Star wars Tales From Jabba's Palace by Kevin J. Anderson & Stephen Youll

Author:Kevin J. Anderson & Stephen Youll [Anderson, Kevin J. & Youll, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Rebellion era
ISBN: 9780553568158
Amazon: 0553568159
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1995-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Of the Day’s Annoyances: Bib Fortuna’s Tale

by M. Shayne Bell

I will roll Jabba off his throne on the day of my coup, Bib Fortuna thought as he walked from Jabba’s throne room to plot with the B’omarr monks. My guards will pull him onto the grille over the rancor pit. I will let him lie therefor a moment to watch the rancor raging below him, to hear its roars, to know that when I open the trapdoor to let him fall, the rancor will eat him, and to know, finally, that I will inherit his fortune and criminal organization and he cannot stop me!

Fortuna walked quickly down the sandy stairs spiraling in shadow to the dungeons below. Behind the stones of this stairwell lies the chute Jabba will slide down to the rancor pit, Fortuna thought. Jabba will watch my hand hover over the button that opens the trapdoor and know he is about to die. Fortuna smiled. He touched the stones and imagined the steep chute behind them. He had calculated the dimensions of Jabba’s bloated body and concluded that, if doused in grease, Jabba could still slide down the chute. Jabba’s dousing in grease would be wonderfully ignominious: Fortuna imagined the kitchen staff rushing up from the kitchens with pots of hot grease, their joy as they threw it on Jabba, their pleasure at ultimate revenge for their sons and daughters Jabba had used as tasters and for their colleagues thrown to the rancor when a dish failed. Fortuna had ordered Porcellus, the chief cook, and his staff to save grease in old pots: they did not know why, but they would soon.

It would be a happy day.

Fortuna walked past the prisoners’ dark cells. Some cells were quiet.

Moans came from others. The sound of sobbing from one.

Fortuna took stock of them all and the prisoners in them: I will set this prisoner free, Fortuna thought. This one I will execute. These others I will sell into slavery. Fortuna intended his justice to be swift and final.

The passageway wound on and became quieter, and suddenly the floor was free of sand. It had been swept clean. The monks lived past that point. Fortuna stopped, took off his sandals, and beat them against the stone wall to knock the sand out of them: a sign of respect for the monks. He would not bring more of the filth of Jabba’s occupation of their palace into the places where they lived. How the filth of the parts of the palace out of their control must distress them!

Fortuna swore he would let the monks clean the palace thoroughly, once, before he drove them out forever, before they could turn against him. He pulled on his sandals and walked on.

Fewer and fewer-candles, guttering in their niches, lighted the passageway. The shadows deepened. At times Fortuna walked in complete darkness, but he never hesitated. He walked straight ahead with confidence.

He knew this passageway. He had come here many times to learn the secrets of the monks and to plot with them.

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