“Then you will hear them in prison.” The dynast gestured, and two more of the official guard left their line, heading purposefully toward the steps.
It was, Leia judged, the right moment. Glancing down at her belt, she reached out through the Force with all the power and control she could manage—
And her lightsaber leaped from her belt, breaking free from its quick-release and jumping up in front of her. Her eyes and mind found the switch, and with a snap-hiss the brilliant green-white blade flashed into existence, carving out a vertical line between her and the line of dynasts.
There was a sound like a hissing gasp from the crowd. The two Noghri who had been moving toward the maitrakh froze in midstride:and as the gasp vanished into utter silence, Leia knew that she’d finally gotten their complete attention. “I am not merely the daughter of the Lord Vader,” she said, putting an edge of controlled anger into her voice. “I am the Mal’ary’ush: heir to his authority and his power. I have come through many dangers to reveal the treachery that has been done to the Noghri people.”
She withdrew as much of her concentration as she could risk from the floating lightsaber to look slowly down the line of dynasts. “Will you hear me? Or will you instead choose death?”
For a long minute the silence remained unbroken. Leia listened to the thudding of her heart and the deep hum of the lightsaber, wondering how long she could hold the weapon steady in midair before losing control of it. And then, from halfway down the line to her left, one of the dynasts took a step forward. “I would hear the words of the Mal’ary’ush,” he said.
The first dynast spat. “Do not add your own discord, Ir’khaim,” he warned. “You see here only a chance to save the honor of the clan Kihm’bar.
“Perhaps I see a chance to save the honor of the Noghri people, Vor’corkh,” Ir’khaim retorted. “I would hear the Mal’ary’ush speak. Do I stand alone?”
Silently, another dynast stepped forward to join him. Then another did so; and another, and another, until nine of the thirteen stood with Ir’khaim. Vor’corkh hissed between his teeth, but stepped back to his place in line. “The dynasts of Honoghr have chosen,” he growled. “You may speak.”
The two guards released her arms. Leia counted out two more seconds before reaching a hand up to take the lightsaber and close it down. “I will tell the story twice,” she said, turning to the crowd as she returned the weapon to her belt. “Once as the Empire has told you; once as it truly is. You may then decide for yourselves whether or not the Noghri debt has been paid.
“You all know the history of how your world was devastated by the battle in space. How many of the Noghri were killed by the volcanoes and earthquakes and killer seas that followed, until a remnant arrived here to this place. How the Lord Darth Vader came to you, and offered you aid. How after the falling of the strange-smelling rains all plants except the kholm-grass withered and died. How the Empire told you the ground had been poisoned with chemicals from the destroyed ship, and offered machines to clean the soil for you. And you know all too well the price they demanded for those machines.”
“Yet the ground is indeed poisoned,” one of the dynasts told her. “I and many others have tried through the years to grow food in places where the machines have not been. But the seed was wasted, for nothing would grow.”
“Yes,” Leia nodded. “But it was not the soil that was poisoned. Or rather, not the soil directly.”
She signaled to Chewbacca. Reaching back into the landspeeder, he picked up the analyzer unit and one of the kholm-grass plants and brought them up the steps to her. “I will now tell you the story that is true,” Leia said as the Wookiee went back down the steps. “After the Lord Vader left in his ship, other ships came. They flew far and wide over your world. To any who asked they probably said they were surveying the land, perhaps searching for other survivors or other habitable places. But that was all a lie. Their true purpose was to seed your world with a new type of plant.” She held up the kholm-grass. “This plant.”
“Your truth is dreams,” the dynast Vor’corkh spat. “Kholm-grass has grown on Honoghr since the beginning of knowledge.”
“I didn’t say this was kholm-grass,” Leia countered. “It looks like the kholm-grass you remember, and even smells very much like it. But not exactly. It is, in fact, a subtle creation of the Empire:sent by the Emperor to poison your world.”
The silence of the crowd broke into a buzz of stunned conversation. Leia gave them time, letting her gaze drift around the area as she waited. There must be close to a thousand Noghri pressed around the Grand Dukha, she estimated, and more were still coming into the area. The word about her must still be spreading, she decided, and glanced around to see where they were coming from.