Dinner
that evening in one of the Fountain Palace's private dining rooms was more
quiet than usual, Jaina noticed. Jacen
was his usual moody self, Anakin and Tahiri were having their own private
conversation, and Zekk was busy shoveling food into his mouth as if it were his
last meal.
They had made up a couple of hours ago, but something had
seemed off with Zekk when he had come by to apologize. He had brushed her concern aside, saying he
was just worried about the present state his ship was in. Whatever was bothering him, Jaina knew he
would tell her when he was ready, so she had dropped the subject.
"So," she began in a conversational tone, "I guess we
should head back to Yavin Four soon. Maybe even as early as tomorrow."
At the mention of leaving, Zekk choked on the food he had
been chewing and started coughing, while Jacen lost his grip on his fork and
dropped it on the floor.
Zekk took a long gulp of water from his glass. "It just went down the wrong way," he
explained. When Jaina and everyone else
went back to their meal, Zekk shot Jacen a quick glance and could see him
struggling to keep his expression neutral at the mention of leaving Hapes.
"Well, we won't be able to leave for a few days anyways,"
said Zekk, thinking quickly, "the navi-computer and the shields still need to
be fixed," he caught Jaina's glare at the mention of her 'mistake' but it was
the only excuse he could think of. He
just hoped it had not bought him another round of a yelling match with her.
Fortunately for him, she responded by saying, "yeah I
guess that may take a few days,"
Jacen spoke up from his spot at
the table, "I need to go do something," and then he got up and left.
"Um, I think I left the landing lights on the Lightning
Rod on," Zekk said, and hurried out of the dining area after Jacen before
anyone could say question him.
Now Zekk's acting weird, Jaina thought to herself. First, he lied about what was bothering
him this afternoon and now he just ran out of there like a gundark with its
ears on fire, with some lame excuse about his ship. What was going on around here that she was
being kept in the dark about?
"Jacen, wait up!" Zekk called after him, as Jacen rushed
through the grand corridors of the Palace.
"Not now, Zekk,"
"I thought you would be grateful since I just bought you
a few extra days with Tenal Ka back there,"
Jacen skidded to a halt. "What are you talking about?"
"I saw you two together today in the garden,"
Jacen faced him, running his fingers nervously through
his thick brown hair.
"How much did you see?"
"Enough," Zekk answered.
Jacen looked around the open area they were in. Anyone could be just around the corner
listening in. He waved a hand at
Zekk. "Follow me,"
Zekk did as he was told and followed Jacen into the
turbolift and up to his room. As soon
as they were inside Jacen's room with the door shut, Jacen spoke.
"No one was supposed to find out,"
"Well maybe you should've been more careful," chided
Zekk.
"We were – "
"Making out in the open where anyone could see you is not
being careful. Just be glad it was me
that found you and not someone else," he pointed out," so, how long has this
been going on for?"
"A few days now," Jacen answered truthfully.
Zekk opened his mouth to speak but Jacen beat him to it.
"We didn't want to lie to everyone but we both decided that
it was better this way. If you guys
didn't know anything then if we were to get caught, we wouldn't have to worry
about all of you taking the blame for our mistake."
"Didn't you stop to think for a minute that maybe we'd
have been willing to lie and cover for you? We're you friends after all,"
"It wasn't your decision to make,"
"The hell it wasn't," Zekk said in an angry voice, "Jaina
and I watched you make a fool out of yourself when you got drunk over losing
Tenal Ka. And today, your sister nearly
blew up my ship she's so distracted from worrying about you, while this whole
time you and Tenal Ka have been going off to your secret love nest to fool
around. Do you think that's fair to
her? Or to any of us?"
Jacen sighed. Zekk was laying the guilt trip on him, and he was laying it on good.
"Look, I know it's not fair but the fewer the people that
know the better," Jacen explained, "and that's why I have to ask you not to say
anything to anyone, especially not to Jaina,"
"How do you expect me to keep this from her? She already suspects something's up, I'm
sure of it,"
"Please Zekk," Jacen pleaded, "I'm asking you as a friend
to promise me you won't say anything. I
don't want my sister or anyone else involved in this."
Zekk heaved a sigh and caved in. "Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut, just don't
ask me to lie for you to Jaina more than I already am, because I won't do it,"
Jacen nodded. "Thank you, Zekk,"
"Thank me by bringing your relationship with Tenal Ka out
into the open before someone gets hurt,"
That night, Jacen lay awake in his bed thinking about
everything that had happened that day, when there was a knock at his door. He checked his chronometer, knowing it was
late, but also knowing exactly who would be at his door at this hour.
He opened his door to reveal Tenal Ka standing there, and
he quickly ushered her inside, checking up and down the hall to see if anyone
had seen her. After Zekk's accidentally
stumbling upon them, he was not taking any chances. Zekk was right, they had been careless and it was exactly that
kind of carelessness that would get them into trouble.
"Did anyone see you come here?" He asked, as soon as she
was inside.
She gave him a curious look. "Of course not. I made
sure that I was not being followed,"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," she replied, "Jacen, what is it? You are acting paranoid."
"It's nothing really," he said with a shrug of his
shoulders, "it's just…"
"Just what?" she inquired, concerned.
"Zekk saw us in the garden today," he saw her expression
rapidly change to one of worry, so he quickly continued, "but he hasn't said
anything to anyone and he told me he wouldn't,"
"It was my fault. I was careless," she said taking the blame.
"We
were both careless," he said placing both his hands on her
shoulders. "Jaina wanted to leave
tomorrow, but Zekk said there's some repairs that need to be done on the Lightning
Rod. That bought us a few days,"
"We
cannot ask Zekk to keep our secret forever,"
"I
know. It's just until we figure out
what to do. We can trust him. He's not going to say anything."
"I
do not doubt friend Zekk's trust," she said evenly, "however, Jaina is going to
be angry when she finds out that not only us but Zekk was lying to her as well,"
"We'll
cross that bridge when we get to it," he said, hoping that his sister wouldn't
stay mad at them forever when she found out the truth. "Did you talk to Zeille?"
"He
wants to leave the day after tomorrow,"
Jacen
sank down into a couch. "That doesn't
give us much time,"
"Then
we will just have to make the most of our time together, until we can come up
with a better plan," she said, coming to sit down beside him.
"I
think I like that idea," he said, a lopsided smirk appearing on his handsome
face as he leaned down to kiss her. He
couldn't help but feel though, as he held Tenal Ka in his arms, that from this
point on things were going to get worse, not better.
Less
than thirty meters away and two floors above the hiding couple, housed the
reason for Jacen's fears.
Inside
a room that seemed like an ordinary room that any guest at the Fountain Palace
would stay in, sat a man in his mid-thirties watching a tiny computer
screen. He had been given strict orders
to monitor this individual at all times. The job was simple enough, given his previous experiences as a spy for
the esteemed Ta'a Chume. But this time
he wasn't working for her. He was
working for her grandson-in-law.
Lord
Zeille had come to him yesterday with his suspicions regarding his wife's
recent odd behaviour. Leaving their
apartment at all hours of the night and not returning until dawn, and then
spending the rest of the day avoiding.
The
spy had given Zeille a small virtually untraceable locator device to place on
the Princess' clothing. Because of its
clear colour, it would be almost impossible to find, even if one knew what to
look for. And he could almost guarantee
that the Princess had no idea of her husband's suspicions. She had no idea she was giving the hired spy
all the proof he needed to confirm those suspicions.
It
was at least the second night in a row Princess Tenal Ka had left her apartment
and headed to the room that was currently occupied by Jacen Solo, son of the
former Chief of State Leia Organa Solo.
The
hired spy had also been lurking on the grounds of the Palace Garden, which the
Princess had all of the sudden taken a great interest in. It was there, right in the open that he had
seen her kissing the Solo boy.
He
laughed quietly to himself. The two of
them were making his job unimaginably easy for him. If they only knew, he thought with a wicked grin.
He also remembered seeing someone else who had caught the princess and her companion together. From the information Zeille had given him, the teen's name was Zekk, a friend of the two lovebirds. He had taken care to ensure that Zekk had not seen him because that would have ruined everything right there. The young man seemed too distracted by Princess Tenal Ka and Jacen Solo's public display of affection to notice him anyways. It seemed that Lord Zeille was not the only one being lied to.
He
went back to watching his screen with the flashing dot on it. He would wait only to see if the flashing
dot would stay at its present location, and then go show his findings to Lord
Zeille, along with the other information he had gathered over the past couple
of days.
He
had a feeling that his employer would be most impressed with his findings. But what he did with that information was
his business. All the hired spy cared
about was that he got paid for his services. And he deserved every credit of it.