Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [14]
Han stepped away from the entrance, his mouth dry.
Coruscant looked the same. Nothing had touched the city. Nothing at all.
The sunlight was bright, blinding, and warm. The afternoon was as beautiful as it had been when he went below.
“It couldn’ta been underground, could it?” asked one of the gamblers from the Crystal Jewel, a man who looked vaguely familiar.
Han shook his head. “Something happened somewhere.”
“Not from above,” the Gotal said. “If it had come from above, we’d see the effects.”
“We’d be ducking and running, hoping nothing else hits the city,” the gambler said.
Han put a hand up to shade his eyes as he looked for movement. Finally he saw it: a contingent of guards and medical personnel heading toward the Imperial Palace.
The palace.
The children.
Leia.
He took off after the guards at top speed, nearly mowing down that nek battle dog, which was scampering away from its master. Han dodged in and out of building columns, through streets, always keeping the guards and medical staff in sight.
It was the medical personnel who worried him.
People had been hurt.
They avoided the main entrance to the palace and instead ran along its side. He felt a moment of relief until he realized where they were going.
The Senate Hall.
His breath was coming in sharp gasps. A stitch had formed in his side. He was in shape, but it had been a long time since he had run at top speed anywhere. And he had been going at top speed for a long time now.
No more blasts.
Odd. Very odd.
He rounded the corner and the sight before him made him run harder. Senators were scattered across the lawn, covered with dirt and several different colors of blood. A black ichor trailed from the senator from Nyny. All three of his heads were tilted backward. If he wasn’t dead, he was close.
Mon Mothma was bent over another senator, talking carefully. Han stopped long enough to tap her shoulder.
“Leia?” he asked.
Mon Mothma shook her head. She looked ten times older than she had that morning. “I haven’t seen her, Han.”
He dodged the wounded, even though she shouted his name again. He knew what she would say. Exactly what Leia would say in this instance: Don’t go inside. Let the trained personnel deal with it. But his wife was missing. He’d find her himself.
The large marble entrance was filled with dust, blood, and more bodies. Some were stacked against the wall like cargo. As he passed he realized those were droids. They weren’t even full droids, only pieces: arms in one corner, legs in another. He saw dozens of golden body parts and didn’t want to think about the possibility of Threepio being among the shattered.
The blood and dirt had made the floor slippery. He slid across part of the floor, finally stopping when he reached the entrance to the Hall itself.
All the doors were open, the emergency glow panels were on, and dust hovered in the air like a sandstorm on Tatooine. From inside, he heard wailing, moaning, and voices crying for help. Other voices mingled in the din, calling for assistance or giving orders. The medical personnel he had followed were already inside, as were dozens of guards and security people.
A huge bomb had to have gone off here to do this kind of damage. Bigger than anything he had seen outside of a space battle. And this bomb couldn’t have come from space. The outside of the building was fine. This one had to have come from within.
Then he saw Leia, drenched in blood, her white gown, white no longer, ripped and stuck to her frame. One braid had come loose and hung down her back. The other was half-undone, her beautiful brown hair tangled and matted as it fell along her face. She had her hands beneath the secondary bumps on an unconscious Llewebum. Two guards supported its feet. She limped as she moved backward, favoring her right leg.
Han hurried to her side, placed his hands beside hers on the Llewebum’s ridged skin. “I’ve