Star Wars_ X-Wing 02_ Wedge's Gamble - Michael A. Stackpole [36]
More remarkable than in its glow, Thyne’s flesh came in two shades of color. Most noticeable was the light blue because it seemed to have been layered on over the whitish-pink color, as if he had been splashed with midnight-blue dye that never quite washed out. The biggest splotch cut right down along the bridge of his nose, then back under his cheekbone to his left ear and on up to the midline of his skull again. It gave the impression that he had one massive black eye that was slowly fading.
Aside from the color, his sharply pointed ears, and black, equally sharp serrated teeth, his eyes separated him from the realm of the wholly human. The orbs were red throughout, the color of arterial blood, except for where a slender diamond pupil bisected them. Flecks of gold outlined the black diamond and, in the dark, would reflect a little light. Those diamonds had betrayed him on Corellia, letting Corran and his father send him on his Kessel vacation.
Wedge raised an eyebrow. “It is truly him?”
Corran nodded. “It’s Patches all right.”
“Horn, here?” Thyne hissed. “Perhaps you never got the message I sent you?”
“What message was that?”
“Your father’s dead, isn’t he?”
The venom in the man’s voice combined with the surprise of the question to make it feel as if Corran’s heart had been slammed back against his spine. He wanted to shout something back at Thyne, but first his breath, then words failed him. Thyne had always been full of threats and intimidation, but Corran and his father had refused to acknowledge them. Thyne had not been the first criminal to threaten him, nor the last.
And not the first to be blamed for my father’s death. With a moment of thought Corran realized that Thyne had probably heard of his father’s death and decided to claim responsibility just to get at him. Corran thought Thyne more than capable of ordering a murder, and Black Sun more than capable of carrying that order out, but Hal Horn had been killed over a year and a half after Thyne had arrived on Kessel. Black Sun preferred things a bit more immediate than that, as I recall.
Corran’s eyes became green slits. “I suppose you could have been the one who had my father killed—after all, you threatened us both and left the whole job undone, which means it’s in keeping with your usual sloppiness.”
The riposte had no visible effect on Thyne. He looked away from Corran, then watched Wedge for a moment. “Are you the Jedi?”
“No, I’m just the man who decides if you leave here or not.” Wedge jerked a thumb toward Corran. “That wasn’t a good start.”
“Oh, forgive me, I’ve forgotten the Rebels are all sweetness and light. That’s what they tell us, you know, all the pols who were sent here.” Thyne smiled carefully. “Then again, you’re here taking someone like me away from this place. Expediency wins over purity, it would appear.”
The commando at the airlock brought Inyri Forge through and Corran saw the resemblance between her and Lujayne the second she removed her breathing mask. They both had the same brown eyes and trim bodies. Inyri wore her brown hair longer than her sister had and had dyed a forelock the same shade of blue as Thyne’s patches. She appeared shocked to see her parents, but her face closed up quickly as she turned away from them and rested her hands on Thyne’s left shoulder.
Wedge studied the woman for a moment, then looked up at Thyne. “The New Republic has authorized me to give you transport from Kessel to a destination you will learn later. You will be given tasks to perform. If you succeed in performing them to our satisfaction, the New Republic will grant you a conditional pardon for your crimes. Do you understand?”
“What