[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(101)

The maitrakh stopped short. “What is that you say?” she hissed.

“It’s the only way,” Leia said. “If Khabarakh is left to the Empire, they’ll make him tell everything that’s occurred here. And when that happens, he and you will both die. Perhaps your whole family with you. We can’t allow that.”

“Then you face death yourselves,” the maitrakh said. “The guards will not easily allow Khabarakh to be freed.”

“I know,” Leia said, acutely aware of the two small lives she carried within her. “We’ll have to take that risk.”

“There will be no honor in such a sacrifice,” the old Noghri all but snarled. “The clan Kihm’bar will not carve it into history. Neither will the Noghri people long remember.”

“I’m not doing it for the praise of the Noghri people,” Leia sighed, suddenly weary of banging her head against alien misunderstandings. She’d been doing it in one form or another, it seemed, for the whole of her life. “I’m doing it because I’m tired of people dying for my mistakes. I asked Khabarakh to bring me to Honoghr-what’s happened is my responsibility. I can’t just run off and leave you to the Grand Admiral’s vengeance.”

“Our lord the Grand Admiral would not deal so harshly with us.”

Leia turned to look the maitrakh straight in the eye. “The Empire once destroyed an entire world because of me,” she said quietly. “I don’t ever want that to happen again.”

She held the maitrakh’s gaze a moment longer, then turned away, her mind twisted in a tangle of conflicting thoughts and emotions. Was she doing the right thing?

She’d risked her life countless times before, but always for her comrades in the Rebellion and for a cause she believed in. To do the same for servants of the Empire-even servants who’d been duped into that role-was something else entirely. Chewbacca didn’t like any of this; she could tell that much from his sense and the stiff way he stood at her side. But he would go along, driven by his own sense of honor and the life-debt he had sworn to Han.

She blinked back sudden tears, her hand going to the bulge of her belly. Han would understand. He would argue against such a risk, but down deep he would understand. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let her come here in the first place.

If she didn’t return, he would almost certainly blame himself.

“The humiliation period has been extended for four more days,” the maitrakh murmured beside her. “In two days’ time the moons will give their least light. It would be best to wait until then.”

Leia frowned at her. The maitrakh met her gaze steadily, her alien face unreadable. “Are you offering me your help?” Leia asked.

“There is honor in you, Lady Vader,” the maitrakh said, her voice quiet. “For the life and honor of my thirdson, I will go with you. Perhaps we will die together.”

Leia nodded, her heart aching. “Perhaps we will.”

But she wouldn’t. The maitrakh and Khabarakh might die, and probably Chewbacca beside them. But not her. The Lady Vader they would take alive, and save as a gift for their lord the Grand Admiral.

Who would smile, and speak politely, and take her children away from her.

She looked out at the fields, wishing Han were here. And wondered if he would ever know what had happened to her.

“Come,” the maitrakh said. “Let us return to the house. There are many things about Nystao which you must yet learn.”

“I’m glad you finally called,” Winter’s voice came over the Lady Luck’s speaker, distorted slightly by a not quite attuned scrambler package. “I was starting to worry.”

“We’re okay-we just had to run silent awhile,” Han assured her. “You got trouble back there?”

“No more than when you left,” she said. “The Imperials are still hitting our shipping out there, and no one’s figured out what to do about it. Fey’lya’s trying to persuade the Council that he could do a better job of defense than Ackbar’s people, but so far Mon Mothma hasn’t taken him up on the offer. I get the feeling that some of the Council members are starting to have second thoughts about his motivations for all of this.”

“Good,” Han growled. “Maybe they’ll tell him to shut up and put Ackbar back in command.”

“Unfortunately, Fey’lya’s still got too much support to ignore completely,” Winter said. “Particularly among the military.”

“Yeah.” Han braced himself. “I don’t suppose you ve heard from Leia.”

“Not yet,” Winter said; and Han could hear the underlying tension in her voice. She was worried, too. “But I did hear from Luke. That’s why I wanted to get in touch with you, in fact.”