'You will be silent, maitrakh,' the Grand Admiral cut her off. 'Or you will share in his imprisonment.'
'I will not be silent,' the maitrakh snarled. 'A Noghri accused of treason to the overclan must be given over to the clan dynasts for the ancient rules of discovery and judgment. It is the law.'
'I am not bound by Noghri law,' the Grand Admiral said coldly.
'Khabarakh has been a traitor to the Empire. By Imperial rules will he be judged and condemned.'
'The clan dynasts will demand-'
'The clan dynasts are in no position to demand anything,' the Grand Admiral barked, touching the comlink cylinder pocketed beside his tunic insignia. 'Do you require a reminder of what it means to defy the Empire?' Leia heard the faint sound of the maitrakh's sigh. 'No, my lord,' she said, her voice conceding defeat.
The Grand Admiral studied her. 'You shall have one anyway. He touched his comlink again And abruptly the interior of the dukha flashed with a blinding burst of green light.
Leia jerked her head back into Chewbacca's legs, squeezing her eyelids shut against the sudden searing pain ripping through her eyes and face. For a single, horrifying second she thought that the dukha had taken a direct hit, a turbolaser blast powerful enough to bring the whole structure down in flaming ruin around them. But the afterimage burned into her retina showed the Grand Admiral still standing proud and unmoved; and belatedly she understood.
She was trying desperately to reverse her sensory enhancement when the thunderclap slammed like the slap of an angry Wookiee into the side of her head.
She would later have a vague recollection of several more turbolaser blasts, seen and heard only dimly through the thick gray haze that clouded over her mind, as the orbiting Star Destroyer fired again and again into the hills surrounding the village. By the time her throbbing head finally dragged her back to full consciousness the Grand Admiral's reminder was over, the final thunderclap roiling away into the distance.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes, squinting a little against the pain. The Grand Admiral was still standing where he'd been, in the center of the dukha...and as the last thunderclap faded into silence he spoke. 'I am the law on Honoghr now, maitrakh,' he said, his voice quiet and deadly. 'If I choose to follow the ancient laws, I will follow them. If I choose to ignore them, they will be ignored. Is that clear?'
The voice, when it came, was almost too alien to recognize. If the purpose of the Grand Admiral's demonstration had been to frighten the maitrakh half out of her mind, it had clearly succeeded. 'Yes, my lord.'
'Good.' The Grand Admiral let the brittle silence hang in the air for another moment. 'For loyal servants of the Empire, however, I am prepared to make compromises. Khabarakh will be interrogated aboard the Chimaera; but before that, I will allow the first stage of the ancient laws of discovery.' His head turned slightly. 'Rukh, you will remove Khabarath clan Kihm'bar to the center of Nystao and present him to the clan dynasts. Perhaps three days of public shaming will serve to remind the Noghri people that we are still at war.'
'Yes, my lord.'
There was the sound of footsteps, and the opening and closing of the double doors. Hunched against the ceiling above her, his sense in unreadable turmoil, Chewbacca rumbled softly to himself. Leia clenched her teeth, hard enough to send flashes of pain through her still throbbing head. Public shaming ... and something called the laws of discovery.
The Rebel Alliance had unwittingly destroyed Honoghr. Now, it seemed, she was going to do the same to Khabarakh.
The Grand Admiral was still standing in the middle of the dukha. 'You are very quiet, maitrakh,' he said.
'My lord ordered me to be silent,' she countered.
'Of course.' He studied her. 'Loyalty to one's clan and family is all well and good, maitrakh. But to extend that loyalty to a traitor would he foolish. As well as potentially disastrous to your family and clan.'
'I have not heard evidence that my thirdson is a traitor.' The Grand Admiral's lip twitched. 'You will,' he promised softly. He walked toward the double doors, passing out of Leia's sight, and there was the sound of the doors opening. The footsteps paused, clearly waiting; and a moment later the quieter paces of the maitrakh joined him. Both left, the doors dosed again, and Leia and Chewbacca were alone. Alone. In enemy territory. Without a ship. And with their only ally about to undergo an Imperial interrogation. 'I think, Chewie,' she said softly, 'we're in trouble.'
CHAPTER
14
One of the first minor truths about interstellar flight that any observant traveler learned was that a planet
