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Ortugg pulled him up into the sail barge, then sat with him next to Jabba’s throne. It was dark in the barge, and it smelled faintly of mold and disuse.

Tessek gulped hard, noticed the knot in his stomach. He hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and he thought longingly of the mollusks stored in his room, imagined prying them open with his four feelers.

Ortugg pulled out his own heavy blaster and began cleaning the carbonized scoring that had built up on its barrel tip. When he was done, he pointed the barrel at Tessek’s right eye and asked, “How clean that look?”

“Clean. Very clean,” Tessek said.

Ortugg held the blaster pointed at Tessek’s face for a long time. “Jabba no trust you,” he said finally, as he laid the gun on his lap. “That too bad for you.”

“Jabba will find out just how loyal I really am soon enough,” Tessek said.

“Too bad for you,” Ortugg grunted again.

Tessek sat, lost in reverie for the next hour as the sail barge began to fill to overflowing. Half a dozen of Jabba’s most trusted henchmen took seats within reach of Tessek. Last of all, Jabba himself came in, dragging Princess Leia in her chains. Jabba sat himself on his dais, and almost immediately the barge lurched into action while the band struck up a loud tune.

The barge floated out over the dunes, bouncing over hills like a ship dipping in the troughs of mountainous waves. As the barge continued to heat up, Jabba had his men open some of the side panels so that brilliant yellow light from Tatooine’s twin suns lit the interior. Hot, dry air wafted through the rooms.

Tessek didn’t speak, hardly thought. He had nothing to say to the monster Jabba or to his other captors. Instead, he was filled with fear, like a cup that is overflowing, until the fear seemed to leak out in his scent, in the ink that dripped from the corner of his mouth, in every nervous tremor.

As the craft warmed, Tessek’s skin began to itch and crack, drying him in odd spots—between the feelers at his mouth, over the ridges on his face. The normal healthy gray skin blanched to white. Sickly dark blue blotches began appearing at the back of his palms.

Strictly speaking, Tessek’s closest biological relatives were clams and slugs. But the Quarren species had long ago adapted to spending time on land, at least on a limited basis. Still, he needed water to keep himself pliant. Otherwise, his skin would crack and bleed—so that he would lose moisture even faster—and given enough time under such circumstances, he would die.

Yet Tessek didn’t worry about succumbing slowly to moisture loss by degrees. He worried instead about the look in Leia’s eyes: there was a fierceness there, a confidence that had been lacking the day before. Even (did he only imagine it?) a restrained anger.

Surely, Leia had not succumbed to Jabba’s ministrations. She had not lost her spirit. Even now, she was holding herself in check, waiting for rescue.

As Tessek watched her, he became more certain: the Rebel Alliance would ambush the sail barge soon.

Jabba was feasting on live creatures, smoking a giant hookah, his eyes pleasantly glazed. His henchmen leaned in close.

Tessek wanted suddenly to speak to Leia, let her know that he was an ally, yet he dared speak only with discretion. “Great Jabba,” he began. Jabba regarded Tessek with narrowed eyes. “I am afraid that I will be no good to you if I dehydrate further. May I retire to the kitchens for a quick sponge bath?”

Jabba ogled him with obscene interest, relishing Tessek’s suffering. “Stay here beside me,” Jabba said. “Prove your loyalty.”

“Oh, Master, you can be assured of my loyalty: if trouble comes, I will take the place of honor—guarding your back!”

“Ho, ho, ho, ho,” Jabba chuckled quietly, then drew a long breath from his hookah, closing his eyes in ecstasy. In that moment, Tessek looked deep into Leia’s eyes, trying to bore his traitorous intent into her.

Surprisingly, her eyes suddenly widened, as if she understood completely. She nodded her chin, then turned away.

In another hour, Tessek felt frail as they reached the Great Pit of Carkoon.