Star Wars - Jade Solitaire - Unpublished by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn [Zahn, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1998-05-24T21:39:22+00:00

The nearest of the Drach’nam, too close to use their whips against her, went for their knives instead. They died holding them. Those further back lived a little longer, but not much. With no time to organize, too densely packed together for efficient use of their whips, and facing a weapon that could cut through the lashes with ease, they had no chance at all. Mara slashed through their ranks like a mowing machine, littering the rocky ground behind her with their bodies, a haze of righteous fury clouding her vision. Retribution for Sansia and the other degraded women in the slave pits; retribution for piracy and robbery and cold-hearted murder; retribution for the danger they’d put the Wild Karrde’s crew in—

And suddenly, or so it seemed, it was over.

She stood in the middle of the room, lightsaber held high, gasping hard with her exertion. All around her were piles of Drach’nam bodies—

[I would not have believed it.]

Mara spun around. H’sishi was pressed against the wall behind the throne, staring at Mara with an expression of stunned disbelief, a half dozen oozing wounds scattered across the matted fur of her face and torso. “How badly are you hurt?” Mara called, crossing the room toward her. None of the injuries looked serious, but she wasn’t familiar enough with Togorian physiology to know for sure.

[Not badly,] H’sishi assured her. [They lost interest in me very quickly.]

“Lucky for me they did,” Mara said grimly, focusing on the false wall behind H’sishi, the wall containing the two hidden blaster ports she’d spotted on her first trip through the chamber.

Only now there was a second hole, knife-blade-sized, just beneath each of the ports. And gripped In H’sishi’s hand was an appropriated Drach’nam knife, its blade stained with the pale pink of Drach’nam blood.

“Thank you,” Mara said, gesturing to the wall. “I wondered why they never fired at me.”

[They never had time,] H’sishi said simply.

“I see that. Thank you. What about Praysh?”

[I believe he escaped,] H’sishi said. [Along with many of his guards. But we must hurry—your companion is already gone.]

“What?” Mara demanded, looking around again. Sansia was gone, all right. “Did Praysh take her?”

[No, she left alone, by that door.] H’sishi pointed.

Heading for her ship, no doubt, all set to take off and leave Mara and H’sishi stranded here. “Blast it,” Mara snarled. “Come on.”

The corridors, not surprisingly, were deserted. Mara led the way, lightsaber in hand, silently berating herself for not expecting a last-minute back-blading like this in the first place. Like father, like daughter…

And then, almost before she was ready for it, they pushed open one final door and stumbled into an open courtyard filled with yachts, small freighters, and rows of deadly, spine-winged starfighters. Midway across the yard, a single ship was just lifting off into the air.

A SoroSuub 3000 luxury yacht

[Is that her?] H’sishi asked.

“Yes,” Mara said sourly. Like father, like daughter, all right.

But there was no time now for the luxury of anger. “We’d better find a way out of here before Praysh gets what’s left of his thugs organized,” she told H’sishi.

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