CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jacen
was awakened not by the loud pounding at his door, but by the warnings his
danger senses were giving off, telling him trouble was nearby.
Tenal
Ka was already alert and awake beside him. She sensed it too. Something was
definitely wrong.
He checked his wrist chronometer: 2:30am.
They had been watching an old holo made soon after his
younger brother Anakin had been born, and had fallen asleep on the couch. To Jacen, sleep sounded a lot more
favourable then answering the pounding at his door.
To quote the famous words of my father, Jacen
thought silently, I have a bad feeling about this.
"Maybe if we don't answer it, they'll go away," Jacen
said to her, only half kidding.
At that, the thumping at his door grew louder, and they
could hear muffled angry voices coming from the other side of it.
"They will not go away," Tenal Ka said grimly, "because
they know I am here."
She was right, of course, but that didn't stop Jacen from
thinking that maybe there was still a way out of this mess they had gotten
themselves into.
"I'm going to answer it. Stay here," Jacen told her.
Tenal Ka shook her head defiantly. "I am going with you. We will face whatever it is together,"
Jacen knew there was no way in Hapes she was going to
change her mind, and the banging at his door was not getting any quieter, so he
simply nodded, and together they both went to answer what was waiting for them
on the other side of that door.
Before Jacen even had the door opened all the way, five
royal palace guards, with nutrient cages strapped to their backs pushed their
way in. Before Jacen had a chance to
ask what was going on, two guards slammed him up against the wall and placed
stun cuff binders on his wrists.
A third guard standing nearby said, "Jacen Solo, you are
under arrest for your adulterous crimes against the Royal Family of Hapes, and
for conspiring with the Princess Tenal Ka Chume Ta' Djo."
"I order you to stop this at once," commanded Tenal Ka,
stepping up to the guards.
"I'm afraid you have no authority to stop this, Princess
Tenal Ka," came the icy voice of Zeille, walking into the room.
"What authority do you have to make these groundless
accusations? Jacen Solo has done
nothing wrong," Tenal Ka growled.
"Spare me your pathetic lies, Princess," Zeille sneered,
"I know everything. Did you really
think you had me played for a fool? I
guess I may have given you that impression the way I pretended I didn't hear
you sneaking out in the middle of the night. Or how nonchalantly I would accept the excuses you gave me about all the
Hapan political business you needed to settle before we left on our honeymoon,"
he snorted loudly, "really, Tenal Ka, I had no idea Jedi could be so easily
fooled,"
Tenal Ka's face was growing red with anger and
embarrassment at her underestimating Zeille. He had been the one playing her all along, not the other way
around. How could she have been so
stupid?
Zeille flashed a wicked grin, enjoying every moment of
exposing the two foolish Jedi. That's
why he had insisted on coming along when the guards made the arrest. The look on Tenal Ka's face had been
priceless, knowing that he had outsmarted her all along. Then there was the Solo boy, whom he took
great pleasure in watching being harassed by the guards. Solo's resistance was pointless with the
ysalamiri inside the nutrient cages that Zeille had insisted each guard
carry. His force powers would be of no
help to him now.
All Tenal Ka could do was stand by and watch
helplessly. If there were two or even
three guards, she could take them easily. But not five, plus Zeille and the ysalamiri, which created a force
bubble preventing her from using her force powers.
Zeille noticed the way she sizing up the guards. "Don't think about doing anything stupid,
Princess," Zeille warned, "I have all the proof I need to show your grandmother
right here,"
Tenal Ka eyed the miniature holo cam Zeille pulled out of
his shirt pocket. It took all of her
strength and training as a Jedi not to jump Zeille right there and show him
what a real Dathomirian warrior fought like.
Meanwhile, Jacen struggled uselessly in the hold of the
guards. They had him pinned face down
on the ground, with the stun cuffs binding his hands behind his back.
His mind struggled to comprehend everything that was
going on around him. Being placed under
arrest seemed surreal to him. He had
always known there were consequences for his actions but he had never imagined
it would end up like this.
He looked on with disgust as Zeille took complete
satisfaction in watching him suffer.
The moment the guards entered the room, Jacen had felt as
if he had suddenly gone blind. He knew
the ysalamiri must have been Zeille's idea so he would not cause any trouble.
"Get up," ordered one of the guards holding him. Jacen was hauled to his feet and shoved in
front of Zeille.
"I hope you had your fun, Solo," Zeille spat, "because
the fun ends here," he motioned to the guards and they pushed Jacen towards the
door.
Jacen managed to maneuver enough in the guards grip to
get one last look at Tenal Ka. Her
expression was full of anger and shock, but not despair. She had that look of sheer determination in
her eyes that Jacen had seen so many times before when she was faced with what
seemed like a hopeless situation.
And that look was the last thing he saw before the guards
dragged him away.
Zeille moved to the doorway where Tenal Ka stood watching
the guards take Jacen away from her.
"I assure you he will receive the best treatment
available in jail,"
Tenal sensed the falseness in his voice. She sucked in a quick breath. "This is not over,"
"You're right. It's only the beginning," and with that he walked out of the room and
slammed the door shut in her face.
Tenal Ka leaned back against the door and pounded a
furious fist into her open palm. A
lesser person would have given into despair at that moment, but not her. She was a proven Jedi Knight and Dathomirian
warrior, and when faced with a challenge she met it head on. Besides, she would never give Zeille the
satisfaction of thinking he had won. She silently promised herself she would find a way to get Jacen out of
this mess they had gotten themselves into. No matter what the cost.