NINETEEN.

With the dance-field glowing in the iridescent light of Qoribu's reflection and a thousand Taat swirling through the intricate patterns of the Little Dawn Rumble, Leia felt as though she had stepped a thousand centuries into Alderaan's past, when the Colony still ruled the planet and human expansion remained a dark storm on the galaxy's horizon. The Killiks were "singing" their part of the Song of the Universe as they danced, chirping melody through their tiny proboscises, tapping time with their mandibles, drumming ba.s.s in their chest cavities. Alien and primal though the music was, the performance was as flawless as anything Leia had ever heard in Harmony Hall on Coruscant, a thousand instruments played by a single artist.

"Now that is just not right," Han said, adding his own special counternote to the concert. "Why didn't she marry Jag Fel when she had the chance?"

"Be careful what you wish for," Leia said, following Han's gaze.

"If we don't get her out of here soon, she might be spending more time than we like with Jag-being interrogated in his..."

Leia saw what Han had been looking at and let her sentence trail off. On the near side of the swarm, Jaina, Zekk, and Alema were frisking through the dance steps amid an eddy of dancers. The three Jedi were holding their hands above their heads, waving them in unison with the Killiks' antennae. Every few seconds, Jaina and Zekk would bow forward with the entire nest and rub forearms with the antennae of whatever insect they happened to be facing. Alema bowed as well, but rubbed lekku instead of arms.

"It does look a little... unnatural," Leia admitted.

"Not at all," C-3PO a.s.sured them. "It's a bonding dance, welcoming the birth of the new day. They perform it once a week, before they go to the Harem Cave to mate."

Stomach tightening in alarm-or perhaps it was revulsion - Leia turned to Han. "We'll talk to them as soon as the dance ends. You're okay with the plan?"

"For what good it'll do," Han grumbled. "Kidnapping her would be easier-and we both know how well that would work."

Leia grew exasperated with his pessimism. "Since when did you start worrying about the odds? You're starting to sound-"

She was saved from uttering the lethal like Threepio by the thunderous reverberation of an alarm rumble. She turned and found all the Killiks looking toward one of the pa.s.sage entrances that ringed the dance-field. The insects were holding their antennae vertical and motionless, and their mandibles were spread wide in menace. Most of the Joiners were mimicking the gesture to the extent that their various anatomies allowed, but Alema was the only Jedi doing the same.

"That doesn't look good." Han turned to scan the sky. "Chiss?"

"I'll be happy to ask," C-3PO said.

He shot a burst of squelch at a nearby Killik.

"The Taat speak Bocce?" Leia asked.

"Why, yes, Princess Leia. I've yet to discover a language the Killiks don't understand. It seems they learn every language their Joiners know." A second Killik turned and answered C-3PO's question with a series of mandible clacks. "For instance, that was just Snutib click code."

"And?" Han asked.

"It was quite fluent," C-3PO said. "Though that particular dialect predates-"

"We're more interested in what it said," Leia clarified.

"My apologies." C-3PO sounded disappointed. "I believe it concerns Jedi Sebatyne."

"Saba?"

"Apparently, she appeared in the depths of the nest rather badly injured."

A knot of Taat emerged from the tunnel, tumbling and staggering as they attempted to keep ahold of a flailing ma.s.s of scales. The rest of the Killiks turned as one to look in Han and Leia's direction, then thrummed their chests.

"In fact, Taat is rather hoping that you might help calm down Master Sebatyne so their healers can close the small hole in her skull."

Han took off at a sprint, with Jaina and the other young Jedi forcing their way across the dance-field behind him. Leia asked Meewalh to fetch the emergency medpac from the Falcon, then started running.

She arrived to find Saba strapped to a primitive stretcher, an elliptical slice of scalp and skull missing from one side of her head.

Han was already standing at the Barabel's side, trying to quiet her.

"I know they're creepy looking," he was saying. "But settle down.

They're trying to help."

"No!" Saba's eyes twitched as though she was trying to throw her head back and forth, but the head itself remained motionless.

"Azzazzinz!"

Her lisp was more p.r.o.nounced than usual-a bad sign, given the head wound. Leia also saw a number of other injuries-a circle of broken scales around her temple, some lost fingertips, a third of a tail missing, and some suspicious swelling on her neck and calf. Lying on the stretcher, strapped next to the injured tail, was something that hadn't come off Saba- a human bicep fused at the elbow to a chitinous Killik forearm.

A blue chitinous forearm.

The Killiks holding Saba drummed in protest.

"They point out that Jedi Sebatyne's brain is showing," C-3PO translated. "She's quite delusional."

C-3PO rose into the air and began to spin like a pinwheel.

"What? Stop!... Put me down, you overgrown newt!"

"Not... deluzional," Saba growled.

"Saba, it's okay." Leia reached out to the Barabel in the Force, trying to a.s.sure her that they did not doubt her. "We believe you."

C-3PO stopped spinning, and Saba's gaze shifted to Leia. The pupils of her eyes were hugely dilated. "Yezz?"

"Sure." Han let his gaze linger on the forearm. "Something happened to you. Anyone can see that."

"Why don't we take care of these wounds?" Leia wished Tekli had not left with Luke. She and Han had certainly patched up their share of wounds, but this was beyond their skill. "Then you can tell us about it."

"Now," Saba insisted. "This one will tell you... now."

"Okay." Leia gestured to the Taat healers cowering on the edge of the sled. "As long as you'll let them work on you while we talk."

Saba narrowed a pebbly eye. "This one... thought you believed her."

"Saba, some of your wounds are cauterized," Leia pointed out. "Does that mean you shouldn't trust anyone who carries a lightsaber?"

The Barabel snorted.

"Look, we've got some concussion missiles on the Falcon," Han said.

"If they kill you, we'll blast the place."

"Blazt it?" Saba began to siss weakly. "You are alwayz joking!"

"He wasn't joking," Leia said. "Do we have a deal?"

Saba eyed the healers cowering on the edge of her stretcher, then nodded. "Deal."

She lowered C-3PO to the ground again.

"Thank goodness!" He clunked over to stand behind Leia, then said more softly, "They say she's been an impossible patient!"

A dozen Killik healers crawled onto her body and went to work, sterilizing her wounds and spinning silken bandages. As they labored, Saba recounted-in a halting voice-her discovery of the empty exoskeletons and the attack by Welk, then ended by noting that she had found three empty egg cells and killed only two immature a.s.sa.s.sins. She was worried that the third had left early to stow away aboard the Shadow.

One of the healers squatting over her opened skull purred an opinion, which C-3PO translated as, "Patients with head wounds often suffer from hallucinations."

"It waz no-"

"Allow me." Leia laid a calming hand on the Barabel's shoulder, then pointed to the arm lying next to Saba's truncated tail. "If it was a hallucination, how do you explain that?"

One of the Killiks holding the stretcher began to clack its mandibles.

"The healers sometimes make grafts for the injured," C-3PO translated. "In her delirium, Saba must have mistaken a Joiner for a Chiss. The nest is searching for his body now."

Saba raised her head. "It waz no-"

"Let us handle this, Hisser." Han motioned Saba down, then asked, "Then how'd she get delirious in the first place? Where'd all these wounds come from?"

It was one of the healers on her neck that answered.

"Oh, dear!" C-3PO exclaimed. "She says Saba must have fallen after she was poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Leia gasped.

"Did this one not mention... that?" Saba asked.

The healer on her head purred a comment.

"Head wounds often cause forgetfulness," C-3PO translated. The Killik on Saba's neck added, "And they're very sorry about the poison.

They hope you won't blast the nest."

"Blast the nest?" Leia looked to the healer that had spoken.

"What's that mean?"

It was the healer on Saba's leg that thrummed an answer.

"It's a powerful neurotoxic venom," C-3PO said. "It causes permanent paralysis-and they have no antidote."

Saba c.o.c.ked her brow up at Leia. "Told... you."

"You're not dead yet," Leia said. "How do you feel?"

"Worze than... it lookz."

Wondering if Saba had any idea how bad she looked, Leia turned to Han. "She might beat it with a healing trance, but-"

"We've got to take her back."

He looked as worried and frustrated as Leia felt. There was no question of not taking Saba back. The Barabel was clearly in danger of dying or being permanently paralyzed, and Cilghal - the Jedi Master-healer- had an infirmary and a lab back on Ossus that would have the best resources to help her.

Han turned to Cakhmaim. "Catch Meewalh and start prepping the Falcon."

The Noghri nodded and raced off toward the tunnel that led down to the hangar.

"And don't wake Juun up!" Han yelled as an afterthought. "The last thing we want is a Sull.u.s.tan slowing things down with procedure."

Leia motioned the stretcher bearers after Cakhmaim. "Let's get her to the Falcon."

"Not zo... fazt," Saba said. The Killiks paid no attention to her and started across the dance-field after Cakhmaim. "The third azzazzin...

we muzt warn Mazter Zkywalker."

Leia exchanged a concerned look with Han, then said gently, "Saba, the Shadow is gone, remember? We won't be able to warn them until we reach Galactic Alliance s.p.a.ce."

Jaina appeared alongside the litter with Zekk and Alema.

"Saba, are you sure about the a.s.sa.s.sins?" Alema asked. "It really doesn't sound like-"

The inquiry was cut short when the severed arm rose off the stretcher and hit the Twi'lek in the chest.

"Yezz... zure."

They reached the tunnel leading down to the hangar. Leia sent C-3PO on with the Killiks and Saba, then stopped at the entrance and turned to Jaina.

"How soon can you be ready?"

Jaina's jaw fell. "Ready?"

"Yeah, to leave," Han said, coming in on cue. "You can't have much stuff to pack."

Jaina continued to look shocked for a moment, then a shadow of her father's crooked grin came to her lips. "Nice try, guys."

"Try?" Han managed to sound outraged. "We had a deal!"

"You can't hold us to that!" Zekk cried.