Part 19
"Master Shaper Kwaad." The villip to Shimrra's throne room assumed the form of the large Supreme Overlord's face.
"Yes, Dread Lord?" The Master Shaper removed the villip from the folds of his living garments.
"Take this petty princess to one of Jakan's priests. I grow tired of waiting for Ben Skywalker to be turned in. Go and heal those dovin basals before this planet falls to those infidels!" Shimrra ordered. The thin, disfigured Onimi opened his mouth to chant another one of his famous rhymes, but the head of the Shaper caste stopped him.
"Yes, milord." Sa'eth Kwaad tucked the villip under his robes before it could say more.
The young adept asked, "Well, Master Shaper?" A curious glance from the intendant told Kwaad that both of the other Yuuzhan Vong wanted to ask the question.
"Let's hand her over to the priests and get her off our hands. After this, Adept, take fifty workers and come with me. We have work to do." The highest ranking Yuuzhan Vong of the three ordered.
"No. You are members of the holy caste. You should go now. I'll take the princess to the priests." The intendant lowered his gaze and left with the daze, yet somehow serene Sil.
-scene change-
Crest awoke to find herself on the back of a beast of burden. She brush aside locks of messy, blonde hair and spotted a companion lying facedown on the animal. Before she could match a name with the figure, a tall, dark priest yanked both humans off the back of the beast.
'Oh, no!' was her first thought as she noted the resemblance between the damutek before her and the correctional facility on one of the Hapan moons.
The priest spoke in a gruff tone with a warrior, apparently a guard, standing at the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a door. The conversation sounded like an argument, but no human could know for sure. It did not matter, for Crest was soon handed to the guard as the priest wrapped a rope-like creature around her ankles and whacked a strange stick against a drum. The shackles tightened to the point where it was merely loose enough to allow blood to flow to the fingers and toes.
The guard began to imitate the priest's actions with the other captive, but the priest shook his head and pointed to one of the legs. Crest squinted as she made out bloody stains against the robeskin that her companion wore. The priest then pointed to the waist-length mess that was once glossy, silky hair. The guard nodded and ferried both women into the living prison. As the guard dragged the two by their collars, Crest gasped. Impossible as it was, her companion, who defied human nature and slept through the entire ordeal, was the princess from her homeworld, Hapes.
Before further thought could enter Crest's head, however, both girls were thrust into a cell. There was already another occupant, but she showed no signs of consciousness. The heaving of her chest told Crest and the guard that the mysterious woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties, was barely alive. The guard stepped forward and muttered a curse as one of his feet sank into a hole on the coral floor. Frustrated, the warrior pushed forward with his other leg, which only served to worsen the situation. A bone-crushing crunch came as pain spiked up the guard's leg. Unbeknownst to the occupants of the cell, the hole that Jysella Horn blasted in her frenzy served to injure one of the guards of the prison damutek.
Grumbling, the guard yanked his broken ankle out of the ditch, hopped out of the cell on one foot, and dropped the wall of coral that separated it from the outside.
-scene change-
"WHAT?" Kodachi Cha's fist pounded against the console before her as the blaze bugs aligned themselves to represent the warships that just dropped into the system. "This is too soon. Summon Domains Tivvik, Kraal, Carr, and Lah to this system immediately!"
Risking his life, the villip tender protested. "Your fierceness, you are out of your mind! Domain Kraal is your enemy and this rogue commander up there is from Domain Lah according to the report from Supreme Commander Sla Tsun."
Kodachi Cha clenched her fists and gave a satisfied grin as her claw-like nails drove into the tattoos imprinted onto her palm. She reached for her amphistaff, but then remembered that the report from Tsun was most likely of grave importance. "What does Sla Tsun say?"
"The Hapan Queen Mother is here with her fleet and the rogue Nuren Lah has put together most of the forces the blaze bugs represent. Malik Carr is coming eagerly and Khalee Kraal refuses to acknowledge you as warmistress. There is no word from Domains Tivvik and Lah." The villip tender reported.
"May Yun-Yammka smile upon our glorious friend Malik Carr and may the combined wrath of the gods be upon all of Domain Kraal after I am through with them. Tell Domain Carr to concentrate its fire on these Hapans." Kodachi Cha chuckled eerily as blue blood, made black by the dim lighting of the room, oozed from her fist. She then turned to her other officers. "Summon the seers. The day of glory requires the command tower to have its seers."
As soon as her officers nodded in compliance, Kodachi Cha strode off into her private quarters to fuel her vanity and oil her tattoos.