[Last Of The Jedi] - 04(24)
The grandmother’s cheeks suddenly flushed with anger. She didn’t like the casual way he spoke of her beloved granddaughter. Yet he was choosing his words with great care. The only way he would get anything out of this woman was to anger her.
“Whoever brought her to us did so with great care and gentleness, and that was all that concerned us at the time,” she answered.
“She was pregnant.”
Her lips pressed together.
“Did the family know who the father of her child was?”
“That is a private matter.”
“Would you like to spend some time in an Imperial prison?”
“No, not really,” the woman said. “But if you think threatening me with it will give you the answers you want, you’re mistaken.”
She looked at him. Her eyes were dark gray dusted with gold. Unusual eyes. He was almost mesmerized for a moment, seeing himself reflected in them, seeing all the contempt she felt. He got a sudden flash of what she was inside, what she was feeling.
Love. Great love.
Strength. Courage.
He pushed those irrelevancies aside and looked beneath.
Something she’d suspected, something only she suspected…
“Padme did not share with us the father’s name,” she said. He could see perspiration around her hairline. She was nervous. “We didn’t ask. Such things are private matters on Naboo. Because of the Clone Wars we hadn’t seen her in several months. She was the light of our lives, and our sorrow and grief is more than you could possibly know. Why you think you have a right to come here and question me is beyond my understanding.”
“I do have a right,” Malorum said. “The Emperor has given me that right. I am his personal representative.”
He was talking, but the words were too familiar, he had said them so many times. He was listening now. He was hearing what she was feeling, not what she was saying.
“Did you know Anakin Skywalker?” he suddenly barked.
“He was a friend of my granddaughter’s,” the old woman said.
“Did you ever suspect that he was the father of her unborn child?”
Something flashed in her eyes, not anger this time. Something … it was the key.
She knew something.
No … suspected.
He thought of the intuition inside him, what he thought of as his “river.” It had always been there. When he was younger he believed he was just smarter than anybody else. Now he knew it wasn’t intelligence, it was another sense, bigger than he was. His frustration was that he couldn’t control it the way he wanted to.
But it was here now, and he could focus it on Ryoo Thule.
His gaze must have unnerved her, for she looked away. He felt something rise in her, some hope, something she was grasping even as she battled against his will. Something she did not want him to know, and would never betray.
The knowledge ripped through his brain like a rip in fabric, tearing away his misconceptions. He almost leaped with the exaltation of it. Only the most strict discipline, the habit of years of interrogations, kept him standing, with the same expressionless face.
The child was alive.
She had spoken of her granddaughter, but never of the child she carried. That she did not was in itself a signal.
“The child is alive,” he said. He could see on her face that she believed it.
Now the questions came quickly as he advanced upon her, as she shrank before him.
“Have you ever seen the child?”
“Has anyone contacted you about the child?”
“Has anyone visited the child?”
“Did Padm¨ know the child was living before she died?”
“Did she give the child to someone?”
“Is someone hiding the child?”
“Where is the child?”
The questions kept coming. The old woman threw up her hands as if to ward them off like blows.
When she regained control and lifted her face, it was filled with defiance. She knew little, he could see, and she would tell him nothing.
So he killed her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The beauty of the lake was astonishing. Varykino perfectly fitted into the landscape, turrets and domes rising from the rocks and water as they sped toward it, so close to the lake that their Naboo water craft, a gondola speeder, kicked up a wake.
Ferus barely noticed the deep jewel color of the lake, the arcing sky overhead. Before the gondola speeder had come to a halt he vaulted off it. He was filled with foreboding.
He and Solace left the others behind as they Force-leaped up the cliffs, finding toeholds and handholds while in midair. The others charged up the path.
The door to the graceful villa was wide open. He charged inside, his lightsaber held aloft.
Ryoo Thule lay crumpled on the stone floor. He leaned down and with great gentleness touched her cheek. It was warm.