No indeed Han Solo would never get used to flying without his ship, the whole way down he felt like they were going to be flung clear off the animal's back and hit the ground very quickly and very hard, but Nightmare eased down towards the ground before coming to a total stop, just long enough for the two men to get off of him, and he took off again and disappeared.
It was a permanent night here, everything was dark and dreary, Han couldn't make out a whole lot but he was able to catch sight of wandering spirits, and an unpleasant thought occurred to him.
"I sure hope we don't run into anyone we know here," he told Chewbacca as he looked around. "I don't even know where we start looking."
Seeing the dead around them was a confusing sight, some seemed to be solid dead bodies that stumbled around groaning and moaning, others were very much spirit forms, human but not solid, downright see-through in parts, some still looked as they did when they were alive, some were mere shrouded figures.
Han had another sinking feeling in his stomach as he absently gripped a fistful of Chewbacca's fur in his hand and told his friend as he looked around, "Remember, everybody here's dead, don't touch any of them, it might be catching...okay...let's start the search."
They walked around the staggering corpses and wandering spirits, Han feeling like an idiot because he had no idea what they were even looking for. Did they search for the Lord of the Dead first and seek an audience with him? Or did they look for the king and queen? As long as they'd been dead, they would have to know the layout of this place and maybe they could give him some pointers.
"Hold it," Han said as he suddenly stopped and Chewbacca knocked into him, Han pointed to two spirits who wandered around in circles, one was a woman dressed in a dark blue gown with a long white scarf tied from her shoulder up around the side of her head, she had long black hair and a jewel hanging from her hair to her forehead. The spirit next to her was a man, a few years older, hair starting to gray, dressed in a red robe with gold trim and a matching turban. Royalty clothes if ever Han saw them, especially in a place like this.
"Let's check it out, but don't touch them," he told Chewbacca as they made their way over.
Han felt like he had a rock stuck in his throat as they approached the spirits, how exactly did you open a conversation like this?
"Uh, excuse me," he said as they turned towards the two living people, "Are you...are you the parents of the princess Cassima in land of the Green Isles?"
The woman looked at him, her eyes haunted him, blank but deep and dark all at the same time.
"We are," she answered, "I am Queen Allaria, this is my husband, King Caliphim. We were murdered in our beds by our trusted vizier. Like a viper, he snuck in during the night and stabbed us in our sleep! Now my husband's soul is broken and he will not speak. My poor husband will never rest while our murder goes unavenged and our daughter is in danger!"
"That's actually why I'm here," Han said, realizing now just how stupid it sounded that someone like him would take a monumental chance like this, knowing the odds were stacked in the favor that he'd already lost and there was no way out. What possessed him to do something stupid like this? It must've been a bout of temporary insanity or something, any other day, any other place and time, he would've hauled his afterburners out of there long ago. Instead he was literally laying his life on the line for a group of people he didn't even know, who meant nothing to him. Why then, had it felt so important that he do this?
"Who are you?" Queen Allaria asked him.
Han shook his head, "Nobody, Your Highness, nobody at all, just a lowly cargo hauler from the other side of the galaxy whose ship just happened to crash land on your isle this morning. I've spent the day bouncing around to all the isles in the kingdom and somehow I managed to stumble into this massive conspiracy plot somewhere, and..." he shrugged, "nobody else could do anything about it, so here I am. I've been filling in some of your constituents about the situation with the Vizier, they're planning to come to the Crown's aide but I've come to try and bring you and your husband back for your daughter's sake and the Crown's sake."
Queen Allaria responded, "But this is the Realm of the Dead! We cannot leave it, nor, for that matter, can you. The only one who might be able to return us all to the land of the living is the Lord of the Dead, but he would never help us. He has no mercy."
"I actually have quite a bit of experience with people like that," Han said. "We've come all this way, I'm going to see what I can do."
She held something out to him and told him, "Then, take these. They are our tickets to the Underworld. There you will find the Lord of the Dead. I cannot use the tickets as long as we're chained here, and if we cannot be avenged, we will never be unchained."
"Sounds like a few business deals I've had," Han said as he took the tickets, careful not to touch her hand but somehow feeling they faced no threat from these two spirits anyway, "I wish I could promise something, but I'm going to try whatever I can to get you out of here."
She looked at him sadly and told him, "Be careful, young man."
"I'll do my best," Han responded.
The further Han and Chewie made their way through the realm, it occurred to him things suddenly weren't as dark. He didn't like this place whatsoever, there was something very off with all the scenery. They didn't just walk through dirt, everything under their feet looked like it'd been made of something, whatever the material was, it all resembled animal scales, and spikes, parts of it looked like creatures' legs, as if the whole platform they moved on was a giant animal just waiting for them to make the wrong move and devour them. But the further along they walked, and the scenery took on a much more reptilian appearance, Han saw dim flickering lights, he realized from torches hanging here and there. If it was supposed to make the place look more inviting it failed, miserably. They came to a set of doors that were guarded by four skeletons, two of which wore armor and helmets, who would take the tickets to the underworld and grant passage to the spirits before them.
Han was hoping they wouldn't notice that he and Chewbacca still both had their flesh on them, among other things, they casually walked up and offered their tickets and they were permitted through the doors that seemed to open and close of their own volition. Once on the other side, the platform looked even more like a 20 footed dragon just waiting for the right moment to spring to life and eat them up. He didn't like any of it, not one bit. The path twisted and turned and all they seemed to do was go back and forth, back and forth, up and around, and then he stopped when he saw something in the middle of the path.
A black suit of armor with a skull's face peering out through the open visor. Han felt his stomach drop as he remembered the Arch-Druid's story about the knight who sought to win against death. Clearly, he'd lost, and now Han knew exactly what he and Chewbacca would look like if they failed too. Han noticed the knight was wearing one black gauntlet, and there appeared to be writing on it. He removed it and held it up to the torch light to make out the words.
"Flesh may cross the portal, and seek its master Death. Flesh may go where Death has trod, and challenge, like Scheherazade, he who reins beneath the sod, to spare a mortal's breath."
Chewbacca grunted in response, and Han commented, "Yeah, I don't like it either." He was half tempted to toss it on the ground but for some reason he thought it might be important later and stuffed it in his pocket. "Let's keep moving."
They walked down the twisting and turning path and turned a corner and came to a pitch black river, and a boat. Several souls were already seated aboard the small ship which had an unusually large skull mounted on the front. The ferryman stood at the end of the dock cloaked in a long black hooded robe and clutching a large staff in one hand. Han couldn't quite make out what was under the hood and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He absently shifted his weight from one side to the other and heard a familiar metallic sound in his pocket.
The coins from the catacombs.
He sighed as he took them out, looked at them in his palm and realized once again he had to part with something he'd had his heart set on keeping, but he guessed in the end it wasn't going to matter now anyway. He stepped forward and offered the coins to the ferryman to pay for their passage across the river, the ferryman accepted and they clinked as they dropped in his skeletal hand. He and Chewbacca sat down behind the rest of the boat's occupants and endured as the boat slowly traveled over the water, that looked like neverending pieces of blackened glass.
When they reached the other side of the river they got out of the ship and walked up another platform that looked even more like some kind of reptilian creature with gnarled legs and clawed feet. The only thing there that didn't look like it was made out of some kind of scaly leather was a large wooden set of double doors, dimly lit by a pair of torches suspended on the wall on either side of them.
"Well," Han said, trying not to let on how anxious he felt, "I guess this is where we find the Lord of the Dead, just, on the other side of this gate."
Chewbacca snorted uncertainly as they headed up to the door. Han reached out to grab the door knob but something seemed off and he pulled his hand back just as the door shifted and turned into a large, skull-like, scowling face. It roared to life and demanded to know, "What touch awakens my sleep? I smell the blood of a mortal! Reach out thine hand again, fleshy human, that I might devour it. It has been centuries since I last ate."
"Yeah? Well you're gonna go hungry," Han told it. "We have business with your master."
The door's eyes seemed to glare at him and had a sickening grin on its face as it responded, "My master and thine, human! I would be pleased to introduce thee, only step forward and thou shalt meet him shortly."
Chewbacca howled as he moved to the front and punched the door so hard that the living wood-like material was dented, the skull-like face howled in pain.
"You want to try that again?" Han asked.
The door hissed at them and reluctantly conceded, "Enter."
Suddenly the face was gone, the double doors were a mere set of doors again, which swung open promptly.
"Thanks, Chewie," Han said as they stepped in.
The doors closed behind them, and Han felt his stomach sink even lower as he took in their new surroundings.
This place was notably brighter than the rest of the realm, only due in part to there being more lit torches burning here than the rest of the land. The bridge platform to walk up to the Lord of the Dead was the same black scaly material, but past that, it changed into a white colored texture similar to giant spiderwebs, It looked like a long walk to the being Han had come to see, who was a giant humanoid figure whose body looked stitched and chained together and made of the same material as the platforms and bridges they'd crossed on, and in fact, his head appeared to have no top to it, it just spanned on and on until it fused with the scenery.
Halfway between the two of them and the Lord of the Dead stood two tall guards in black hooded robes that went all the way to the floor, not entirely unlike the Druids, but far more unsettling. Each wielded a spear with a skull mounted on it, and Han didn't even want to think who they had belonged to.
Up till now, Han Solo felt he could still maintain some kind of plausible deniability that this all was real, that this was really happening. Now it was starting to hit him like an asteroid shower, this was real, and he was taking the literal gamble of his life that he could somehow defeat death itself, and if he failed, he wouldn't just die, he anticipated it would be an excruciating agony. He felt a rock in his stomach and felt his breathing become more labored as it dawned on him he really had no idea what he was going to do, how he could possibly win here. He turned towards Chewbacca and told him, "Listen...stay back here, and don't do anything...if I don't make it, see if you can find Nightmare and ride back to the Sacred Mountain."
Chewbacca howled mournfully. Han looked at him, feeling that his eyes were open far wider than he'd wanted them to be, and confessed, "I'm scared to death, pal, but there's no going back...whatever happens, I have to try."
He hugged his best friend again for what was very possibly the last time, and forced down everything he felt coursing through him, turned around and walked up to the shrouded guards.
"I'd like an audience with your lord," he told them, forcing himself to sound more certain and less concerned about the matter at hand than he actually felt.
The two hooded beings escorted him down the platform and right in front of the Lord of the Dead himself. Han felt overwhelmed as he realized the thing was a lot bigger than he'd seemed over on the other end of the room.
He looked down at Han and demanded in a heavy, rasped breath, "Why have you entered my domain still wearing your flesh? If you are so anxious for Death, you might have found it easily enough in the land of the living. But since you are here, you are most welcome to stay. Kiss my hand, and you will be one with the spirits. There will be no pain."
"Uh, um, a tempting offer," Han stammered, trying and failing to mask how nervous he was, but he pushed forward, "but I'm going to have to pass." He remembered the gauntlet in his pocket and the story the Arch-Druid had told him of the knight, and he held up the black gauntlet and told the being, "I did not come here to die, but to demand my right of challenge!" He threw down the gauntlet.
Even though the face was without emotions, the eyes seemed to change a little as he asked the smuggler skeptically, "Who are you to challenge Death?"
"A man of flesh, that's all I need to be," Han answered.
Death seemed to mull this over and wanted to know, "And what is it you seek with this challenge?"
"The souls of King Caliphim and Queen Allaria from the Land of the Green Isles," Han answered, feeling just a little bit more sure of himself than before.
Death responded, "You would save two human souls and emerge alive from this realm yourself? That shall be a difficult challenge indeed. The tomb does not open its doors lightly."
"Them, myself and my wookiee friend Chewbacca at the end of the platform," Han told Death, "Either all four of us leave here today...or none of us do. Double or nothing is a hard deal to pass up, wouldn't you say?"
"Very well, then let me think of an appropriate task," Death said, and shortly came up with an answer, "Ahhh, yes, I have it now. Your challenge is this: for thousands of years I have sat upon this throne, I have heard every sad tale that can be told by human lips, I have seen tragedies that ended empires, injustices that defy reason, love that would light the very stars turned cold and hard. I have seen torments that cannot possibly be borne and yet must be, for centuries. This thing I have never done: I have never shed a tear. Make me cry, thou 'man of flesh'. That is my challenge."
Ooh boy, that was it, he was dead. He was dead, Chewie was going to die, they'd never get out of here, the Crown was lost, the princess would be forced to marry the vizier who was old enough to be her father, which made Han's stomach turn again and he felt acid rushing up to his throat, every time he thought about it he-
Wait. That was it!
He reached in his bag and took out the Mirror of Truth that Beast had given him, he held it down at first as he addressed Death and told him, "If all you say is true, then that will be your undoing." He held the mirror up so Death could see his own face, his own existence.
Han felt the mirror starting to tremble in his hands, he chanced a quick glance at the glass and saw reflections of despair, of wailing souls, Death's enslavement to this throne while still a man, the years of watching misery and horror and growing numb and ever so numb to it. His was an existence that had no redemption, no end. The mirror shook more violently and Han felt that something severe was about to happen and turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut, lest laying his own eyes upon the horror should make him a target as well and take him out when whatever happened happened.
CRACK!
Han dropped the now shattered mirror and inspected his hands for any cuts from when the glass was pulverized, he saw no blood, he raised his head and felt his breath leave him when he saw a single tear roll down the face of death itself.
He wasn't sure how, or when, but he remembered hearing somewhere that the only thing worse than enjoying people's suffering, was becoming indifferent to it, and death seemed as indifferent as they came.
Death told him, "Truth is, indeed, a terrible thing. I have worn this mantle for so long, I had forgotten its dreadful weight. You shall take the souls and leave, as I agreed. You have been granted a stay from this inevitable reality. I almost...envy you." He addressed his escorts and told them, "Find the souls he has claimed and bring them to me."
Han took a step back in disbelief. He turned and saw Chewie standing on the other end of the platform, his arms raised high and howling victoriously. Han felt like his heart was beating at a hundred miles a parsec, somewhere between elated that they had won, and disbelief it had actually happened, an almost dread that there was a catch somewhere they weren't realizing, but most of what he felt was an overwhelming sense of relief. Chewie crossed the platform in a very short order and lifted Han off his feet in a crushing bear hug as he howled loud enough to deafen the whole room and Han was stuck somewhere between gasping and laughing in joy and disbelief.
The spirits of Caliphim and Allaria were brought before Death who told them, "Your hero has won you a few more years of mortality, may your souls be more prepared for their rest when you return."
Han watched as their transparent figures became solid flesh and blood people again and he stood there frozen in awe. Then he saw Death, who while he never moved, his eyes looked straight at Han and added, "And you, man of flesh, my steed shall take the four of you back to the land of the living. Tell her where it is you wish to go. Until we meet again, then...I assure you, we WILL meet again."
That sent a chill down his spine.
"No offense, but I hope it's not for a long time," Han replied.
Death responded grimly, "It is never as long as you wish, mortal. Now begone."