His eyes narrowed. 'That's it?'
'That's it. How soon can you get them to me?' Aves pursed his lips thoughtfully. 'Let's say an hour,' he said.
'That big swamp about fifty kilometers north of the city-you know it?' Mara nodded. 'There's a soggy sort of island near the eastern edge.'
'Right. You bring the Etherway to the island and we do the switch there.' He glanced up at the freighter towering over him. 'If you think it's safe to move it.'
'It should be for now,' Mara said. 'Thrawn told me he'd lifted all the search and detention orders for the rest of the group. But you'd better disappear anyway after I go. He'll have the whole Fleet screaming down your necks again if and when I get Karrde out. Better run a fine-edge scan on the Etherway before you take it anywhere, though-there has to be a homing beacon aboard for Thrawn to have gotten the jump on me the way he did.' She felt her lip twitch. 'And knowing Thrawn, he's probably got someone tailing me, too. I'll have to get rid of him before I leave the planet.'
'I can give you a hand with that,' Aves said grimly. 'We're disappearing anyway, right?'
'Right.' Mara paused, trying to think if there was anything else she needed to tell him. 'I guess that's it. Let's get going.'
'Right.' Aves hesitated. 'I still don't know whose side you're on, Mara. If you're on ours...good luck.'
She nodded, feeling a hard lump settle into her throat. 'Thanks.' Two hours later she was strapped into the Skipray's cockpit, a strange and unpleasant sense of deja vu burning through her as she drove toward deep space. It had been in a ship just like this one that she'd screamed off into the sky over the Myrkr forest a few weeks ago, in hot pursuit of an escaped prisoner. Now, like a twisted repeat of history, she once again found herself chasing after Luke Skywalker.
Only this time, she wasn't trying to kill or capture him. This time, she was going to plead for his help.
CHAPTER
20
The last pair of villagers detached themselves from the group standing at the back wall and made their way to ward the raised judgment seat. C'baoth stood there, watching them come; and then, as Luke had known he would, the Jedi Master stood up. 'Jedi Skywalker,' he said, gesturing Luke to the seat. 'The final case of the evening is yours.'
'Yes, Master C'baoth,' Luke said, bracing himself as he stepped over and gingerly sat down. It was, to his mind, a thoroughly uncomfortable chair: too warm, too large, and far too ornate. Even more than the rest of C'baoth's home, it had an alien smell to it, and a strangely disturbing aura that Luke could only assume was a lingering aftereffect of the hours the Jedi Master had spent in it judging his people.
Now it was Luke's turn to do so.
Taking a deep breath, trying to push back the fatigue that had become a permanent part of him, he nodded at the two villagers. 'I'm ready,' he said.
'Please begin.'
It was a relatively simple case, as such things went. The first villager's livestock had gotten through the second's fence and had stripped half a dozen of his fruit bushes before they'd been discovered and driven back. The animals' owner was willing to pay compensation for the ruined bushes, but the second was insisting that he also rebuild the fence. The first countered that a properly built fence wouldn't have failed in the first place and that, furthermore, his livestock had suffered injuries from the sharp edges as they went through. Luke sat quietly and let them talk, waiting until the arguments and counterarguments finally ended.
'All right,' he said. 'In the matter of the fruit bushes themselves, my judgment is that you'-he nodded to the first villager-'will pay for the replacement of those damaged beyond repair, plus an additional payment to compensate for the fruit eaten or destroyed by your livestock. The latter amount will be determined by the village council.'
Beside him C'baoth stirred, and Luke winced at the disapproval he could sense from the Jedi Master. For a second he floundered, wondering if he should back up and try a different solution. But changing his mind so abruptly didn't sound like a good thing to do. And anyway, he really didn't have any better ideas.
So what was he doing here?
He looked around the room, fighting against a sudden flush of nervousness. They were all looking at him: C'baoth, the two supplicants, the rest of the villagers who'd come tonight for Jedi judgment. All of them expecting him to make the right decision.
