CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – PORTER OF HELL-GATE
AHSOKA
"I thought I knew who I could trust," Dendup hems as he walks in circles around his desk in front of which Lux, Saw, Tandin, and I sit sheepishly. "I thought I had surrounded myself with beings who would never keep a secret from me, so that we could best manage Onderon.
"And then," he continues, his head snapping to face us, "I find out that Senator Bonteri and Padawan Tano are not on leave by any stretch of the imagination, Cree plots to open the forbidden tomb and kill you all, and General Tandin has been performing an artifact-running scheme for months right under my nose!"
"Your majesty, please don't blame them. It was all my fault; I opened the door -," Tandin protests.
"No it wasn't," Lux interjects. "We're in this situation because Sanjay Rash was a megalomaniac who couldn't be trusted with the artifacts, and it turns out that Cree is much greedier than we once thought. It certainly wasn't Tandin's fault."
"It kind of was," Saw mumbles under his breath.
Lux shoots him a dirty look. "Please don't get him in trouble."
"I don't plan on getting anyone into trouble needlessly, Senator Bonteri. However, I do believe in proper justice for a wrong, and some of that is in order. Perhaps we can start with an explanation?"
Tandin gulps.
"I was doing what I thought had to be done to protect Onderon," he says. "I thought if no one knew the true nature of the forbidden artifacts, they would fade from memory and the tomb would remain closed. It appears I underestimated Advisor Cree and his ambitions."
Dendup gestures to the artifacts lined up on the desk. "Did it not occur to you they may be safer in the palace's safe than in the hands of children?"
"To be frank, Your Majesty, Cree had the code to the palace safe," I pipe up.
Dendup turns his attention to me. "Padawan Tano, I haven't informed the Jedi Council of the nature of your stay here and I don't plan to as long as your cooperation in this matter continues."
Is that blackmail? I don't dare ask, because if Anakin finds out what I'm really doing on Onderon he'll boil me alive. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Don't thank me yet," he says sourly. "I'm not done with the lot of you. I'd like you to explain, from the very beginning, exactly what possessed you to go near the forbidden artifacts in the first place."
Tandin looks down at his lap, takes a deep breath, and explains.
He explains the look in Sanjay Rash's eyes when the advisors before him told him of the artifacts' purpose. He explains the questions the false king asked: how do they work? What do they do? How can I use them? He explains the sinking feeling in his stomach as the advisors, led by Cree, divulged the power they'd put in Rash's hands.
He explains his thoughts as he passed the throne room to get his men and defect, the sudden realization that Rash can never have the relics. He explains how he stuffed them into his pack, slipped the ring on his finger for just a second, and escaped with the rebels off the palace steps. He explains how he believes with all his heart that the ring's magic is the only reason we all survived the palace steps.
He explains how hard it was to take the ring off his finger, and how then he knew he couldn't manage the power all the relics held. He explains his reasons for deciding which relic went to who.
With a soft voice he describes the way the tension fell from Steela's face when he played the music box for her. He describes how happy she was when he said he wanted her to have it, Saw's grateful "Thanks, general," when he tucked the blade into his belt and Lux's formal but sincere gratitude at receiving the ring.
Yeah. That sounds like Lux.
He explains his terror when he heard Jack and Maria had stolen the music box; how he stole the blade to keep it from falling into the wrong hands while Saw was at the hospital. He explains the whole long and exhausting charade that ensued when Lux and I broke into his house until the cupbearer walked in on Cree's attempt to kill us all.
Dendup stares at all of us for a good, long while after Tandin's explanation.
"This has gone on long enough," he says exhaustedly. "These relics, the tomb, the great game. It needs to end, and it needs to end so it cannot be begun again."
"How do you propose we do that?" Lux asks.
"We lock the artifacts inside the very tomb they open."
Lux blinks. Tandin's eyes go huge. I almost choke on my tongue.
"Your Majesty, as a representative of the Jedi Order I can tell you that we have a third option. If you would turn the relics over to the Jedi Order -."
"Then the Jedi Order would use them for their own gains, or someone else would," Dendup announces. "Yours is a noble institution, Ahsoka, but I'm afraid that it's falling to corruption just like everything else. No, the relics will stay in Iziz – or should I say under Iziz. General Tandin, do you know anything about the tomb's location?"
Tandin perks up a little, with a face that practically says Wait, you're not going to fire me? Great! "I don't know, your Majesty. I assume it's in the catacombs like the tomb of Freedon Nadd, but I don't have any evidence to direct me further than that."
I pick up the ring and turn it over in my hands. "The jewels are the same in each artifact. Could they be a clue?"
"Possibly," Tandin mulls. "They use similar colors in the Unifar Temple."
"They use every color in the Unifar Temple," Lux reminds him. "But I think you're on the right track. Nadd's tomb was built under the Royal Palace. Maybe these architects put the forbidden tomb under another high-profile building so they could find it."
"If so, then we need to find the right entrance to the catacombs via the Unifar Temple. Pick the wrong one and the tunnels will spit us out in the middle of the jungle," Saw says.
I hold the ring in the air again. "You said they use these colors in sections of the temple?"
"Yeah, in some of the shrines," Saw admits.
"Any of those shrines have an entrance to the catacombs?"
…
"These are the right colors."
I hold the ring up to the stained glass windows. "Down to the shade. Considering they're two separate materials, it's impressive."
"Looks like our temple theory was right. Now all we need is an entrance to the catacombs," Lux says and glances around looking for anything that could be a door.
General Tandin, whose job description may as well include "our personal babysitter," joins him. "It won't be out in the open, but in a building like this it wouldn't be hard to hide a panel."
Saw hobbles past us. "Well it's not going to be in thin air. Everyone take a wall."
"And Ahsoka," Tandin says, "I'm sorry, but that will have to be where we part ways. The old laws state that only those born of Onderon may step over the threshold to the catacombs."
Lux turns around. "Or what?"
"Considering the sheer amount of magic and such we've been exposed to, I would wager that it's something very bad," Tandin snaps. Poor Tandin. He's probably had it up to his eyeballs by now…
"Is that what it said?" Lux continues. "'Only those born of Onderon may step over the threshold'? Did it say that exactly?"
"Yes. Yes it did."
"So we'll make it so she doesn't step over anything. I'll carry her," he announces, obviously pleased with himself.
He's not the only one pleased; Saw and I are both pretty impressed.
"Exact words much, Lux?"
"I'm a politician," he preens. "I'm a master at following the exact words."
Saw runs his hands over the wall and pauses when he gets to the statue. "Tandin? Bonteri? Just a question because I'm not in here a whole lot and when I am it's not from this angle. Isn't this statue supposed to be part of the wall?"
The statue's the focal point of the room; one of the saints of Unifras with her hands raised in silent benediction. I go around to the opposite side and examine it.
"It's definitely off the wall," I say and experimentally fit a fingernail in the space between the statue and the wall. "Considering the molding on this pedestal, it looks like someone's trying to make it look like it's part of the building."
Lux looks over my shoulder. "With all of us together, we could probably push it to a side."
"And find out what's behind," Tandin meets the statue's stony eyes. "I'm sorry, St. Augusta. But we'll need to move you for the greater good."
We all gather on one side of the statue, brace our backs against it, and push. The statue doesn't budge.
"Saw, push!" Lux grunts.
"I am pushing! St. Augusta needs to lay off the pasta!"
"Both of you stop whining and push!" I yell.
Tandin body slams the statue while the rest of our weights are braced against it. It moves about an inch, but an inch is enough to see the dark and cavernous space behind it.
"On the count of three push as hard as you can, boys," I order and step back to gather the Force around me.
"One, two…"
The men shove into the statue and I bring the power of the Force against it with all my might. It skids across the floor slowly and with the reluctance of something that isn't meant to be disturbed, but it pushes aside all the same.
The newly exposed entrance breathes musty air into the Unifar Temple.
Lux holds out his arms. "If you please, my lady."
"Don't drop me," I warn him and cautiously wrap my arms around my neck. Tandin lights a glowlamp and enters the tunnel. Saw follows and then Lux and I.
"Oh good," Saw breathes once we're safely in the tunnel. "Ahsoka didn't get vaporized."
"See, politics are good for something," Lux says as he sets me down.
I examine the tunnel in the light of Tandin's glowlamp. "The Geonosians build catacombs like this under their buildings, but theirs are for transportation and carrying out daily functions. These don't seem to be used."
"They were used," Saw says. "During the Beast Wars the Naddists outlawed any religion but their own. So the Unifras used these catacombs as meeting places and ways to escape if they were being chased."
"They're very extensive," Lux chimes in. "They say there are catacombs that lead out of the city and into the jungle trails that go to Kira Fortress and to my family's lands past the Highlands."
"And we have no idea where we're going?"
"If the dust behind St. Augusta was any indication, nobody's opened this tunnel for a while."
Then we're lost in a spiraling maze of tunnels with no map.
"Hold on," Saw says. "Tandin, can you shine the glowlamp over here? The jewels on the music box look sort of weird."
"Weird how?"
"They're red and green," he says. "But in this light, it looks like some of the red crystals are actually green, and vice versa. Do you think that might -."
"Hold the glass over the box," Tandin says hurriedly and brings said object forward. When held over the music box's lid, there's a clear line of red jewels leading to the center.
"It's a map," I breathe. "The box lid's a map."
"Yeah, but the middle is missing!" Saw groans.
"Lux, your ring. It has gems just like the box!"
Lux holds the ring in the center of the box and lo and behold, the stones change color in the glass' light."
"We have directions," Tandin breathes a sigh of relief. "Everyone, stay together."
…
The door to the tomb is enormous.
Formed of some kind of dark granite, it would be indiscernible from the catacomb walls except for the three-pronged hole in the center, framed by a circle of green and red gems.
"We definitely have the right place," I say, taking it in in awe.
"And we have the key," Tandin says. "Saw, the door matches the blade."
Saw takes the blade from his pocket and holds the handle to Tandin.
"No," he says. "You've devoted your life to this for force knows how long. I want you to do the honors."
Eyes wide, Tandin takes the blade, gingerly inserts it into the door, and turns. The door pulls back with a deep, unearthly rumble.
The tomb glows; some kind of luminescent stone is inserted into the ceiling, giving light to the chamber. The only furnishing is an altar smack in the center, fashioned from stone with gold accents.
And on the altar – a boulder? A piece of a mountain?
Lux breaks the silence. "Is that a geode?"
"It's not a geode," Tandin breathes. "It's an egg."
Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, it's not Godzilla. Even I wouldn't do that to the poor characters ... and I put them through a lot.
Thank you to Rose Ravenclaw and Starwarshobbitfics for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!
Until next time,
LS
