"What's taking him so long?" the burly man growled under his breath, throwing a brief glance at his prisoner.
Ksuts slowly met his impatient gaze, her tusks catching the dim light. "I do not know," she said in her muffled voice, "but I do not like it."
Leia concentrated on slowing her breathing. She needed to calm down so she could think clearly.
Her father would probably stall as long as he could, maybe even sending Obi-Wan to rescue her. But these two kidnappers were not alone—Leia had heard them talking about the guards outside. Any rescue attempt made by even Obi-Wan would probably result in death.
And if her father didn't try to rescue her, instead revealing the location of the refugee Caamasi, death would again be the end result. Thinking back to her visit to the refugee camps, of the tall and peaceful humanoids covered in soft down, Leia knew she would never be able to let herself live with the thought that she had been one of the reasons for their downfall.
Fortunately, she could think of a third option.
Relaxing in her chair, Leia closed her eyes. She had a wild card and planned to use it to the best of her advantage.
While gently reaching out to the Force, she contemplated her plan. She had heard from somewhere that Jedi could exercise control over the weak-minded. She had not learned enough to perform such an action, but hopefully she would be able to do just as well without.
Outside the room, a small ping was heard. A minute smile touched Leia's face, only to disappear as soon as it had come.
"What was that?" the human male snarled, leaping to his feet, blaster in hand. He stared at the door as if it had barked at him. "I don't like this," he growled.
"I will check it out, Namuth," Ksuts said, her voice sounding tense as she fingered her own weapon. She left the room after carefully peering into the corridor.
Namuth looked at Leia. "I don't like this," he repeated in a quiet hiss, pointing the barrel of his blaster at Leia's head. "If anyone besides Ksuts comes in here, they're going to be sorry."
Something crashed behind him, and he spun around, blaster aimed at the foe that was not there.
Using the Force, Leia turned the setting on his weapon to stun as he began to bring the blaster back, and a blue bolt flashed through the room.
****
They finally reached Beggar's Canyon and lined up the three speeders carefully. Well, Chinnatah was careful—Mrekln and Gikahth were so intoxicated that any such gesture on their part could only be vaguely construed as careful.
Apprehensively, Chinnatah studied the badlands as far as the landspeeder lights would allow him to see. The Jundland Wastes were dangerous enough in the day; at night they were tenfold so. It didn't help that there were many nooks and crannies for small predators to hide in Beggar's Canyon. The region was actually a series of connected canyons, most of which the Tusken Raiders knew quite well. Human settlers had named the canyon for the sound that the wind made as it whistled through the crevices in the rocks. Even now, in the eerie night, it sounded as if a beggar were crying out for help.
Straining his eyes and shivering because of the sad beseeching noise, Chinnatah made a brief movement, one that was often made by Tuskens as a quick prayer to the gods before venturing into danger. He wasn't even certain whether his purpose was prayer or whether he just wanted to reassure himself.
Mrekln began the count...and then their landspeeders shot forward.
Due to their intoxication, Mrekln and Gikahth's response times were limited, but even being drunk did not make Mrekln lose his hatred of Chinnatah or his competitive drive. While Gikahth lagged behind, Mrekln zipped forward, and Chinnatah stayed in the middle, not wanting to win but to keep Gikahth and Mrekln alive, which was a somewhat unTuskenlike attitude on his part.
The route they were on, the Main Avenue, was a straight-shot for about two kilometers. Such apparent ease at navigation was nothing more than a deception, though. Chinnatah knew they would soon come to a sharp-angled right turn—Dead Man's Turn, the humans called it. It had certainly earned its namesake, for if it were taken too fast, the arrogant driver would find himself smashing against the far wall of the turn.
Chinnatah felt his breath catch in his throat. If he were going to save the two Tusken uli-ah, he would have to do it quickly. He was running out of time.
He threw a quick look into the landspeeder to see if there were anything he could use. Spotting a spare blaster power pack on the seat beside him, he leaned over, keeping his eyes on the Main Avenue, and picked the object up. He weighed it experimentally in his hand. It was the best projectile he was likely to get under the circumstances.
Biting his cheek, Chinnatah accelerated his speeder, coming up close behind Mrekln. Gikahth, left even farther behind, began swearing viciously. The moment Mrekln saw the other uli-ah, he began speeding up.
But Chinnatah had seen his opportunity, and he took it, sending the power pack soaring with surprising accuracy into the engine, causing it to cough and die.
Mrekln began cursing quite loudly, thrashing his gader stick in the air as he was swiftly left behind. Chinnatah had another problem to worry about, however, as Gikahth had managed to overtake him. But even as he frantically looked for a projectile, deciding on his gader stick reluctantly and preparing to throw it, he knew it was too late.
Even while inebriated, Gikahth knew that the turn was there; all Tusken Raiders knew the nooks and crannies of Beggar's Canyon well. But because the Tusken was intoxicated, his reaction time was slow and his ability to measure distance had been severely handicapped. So, even though Gikahth slowed to meet the turn, it was an action made in vain.
At least the violence of the explosion ensured that his death was quick and painless.
Chinnatah was meters behind the other Tusken, so he was unable to make a complete stop. Instead, he slowed his velocity as much as possible, barely making the right turn. He was still going too fast to stop, so he followed the zig-zag to the left, then the right, then the left again.
He could stop now, and probably should, but for some unexplainable reason he felt the urge to thread the Eye of the Needle.
The Needle was a natural phenomenon, and it towered 60 meters above the canyon floor. It basically looked like a tall, narrow slot with jagged rock teeth lining the inside of it. Chinnatah realized only too late that the landspeeder he was in was too large to make it through unscathed, and as he attempted to do so he heard the wretched sound of screeching metal against rock, shards flying up from the speeder to dig painfully into his arm. As the uli-ah brought the speeder to a halt, he winced beneath the rags covering his face at the sight of the mangled outside of the speeder. Somehow, the thought that he had won the race was not a joyous one.
Clutching his gader stick in a death-grip, Chinnatah decided he would walk to try to find Mrekln. He certainly didn't want to rush the encounter.
After he hopped out of the speeder, as sort of an afterthought, he walked over to the Needle and carved something into the rock with his gader stick. Tuskens often used their sticks to carve marks indicating clan territories or to leave warnings on rock faces. His mark was a scribble of the latter type.
****
Leia gazed upon Namuth, who was lying on the floor. With the aid of the Force, she had made him stun himself, something she was quite proud of. Focusing hard and straining at the effort, she managed to levitate the blaster and point it at the door. Several times, her Force hold on it almost slipped, and the blaster dipped, but somehow she managed to maintain her grip on it.
Finally, when Leia thought she could not keep the blaster in the air a moment longer, Ksuts entered, saying, "I saw no—"
After one blast from the weapon, Ksuts was down before she could get any more words out.
Knowing she didn't have much time before either one of her kidnapper's accomplices came in, her father gave up the location of the Caamasi refugees, or rescuers came charging into the building with weapons ready, Leia took a deep breath, using the Force to undo the crude restraint that held her to the chair: rope.
She stood up, flexing her sore muscles before bending down to disarm her captors. Somewhat hesitantly, she clipped Ksuts' blaster to her belt after ascertaining that it was set on stun. Grinning to herself, she held the other blaster up in her hand.
Leia reached out to the Force to see if anyone was nearby, and then she peered around the doorframe for a verbal confirmation of what she had sensed. Stepping out in the hall, confident that those she had sensed were further down and to the left, she began creeping down the hallway, freezing when she heard a familiar voice in her head.
Leia?
Shocked, she tentatively sent back, Obi-Wan?
We're coming to save you. Stay where you are. The Jedi cut the Force contact off.
But the princess shook her head. "Sorry, Obi-Wan," she muttered under her breath. "I won't let any more people die." She advanced down the hallway with more assurance; she had a definite purpose now.
The guards had expected an assault from the outside; what they never expected was that the "helpless little girl" they held prisoner would be able to escape. The last thing the two guards saw before darkness took them was a brilliant flash of blue.
Leia continued down the corridor, her senses alert. Will this hall never end? she wondered, pausing as she sensed guards coming around the corner.
After a few bolts from the princess' blaster, they were down. She hadn't walked much further when the alarms started blaring; evidently, someone had found evidence of her handiwork.
She picked up her pace, jogging down the hallway. What I would give to have a lightsaber...
Startled, she paused and watched as the wall next to her began melting. A blue-white blade was burning through it, and before long a Jedi Master was stepping through the newly-made hole in the wall.
"Leia?" Obi-Wan ventured, seeming disconcerted by the fact that she was running freely about. "Quickly! Come with me!"
Nodding, Leia complied, following him back out the hole.
The Jedi paused, placing a timed charge by the wall. "We can't let them know someone with a lightsaber has been running about."
They began to flee the scene. Leia, between gasps for breath, inquired as to why he hadn't used the charge to get into the building. "Too noisy," he explained shortly. After she heard the blast caused by the thermal detonator, Leia knew she had to agree.
****
Chinnatah stood, his head down, listening to the grating lecture given to him.
[You behaved like a reckless youth, doing something without any sign of gain; instead, something was lost: a valuable member of the clan.] Indeed, every member was valuable to the clan, for Tusken tribes were usually made up of only twenty to thirty individuals. The loss of one member, even a Tusken child, who was not truly considered a "person" until after having endured the ceremonies that marked him or her as a valuable adult, was felt by all.
Chinnatah did not say he had managed to save Mrekln's life. He did not say he had been forced to go through the ordeal. He did not say he was the least reckless out of all the uli-ah. Instead, he took it all quietly, looking afterward to the Tatooinian suns for comfort.
****
Leia stared down at her left hand, repetitively making two circles in her palm with her right index finger as she listened to her father's lecture. She didn't dare meet his eyes.
"You are not to attempt escape when you know that an escape has already been planned for you. You could have been killed," Bail's voice went up a few notches. "If something had happened to you, I—I don't know what I would have done. If it hadn't been for Obi-Wan—"
The Jedi put a hand gently on the senator's shoulder, causing him to jump minutely. "It is all right, Bail," he said soothingly. "The princess is unharmed. Be grateful about her escape."
Bail Organa sighed. "I just—"
"Serenity, Bail," Obi-Wan encouraged him. "Serenity."
****
[We are attacking a Sandcrawler today, Chinnatah,] Arr't'ni said calmly. The Tusken child's head turned to look at her, and she could not help but notice how forlorn his faceless gaze seemed. [The younger uli-ah, of course, will be left behind with some of the women, but you and the older uli-ah must aid the attack.] She stared at him, her jeweled mask gleaming in the suns. [Do not be weak, my son. Above all, we must survive. The Jawas will provide us with combat practice, with supplies.]
Chinnatah nodded slowly. He did not understand, but he wanted to please his mother. Though it was against her nature, she always tried to be kind to him; at least, as kind as Tuskens got. He knew he should be grateful. He shouldn't be fretting over the fact that the Jawas were more than willing to share peaceful relations with Tusken Raiders, as happened from time to time. He shouldn't be worrying that innocent beings would die.
He should be grateful.
****
Leia sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Sitting on the bed beside her was her adopted sister Winter, petting a purrling candy pink pittin belonging to one of Leia's aunts.
"Bail only worries because he loves you," Winter said quietly.
"Do you think that makes it any easier?" the brown-haired girl fumed. She pulled angrily on one of her braids.
The other girl shrugged, delicately but not vainly tucking a strand of her own hair behind her ear. She was often mistaken by visitors to be the princess of the Royal House of Alderaan, for she had the regal air of royalty, while Leia generally had a sort of rough-and-tumble attitude about her. However, Winter was known to have been adopted. Though Winter was older, Leia was considered to be the next-in-line to rule Alderaan, which was perfectly fine with Winter. Though Bail had been like a father to her, Winter still remembered her true parents, and she never referred to Bail as her father.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Winter was her memory: she could remember the precise details of everything she saw and heard. Leia had once overheard Bail talking to Obi-Wan about using her to help the growing Rebel Alliance. While she knew Winter could be a great asset to the Rebellion, in many ways Leia hoped her friend would not be sent away—Leia needed her calming presence and good advice.
The princess sighed again, but this was a different kind of sigh. This sigh let all her frustrated emotions drain out of her. "You're right, of course. I just wish Father wouldn't worry so much."
"You do get into trouble often," Winter pointed out, stroking the nose of the creature in her lap, which Leia had named AT-AV. The pittin, which was small enough to fit into her cupped hands, snored lightly, twitching its toes sporadically.
Leia thought about denying Winter's statement, but she knew that she was right. Again.
"It's not like I go looking for trouble," Leia couldn't help but claim.
"It finds you," Winter smiled.
Leia grinned. "Exactly."
****
The Tusken attack was swift and brutal. Many of the Jawas had been outside of the Sandcrawler preparing droids to try to sell to a moisture farmer. The small, robe-clad creatures died in many ways; some of them were blinded by streams of blood spat out by some of the Tusken Raiders and then killed by gaderffi-thrusts to their chests; others found themselves decapitated; still others fell to the ground with gaping holes in their chests courtesy of Tusken rifles.
Those Jawas inside the Sandcrawler were not safe for long; soon, many of them were also killed.
The Sand People, however, often preferred to subdue some of their captives and take them back as prisoners to the encampment. This they did to some of the Jawas. Later, they would use the captives as part of a fierce "sport" in which they honed their skills at causing their enemies pain.
Outwardly, Chinnatah pretended to be an active participant in the battle. Inwardly, he felt sick.
Arr't'ni, while she was part of the attack, kept a close eye on her son, noticing with disappointment that he avoided harming any of the Jawas and resolving to have a talk with him later.
Soon, the battle was over, the Ghorfa prevailing as they always seemed to. The Raiders hopped on to their bantha mounts, looking from side to side, keeping watch as they rode away from the battle, their shaggy beasts loaded with weapons and water and other goods stolen from the dead Jawas.
****
Chinnatah was tinkering with a faulty blaster rifle when a shadow fell upon him. He looked up, only to find his mother staring down at him. He slowly got to his feet, a sense of dread hanging over him.
[You did not kill today. Some would say you are a coward,] Arr't'ni stated.
The uli-ah held his gaze steady, his eye tubes pointed toward those of the adult Tusken's.
[I know that you are not a coward. In hand-to-hand combat, you can beat any of the uli-ah. But you never kill even the enemy.]
Chinnatah trembled, but he kept his silence.
[This attitude must change, or you will be exiled from the clan. As the suns are continuing to set and you are continuing to refuse to kill, it seems your exile will come very soon. Your trials are approaching, and if you do not earn your place among the Tusken adults, then not only will you not receive a mount or a mate, but you will also no longer be considered a member of the tribe. I do not wish this for you.]
For each uli-ah to earn his place among the Tusken adults, a great feat of skill or prowess had to be performed. The magnitude of this rite of passage determined each uli-ah's station among the Tusken clans. Chinnatah had often seen uli-ah bring back Stormtrooper armor as trophies of their conquest, and other times he had known uli-ah that had raided outlander camps. He was most interested, however, in Tusken lore which had it that four Tusken uli-ah had banded together many birthing seasons ago and killed a krayt dragon without the assistance of banthas. Chinnatah knew that every few birthing seasons other Ghorfa younglings tried to accomplish the same feat, but they always met with gruesome results.
Chinnatah was apprehensive of reaching adulthood. Such an event was viewed as the most important part in a Tusken Raider's life. After a rite of passage had been completed, many rituals would be performed to initiate the successful uli-ah into adulthood. The High Urr'Ak would give the adolescents their gaderffii sticks, which they could never lose, lest they be exiled from the clan as one Tusken had a birthing season ago. The youths would each team up with a bantha to form a deep emotional bond—though Chinnatah wondered sometimes if it were actually the ceremony that brought about the bond. And finally, once each birthing season, the newly recognized adults would be paired together for life in a ceremony which involved the mixing of blood of spouses and their banthas. Afterwards, Chinnatah was told, the Tusken couple, sheltered inside their urtya, would slowly unwrap each other's bindings to see their true forms for the first time.
Arr't'ni kept her voice emotionless but steady. [Tonight we visit Jabba's palace.]
Sand People would sometimes go to the palace of Jabba the Hutt to secretly trade with the B'omarr monks and others living in the Hutt's palace. While the Ghorfa were inside, their bantha mounts would stand outside the palace, looking very skittish and rarely allowing curious creatures to approach them—once, the mount of Chinnatah's father had killed a human that had pestered him. Tusken legend was that the B'omarr monks had built their fortress (which later became Jabba the Hutt's palace) with the aid of roving bands of Tusken Raiders. Sometimes, the Sand People would grimly ride their banthas up to the gate of the palace and stare in silent homage. Simply standing there was said to bring peace, though Chinnatah had never experienced peace there.
Though his insides churned, Chinnatah made a hand gesture that indicated his understanding. He hated the visits to Jabba's palace; the denizens were conniving creatures and cared only about making a quick profit. There was no peace there.
Once Arr't'ni made it clear that he could go, Chinnatah disappeared, off to find Vrentlla for some comfort.