Star Wars by Elizabeth Hand

Author:Elizabeth Hand [Hand, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781484719930
Publisher: Disney Book Group

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On the upper deck, Jabba and his invited guests drank and ate. Music played. Acrobats tumbled and Twi’lek dancers leaped and turned. The barge’s sails filled with air, as the great vessel came about and sailed majestically above the ground, heading for the Western Dune Sea. Overhead, stars burned through a sky black as Hapes velvet. The air smelled of roasting meat, of sweet, cool fruit sherbets, of flowers imported at fabulous expense from distant green worlds. A Mrlssi harpist played and sang while Jabba sat on his throne and crammed handfuls of writhing worms into his mouth. Jabba’s guests wandered across the deck. They gazed out at the starlit desert beneath them, laughing and scheming and drinking Jabba’s fine Chandrilan wines.

Unfortunately, Boba had only a glimpse of all of this splendor. He could only hear the music and merriment, and smell the mouth-watering odors of rare meats and fruits.

He was in the hold, beneath the upper deck. There were no stars here to light the darkness. The space was dimly lit by swaying light globes suspended from the ceiling. There was no food or water. The air was close and hot, and stank of dirty straw and penned beasts. Off-duty crew members milled about, cursing and gambling away their pay. Some slept in hammocks slung along the walls. A few amused themselves by poking sticks into cages that held new pit beasts bound for Jabba’s palace.

Boba picked his way carefully through the crowded space. He paused to look into a cage holding a Gallion tripion. The immense scorpionlike creature clashed its claws. Its poison-tipped tail clattered against the bars of its cage as a guard poked his sword through the slats.

“You’ll be fed soon enough!” he sneered as his comrades laughed.

One of them looked at Boba. “Another newcomer?” His face creased in a leering smile. “That’ll be the third bounty hunter this month that Jabba’s set after Gilramos!”

“Gilramos?” asked Boba.

“That’s right! A regular thorn in Jabba’s tail, that one is. And a hard thorn to dislodge. He killed the last two bounty hunters who came looking for him.”

The guard looked Boba up and down. He laughed derisively. “Looks like you’ll make it three,” he said, and turned back to tormenting the tripion.

“Third time’s the charm,” Boba muttered. He crossed over to the wall, trying to keep his balance. The air barge moved swiftly—they would reach the palace by morning, he’d heard someone say.

But the air yacht didn’t always move smoothly. Sometimes it would fall with a sickening jerk. Other times it would abruptly soar straight up, hundreds of meters into the air. When this happened, Boba was glad he couldn’t see outside. He was also glad he hadn’t eaten much. He would hate to get airsick!

“So you’re another bounty hunter,” someone announced. “Jabba must really be getting desperate.”

A wizened old man approached Boba, who was not much shorter than he was. The old man wore a flowing green robe, covered with a long, stained apron. His sparse white hair was almost hidden beneath a white cap.

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