Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 05_ Allies - Christie Golden [53]
“He and I have tangled before. One of my last cases.” Eramuth hadn’t looked up himself, but poured her a glass of water from a pitcher that had been set at the table. He handed it to her, giving her a good excuse to look away without appearing as if she had broken Dekkon’s gaze.
“Did you win?” Tahiri murmured, taking a sip of water.
“Naturally.”
“Great,” she said, putting the glass down. “Now he’s got a score to settle.”
“Let him try,” Eramuth said airily. He rose and extended a hand politely to the Chagrian who had, with a swirl of his dark, elegant robes, now stepped up beside him.
Sul Dekkon was much taller than the Bothan, towering over him as they shook hands. Eramuth didn’t bat an eye.
“Sul,” he said, his voice sincere, warm and rich and rolling. “You look well.”
“And you, Eramuth,” came the response. The voice was harsher than Eramuth’s, the words clipped and cool. “I see academia is treating you well.”
Eramuth smiled. His right ear flicked. “It is always an honor to pass to the next generation what one has learned.”
“Next? I’d say more than that,” Dekkon said, smiling. It did not reach his eyes. “These could be your grandchildren you’re instructing, Eramuth.”
“Many things improve with age,” Eramuth said. “The Bothan mind is one of them.”
“Perhaps,” the Chagrian agreed. “However, you’re a bit out of practice, aren’t you?”
Eramuth chuckled. “Practice means nothing when you’ve won as many cases as I have. I believe you’re up to half that number now, aren’t you?”
Both were lawyers. Neither was a Force-user, but they hid their emotions well. Still, for someone as sensitive as Tahiri was in the Force, they might as well have been screaming at each other for the hostility that was flowing between them. Or rather, Dekkon might have been screaming. Eramuth was enjoying himself, baiting the other attorney with a deftness that a dancer would have envied. Still, there was something off—something that the Chagrian had said had gotten to him.
Dekkon’s eyes flashed and he opened his mouth to retort, but movement from the back of the room interrupted the conversation. The bouncer-bailiff had opened the door, and the twelve jurors filed quietly into their seats. Dekkon gave Eramuth a brief nod and turned to his seat, pulling datapads out and arranging them on the table. Eramuth bowed, then slid back into his chair beside Tahiri.
“I think we’ve got ourselves a good jury,” Eramuth said, his muzzle to Tahiri’s ear. “Most of them are open-minded. Some of them were even somewhat sympathetic to you.”
She watched the jurors out of the corner of her eye. Humans, Bith, Chadra-Fans, Wookiees—it was almost as if every species whose planet was a member of the Galactic Alliance was represented here. She wondered if any of them were Force-users. It was, after all, supposed to be a jury of her peers. She dismissed the hope at once. It would be all too easy to argue that the Force was being misused by the potential jury member. A Mon Calamari looked at her with one eye, clearly thinking his expression was neutral, clearly kidding himself. He did not like her.
“And some weren’t,” Tahiri said, watching as the Mon Cal took his seat.
“And some weren’t, quite right, but that’s to be expected,” Eramuth said without missing a beat. “I give a little, he gives a little. The only thing Dekkon has going for him, really, is the facts.”
Tahiri couldn’t help it. She stared at him. “Wait a minute—what did you just say?”
He smiled and poured a glass of water for himself. His hand shook a little, but he seemed completely calm and she had noticed the slight trembling before. Eramuth was, after all, definitely an