[Black Fleet Crisis(86)

In its heyday Ialtra had had more than thirty buildings, and all but a few had transcended the simple, pragmatic architecture of the region. The circle house had stood three stories high, with a great open archway that divided the lower floors in half, and tiled facings in complex abstract designs. Its rooftop gardens, fed by pipe and solar pump, offered not only lush grass and flowers in profusion, but a view over the surrounding hills. Medicinals and food crops once grew under three translucent domes nested between pairs of small workhouses. Ring dwellings had been scattered everywhere, each with half

a dozen wedge-roofed sleeping

cottages surrounding the common rooms.

Ialtra had enjoyed two wells and a walled pond, and a long wandering meditation trail with more than a dozen hillside shelters. One slope facing north had been carved away into an open-air amphitheater large enough to seat the entire community, with a focus that could accommodate either a performing stage or a ceremonial fire.

None of it remained untouched, and it was clear to both Luke and Akanah that weather and time alone had not done the damage.

The circle house had been collapsed into rubble, its supporting walls knocked out from under it. The growing domes had been exploded from within-fragments of the clear crystalline material littered the ground everywhere, crunching underfoot as the visitors walked slowly among the ruins. The amphitheater was buried under a landslide.

The walled pond had been breached and now was bone dry. The large well had been filled and heaped over with masonry from a wrecked ring dwelling. The small well appeared to have been poisoned with whatever solvents and reagents could be found-a small mound of empty, dust-covered containers of assorted shapes and sizes standing nearby gave testimony to that.

A few of the ring dwellings stood nearly intact, but even those had been defaced. Their tiled facings had been smashed, and a symbol-two lines slashed across a circle-had been crudely burned onto the walls with blaster fire. Akanah stood by one of these, biting her lower lip, saying nothing. Anguish and sadness radiated from her with such intensity that Luke found it necessary to shield himself from most of it.

“This was our home, ” Akanah said at last. “Isela and I lived here-Toma and Ji and Norika next to us on this side. Nori was my best friend. ” Closing her eyes, she bowed her head for a moment, as though steeling herself. Then she ducked through an entry arch, walking across the door that had once sealed it.

The door had had no lock, but its hinges were blaster-scorched and melted all the same.

Luke waited outside, granting Akanah privacy in the ruins of her memories. She rejoined him a few minutes later, standing taller and seeming stronger.

“They weren’t here when this happened, ” she said. “Whether they were taken or escaped, none of them died here. “

“Why do you say that? “

“Because of the way it feels here, ” Akanah said. “I don’t know quite how to describe it, except that I’m sure that I’d be able to feel it if even one of us had been killed here. This was-an empty gesture. It didn’t touch the Current. “

“It feels that way to me, too, ” Luke said. “And I’d vote for ‘escaped. ‘ I’ve been thinking as I look around that this was all done out of frustration. They desecrated your home because that was all they could do. Something else-they didn’t use anything bigger than a personal blaster for this. Nothing military grade. This isn’t the Empire’s work. “

“Our friends in Big Hill and Jisasu, ” Akanah said stiffly.

“They were lied to, ” said Luke. “None of us are immune to fear. “

“Please-don’t try to stop me from being angry at them, ” Akanah said. “We do not pretend to emotional purity. This was my home. I have the right. “

“Of course, ” Luke said. “Akanah-which was my mother’s house? “

Akanah closed her eyes in thought for a moment.

“There, ” she said, opening her eyes and pointing across the compound. “Number Four. ” She smiled faintly. “I understand. Go on-I’m all right. “

Nodding his appreciation, Luke turned and started across the open ground toward the ruined ring dwelling at the foot of the highest of the enclosing hills. But he was not even halfway there when a scream froze him. He whirled, his cape sweeping outward, and a blaster bolt burned past him so close that he could smell the heat.

He rolled away from the heat, came out of the roll with a forward flip that carried him five meters away from where he had stood, and ended the flip searching for his attacker, his lightsaber in his right hand.

There were two men near Akanah, who was huddled on her knees with an arm raised as though she had just fended off a blow.