Star Wars_ Tales From Jabba's Palace - Kevin J. Anderson [70]
Soon, Ree-Yees promised himself. Soon he’d be done with Ephant Mon and the rest of them. He picked up the bucket and shambled over to Jabba’s frog-dog, which had been put outside for the night. A tongue, long and sticky, dipped into the malodorous stew, then retracted with a snap, bearing blobs of moldy bantha fat, gelatinous chuff, and fragments of Viridian termite jaws on its bulbous tip. As the bubo swallowed, Ree-Yees reached down and dug his fingers into a purple wart on the side of the beast’s shoulder. It was a particularly large and fleshy growth. With a plop! the flap of skin pulled loose to reveal a miniature panel, two light squares and a reset button. Only Imperial technicians could design and fit such a device, undetected, right on Jabba’s doorstep. A symbol glowed on one square with today’s date, while the other flashed the words, “Shipment complete.”
Ree-Yees secured the skin flap and snuffled in relief. With this last shipment, the detonator, he would now be able to complete his end of the bargain. In return, the Empire would wipe that triple-blasted murder rap off Ree-Yees’s record and he could go home to Kinyen again—
No! Too risky to think about that now! Better to keep playing Jabba’s fool, despised and mocked, until the deed was done. Better to stay safely drunk, cut off from the visions which hovered, like half-glimpsed memories, at the corners of his eyes … fields of goatgrass glistening in the sun, oh yes … and the rut-scent of females, their velvet flanks, their breasts like tripled jewels—
No. Better to stay drunk. Better to wait.
The frog-dog, having gulped down the last of the slops, turned one eye speculatively on Ree-Yees, as if wondering how he would taste. Ree-Yees stepped aside just in time to avoid another flick of the prehensile tongue.
Ree-Yees slugged the creature on the side of the head. “Stupid two-eyed maggot fish! It’s a good thing I don’t need you anymore!”
The bubo cowered, its expression one of reproachful innocence. Once he’d turned to head back toward the palace, it hissed something extremely rude-sounding and almost intelligible at him.
Muttering under his breath, Ree-Yees shuffled down the hall toward Jabba’s audience chamber. The Gamorrean on guard rumbled forward, force pike raised and red-rimmed eyes glinting. His tusks gleamed wetly in the dim light. Ree-Yees had fleeced him easily at four-cubes last night and the Gamorrean hadn’t even realized he was being cheated.
“Outta my way, pig-slime!”
The Gamorrean poked Ree-Yees’s chest with the tip of his ax. “Where you go? What you do?”
The slightest touch of the force pike stung, even through Ree-Yees’s leather jerkin. “Get that crotting thing away from me!”
“Urghh!”
“So you say, spawn of Nilgarian worm! But there’s gonna be some changes around here real soon. Jabba won’t always—”
“Jabba-Jabba urghh-phth!”
Just then, a tall figure separated itself from the shadowy interior and hurried toward them. It was that interfering Quarren, Tessek.
Tessek’s mouth tentacles writhed in agitation. “What’sss going on?”
“Jabba-no-jabba urk-urk!” squealed the guard, waving his force pike wildly.
“A minor misssunderssstanding, sssoon remedied.” With one hand, Tessek herded Ree-Yees down the tunnel, with the other he gestured to the guard. “Remain here at your possst and sssay nothing of thisss to anyone!”
Ree-Yees stumbled along, propelled by Tessek’s grip. By the time they were out of earshot of the guard, the Quarren had regained control of his speaking apparatus.
“What do you think you’re doing? Do you want Jabba to suspect—You’re drunk again, aren’t you? Give me that tankard!”
Ree-Yees jerked away. “None of your stinking business—and keep your hands off what’s mine. You aren’t the only one—” With an effort, he managed to