“Welcome back, Lady Vader,” a gravelly Noghri mew came from beside her.
“Oh, my!” Threepio said, jerking back.
Only long experience-and her strength of calmness in the Force-kept Leia from doing the same. Even when they weren’t particularly trying to be quiet, Noghri were next to impossible to hear. One of the many reasons why Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Darth Vader before him, had so coveted their services as private Death Commandos for the Empire.
Had coveted that service so much, in fact, that they’d deliberately destroyed the Noghri homeworld of Honoghr, keeping the Noghri at a perpetual edge of disaster. A disaster that had been carefully structured to keep them in eternal servitude.
Leia had helped them discover the truth about the Empire’s deceit But though it had brought the Noghri firmly onto the side of the New Republic, it had in many ways been a hollow victory for all concerned. Despite the effort that had been put into the New Republic’s restoration project over the past ten years, hopes were steadily fading that Honoghr could ever be truly brought back to life. And though the Noghri seemed reasonably content with their new settlements here on Wayland, Leia could hear the qu iet sadness in their voices whenever they spoke of home.
Alderaan, her own homeworld, had been shattered to dust before her eyes by the first Death Star, Honoghr, brown and dead, had been destroyed more subtly but no less thoroughly. Unknown numbers of others, all across the galaxy, had been ravaged by the war against the Empire.
Some of those wounds would take a long time to heal. Others never would.
“I greet you, Cakhmaim clan Eikh’mir,” she said to the Noghri standing beside her. “I trust all is well?”
“All is well and quiet,” Cakhmaim said gravely, giving her the Noghri bow of respect. With perhaps one small exception.”
“I know,” Leia said. “Han and Chewie took off while we were on the tour.”
Cakhmaim frowned. “Was he not to leave?” he demanded, his voice suddenly darker. “He told us he was summoned.”
“No, it’s all right,” Leia said quickly. Relations between Han and the Noghri had never been quite as relaxed as she might have liked, and she had no desire to add this incident onto anyone’s grudge list. “He should have talked to me first, but it’s all right. He probably just didn’t want me worrying about New Republic politics for a while.”
Cakhmaim peered up at her. “If I may say so, Lady Vader, I must concur with Han clan Solo in this thought. Reports from your honor guard make it clear that you spend too little time in needed relaxation.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Leia admitted. “It comes of having both a family and a job to do, and a limited number of hours per day to share between them. Maybe now that Ponc Gavrisom’s taken over the Presidency for a while, things will be easier.”
“Perhaps,” Cakhmaim said, not sounding any more convinced of that than Leia herself felt. “Still, while the Noghri people live, you shall always have a place of refuge among us. You and your children and their children. Always.”
“I appreciate that, Cakhmaim,” Leia said, and meant it. There were very few places in the galaxy where she could feel as safe, both for herself and her children, as she did inside a Noghri settlement. “But you mentioned a problem. Tell me.”
“I now hesitate to involve you, Lady Vader,” Cakhmaim said uncertainly. “You came here for relaxation, not to settle disputes. Further, I would dislike to take you away from your firstsons and firstdaughter.”
“The children are doing fine right where they are,” Leia assured him, looking back at the group. Anakin was halfway underneath the airspeeder now, with a pair of Noghri legs sticking out alongside his. The twins still had that strained-patient look as they talked quietly together, but Leia could see Jaina’s hand fondly stroking the saddle of one of the speeder bikes. “Anakin has inherited his father’s love of puzzles,” she told Cakhmaim. “And the twins aren’t nearly as bored as they might pretend. Tell me about this dispute.”
“As you wish,” Cakhmaim said. “Please come with me.”
Leia nodded. “Threepio, you might as well stay here.”
“Certainly, Your Highness,” the droid said, a definite note of relief in his voice. Threepio hated disputes.
The two of them walked a short distance through the trees to a second clearing, this one the main part of the Noghri’s Mount Tantiss settlement. Clustered together were perhaps thirty houses, built to the same basic design of the homes Leia had seen on Honoghr, though modified by the differences in local building materials. In the middle was the longer, somewhat taller dukha clan center.