"Yarna, take her away," Jabba said. "Bring her back in the morning."
Leia was both relieved and even more uncertain as a raven-haired, six-breasted woman in a form-fitting red outfit came forth and half-bowed to Jabba. "Master," she said softly and began to walk away. As the guard shoved her towards one of the massive connecting hallways, Leia glared back at Jabba a final time. He licked his lips, slime dribbling thickly down his chins, and then he was out of sight.
I have a bad feeling about this, Leia thought.
After she'd been let out of the main chamber, Yarna and the guard had led Leia through the darkened corridors, passing curious and amused onlookers until they reached a wide, closed door. Inside, Leia's defiant spirit crumbled upon gawking at who the occupants of the chamber beyond were: a multitude of scantily-clad women—more than forty, Leia guessed—lounged about on decorative cushions and pillows.
It was a harem.
Yarna told the guard to leave, and after he did, she proved herself to be more professionally-minded than cruel. As soon as the door was closed, she instructed Leia to remove her desert garb. "Don't worry," she said. "He's a pervert, even by Hutt standards, but sate his cupidity and you may live."
And as for Leia being put among the slaves' ranks? It only made sense that Jabba sought to humiliate and degrade her, no doubt to befoul her image: a Rebel leader and the orphaned Princess of her home planet of Alderaan, caught in the act of rescuing her loved one—
I wonder how Han is doing, Leia wondered and took a heavy breath as she pushed her pants off of her slender legs. For a moment, she had a strange, fleeting image of her lover in the warm, crushing embrace of Chewie, but she doubted that he'd be lucky enough to be put in the same prison cell. She shook the lucid image out of her head and finished undressing.
"We'll get you cleaned up and outfitted in the morning," Yarna said as Leia reached her undergarments. Leia stopped and looked up at Yarna, who closed her eyes and shook her head, yet Leia couldn't help but plead through her helpless gaze.
"You won't have much choice in how much you can wear, really," she said, "but, if you're shy, you can stay in those for tonight. After that, though..." She shrugged. "That won't be up to me."
Leia swallowed hard. There was no reason she should show her vulnerability now any more than when she was in Jabba's presence; yet she felt some kind of relief, even comfort, with Yarna. She had an instinctive feeling that this woman, along with the slumbering or half-awake women around her, posed no threat to her, not while she was there among them. They probably weren't even in here by choice, she realized; the Hutts were known for their collecting of everything from wealth, treasures, and art to their shameless use of people. No, the women here—Yarna included—were slaves.
"I understand," Leia muttered. "Thanks."
Yarna pursed her lips, then nodded, as if unused to such a response, then showed Leia to an unoccupied nest of cushions.