She couldn’t stay put; she couldn’t go sideways; and she couldn’t go up. Which left exactly one direction.
“I’ll need some rope,” she said, scooping up an armful of clothes and starting to get dressed. “Strong enough to hold my weight. As much as you’ve got.”
They were fast, all right. A quick glance between them- [You cannot be serious,] Ralrra told her. [The dangerr would be great even forr a Wookiee. Forr a human it would be suicide.]
“I don’t think so,” Leia shook her head, pulling on her boots. “I saw how the branches twist together, when we looked at the bottom of the city. It should be possible for me to climb along between them.”
[You will neverr reach the landing platform alone,] Ralrra objected. [We will come with you.]
“You’re in no shape to travel down the street, let alone underneath it,” Leia countered bluntly. She picked up her blaster, bolstered it, and stepped to the doorway. “Neither is Chewbacca. Get out of my way, please.”
Ralrra didn’t budge. [You do not fool us, Leiaorrganasolo. You believe that if we stay herre the enemy will follow you and leave us in peace.]
Leia grimaced. So much for the quiet, noble self-sacrifice. “There’s a good chance they will,” she insisted. “It’s me they want. And they want me alive.”
[Therre is no time to argue,] Ralrra said. [We will stay togetherr. Herre, orr underr the city.]
Leia took a deep breath. She didn’t like it, but it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to talk them out of it. “All right, you win,” she sighed. The alien Chewbacca had hit was still lying unconscious, and for a moment she debated whether or not they dared take the time to tie him up. The need for haste won. “Let’s find some rope and get moving.”
And besides, a small voice in the back of her head reminded her, even if she went alone, the aliens might still attack the house. And might prefer leaving no witnesses behind.
The flat, somewhat spongy material that formed the “ground” of Rwookrrorro was less than a meter thick. Leia’s lightsaber cut through both it and the house’s floor with ease, dropping a roughly square chunk between the braided branches to vanish into the darkness below.
[I will go first,] Ralrra said, dropping into the hole before anyone could argue the point. He was still moving a little slowly, but at least the stun-induced dizzy spells seemed to have passed.
Leia looked up as Chewbacca stepped close to her and flipped Ralrra’s baldric around her shoulders. “Last chance to change your mind about this arrangement,” she warned him.
His answer was short and to the point. By the time Ralrra’s quiet [All clearr] floated up, they were ready.
And with Leia strapped firmly to his torso, Chewbacca eased his way through the hole.
Leia had fully expected the experience to be unpleasant. She hadn’t realized that it was going to be terrifying, as well. The Wookiees didn’t crawl across the tops of the plaited branches, the way she’d anticipated doing. Instead, using the climbing claws she’d seen her first day here, they hung by all fours underneath the branches to travel.
And then they traveled.
The side of her face pressed against Chewbacca’s hairy chest, Leia clenched her teeth tightly together, partly to keep them from chattering with the bouncing, but mostly to keep moans of fear from escaping. It was like the acrophobia she’d felt in the liftcar, multiplied by a thousand. Here, there wasn’t even a relatively thick vine between her and the nothingness below-only Wookiee claws and the thin rope connecting them to another set of Wookiee claws. She wanted to say something-to plead that they stop and at least belay the end of their rope to something solid-but she was afraid to make even a sound lest it break Chewbacca’s concentration. The sound of his breathing was like the roar of a waterfall in her ears, and she could feel the warm wetness of his blood seeping through the thin material of her undertunic. How badly had he been hurt? Huddled against him, listening to his heart pounding, she was afraid to ask.
Abruptly, he stopped.
She opened her eyes, unaware until that moment that she’d closed them. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice trembling.
[The enemy has found us,] Ralrra growled softly from beside her.
Bracing herself, Leia turned her head as far as she could, searching the dark predawn gray behind them. There it was: a small patch of darker black set motionlessly against it. A repulsorlift airspeeder of some kind, staying well back out of bowcaster range. “It couldn’t be a Wookiee rescue ship, I don’t suppose,” she offered hopefully.
Chewbacca growled the obvious flaw: the airspeeder wasn’t showing even running lights. [Yet it does not approach,] Ralrra pointed out.