X-Wing Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston

Author:Aaron Allston [Allston, Aaron]
Language: spa
Format: epub
Tags: 13 ABY
Amazon: B000NJXFP0
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1999-08-03T03:00:00+00:00

entrance-but Wedge was happy to accept any victory he could get.

More invitees crowded into the hall and began to segregate themselves into

large groups. Wedge tried to puzzle out what the divisions meant.

The perator, once again in gold, was surrounded chiefly by ministers and

other courtiers; that group was easy to define. Tomer Darpen hovered at its

edges, prevented by his alien status from moving closer to the center and

hearing what the perator was saying, prevented by his own nature from

moving farther away.

Wedge saw in two other groups pilots he'd flown against in simulations

training. Most seemed to be on the periphery of one group of thirty or so

well-dressed nobles, while a couple were with a different group of similar

size. Wedge noted that the garments of these groups tended to be slightly

different in cut and style than those he was used to, and realized that the

pilots he recognized were all from nations other than Cartann. That was it,

then; these were delegations from other nations.

Another group was of Cartann nobles-Wedge saw Iella and her minister

among them. Iella noticed his attention, gave him a smile; then she was

back in character and responding to something said by one of the men in

her vicinity. Most of that crowd constituted men and women dressed in

similar stuffy fashion, which suggested that this was a crowd of ministers, but the fact that they were well away from the perator said that they were a

group the ruler had no particular need to consult-minor functionaries.

Turr Phennir and his pilots were at the center of their own knot of people.

One of Phennir's pilots, a tall redheaded man, had his hand out before him

as if grasping a TIE fighter's yoke; his hand shook as though he were firing

on a target, and his eyes were wide, animated. The group around him

made noises of admiration. Phennir was not paying attention; his gaze was

on Wedge.

"Before the day's events begin," called a courtier, "a diversion. Ground Champion Cheriss ke Hanadi accepts a title challenge from Lord Pilot

Eneboros ke Shalapan."

"That explains where Cheriss is," Tycho said, and craned his head for a better look.

The crowd in the vicinity of the perator moved back to make an open circle;

Wedge headed that way.

Cheriss was already in the center of the circle, stretching, going through a

few practice thrusts and lunges with her blastsword's power off. Her

appearance was different from the way it had been in the previous

blastsword match; her intensity was there, but she wore no predatory

smile. She also looked tired, a little disheveled, not her meticulously neat

self.

Into Wedge's ear, Hobbie said, "She's wearing the same clothes from

yesterday."

Beside him, Janson nodded. "Not like her. Such a clean girl. Even when

she's stabbing people."

"Quiet," Wedge said. "There's something wrong here."

Her opponent, at the edge of the crowd, was very tall and lean, with an

elaborately curled brown mustache and a goatee that tended more toward

blond. Friends or assistants to either side of him were binding up his

flowing sleeves so they would not interfere with his motions. When he was

ready, he nodded to the speaker, who in turn caught Cheriss's eye.

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