“I think it's charming,” said Leia with a smile. “Chicken feet and all. As long as it doesn't move while we're in it.” Han pulled up in front of the door. He helped Leia off, then directed Cecil to lead Chewbacca and the Falcon to the back of the Inn.
“Solowolf!” A tiny old woman with very wrinkled, reddish skin and the thickest spectacles Leia ever saw hurried out the door and down the path. “Where have you been? I haven't seen you in years.” She gave them a gap-toothed grin. “Where's the horse?”
Han rolled his eyes. “A friend of ours just took Chewie in the back.”
Maz took Han's arm. “I like that horse.” She looked over at Leia with a fond smile. “Hello, Your Highness.”
Leia was very confused. “How do you know who I am?”
“The Woods have spoken about you.” Maz waved a hand to indicate the trees. “I listen.” She turned to Han. “You can't stay here for long. Vader has half the Imperials in the Kingdom of the Empire after you two. What did you do this time, Solowolf?”
“Jabba's probably got his huntsmen after me 'cause I owe him money.” Han shook his head. “As for Vader, he doesn't like that we sort of borrowed a couple thousand credits' worth of tax dollars from some of his boys to feed the folks in Lothal Village.”
Maz looked over her shoulder at Leia, who followed then inside. “And sort-of borrowed His Lordship's daughter too, from the looks of things.”
“I'm not borrowed, kidnapped, abducted, or whatever you may have seen on the wanted posters.” Leia sighed. “I came with Han because there was no other option at the time.”
“Is that the only reason?” Maz peered at her, with her huge, owlish eyes.
Han turned beet red; Leia coughed. “Yes,” she said too quickly. “Yes, it is.”
Maz turned to Han. “Solowolf, go upstairs.” She went behind a scarred wooden desk in the main room and pulled out a slightly tarnished silver key. “You can stay in your usual rooms.” When Leia had turned her back to admire Maz's main lobby, with its simple but rustic furnishings, the elderly witch turned to Han. “You haven't told her yet, have you? About Jabba's hold on you.”
Han looked at the floor. “I haven't had the chance.”
She poked him in the chest. “You mean, you haven't had the nerve. She could help you, Solowolf. She has great power.” She poked harder. “And it doesn't take eyes like mine to see she's crazy about you, and you're crazy about her.”
Han took the keys. “I'd rather leave her out of it. I have my problems, and she has to get back to the Rebels.”
“Suit yourself.” She waved her hand towards the winding staircase. “Everything is ready. Towels and blankets are in their usual places. Supper is at 6 PM. You might want to warn her about the evening crowd. You know they can get a little rough.”
Leia came up to her as Han went upstairs. “You have a charming dwelling here, Madame Kantana.”
The elderly witch waved the title off. “Call me Maz. I lost interest in all those fancy titles decades ago.” She and Leia sat down at the polished bar in the next room. It seemed to be a cross between a bar and a kitchen. The tiny old witch picked up a mortar and pestle behind the bar. “When you live as long as I have, you start to see the same eyes in different people.” She adjusted her very round glasses. “You...I've seen yours before. Beautiful dark brown eyes, with hair that curled around her shoulders, and a will of iron.” She took several jars, pouring powders out of each of them. “Her lover was bound by evil magic, just as Han is. A wicked sorcerer hardened his heart, made it unable to feel love or pain, until he was no longer human.”
Leia stiffened. “Han's not my lover. I don't know what he is, but we're not in love.”
The old woman went to the fireplace, where creamy white candles dripped wax into a cauldron. She added the ground powders to the wax, mixed it with an old wooden spoon, and dipped one of the candles into the wax. “Oh, he is your lover. You can't deny your feelings. Even the Woods knows. This will reveal what he's hidden.”
Leia frowned. “If Han is bound by magic, can't you or I free him?”
“I'm afraid I can't do that, child.” Maz blinked owlishly. “My magic works differently than yours. It's in my potions, what I see and hear. I'm not Force-sensitive, but I know of the Force. I know how it binds the Kingdoms and everything around us together.” She gently placed the candle in Leia's soft palm. “There is only one thing the Force likes more than harmony, and that's love. I've been wondering why the Woods seemed so content these last few months. It's been twenty years since there's been a pair of true lovers in these parts.”
Leia looked at the candle in her hand. “I don't know his real feelings,” she finally admitted. “I know he brings me extra blankets and holds me at night. In the day, he acts as rude and annoying as he ever did.”
Maz closed her fingers around it. “That's what he wants you to believe.”
Han came downstairs at that moment. Leia quickly stuffed the candle in a pocket in her white cape. “The rooms are all ready.” He gave Leia one of his lazy grins and bowed before her. “I know the food here isn't what you're accustomed to, but Maz does make a mean rabbit stew.”
Leia sighed again. “That would be fine.”
Maz continued to watch them as they took a table by the window, her eyes still blinking behind the glasses.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Han was right about one thing. Maz's dinner was delicious. She'd never had such a hearty rabbit stew in her life. There were thick slabs of blackberry pound cake topped with rich cream for dessert. She was full when Cecil and Han said they were going to retire to their rooms.
“What about you, Princess?” Han asked, yawning.
Leia pulled a heavy old book off a shelf. “I'm not very tired tonight. I think I'll stay up and read for a while.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“I for one,” Cecil complained, “am utterly exhausted. It has been a very full day.”
She followed them upstairs to the three small rooms they'd rented for the night. Her room was right next to his. She could hear his grumbling as he pulled off his clothes and climbed into bed. The moment he began to snore, she went to her cape and removed the candle from the inner pocket. She used her own magic to cover up the sound of her footsteps on the wooden floors.
The moonlight shined on the man in the bed. He was deeply asleep, a scratchy woolen blanket pulled around his broad, bare shoulders. She held the candle over his body, slowly moving the blanket...and as she did, she saw a black mark, a small looping chain, carved into his shoulder. There was a delicate brass ring around his neck, on an old leather string.
He looked so handsome, his long dark lashes fluttering over sleepy hazel eyes. The soft moonlight made his skin look far paler than it normally did. His scruffy auburn mane nearly glowed against the flickering light of her candle. The lips that curled into a sneer during the day seemed rosy and almost innocent at night.
Leia was so overcome by this vision, she leaned over to kiss him. As she did, two drops of tallow from the candle slid from the brass holder onto the mark on his shoulder. He let out a yelp as she pulled away. “Owww!” He held his shoulder, looking up at her. “Leia, what are you doing?”
“I...” She put the candle on the nightstand. “I...wanted to talk to you.”
He sat up, rubbing his shoulder. “Now?”
She sat next to him, running her fingers along the indentation on his shoulder. “Who did this to you?”
Han looked up at her with sad hazel eyes. “Jabba. He marks all of his servants this way. We have to keep working for him, until we bring him what he wants.” He tried to pull the blanket over the mark. “That's why I have to go back. He won't release me until I give him that money.”
Leia sat on the bed next to him. “How can he own you? No one can own another human. Slavery was outlawed in the Alliance of the Seven Kingdoms years ago.”
“Not in the outer kingdoms.”
She put her arms around him. He didn't pull away. “Is that why you've acted the way you have during the day?”
“Sweetheart, I meant what I said when I told you I can't stay. I've stayed longer than I should have.”
“I don't care.” Leia snuggled against him. “I won't let him or anyone else hurt you anymore.”
He sighed, gently putting his arms around her. “I don't know if you can do anything about this.”
“I can.” Leia's fierce brown eyes gazed into his concerned hazel ones. “We can. We'll figure this out together.” She touched the ring around his neck. “Han, what's this?”
He made a face. “No big deal. Jabba wanted me to marry one of his daughters. This is what an ogre gives their potential mate.”
Her eyes widened. “Marry them? But you're human!”
“He doesn't care.” Han stroked her braid crown. “He's been trying to marry off his daughters to anyone who walks in the door of his palace for years.” He wrinkled his nose. “He has three girls. They're all ugly as sin and just as sweet-tempered as their father, which is to say, they're disgusting. I wouldn't marry any of them if Jabba gave me more credits than there are in the entire Alliance.”
Leia smiled, undoing her braids. Han's eyes widened as she allowed her velvety tresses to cascade across her shoulders and under the sheets. “I think I could try to heal the spell, or at least soften it. Besides, I think it's time I let you see me like this. An Aldran noblewoman only lets her hair down in the presence of family or very close friends. Never in public, and very rarely for a man.”
Han ran his own fingers through her hair, playing with it. “I can't believe how long this is.”
“All Aldran noblewomen grow their hair long. It's a sign of dignity and status.” She leaned into his calloused fingers. “I wish we could stay like this forever. It feels peaceful here in the Woods. Safe.”
“We don't have forever.” Han cupped her chin in his rough palms. “But we do have tonight.”
The Woods saw them kiss. The trees whispered as they melded, running their fingers in their hair, their bodies, anywhere they could. The owls hooted, watching their passion. The wolves too felt it, felt the heat of their lovemaking, and howled with pleasure. The Woods knew love that night. It was said, in later years, that the magic in the Woods never sparkled more, the glowing fungi was never brighter, and the frogs' song never sweeter than that evening when two souls joined in pure happiness.
Maz only looked up from her spinning downstairs. She could hear the two, for Solo had never been known to make love quietly. She only gave the Woods a gap-toothed smile.
What Maz didn't notice was the figure standing silently in the shadows. The man in the green armor also watched the lovers through the window. All this romance-y stuff was making him sick. Boba Fett decided it was time to turn around and tell his boss where his daughter was spending her time lately...or more to the point, in whose arms.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yoda felt the calm in the swamps as well. The love between the King and Queen of Naboo's daughter and the gypsy thief wasn't the only reason the Woods were at their peak of light Force power. Luke Skywalker was progressing more and more each day with his training. He could jump higher, run faster, and was a bit calmer and more likely think before attacking.
His master, for his part, was proud, but a bit worried. Though Yoda was pleased with the changes in his apprentice, he also knew the dark Force magic was never far. They were within leagues of the Kingdom of the Empire. He was an old creature, and he wasn't long for this world. He couldn't shield the boy for much longer. If Lord Vader found Luke and corrupted him, in the way Vader himself had been corrupted, much would be lost.
Today, though, he had put aside his concerns to help Luke with his mind powers. Luke was trying to concentrate on the Force and lift Arthur, his saddlebags, and two rocks at the same time.
“Concentrate, you must.” Yoda nodded. “When one with the Force you are, visions you will have. Through these visions, you will see the future, the past, old friends long gone.”
The visions were coming easier now. There was a blurry light...clouds...mountains...darkness...
“I see...” he began, “a city in the clouds. At the very top of the Bespin Mountains.”
Yoda nodded. “It is the future you see.”
He focused, aiming all his magic into the city. “There's something...or someone...familiar there...”
“Friends there, you have.”
And that was when he felt it. The dark magic came to him in waves. He felt their suffering, their pain. They were being separated, hurt, tortured...
“Han,” he gasped. “Leia!”
He couldn't hold on to the vision – or his balance - any longer. Yoda shook his head as Luke went tumbling to the ground. Arthur hurried over to help him to his feet. “My friends,” he gasped. “They were in pain. I could feel it. The Force felt it.”
The tiny goblin nodded again. “It is the future you see.”
Luke turned pale. “Will they die?”
Yoda did the closest thing he could to shrugging. “Know, I do not. Fluid, the future is. Always in motion.”
Luke grabbed his tunic. “I have to help them. I'm a knight, or I'm training to be one. I'm supposed to help those in need.”
Yoda frowned. “Leave, you cannot. If you leave now, help them you could, but you will destroy all for which they fought and suffered.”
Luke never felt so torn in his entire life. Arthur's fingers flew, but he ignored them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“She's in the Woods?” Vader glared at Boba Fett through his dark visor. “Are you sure?”
Boba Fett nodded. “Yes, Lord Vader. She, Solowolf, and that idiot butler were staying the night at the old witch Maz's walking inn.” There was a smirk in his raspy voice. “She and Solowolf seemed to be more than a little sweet on each other, if you know what I mean. Half the Woods heard them going at it.”
Vader slowly crushed the crystal wine goblet he held in his grasp. Fett winced as the inky burgundy liquid spilled over the Black Knight's leather gauntlet. “I must have them. His Majesty is growing impatient, waiting for his bride. They're also the only link to finding where Skywalker has vanished to. Not a single man in the entire Alliance has been able to find him.”
Fett bowed before him. “Your Lordship, I know where Solowolf may be headed next.”
The enormous dark silhouette turned to him, his cape billowing around him like a heavy cloud. “Tell me, Fett.”
Fett lifted his helmet...revealing a cruel, sharp smile. “The Kingdom of the Clouds, in the Bespin Mountains. Solowolf has...friends...there. A fellow huntsman.”
“Perfect. The Bespin Mountains are outside of the Enchanted Woods. They'll lack the Woods' protection.” Vader turned to one of his officers. “Prepare the battle carriages. We must make it to the Bespin Mountins ahead of my daughter and the gypsy.” He handed Fett money. “This should make sure you stay on their trail. Report everything you see to me.”
Fett only nodded. “Very well, Your Lordship.”
Vader put out his wings as Fett left. Skywalker was close to Leia and her gypsy lover. If he could capture both and let the youth feel it in the Force magic, Vader was certain it would bring him running. It may already have.
He took off, soaring into the light of morning. He wasn't as strong in the light as he was in the darkness, but he had a long trip ahead of him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Maz saw Han, Leia, and Cecil off the next morning. She cooed over Chewbacca, giving him sugar and carrots and oats, before turning to them. “I heard the two of you last night. But then, so did half the woods.” She chuckled, turning to Leia. “I suppose you saw what you needed to see.”
Han put an arm around Leia as she blushed. “You might say that.”
Maz handed them a clay crock and a basket. “Here. Just in case you get hungry on the road. There's plenty of rabbit stew, fruit, and bread for all of you.”
“Thank you, Maz.” Leia took the items. “You've done so much for us already.”
Maz shook her head. “I wish I could do more. You both face many dangers. You'll be safe as long as you're in the Woods, but once you leave, you're your own. Neither the Woods nor I will be able to defend you.”
Leia felt uneasy, but Han put his arm around her. “We'll be all right, Maz. We can handle anything the Empire throws at us.”
Maz frowned, looking around. “I think you need to get going. You're being watched.”
“How do you...” Three arrows lodged themselves into the Falcon, even as Han spoke.
“So that's what I'm feeling.” Leia almost leaped into the driver's seat. “We're being ambushed.”
Han was exchanging arrows with one man in the turban of the Kingdom of Jakku, and another who had a rather scaly cast to his skin, as if he were a walking lizard. A third was tall and slender and looked like it was made of metal. Maz just pushed him towards the cart. “You get your woman and horse out of here. I'll deal with these scum.”
Han nodded as he grabbed the reins. “Thanks again, Maz. I'll see you around someday.”
“Not again!” wailed Cecil as he just barely avoided the arrow fire. “This is becoming most tedious!” He managed to duck into the back of the cart as it took off like a shot down the path into the Woods.
Maz waved. “Good bye! Good luck! You'll need it!” She ducked two arrows flying in from the shadows. “Now, let's get rid of these intruders. I think it's time to move the Inn to a less...busy...location. Too many huntsmen here. They disrupt customers.”
The last thing the three huntsmen remembered was seeing the two largest chicken legs they ever saw coming in their direction...followed by a two-story cottage that landed right on them.
Maz leaned out the window and patted the walls. “Sorry, girl. I'll see if I can get some of the bus boys to clean the bits and pieces out from under your foundation.” She caught sight of the Falcon as it rumbled down the path. She looked into the Woods, waving to them. “I only hope you're wrong about them,” she said, seemingly to the air. “They don't need any more sorrow.”
Han looked over his shoulder, waving back at Maz. “She was always a good lady. We owe her one.”
Leia sighed. “Well, now what?”
Han had a map of the Seven Kingdoms on his lap. “We need to find somewhere we can stay while I finish work on the Falcon and we find out what happened to Luke and the other Rebels.” He sighed. “And I need to figure out how to get back to Jabba.”
Leia peered over his shoulder. “We're still in the Kingdom of Takodana. There's not much here, besides trees and huntsmen.”
“I wouldn't mind avoiding any more run-ins with huntsmen myself.” Han's eyes roved over the map...before they came to rest on one particular corner of it. “This is interesting. Lando.”
Leia raised her eyes. “Lando Village?”
Han shook his head. “No, not village. He's a man. Used to be a huntsman, but he swore he gave that up a while ago.” He grinned at her. “He's a cardplayer, a gambler, and an all-around scoundrel. You'd like him.”
Leia sighed. “I'm sure I would.” She ran her finger where Han's was...and blushed a little when his finger stroked hers. “The Kingdom of the Clouds? That's mainly a mining colony, isn't it?”
Han nodded. “Yeah. Lando conned someone out of it. Don't worry. We go way back, Lando and me.”
Leia frowned. Something didn't feel quite right here. Even the Woods didn't feel right. The trees above them rustled their concern; the squirrels and chipmunks chattered. She finally just sighed. “Who's worried?”
Cecil popped his head out as Han turned them towards the Bespin Mountains. “Sir, if you won't be needing me, I'll be working on my translations for Madame Mothma's proposal to the Kingdom of Arkansis about the importance of the Rebels' work.”
“Sure, Goldenrod.” Han flicked the reins as Chewie picked up speed a little. “We'll be on the road for at least a week or so. You've got time.”
Leia leaned on Han's shoulder. “You have your moments.” She gave him a small kiss on his cheek. “Not many of them, but you do have them.” Han's eyes were on the road...but a small, dreamy smile played on his full lips.
If either of them had looked into the morning sky or over their shoulders at that moment, this part of the story may have ended quite differently. A figure in green armor watched from the shadows, following their every move. That reward, he decided, was as good as his.
Vader tried to keep to the shadows as much as he could, but sometimes, he had to remain in the open air. He saw them leave Kantana's ridiculous chicken-footed Inn, saw the interplay between them. He saw her kiss on his cheek. He didn't like this affection between them, not one bit. Leia belonged to his master alone. He soared higher into the sky, making his way towards the Kingdom of the Clouds.
No comments:
Post a Comment