She paused, another shudder running through her. 'The lightning had been the anger of the gods. The groundshake was their war hammer. Whole cities vanished as the ground opened up beneath them. Fire-mountains that had been long quiet sent out flame and smoke that darkened the sky over all the land. Forests and fields burned, as did cities and villages that had survived the ground shake itself. From those who had died came sickness, and still more died after them. It was as if the fury of the sky gods had come among the gods of the land, and they too were fighting among themselves.
'And then, when finally we dared to hope it was over, the strange-smelling rain began to fall.'
Leia nodded, the whole sequence of events painfully clear. One of the warring ships had crashed, setting off massive earthquakes and releasing toxic chemicals which had been carried by wind and rain to every part of the planet. There were any number of such chemicals in use aboard a modern warship, but it was only the older ships that carried anything as virulent as this chemical must have been.
Older ships ... which had been virtually all the Rebel Alliance had had to fight with in the beginning.
A fresh surge of guilt twisted like a blade in her stomach. We did this, she thought miserably. Our ship. Our fault. 'Was it the rain that killed the plants?'
'The Empire's people had a name for what was in the rain,' the maitrakh said. 'I do not know what it was.'
'They came soon after the disaster, then. The Lord Vader and the others.'
'Yes.' The maitrakh waved her hands to encompass the area around them. 'We had gathered together here, all who were left alive and could make the journey. This place had always been a truce ground between clans. We had come here to try to find a way for survival. It was here that the Lord Vader found us.'
They walked in silence for another minute. 'Some believed then that he was a god,' the maitrakh said. 'All feared him and the mighty silver flying craft that had bwught him and his attendants from the sky. But even amid the fear there was anger at what the gods had done to us, and nearly two tens of warriors chose to attack.'
'And were duly slaughtered,' Leia said grimly. The thought of effectively unarmed primitives taking on Imperial troops made her wince.
'They were not slaughtered,' the maitrakh retorted, and there was no mistaking the pride in her voice. 'Only three of the two tens died in the battle. In turn, they killed many of the Lord Vader's attendants, despite their lightning-weapons and rock-garments. It was only when the Lord Vader himself intervened that the warriors were defeated. But instead of destroying us, as some of the attendants counseled, he instead offered us peace. Peace, and the blessing and aid of the Emperor.'
Leia nodded, one more piece of the puzzle falling into place. She had wondered why the Emperor would have bothered with what to him would have been nothing more than a tiny group of primitive nonhumans. But primitive nonhumans with that kind of natural fighting skill were something else entirely. 'What sort of aid did he bring?'
'All that we needed,' the maitrakh said. 'Food and medicine and tools came at once. Later, when the strange rain began to kill our crops, he sent the metal droids to begin cleaning the poison from our land.' Leia winced, freshly aware of her twins' vulnerability. But the analysis kit had found no trace of anything toxic in the air as they approached the village, and Chewbacca and Khabarakh had done similar tests on the soil. Whatever it was that had been in the rain, the decon droids had done a good job of getting rid of it. 'And still nothing will grow outside the cleaned land?'
'Only the kholm-grass,' the maitrakh said. 'It is a poor plant, of no use as food. But it alone can grow now, and even it no longer smells as it once did.'
Which explained the uniform brown color that she and Chewbaca had seen from space. Somehow, that particular plant had adapted to the toxic soil.
'Did any of the animals survive?' she asked.
'Some did. Those who could eat the kholm-grass, and those which in turn ate them. But they are few.'
The maitrakh lifted her head, as if looking in her mind's eye toward the distant hills. 'This place was never rich with life, Lady Vader. Perhaps that was why the clans had chosen it as a truce ground. But even in so desolate a place' there were still animals and plants without count. They are gone now.'
She straightened up, visibly putting the memory behind her. 'The Lord Vader helped us in other ways, as well. He sent attendants to teach our sons and daughters the ways and customs of the Empire. He issued new orders to allow all clans to share the Clean Land, though for all clans to live beside one another this way had never happened since the beginning.' She gestured around her. 'And he sent mighty flying craft into the desolation, to find and bring to us our clan dukhas.'
She turned her dark eyes to gaze at Leia. 'We have an honorable peace, Lady Vader. Whatever the cost, we pay it gladly.' Across the room, the children had apparently finished their lesson and were getting to their feet. One of them spoke to Threepio, making a sort of truncated version of their facedown bow. The droid replied, and the whole group turned and headed for the door, where two adults awaited them. 'Break time?' Leia asked.
'The clan lessons are over for today,' the maitrakh said. 'The children must now begin their share of the work
