The Unseen Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

Joiners, the Gorog absorbed their fear. The entire nest went into hiding. It became the Dark Nest.”
    Han started to object, but Leia took his arm.
    “Han, it could be the truth,” she said. “I mean, the
real
truth. We need to hear this.”
    “Yes,” Saba agreed. “For Mara’z sake.”
    Han let his chin drop. “Blast it.”
    “You should not feel bad, Captain Solo,” Raynar consoled. “We have believed the new truth for some time. Nothing you could say would make us change our mind.”
    “Thanks loads,” Han grumbled. “That’s a real comfort.”
    A flash of humor danced through Raynar’s eyes, and he turned back to Mara. “We are sure you have figured out the rest,” he said. “Gorog recognized you at the Crash last year—”
    “And assumed I had come to find the list,” Mara finished. “So they attacked first.”
    Raynar shook his head. “We wish it were that simple. Gorog wanted revenge. Gorog
still
wants revenge—against you.”
    “Of course.” Mara did not even blink. “I killed Beda’s husband and Eremay’s father, and condemned
them
to a life in exile. Naturally they want me dead.”
    “They want you to suffer,” Raynar corrected. “
Then
they want you dead.”
    “And you had to bring Mara and Luke all the way out here to tell them that?” Han asked. He could tell by their expressions that the Jedi—well, at least the
human
Jedi—were all convinced that Raynar was telling the truth. But something here smelled rotten to Han, and he had noticed the stench as soon as they arrived on the planet. “You couldn’t have sent a message?”
    “We could have.” Raynar stared at Luke a moment, then turned and looked across the bog toward the froth-covered walls of the Garden Palace. “But we wanted be certain that Master Skywalker understood the urgency of our situation.”
    “I see.” Luke followed Raynar’s gaze out across the bog, and his face slowly began to cloud with the same anger thatwas welling up inside Han. “And Unu’s Will isn’t strong enough to change what Gorog feels?”
    “We are sorry, Master Skywalker, but not yet.” Raynar tore his gaze off the Garden Hall and faced Luke coolly. “Perhaps later, after we have stopped the Fizz and are less concerned with our own problems.”

TWO
    The interior of the hangar smelled of hamogoni wood and containment fluid, and the air was filled with the clatter and drone of Killik workers—mostly cargo handlers and maintenance crews—scurrying from one task to another. The
Falcon
sat a hundred meters down the way, looking deceptively clean in the opaline light, but berthed directly beneath one of the gray blemishes that were beginning to mar the hangar’s milky interior.
    Luke took the lead and used the Force to gently nudge a path through the frenetic activity. The companions were hardly fleeing, but they did want to launch the
Falcon
before Raynar had time to reconsider the agreement Leia had negotiated after his veiled threat against Mara—and before the blemishes on the ceiling turned into the same gray froth spreading over the exterior of the hangar.
    “Looks like we’re not the only ones eager to clear this bug hive,” Han said, moving up beside Luke. “That Fizz must be even faster than it looks.”
    “This one does not think so,” Saba said. In her hands, she was holding a sealed stasis jar containing a thumb-sized sample of gray froth. “If it workz so fast, why would they stay to load their shipz?”
    “I see you haven’t spent much time around smugglers,” Luke said. “They
never
leave without their cargo.”
    The boarding ramp descended, and Leia’s longtime Noghri bodyguards, Meewalh and Cakhmaim, appeared at the top armed with T-21 repeating blasters.
    “What a relief!” C-3PO clinked ahead and started up the ramp. “I can’t wait to step into the sterilizer booth. My circuits itch just holding a record of that Fizz.”
    “Sorry, Threepio. Han and I need you and Artoo with us, to translate and