Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 01_ The Paradise Snare - A. C. Crispin [76]
Han hastened over to the bunk, and began dragging on his clothes. At least he wouldn’t die naked and wet. “Listen, Muuurgh,” he said, “you’ve gotta listen to me. Please! What can it hurt?”
“Pilot lies. Muuurgh knows he lies. Muuurgh—I will not listen.”
That’s a good sign that he’s regaining his cool, Han thought. The grammar I taught him is coming back.
Sealing the front of his coverall, Han sat down on the edge of the bunk to pull on his boots. “Your people have a code of honor, right?” he said, thinking as fast as he’d ever thought in his life.
“Yes.”
“If you give your word of honor to someone who’s employing you, you’ve got to keep it, right?”
“Yes. Pilot can move faster than that. Put on those boots.”
Han slowly inserted his right foot, toes pointed down, and began to pull the boot on. “Well, pal, suppose you gave your word of honor to someone and found that everything he told you was a lie on his part of the contract. What does that do to your agreement? Do you have to keep your word to someone who’s lied to you and made a fool out of you?”
Muuurgh eyed Han suspiciously, but said nothing.
“C’mon, pal, what’s your code of honor say about making agreements with liars, eh?”
Muuurgh shook his massive head, then his ears flattened in anger. “If a Togorian makes a word of honor with a liar, contract is void. There is no honor to be had dealing with a liar.”
“All right,” Han said with a surge of satisfaction. He picked up his left boot. “Listen to me, pal. I think Mrrov is here, on Ylesia. I think Teroenza lied to you.”
Muuurgh stared at Han, then his blue eyes narrowed. “You would lie to stay alive, Vykk.”
“Yeah, I would, pal,” Han said honestly. “But I swear to you I ain’t lying about this.”
“Swear? What is this ‘swear’?”
“It’s … like a word of honor, sort of,” said. “My people swear by the most important thing in the world to them. It’s like … sacred, I guess you’d say.”
“So what does Vykk swear by?”
Han thought for a moment. “I swear,” he said, slowly and distinctly, “by Bria’s life. You know I care for her … a lot. Don’t you?”
Muuurgh considered for a moment, then nodded.
“Okay, then, I swear to you, on Bria’s life, that last night she told me she saw a Togorian here, six months or more ago. That would tie in with the time you were searching for Mrrov, wouldn’t it?”
Silently the Togorian nodded again.
“She saw a Togorian, Muuurgh. Ask her yourself. Teroenza and his goons lied to you when they said she never came here. She’s probably still here, on Ylesia. Probably not here at Colony One, ’cause that’s too risky. But there’s a good chance she’s at Colony Two … or maybe even Three. But Colony Two has been there longer, they’ve got a lot more pilgrims there than at Colony Three. So I’m betting she’s at Colony Two. It’s worth checking out, isn’t it?”
“What did she look like?” Muuurgh asked slowly.
For a moment Han was tempted to lie, say he didn’t know, because what if he was wrong about the Togorian being Mrrov, and Muuurgh got mad and killed him right here and now? He took a deep breath. “Bria said she was white and some other color. Striped. She thought they might be orange stripes, but she said it was almost dark, so she’s not sure.”
I sure hope Mrrov wasn’t solid-colored or spotted!
Muuurgh’s ears flattened, and he hissed like a leaky valve, teeth bared ferociously. Han desperately looked around for something to brain the Togorian with, but there wasn’t a thing in reach. Silently he resigned himself to being ripped in two.
Then Muuurgh’s furious hiss mutated into a pain-filled yowl of anguish. The big alien sank to the floor, clutching his head and yowling in an ululating keen. “You have described her!” he growled, finally. “By all the gods of my fathers, can she have been here all these days, while I believed those liars? I will go now to tear their throats