Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [17]
“A Rodian,” Nom Anor supplied quietly. “A bellicose species given to warfare and bounty hunting. This one is the Hutt’s majordomo, Leenik.”
Leenik approached his master’s guests, his stubby snout twitching. “Borga the Almighty is prepared to grant you audience now,” he said in Basic.
Malik Carr shot Nom Anor a vexed glance. The entire Yuuzhan Vong entourage stood and began to trail the Rodian through an enormous doorway flanked by thickset churlish guards, whose pointed lower teeth and forehead tusks were perfectly matched.
“I suggest you take a deep breath before we enter,” Nom Anor advised the commander.
“Is the Hutt odor so unbearable?”
“Picture bathing in a reopened grave.”
Malik Carr grimaced and sucked in his breath.
The vaulted ceiling of the opulent court was even higher than that of the antechamber, and floating midway to the ceiling on a bolstered antigravity couch was an outsize, bulbous-headed slug whose disproportionately short arms might have been vestigial were the small hands they ended in not beckoning imperiously to Malik Carr and Nom Anor.
Atmosphere exchangers were working overtime, but there was enough residual rankness in the air to make the commander’s eyes water. Sybaritic toadies sprawled about on couches and carpets—musicians, gunsels, and scantily attired dancers, all of diverse species. Chained to one wall, though obviously a pet, was a ferocious-looking beast Nom Anor knew to be a Kintan strider.
Borga favored Nom Anor with a look. “How pleasant to see you again,” her deep voice boomed. “Come and sit beneath me.”
Nom Anor—whom Borga knew as Pedric Cuf, and who claimed to be nothing more than an intercessor between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Hutts—smiled without showing his teeth and remained where he was, a good distance from the repulsor platform. At his hand signal the attendants conveyed to the center of the room several ornate boxes of the sort that might contain tribute. Nom Anor went to the closest box and opened the lid. Almost immediately the levitated couch gave a shudder and crashed loudly to the stone floor, nearly spilling Borga the Almighty into her coterie of shocked sycophants.
“I’m terribly sorry,” Nom Anor said, as the chagrined Hutt struggled to regain her former composure. “I didn’t realize that the Yuuzhan Vong had brought along a finely tuned dovin basal for your amusement. The creature was apparently offended by your couch’s attempt to outwit gravity and decided to rectify the imbalance by catching hold of it.”
Nom Anor was proficient at mimicking the subharmonics that furnished the Hutt language with nuance. Even so, Borga had difficulty establishing the sincerity of the apology. Her oblique, heavy-lidded eyes blinked in confusion, then she quickly propped herself up, putting a curl in her muscular purple-patched tail, and gestured for two of her attendants to bring chairs for her guests.
The commander and the executor seated themselves with decorum, careful not to demonstrate too much smugness over their small victory, though a fleeting smile did escape Malik Carr.
“The Yuuzhan Vong have brought other wonders, as well,” Nom Anor said finally.
Once more at his signal two attendants placed an aquarium well within Borga’s limited reach, its murky waters hosting a variety of fist-sized life-forms, the likes of which the Hutt had never seen. Borga whispered something to Leenik, and the majordomo fished one of the creatures from the tank, sniffed at it, and took a cautious bite.
At the Rodian’s mildly enthusiastic nod, Borga snatched the thing from Leenik’s long-fingered hands, swallowed it whole, and loosed a resonant and lengthy belch of satisfaction.
“Another,” she ordered.
This time Borga opened her jaws so wide that Nom Anor could almost hear the living morsel plop into her enormous stomach cavity. She belched again and ran her powerful