"Maybe we shouldn't go in just yet," Jacen whispered timidly. "She'll probably ground me for the rest of my life, and do even worse things to you guys."
The companions had arrived back at the Palace about fifteen minutes earlier, heading straight for the Solo apartment. "We'd better explain things to Aunt Leia right away," Lowie had said. "If we don't, she'll be supper pissed at us forever."
Jacen had agreed at the time, yet seemed to have changed his mind now that he was faced with an actual confrontation. "She's evidently in a bad mood," he hissed, tugging on Xicanti's arm. "Let's go find Uncle Luke instead. He'll tell her, and he'll be the one who gets stuff thrown at him!"
Xicanti was tempted to go with his friend. Although the room bore no signs of having been set upon in a savage frenzy, he feared they would be confronted with just that if they were to approach Leia at such a time. It probably would be better to go to Luke, the boy thought to himself. Or Han. They'd probably understand better than Leia. Especially Han, seeing as how he didn't exactly have a perfect life either before he got involved with the Rebels. With this logic as his strong point, Xicanti was about to head to Jacen. However, before he got a chance to announce his decision, Rabnas pushed past him into the room.
Xicanti tensed, wondering what exactly Rabnas was planning on doing. Carefully, the old man picked his way across the floor, taking small, delicate steps for no apparent reason and ending at the bed on which Leia had thrown herself. He leaned down and put one hand on each of Leia's shoulders, being quite careful not to touch anything he wasn't supposed to. Then, with no warning whatsoever, Rabnas began to shake her.
It wasn't an overly large shake, but it was enough to wake Leia, who, as Chief of State, wasn't accustomed to being shaken at four in the morning. She looked up at Rabnas, (who had released her shoulders and was grinning for all he was worth), groggily. As the sleep dust left her eyes and she got a fuller look at the odd old man, Leia screamed.
Rabnas grinned down at her and laughed maniacally, looking for all the world like a madman, his straggly gray hair hanging down below his waist and his beard down to his bony knees from years of neglect. His tunic of human scalps hung off of his small body in such a way that each piece was brilliantly highlighted as the hunk of haired human flesh it was. Leia took one look at him, then leapt up and ran to a dresser, ripping open one of the drawers in that savage frenzy Xicanti had been so worried about.
"Watch out, Rabnas!" Jacen shouted. "That's where she keeps the -"
Before the boy could finish his sentence, a familiar beam of blue light shot out from the device Leia had removed from the drawer, narrowly missing the old man's head.
" - blasters," the little boy finished lamely, as Rabnas dropped to the floor and crawled under the bed, crying out for the Chief of State to stop her rampage of death.
"Leia, Leia, it's me!" the former Senator puffed. "Rabnas, Rabnas Corgrumn! You remember, from the Senate? Xicanti tells me it's been twelve years, so I'll understand if you've forgotten me a little, but I never expected a reception like this!"
It was at about this point that Han charged into the room, leading Chewie and a contingent of guards. Mara and Luke followed close behind, right on each other's heels. "What's going on?" Han shouted. "We heard a blaster being fired, and someone crying out. Is anyone hurt? Leia, are you okay?"
Leia nodded. "Yes, I'm fine," she replied, straightening her robes as she stood up from the crouch she had assumed to fire the blaster. With the point of that same blaster, she indicated the region of the floor where Rabnas had ducked out of sight. "You might want to check on him, though. He's claiming to be an Imperial Senator who died of a heart attack just before the Rebellion got fully underway." She looked up at Han for verification, but ended up looking past him at the three boys standing to one side of the door. Marching over to Jacen, she glared at him and stated coldly, "You're going to be in big trouble as soon as I get your story out of you. No telling me one of your wild tales this time, either!" She glared even more sharply. "And tell me why you aren't wearing anything but that bit of fur while you're at it!" She turned to the guards who had burst in. "Which guards are on duty at the main entrance tonight?" she asked the one who appeared to be in charge.
"Helk and Tamroil, ma'am!" he replied promptly.
Leia nodded to him. "Thank you, officer. I want you to go and get those two guards. Leave some of your men to guard the entrance and bring them here. I want to know why they let this ragtag group into the Palace without notifying me!" She turned back to Jacen and announced smugly, "you won't be the only one who's getting in big trouble from me tonight!"
Lowie cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Uh, Aunt Leia," he said tentatively. "It's not really their fault. I used mind tricks on them. They wouldn't have let us in if I hadn't. I used it on them to get us out, too. It was the same guards that night as well, I think. Please don't get mad at them, they didn't do anything wrong. It was entirely my fault, and I'm very sorry." The little Wookiee hung his head in a shame which did not seem entirely real.
Leia gave him a look as well. "And how, exactly, did you get past the shields Mara put up last week against such things?" she asked him probingly.
Lowie looked at her oddly. "What shields?" he asked, perplexed. "I didn't feel anything while I was looking! And I'm not the sort of Wookiee who misses these sorts of things! Am I, Uncle Luke?"
Luke shook his head. "He's right, Leia," the Jedi replied. "Lowbacca is a strong student. If there had been shields, he would have felt them. I'll have to go down there right now and make sure everything's all right." He left the room, likely to inspect the guards.
Mara was the next recipient of one of Leia's glares. "You told me you'd done the job just as I asked!" she accused hotly. "What could have gone wrong?"
"Nothing!" Mara snapped back. "Shielding is a remarkably easy thing! I learned how to set shields when I was only his age!" She pointed an angry finger at Jacen. "The Emperor taught me himself!"
"That may very well be, but it was a long time ago that you learned it. Luke's had this power for less time, but it's fresher in his memory. He remembers things very accurately, too, as you well know."
"So, you think that I'm getting old and stupid, is that it?" Mara snapped back. Xicanti got the impression that she was taking Leia's words the wrong way on purpose. "Fine, then! I can tell when I'm not wanted in a room! I'll go make sure that that stupid Luke doesn't mess this up. No matter what you say, experience is more important than the freshness of knowledge in the mind!" With that, she stormed out of the room.
With all the other distractions gone, Leia turned back to Xicanti, Jacen, and Lowie. "I think," she said, adjusting her voice so it resounded, slow and menacing, through the bedchamber "that the three of you owe us an explanation."
Xicanti gulped and nodded. "We do," he answered. "The whole thing was my fault. I decided that, although it was really nice of you to let me come an' live 'ere, in this Palace, it really wasn't my thing. So I was gonna go back to my cellar. I didn't want you worryin', though, so I went to tell Lowie. Jacen was there too, and I was feelin' a bit insecure about the whole thing, so I told 'em they'd have to come with me so they wouldn't rat me out. Then ?"
"Wait a second!" Jacen butted in. He glared at Xicanti. "That's not what happened, and you know it!" Quickly, he added, "I mean, I appreciate your trying to keep us out of trouble, and I'm sure Lowie does too, but we're all in this together, and we can't let you take all the punishment." He turned to his mother. "Mom, Xicanti wanted us to stay here. He told us it was really dangerous, and that we would be better off just waiting and telling you guys that he was okay in the morning. But me and Lowie insisted. We told him that we wanted to make sure that he got back safe, so we went with him even though he didn't want us to. Just to make sure he got there safe, you know. It turned out that it was a good idea that we did, too, because Rettar wasn't happy to see him and all and he knocked us unconscious and dumped us down on the lowest level naked! But luckily, we met up with Rabnas -" He smiled at the old man, who was still prostrated beside the bed " - and he helped us get out. Lowie did lots too, like taking control of one of the man-eaters and making it go near the Battle 'droids down there, and they chased it and while they were gone, we got into the elevator and escaped to safety with Rabnas and all of us still alive and un-eaten." He paused for breath. "And that's the end of it. I didn't make it up, and Rabnas really is who he said he is - Lowie read his mind with the Force - and Xicanti did not force me and Lowie to go with him!" He stood up triumphantly. "Now you can punish us for what we did, since that's the whole of it!"
Leia looked down at her son with a gaze of disbelief. Finally, she turned to Lowie and said, "Lowie, I've known you since the day you were born, and you're a very honorable young Wookiee. Is what Jacen just told me all true?"
Lowie nodded. "It is," he agreed. "Every last detail. The man-eaters and all."
"So," Leia crossed her arms over her chest, "you three played mind games with the guards, left the Palace in the middle of the night - quite stupid of you, I might add - and went down to one of Coruscant's lowest levels all by yourselves. Did I get it right?"
"Pretty much," Lowie whispered hoarsely. Poor Wookiee! Xicanti thought. He's probably never been in serious trouble before. At least the worst that's likely to happen to him is he'll get grounded. The young thief elected not to think of all the things that could happen to him for what his part in the doings had been. If I'd just bothered to think before I'd gone off, none of this would have happened! he wailed with all his soul.
:But it did happen,: crowed an unfamiliar, feminine mind-voice. :And now there's no changing it! And even if there was, it's still not entirely your fault. You did think before you left the Palace. If you hadn't, Lowie and Jacen wouldn't be party to this meeting, now would they?:
Xicanti looked around, startled at the voice. :Who are you?: he asked, reaching out around the room. :Where are you?: There was no answer, and so Xicanti assumed he'd just made up the voice. My stress level, or somethin' like that. He shrugged internally, and turned his attention back to Leia.
"Hmm..." Leia looked as though she was thinking hard about her next words. Xicanti desperately hoped she'd look closely at their side of the story before deciding upon a proper punishment. His wishes, however, were not to become reality. "I'd like the three of you to know," she told them, speaking slowly, "that I'm very disappointed with you. Jacen, -" she turned to her son "- you will be grounded for two months. Lowie, I'll leave your punishment up to your father." She looked up at the Wookiee Lord expectantly.
Chewie took a deep breath. He doesn't want to do anything really bad to Lowie, but he knows that he's gotta do something, with Leia here and all, Xicanti realized. He waited anxiously to see what would happen to his hairy friend.
"Well," Chewie began, "I don't have much experience with punishing my cubs. I've never liked the whole idea of it. But in this case, at this time, I'll have to do something. Since Jacen has been given two months just for going along, and it sounds suspiciously like Lowie helped to orchestrate the whole thing, he'll get an equivalent punishment. One month without using the Force. For anything, training included."
Xicanti was certain that, it had been possible for a Wookiee's fur to grow pale, Lowie's would have been bleached to a pure, unblemished white. As it was, he simply bowed his head in a gesture of submission and replied, very quietly, "Yes, Dad."
Chewie nodded. Xicanti could sense that the elder was not pleased with what he'd been required to do to his son. Yet now the punishment had been decided upon, and could not be revoked in good conscience. The Wookiee Lord motioned for his son to follow him, and the two exited the room together.
And then there was one, Xicanti thought. They left me 'till last. That means that I'll get the worst punishment, if things work the same here as in the den. He looked on silently, without wavering, as Leia sat down on the bed and began to study him.
It seemed as though she sat there for hours, although it couldn't have been more than five minutes. At last, she spoke, very softly, with a deep sorrow imbedded within her voice. "Why did you leave?" she asked him her brown eyes meeting his green. "We offered you a home here. A home, and a chance to be something more than a thief. Why did you decide to leave that for the horrors of the street?"
Xicanti was startled. This was not what he had been expecting. He had thought that Leia would shout at him, throw things at him, and kick him back into the street when she had dismissed the others. "What do you mean?" he asked, more than a little uncertainly.
"I am asking you," Leia replied, her voice calm, "why you chose a dirty cellar over a Palace."
Xicanti shrugged helplessly, letting out a small sigh. "I don't think I really know anymore. When I set out, I thought I would be happier there. But once I got back, and Rettar threw me out, I started to wonder, and now I'm more confused than anything, if you see what I mean. I can't really answer your question because of that."
Leia nodded. "I do see," she replied, still softly. "But I don't have an answer to my question, and without it I won't be able to decide what to do with you." She looked at him carefully, as though attempting to measure something within his very soul. "Tell me the whole story, from your point of view. Don't change things just to keep my son and Lowie out of trouble, either. I appreciate your trying to do that for them, but this is a democracy, and there's no way I can judge you fairly if you don't tell the whole truth, as it is in your eyes. Even that, however, may not be enough." She looked at him again, then asked, her tone surprisingly gentle, "What happened to you before you came here?"
Suddenly, Xicanti found himself telling the story of his life once more. He jumped quickly from his birth in a back alley to the escape from the man-eaters and 'droids, excluding a few more... personal aspects of his existence. Even with the revisions, a good fifteen or twenty minutes had passed by the time his tale was told, and Mara and Luke had returned.
Before telling Xicanti what she was going to do with him, Leia questioned her brother as to the situation with the Force shields. Luke shrugged in response to her questioning. "I really don't have a know," he replied. "They're there, just as they should be. Lowie should not have been able to use mind tricks on them!"
Mara was similarly bewildered. Despite his predicament, Xicanti found this amusing. He had never before seen his oldest sister in such as state; she was normally very sure of herself. "Luke didn't mess it up," the woman told Leia. "The shields are there, and as strong as ever. The guards don't remember letting them in, either. I read their minds to make sure. Somehow, that little hairball managed to get past the shields with his mind tricks." She scratched her head. "I'd give a lot to know how he did it! It'd probably be one of those Sith tricks I've been teaching him. I don't think Jedi are supposed to do things like that."
Leia nodded. "You'll have to question him on it. I'm afraid he won't be able to show you for some time, though. Chewie's told him he'll have to go a month without using the Force for anything because of what he did."
Mara snorted. "I'm starting to rub off on the walking carpet!" she laughed. "Chewie'd never have given off a punishment like that before he met me!"
"That's true," Luke agreed. "Chewie's always been very easy with his Wooklings. Granted, they don't give him much reason not to."
"If you consider Sirri deciding she wanted to be a Jawa and rounding up all the Droids in Chewie's dome to give to them so they'd let her join them not too bad!" Mara countered. "Or Lowie jumping off of the bridge that time on Endor when Wicket was telling him how much fun it was and almost splitting his skull open on the berry bushes!"
"Okay, maybe they've done a few bad things," Luke amended. "But for the most part, they're very good kids."
Leia sighed at the Jedi and Sidi. "That may very well be," she told the two, "but I have more important matters to attend to." She glanced at Xicanti. "Like passing judgment on our brother, here."
Mara snorted again. "The one wearing the wonderfully fashionable ensemble, right?" she chuckled. To Xicanti, she asked, "What's with the scalps? You should really have left the ears on, you know. It would have been a nice touch!"
Xicanti blushed angrily, but before he could snap back a reply, a pitiful voice came from beside the bed. "Excuse me," it ventured, "but would it be okay with everyone if I got up now? You should be able to tell from the boy's story and the Wookiee's testimony that I'm not some insane old man, I really am Rabnas Corgrumn, former Imperial Senator and evidently not the Emperor's favorite person." He made a small noise that sounded peculiarly like a parody of Mara's snort. "Anyways, let's get back to my original point. Can I get up?"
Leia looked over at Mara. "Is he who he says he is?" she asked the other woman.
Mara appeared to be reading Rabnas's mind. She nodded at Leia's question. "Yup," she answered. "This is Rabnas, alive, not dead, after twelve years."
copyright 1998, Jadis Darkmore
