Leia turned. 'That would be my wish,' she agreed. 'But I do not ask it.'
Vor'corkh studied her a moment. Then, reluctantly, he handed her lightsaber back to her. 'The dynasts of Honoghr cannot and will not make so important a decision in a single day,' he said. 'There is much to consider, and a full convocate of the Noghri people must be called.'
'Then call it,' Khabarakh urged. 'The Mal'ary'ush of the Lord Vader is here.'
'And can the Mal'ary'ush protect us from the might of the Empire, should we choose to defy it?' Vor'corkh countered.
'But-'
'No, Khabarakh, he's right,' Leia said. 'The Empire would rather kill you all than let you defect or even become neutral.'
'Have the Noghri forgotten how to fight?' Khabarakh scoffed.
'And has Khabarakh clan Kihm'bar forgotten what happened to Honoghr forty-eight years ago?' Vor'corkh snapped. 'If we left the Empire now, we would have no option but to leave our world and hide.'
'And doing that would guarantee the instant slaughter of the commando teams that are out serving the Empire,' Leia pointed out to Khabarakh. 'Would you have them die without even knowing the reason? There is no honor in that.'
'You speak wisdom, Lady Vader,' Vor'corkh said, and for the first time Leia thought she could detect a trace of grudging respect in his eyes.
'True warriors understand the value of patience. You will leave us now?'
'Yes,' Leia nodded. 'My presence here is still a danger to you. I would ask one favor: that you would allow Khabarakh to return me to my ship.' Vor'corkh looked at Khabarakh. 'Khabarakh's family conspired to free him,' he said. 'They succeeded, and he escaped into space. Three commando teams who were here on leave have followed in pursuit. The entire clan Kihm'bar will be in disgrace until they yield up the names of those responsible.'
Leia nodded. It was as good a story as any. 'Just he sure to warn the commandos you send to be careful when they make contact with the other teams. If even a hint of this gets back to the Empire, they'll destroy you.'
'Do not presume to tell warriors their job,' Vor'corkh retorted. He hesitated. 'Can you obtain more of this for us?' he asked, gesturing back at the cylinder.
'Yes,' Leia said. 'We'll need to go to Endor first and pick up my ship. Khabarakh can accompany me back to Coruscant then and I'll get him a supply.'
The dynast hesitated. 'There is no way to bring it sooner?' A fragment of conversation floated up from Leia's memory: the maitrakh, mentioning that the window for planting this season's crops was almost closed. 'There might be,' she said. 'Khabarakh, how much time would we save if we skipped Endor and went directly to Coruscant?'
'Approximately four days, Lady Vader,' he said. Leia nodded. Han would kill her for leaving his beloved Falcon sitting in orbit at Endor like that, but there was no way around it. 'All right,' she nodded. 'That's what we'll do, then. Don't forget to be careful where you use it, though-you can't risk incoming Imperial ships spotting new cropland.'
'Do not presume, either, to tell farmers their job,' Vor'corkh said; but this time there was a touch of dry humor in his voice. 'We will eagerly await its arrival.'
'Then we'd better leave at once,' Leia said. She looked past him to the maitrakh, and nodded her head in thanks. Finally-finally-everything was starting to go their way. Despite her earlier doubts, the Force was clearly with her.
Turning back to Khabarakh, she ignited her lightsaber and cut him loose from his chains. 'Come on, Khabarakh,' she said. 'Time to go.'
CHAPTER
25
The Coral Vanda billed itself as the most impressive casino in the galaxy...and as he looked around the huge and ornate Tralla Room, Han could understand why he'd never heard of anyone challenging that claim. The room had at least a dozen sabacc tables scattered around its three half-levels, plus a whole range of lugjack bars, tregald booths, halo-chess tables, and even a few of the traditional horseshoe-shaped warp-tops favored by hard-core crinbid fanatics. A bar bisecting the room stocked most anything a customer would want to drink, either to celebrate a win or forget a loss, and there was a serving window built into the back wall for people who didn't want
