Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [160]
“There is more, Lord,” a second seer said. “Several enemy ships have outwitted our dovin basal voids and found their way to the surface of Yuuzhan’tar. Even now our primary landing field is threatened.”
Shimrra seemed to shake himself out of his daze. “Need I remind any of you that I have looked deeply into the eighth cortex, and conversed with Yun-Harla herself on these matters?”
The chief seer nodded. “We bear that in mind, Great One, and ask only for elucidation. Could the ancient prophecies and revelations be wrong? Could they have been misinterpreted? Is it possible that the gods have not engineered the living vessels as an additional test, but in fact have aligned themselves with the Jeedai?”
Shimrra’s eyes flared like novas. “Heresy! Heresy—here in my very house!” He aimed the scepter at the seers. “You buffoons have outlived your usefulness.” He whirled to the slayers. “Rid me of them!”
A pair of slayers uncoiled their amphistaffs and advanced on the female quartet with deadly purpose. The seers offered no resistance, raising faces and extending their thin necks for the stiffened weapons. The slayers wasted no motions in decapitating them. One of the severed heads was still rolling across the floor when a herald entered the hall.
“Great Lord, High Priest Jakan, Master Shaper Qelah Kwaad, and High Prefect Drathul request audience.”
Shimrra went to his throne and sat. “By all means bid them enter, herald.”
The elite trio entered in a rush, but lost some of their momentum on seeing the four headless corpses.
Shimrra smiled faintly. “They had the audacity to doubt my interpretation of the revelation.” His expression darkened. “Be attentive to their present circumstance when you state your concerns.”
“We have no concerns, Dread Lord,” Drathul said, clearly improvising. “On learning of the warmaster’s report of living ships, we came to offer you praise for your foresight. The Yuuzhan Vong are escalated by the gods’ willingness to present us with even greater challenges.”
“You hastened here to tell me that?” Shimrra asked.
“One question, Lord,” Jakan said. “Have the gods furnished these ships to the Alliance, or do the ships originate from the living world itself?”
Shimrra gestured in an offhand way to Nom Anor. “Answer him, Prefect. Since you are our leading expert on Zonama Sekot.”
The object of Jakan and Qelah Kwaad’s astonishment, Nom Anor, slouched. Taken off his guard, he had to swallow to find his voice.
“Supreme One, I—I know only what I hear from spies among the heretics. But I—I suspect that there are no living ships.” He grew emboldened as he continued. “Instead, I propose that our coralskipper pilots have fallen victim to Jeedai mind tricks.”
Drathul gestured angrily to the villip-image of the living ship. “You dismiss that as a Jeedai mind trick?”
Shimrra grinned maniacally. “Answer your superior, Prefect Nom Anor.”
Nom Anor straightened his shoulders. “Why not? We know that they are capable of projecting false images and putting words in the mouths of those they would manipulate. We also know that they have successfully confused our yammosks in the past.”
Shimrra spoke before Drathul could argue the point. “Prefect Nom Anor is to be admired for his inventiveness. But, in fact, the vessel our villips show us is no mind trick. In answer to High Priest Jakan’s question, the gods have tutored the living planet in the creation of these monstrosities. But the Jeedai are not responsible.” He paused, then said, “It is the heretics who have brought this latest test upon us. The gods have no desire to award us this galaxy while heretics and Shamed Ones walk freely among us. They won’t permit