for the healer. An old woman came, pa.s.sed her hands over Teneniel's body three times and sang softly, then sat holding Teneniel's hand. Teneniel's eyes fluttered open, and the woman said, "Rest, now. You gave some of your life to save another. Who was it?"

"A Nightsister," Teneniel said weakly, looked over to the shadows behind her. "There."

The healer went to the Nightsister, felt at her neck for a pulse, then considered for a long time. At last, she got up, walked downstairs without ministering to the woman.

Leia said loudly to her back, "You plan to just leave her? You'll let her die?"

The witch stopped, her back stiffening. She spoke without turning. "I have little enough talent, and others of my clan need my service. If Gethzerion desires to revive the creature, she may send another healer.

But I would not place much hope in it."

Leia's eyes flashed with outrage, and Han placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Leia said, "I'm going to speak to Augwynne about this."

Isolder gathered Teneniel in his arms, and Leia nodded at Han. "Take her down, too." Han lifted the Nightsister and carried her downstairs to the warriors' hall, following Isolder. The Nightsister's robes smelled dirty, rank, as if from soured fat. Han placed her on cus.h.i.+ons near the fire while Leia quarreled loudly with Augwynne. The remaining witches had gathered around the fire, and all of them were dazed, listless. The men brought the dead to the hall, and began was.h.i.+ng and dressing the bodies, preparing them for the funeral pyre.

At last Augwynne consented to heal the Nightsister, and placed her palm over the Nightsister's leathery face, then sang long and softly until the Nightsister's eyes opened. The creature lay on her cus.h.i.+ons, looking up at them from green eyes cracked to mere slits. Han could not tell if she were sick or merely feigning illness. She looked as trustworthy as a viper. He suddenly realized that he would have preferred her dead.

"Han," Leia said uncomfortably, looking at the Nightsister, "I'm really worried about Luke. He should be back by now."

"Yeah," Han said. "I'm worried, too."

"I, I can't feel him. I can't feel his presence anywhere," she choked. "I have to go look for him."

"You can't," Isolder cut in. "It's too dangerous out there right now.

Just because Gethzerion has left, it doesn't mean that the others have gone. The Nightsisters can't be far away."

Augwynne studied Leia with eyes dulled from fatigue. "Isolder is correct.

You can't go out. The Jedi left over the cliff, and I doubt that he could have survived. Even if he is only hurt, he is still beyond your grasp."

Artoo appeared in the doorway, swiveled his eye around and whistled.

"Artoo," Han asked, "what's up? Did you get any readings on what's causing the darkness?" He listened carefully to bleeps and whistles, unable to decode the droid's answer, but Artoo raised up on his wheel pads, leaned forward and showed a split-image holo.

Gethzerion stood under a light, chest heaving from exertion, gazing up at her holo camera. "Zsinj, what is the meaning of this?" She waved her hands, indicating the sky.

Warlord Zsinj, a pudgy human, reclined in a large captain's chair, while colored monitor lights flashed behind him. The warlord, a balding man with a large gray moustache and penetrating eyes, smiled. "Greetings, Gethzerion. It's so good to see you again after so many years. This . . .

darkness . . . is my gift to you: It is called an orbital nightcloak, and I thought a nightcloak sounded like an appropriate gift for the Nightsisters. It's really quite fun. The cloak consists of thousands of satellites chained in a network?each designed to distort light, bending it in toward the satellite. It's quite a marvelous toy."

Gethzerion glared at him, and Zsinj continued. "You told my men over two days ago that you had Han Solo. You will release him to me today. If you do not, the nightcloak will remain in place, and Dathomir will begin to cool. By this time tomorrow, you will have snow in your valleys. Within three days, all plant life will wither. In two weeks' time the temperature will drop to a hundred degrees below zero. You and everything on your world will die."

Gethzerion bowed her head in token of acknowledgment so that her hood concealed her face. "And if we release Han Solo to you, will you remove the nightcloak?"

"On my word as a soldier," Zsinj said.

"Your reputation is widely?regarded," Gethzerion said. "Have you considered our offer to you? Our offer of service?"

"Indeed," Zsinj said, leaning forward in his chair with interest. "I have considered where I might place you in my organization, and I regret that I can't seem to find a suitable position."