The maitrakh lifted her head, as if looking in her mind’s eye toward the distant hills. “This place was never rich with life, Lady Vader. Perhaps that was why the clans had chosen it as a truce ground. But even in so desolate a place there were still animals and plants without count. They are gone now.”
She straightened up, visibly putting the memory behind her. “The Lord Vader helped us in other ways, as well. He sent attendants to teach our sons and daughters the ways and customs of the Empire. He issued new orders to allow all clans to share the Clean Land, though for all clans to live beside one another this way had never happened since the beginning.” She gestured around her. “And he sent mighty flying craft into the desolation, to find and bring to us our clan dukhas.”
She turned her dark eyes to gaze at Leia. “We have an honorable peace, Lady Vader. Whatever the cost, we pay it gladly.”
Across the room, the children had apparently finished their lesson and were getting to their feet. One of them spoke to Threepio, making a sort of truncated version of their facedown bow. The droid replied, and the whole group turned and headed for the door, where two adults awaited them. “Break time?” Leia asked.
“The clan lessons are over for today,” the maitrakh said. “The children must now begin their share of the work of the village. Later, in the evening, they will have the lessons which will equip them to someday serve the Empire.”
Leia shook her head. “It’s not right,” she told the maitrakh as the children filed out of the dukha. “No people should have to sell their children in return for life.”
The maitrakh gave a long hiss. “It is the debt we owe,” she said. “How else shall we pay it?”
Leia squeezed her thumb and forefinger together. How else, indeed? Clearly, the Empire was quite happy with the bargain it had made; and having seen the Noghri commandos in action, she could well understand its satisfaction. They wouldn’t be interested in letting the Noghri buy out of their debt in any other way. And if the Noghri themselves considered their service to be a debt of honor to their saviors … “I don’t know,” she had to concede.
A movement to the side caught her attention: Khabarakh, still sitting on the floor across the room, had fallen over onto his side, with Chewbacca’s hand engulfing his wrist. It looked like fighting, except that Chewbacca’s sense didn’t indicate anger. “What are they doing over there?” she asked.
“Your Wookiee has asked my thirdson to instruct him in our fighting methods,” the maitrakh answered, pride again touching her voice. “Wookiees have great strength, but no knowledge of the subtlety of combat.”
It was probably not an assessment the Wookiees themselves would have agreed with. But Leia had to admit that Chewbacca, at least, had always seemed to rely mainly on brute force and bowcaster accuracy. “I’m surprised he was willing to have Khabarakh teach him,” she said. “He’s never really trusted him.”
“Perhaps it is that same distrust that whets his interest,” the maitrakh said dryly.
Leia had to smile. “Perhaps.”
For a minute they watched in silence as Khabarakh showed Chewbacca two more wrist and arm locks. They seemed to be variants of techniques Leia had learned in her youth on Alderaan, and she shivered once at the thought of those moves with Wookiee muscle behind them. “You understand the cycle of our life now, Lady Vader,” the maitrakh said quietly. “You must realize that we still hang by spider silk. Even now we do not have enough clean land to grow sufficient food. We must continue to buy from the Empire.”
“Payment for which requires that much more service from your sons.” Leia nodded, grimacing. Permanent debt—the oldest form of covert slavery in the galaxy.
“It also encourages the sending away of our sons,” the maitrakh added bitterly. “Even if the Empire allowed it, we could not now bring all our sons home. We would not have food for them.”
Leia nodded again. It was as neat and tidy a box as she’d ever seen anyone trapped in. She should have expected no less from Vader and the Emperor. “You’ll never be entirely out of their debt,” she told the maitrakh bluntly. “You know that, don’t you? As long as you’re useful to them, the Grand Admiral will make sure of that.”
“Yes,” the maitrakh said softly. “It has taken a long time, but I now believe that. If all Noghri believed so, changes could perhaps be made.”
“But the rest of the Noghri still believe the Empire is their friend?”
“Not all believe so. But enough.” She stopped and gestured upward. “Do you see the starlight, Lady Vader?”
Leia looked up at the concave dish that hung four meters off the ground at the intersection of the wall support chains. About a meter and a half across, it was composed of some kind of black or blackened metal and perforated with hundreds of tiny pinholes. With the light from the inside rim of the dish winking through like stars, the whole effect was remarkably like a stylized version of the night sky. “I see it.”
“The Noghri have always loved the stars,” the maitrakh said, her voice distant and reflective. “Once, long ago, we worshiped them. Even after we knew what they were they remained our friends. There were many among us who would have gladly gone with the Lord Vader, even without our debt, for the joy of traveling among them.”
“I understand,” Leia murmured. “Many in the galaxy feel the same way. It’s the common birthright of us all.”
“A birthright which we have now lost.”
“Not lost,” Leia said, dropping her gaze from the star dish. “Only misplaced.” She looked over at Khabarakh and Chewbacca. “Perhaps if I talked to all the Noghri leaders at once.”
“What would you say to them?” the maitrakh countered.
Leia bit at her lip. What would she say? That the Empire was using them? But the Noghri perceived it as a debt of honor. That the Empire was pacing the cleanup job so as to keep them on the edge of self-sufficiency without ever reaching it? But at the rate the decontamination was going she would be hard-pressed to prove any such lagging, even to herself. That she and the New Republic could give the Noghri back their birthright? But why should they believe her?
“As you see, Lady Vader,” the maitrakh said into the silence. “Perhaps matters will someday change. But until then, your presence here is a danger to us as much as to you. I will honor the pledge of protection made by my thirdson, and not reveal your presence to our lord the Grand Admiral. But you must leave.”
Leia took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said, the word hurting her throat. She’d had such hopes for her diplomatic and Jedi skills here. Hopes that those skills, plus the accident of her lineage, would enable her to sweep the Noghri out from under the Empire’s fist and bring them over to the New Republic.
And now the contest was over, almost before it had even begun. What in space was I thinking about when I came here? she wondered bleakly. “I will leave,” she said aloud, “because I don’t wish to bring trouble to you or your family. But the day will come, maitrakh, when your people will see for themselves what the Empire is doing to them. When that happens, remember that I’ll always be ready to assist you.”
The maitrakh bowed low. “Perhaps that day will come soon, Lady Vader. I await it, as do others.”
Leia nodded, forcing a smile. Over before it had begun … “Then we must make arrangements to—”
She broke off as, across the room, the double doors flew open and one of the child door wardens stumbled inside. “Maitrakh!” he all but squealed. “Mira’kh saar khee hrach’mani vher ahk!”
Khabarakh was on his feet in an instant; out of the corner of her eye, Leia saw Threepio stiffen. “What is it?” she demanded.
“It is the flying craft of our lord the Grand Admiral,” the maitrakh said, her face and voice suddenly very tired and very alien.
“And it is coming here.”
CHAPTER
13
For a single heartbeat Leia stared at the maitrakh, her muscles frozen with shock, her mind skidding against the idea as if walking on ice. No—it couldn’t be. It couldn’t. The Grand Admiral had been here just last night—surely he wouldn’t be coming back again. Not so soon.
And then, in the distance, she heard the faint sound of approaching repulsorlifts, and the paralysis vanished. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said. “Chewie—?”
“There is no time,” Khabarakh called, sprinting toward them with Chewbacca right on his heels. “The shuttle must already be in sight beneath the clouds.”
Leia looked quickly around the room, silently cursing her moment of indecision. No windows; no other doors; no cover except the small booth that faced the wall genealogy chart from across the dukha.
No way out.
“Are you certain he’s coming here?” Leia asked Khabarakh, realizing as she spoke that the question was a waste of breath. “Here to the dukha, I mean?”