Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 08_ Edge of Victory 01_ Conquest - J. Gregory Keyes [90]
Mezhan Kwaad drew herself to her full height.
“This is a shaper damutek. You do not have my permission to enter it.”
“I do not need it,” the commander replied. “I have the authority of Master Yal Phaath. I’m also afraid I must take both of you captive and search your chambers for evidence.”
“Evidence of what? Accuse us!” Mezhan Kwaad snapped. “Do not insult us with captivity without challenging!”
“The accusation is heresy, of course,” Tsaak Vootuh replied. “An accusation readily born out by the evidence, I feel certain.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Going back up the root was much easier than coming down it; the current was with them. It was not one micron more pleasant.
They emerged in the succession pool under orange Yavin light.
On the way up, Anakin had noticed an interesting thing.
Vua Rapuung existed for him now.
Not in the Force, not with the clarity that the Force offered, but he was there, a shadow of fury cast from the lambent to Anakin’s mind.
That wasn’t all. He also felt the confused, staticky hum of the hundreds of Yuuzhan Vong around him. The noise cut in and out, like a bad comm transmission, but it was undeniably there.
It wasn’t the Force, but it was something, and he could see their works with new eyes. His gaze was drawn to details in the living structures around him he hadn’t noticed—or cared to notice—before.
With Rapuung, Anakin slipped into the shadows.
“Your Jeedai is still in this damutek?” Rapuung asked.
Anakin concentrated. Tahiri was there, but every day she became … fuzzier, harder to pinpoint. Now he barely heard her at all.
“She hasn’t moved,” Anakin replied. “She’s that way.” He pointed.
Rapuung grimaced. “That’s not the core laboratories of the shaping compound.”
“It’s where I feel her.”
Rapuung rubbed his flat nose. “It makes sense. It’s where her quarters are, her personal chambers. If she keeps the work on the Jeedai close to her, and hopes it will go unseen, she would do it there.”
“Why would she want that?” Anakin asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand the way of shapers. And yet she was always secretive in what she did. She was always nervous.” His voice softened slightly. “Always doing things she shouldn’t.”
“Like having an affair with you.”
Rapuung’s nostrils contracted until they were nearly closed, but he chopped his head once. “Yes. Speak no more of it. Come, infidel.”
“Lead on. I know the direction, but not the way.”
Without another word, Rapuung padded off. An opening in the wall parted for him.
The shaper compound was an eight-armed star with the pool in the center. The corridor they entered took them up one of the arms. Within, the compound was illuminated by phosphorescence punctuated by the occasional lambent that sparked to life when Rapuung came near. A faint smell of seaweed and lizard permeated the corridors, which were at turns quite regular and wildly asymmetric. The pool was not the crosswalks of the place; a torus of connecting corridors joined the rays of the star and served that purpose.
Anakin tensed as they met their first Yuuzhan Vong. A cluster of them stood together, discussing something he couldn’t quite catch. When they saw Rapuung and Anakin they stopped and stared, but didn’t say anything.
“This is easier than I thought it would be,” Anakin said, after they were past the group.
Rapuung grunted. “I would have killed them if I thought it would help, but they sent the signal the instant they saw us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“A Shamed One and a slave in a shaper compound? Unlikely.”
“But they didn’t—”
“Scream? Run? Shapers they may be, but they are Yuuzhan Vong. If we came to kill them, they would be dead. They know that.”
“So what do we expect now?”
But Rapuung didn’t have to answer. Ahead of them, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridor suddenly met one another.
“Whoops,” Anakin managed. A quick look behind him showed the same thing.
“We have seconds,” Rapuung said. “Do