Star Wars, page 2
“Look! Jedi,” Leyli said brightly.
Axel squinted against Reena’s blazing sun and scanned the crowds for Leyli’s point of interest. Three Jedi—one ancient and two around his age, with braids dangling over the fronts of their robes—stopped a few paces away. They were being escorted by the dean of theological studies, who was so fascinated by the Jedi Order that he’d been campaigning to have them attend the fair to prove a contested theory that there was a correlation between the Queen’s Bloom phenomenon and the mystical ways of the Force.
Axel thought it was all a bit hokey but was grateful for the distraction the robed wizards provided. He mentally charted a clear path to the hangar at the other side of the fairgrounds. The only problem was Dean Harket striding in his direction, back to the east tower, no doubt to check up on Axel. Leyli saw her, too.
“I’ve got this,” she said, and grabbed Kozmo’s hand. The two of them blocked the dean’s path while Axel ducked his head and let himself get absorbed in the throng.
He pinched the hem of a scarf on a passerby, and it slipped from the woman’s shoulders without her notice. Axel covered his head with the silk and pretended to pay attention to the dean of theology. When the way was clear, he turned in the direction of the hangar. One of the young Jedi—What were they called? Paddies? Tadpoles?—got in his way and didn’t even say “excuse me” when she knocked into his shoulder. He glanced back at her dark, lopsided hair knots. She stood at attention, despite clearly having been separated from her cohort. She rested her hands on twin lightsabers, and he felt his fingers twitch. Then he remembered Leyli was waiting, and he was fairly certain Kozmo would use any excuse to leave him behind. Axel kept running.
When he reached the hangar, Kozmo was already powering up his luxury speeder. “You’ll be thrilled to know Dean Harket has entrusted me with checking up on you today. On account of us being such good friends and all.”
“I knew it would eventually pay to put up with you,” Axel muttered. He climbed into the back seat and spread his arms across the nerf leather.
“Let’s go!” Leyli laughed that effervescent laugh of hers and glanced over her shoulder at Axel. He felt that tug in the back of his belly button again, that draw to be near her and give her everything she wanted.
Kozmo blasted an electro-trash song and peeled off down the rocky path leading away from the university and toward the long winding road to the city’s coast. Leyli whooped, and Axel howled as the salty breeze tousled his hair. Reena’s numerous green islands dotted the blue waters that stretched out to the horizon. He’d traveled many places with his parents, naturally, but he’d never lived outside of Coruscant’s glittering city. Though he’d never admit it out loud, there was something soothing about being away from the traffic, the crowded streets, the flashing holo billboards and tabloids.
Reena wasn’t the capital of the galaxy, but it was no backwater town, either. The buildings of the historic waterfront gleamed in the sun. Axel was beginning to memorize the twists and turns of the streets full of passersby and revelers. The whole of the city seemed ready to witness the Queen’s Bloom phenomenon.
They parked the speeder behind a five-story building housing Ealy’s rooftop tavern deck, complete with a fountain overflowing with a drink the owner liked to call giddy tonic. It was the first place Axel had discovered on his truant strolls about the city. Listening to pilots and traders tell stories about evading pirates on the Caloria Run was certainly more entertaining than his “Political Ideology in the Outer Rim” seminar. Besides, he was learning about trading patterns and things they’d never teach in school.
“Really? A tavern?” Kozmo sneered. He smoothed his palms down his embroidered silk tunic, then rested his palm on his Luzalite diamond medallion. Axel wondered how much that family heirloom was truly worth.
“I have a better idea for premier views.” Leyli tilted her gaze back to the Gorag Tower. The black-and-gold building spun into a needle point that pierced the sky.
“The House of Reena owns that penthouse,” Axel said, stating something they all knew. Even he wasn’t mad enough to crash a royal party. Or was he?
Leyli gripped his forearm. “Oh, come on, Axel. You’re you. You could walk in there without an invitation and just say the Greylarks of Coruscant have arrived.”
He’d never say that, but there was something encouraging about the pressure of her hands on his arm. The way she looked at him. She blinked long violet lashes, and he knew, even before he said anything, that he was going to say yes. It also helped that Kozmo was sitting on the hood of his luxury speeder rolling his eyes. Kozmo might be a lord from a little-known planet, but Axel was a Greylark, and that meant something. Didn’t it?
He felt that thrill again, sparks igniting in the pit of his stomach. “Follow me.”
They crossed the street and entered the cavernous hall of the Gorag Tower. Axel offered Leyli his arm and delighted in her twinkling laugh that filled the lift as the three of them shot right up to the top floor. Waiting when the doors swooshed open was a nervous Wermal in a tux, a datapad in one hand. He unhooked his monocle from a breast pocket and peered from Axel to the guest list.
“Name?” he asked in a high-pitched voice.
“Greylark,” Axel answered, standing just a bit taller, a bit more serious. It was the way his father prepared himself before entering the Senate chamber or enduring long, boring fundraiser dinners at home. And he was the spitting image of his father. “Lexxir Greylark.”
For a moment, guilt threaded between his ribs, tying together the anxiety that rushed Axel’s better senses. Did he have better senses? Was this Wermal really going to buy it? And what would happen if he was caught? His mother had warned that if she got another complaint from the dean—
“Ah, yes,” the Wermal man said, looking at the Greylark family ring on Axel’s index finger. “Your wife is already here.”
“My wife?” Axel realized at once the fault in his plan. His mother was there.
Before he could turn back, the lift had already returned with a new gaggle of guests, and Leyli and Kozmo were forcefully guiding him into the party. He barely had a moment to take in the gilded chandeliers, the three-piece band harmonizing from a raised dais, the partygoers from all over the galaxy picking tiny bites from passing trays.
Every server wore a bright white uniform and a metallic visor across their eyes that obscured the top half of their heads. He’d heard the House of Reena preferred organic staff to server droids, but he found it unnerving to not be able to look into their eyes.
Axel turned the first corner of the massive penthouse, snatched a glass flute filled with steaming green liquid, and raised it to his lips.
“Is that her?” Kozmo whispered, making terrible work of being surreptitious.
That was when he saw her. Kyong Greylark was dressed in a pale lavender dress. Her hair was braided into an elegant crown that continued over her shoulder. Axel cursed and used Kozmo, of all people, to shield himself from view.
“Your mother is stunning,” Leyli said.
“My mother is going to kill me,” Axel muttered. Of course she had to show up and ruin his day with Leyli. “She’s not even supposed to be here yet. She said she had to campaign on the other bleeding side of the galaxy.”
“Aww, that’s rather sweet.” Leyli brushed the back of her index finger across the mound of his cheekbone.
For the first time that day, he didn’t feel that spark at her words and touch. He felt a strange hollowing sensation. What was sweet about his parents being on planet a day early? Why had they come to Reena and, instead of seeing him, marched off to a party? Did it bother him because his nemesis and his girl were witnessing the very same thing? What did he care what Kozmo thought?
He sipped the misty green drink. He grimaced at the sour kick and set it back on a passing tray. “See? We should have gone to Ealy’s.”
“But we have the best view of the Queen’s Bloom!” Leyli said, using the flat of her palm to stack as many canapés as possible. One seemed to be pink foam on top of a fried caterpillar. “I thought you, the Coruscant prince, loved these kinds of revelries.”
Kozmo snorted behind his gloved fist, and Axel felt heat crawl up the sides of his neck, all the way to the tips of his ears.
“Darling, you said you wouldn’t call me that.”
Her eyes crinkled with delight. “And I told you not to call me darling.”
Point taken. He let it lie. He had to keep them moving to avoid colliding with his mother.
They skirted a couple of people dancing, but when they turned around another pillar, there was Lexxir Greylark himself. He fiddled with moon-opal cuff links, likely having just been given a hard time by the Wermal. But when he saw his wife, he smiled.
Axel flattened himself against the nearest wall, between two leafy plants. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He half considered coming up with an elaborate lie and revealing himself to his parents. He could say he was on a field trip to see the phenomenon. But no, that wouldn’t work. There were too many variables out of his control.
“We can go,” Kozmo said, and there was something like pity in his deep brown eyes. “We came, we saw—”
“Fine,” Leyli said. “You two are no fun.”
Axel began calculating the route from one end of the penthouse to the lift, but everything put him in his parents’ view. “Go without me. I live here now. It was nice knowing you.”
Leyli smirked, showing a glint of something Axel had always liked about her. Impulsive. Fun. Cunning. Clever. “This way. Let’s take the kitchen exits.”
They cut a path through the excited crowd and strode into the large kitchen. Trays and trays of tiny foamy food were ready to be served. But there was no screaming chef. No assembly of line cooks at their stations. They were all bound and gagged and being marched into the walk-in freezer by a human woman and Twi’lek male holding them at blaster point.
Blasters that then turned on him.
THREE
“My sincere apologies,” Axel said, putting all the bravado he did not feel into his voice. “We wanted more fried caterpillars, but we can come back later.”
For a moment, Axel was certain they could turn back. But then the human woman smirked, and he knew, he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. She was petite, with warm brown skin and soft black curls that framed her face. Axel had never seen anyone so beautiful. Even if she was threatening to shoot him.
“Lock the door,” the woman ordered, pointing with her blaster.
Axel knew he shouldn’t. He needed to try to get himself and his friends out of there. His parents were just on the other side of the door. Whatever was happening, it could be stopped. And yet her words were firm, calming. It was like listening to the pleasant chime of bells. He did as she asked.
“Axel!” Kozmo snarled but kept his hands up. “What do you want?” the Luzalite lord asked the intruders. “Credits? We’ve got loads of them between us. Whatever you want.”
The Twi’lek male bared sharp canines in what might have been a smile. “Hear that, Elecia? Whatever we want.”
Axel could have punched Kozmo right then and there. “Within reason, of course. My accounts are frozen at the moment. But I can get that fixed if you just let me—”
“I hate these things, don’t you?” Elecia looked at her blaster, then calmly holstered it. She chuckled, as if they were all friends. Kozmo nodded eagerly while Axel and Leyli remained still. “I have a better idea. You, with the stars. Come here.”
Axel’s heart hammered in his eardrums. He wasn’t thinking as much as reacting, putting his body between Leyli and the intruders.
“Look, Kerun. How chivalrous,” Elecia murmured, pleased. “Wait. I know you.”
Under her probing gaze, Axel blushed. “Lots of people think they know me.”
“I know you,” she repeated in that bell-chime vibrato. “Well, now that we’re such good friends, I tell you what. This is all a misunderstanding. We are merely here to liberate some excess that won’t even be missed. No one has to get hurt. Leave your pretty friend here, and do me one tiny favor.”
Liberate some excess. There was a phrase for stealing he’d never heard before.
“Axel.” When Leyli said his name, he registered her fear and regained his focus. “Do as she says. Please.”
Axel shot Kozmo a meaningful look. He wasn’t sure if it was the blasters aimed at their foreheads that bonded them through the trauma of it all or if Kozmo truly cared for Leyli’s safety. But the other boy nodded gravely, even if he practically hid behind Axel.
“What do you need us to do?”
Kerun pointed carelessly with his blaster, and Axel stiffened. “Put those on.”
In moments, Axel and Kozmo had stripped down and dressed up in the servers’ crisp white uniforms.
Kozmo mumbled the entire time. “I knew hanging around you would bring me nothing but humiliation.”
Axel adjusted the metal visor over his eyes. The front of it pinched the bridge of his nose just enough to be uncomfortable, and everything within view took on a hazy gleam. Why in all the bleeding stars would someone make their staff wear something so ridiculous? It didn’t matter. He made himself think of Leyli being put into binders and shoved into the refrigerator with the rest of the hostage kitchen staff.
“Yeah, well, no one asked you to hang around me,” Axel said, sounding perhaps more biting than he meant to.
Kozmo scoffed, shoving his ridiculous medallion under his uniform before the thieves could do away with it, too. “You’re so lucky to have a friend like me. Without me, you’d let Leyli run you off a cliff and think it was your idea all along.”
Axel laughed. “What are you talking about? We’re not friends.”
“We’re not?” Kozmo was setting his visor into place, but Axel heard the hurt in the boy’s question.
“Let’s just get this over with.”
Axel turned to his captors. He counted ten in total, every one of them dressed in the stolen uniforms. Kerun remained behind, outfitted in the chef’s long coat and funny little hat.
Inside he was vibrating with nerves, but if there was anything he’d learned from watching his parents face the piiraya-infested waters of Senate politics, it was to not let anyone see your fear. He spun on his heel and smirked. “Do we pass your approval?”
Elecia chuckled, but the others grimaced. She gathered her murder of thieves around, the music from the other room a distant echo.
“All right, any moment now the Queen’s Bloom will begin. Guests will gather on the balcony, and we’ll have the run of the place. Jewels, timepieces, anything from the inventory list. I’ll hit up the master bedroom. The rest of you, leave no stone unturned, no pocket full of treasure. We get one sweep, so make it count. Questions.”
“Yes,” Axel said, holding his hand up like a very good student. “What if there’s something I fancy for myself?”
“Then I’d ask myself if it’s worth the life of your girlfriend.” Elecia said it with a smile, but the threat rang in Axel’s mind. Perhaps he needed to work on knowing when to be glib. “Shift change starts . . .” She waited for the first round of awe filtering in from the party. “Now.”
Elecia unlocked the doors. Axel and Kozmo followed the thieves as they picked up trays of food on the way out. Axel focused on keeping his palm steady, on not bumping into anyone because he couldn’t see to save his life. Except, it wasn’t his life he was worried about. Leyli was in that freezer. Leyli was in trouble because he’d needed to sneak out. He should have let himself get caught by his parents. Mother wouldn’t make a scene in public anyway.
It was too late for that.
Axel could almost, almost admire the plan. Simple, seamless. They had a big enough distraction, a wealthy gathering with precautions at the door to keep unwanted guests out. But no one protected the help, did they?
He followed the others, letting claws, fingers, and a tentacle reach for the delicacies on his tray. No one gave him a second glance. He was nothing but a functional ornament. When his tray was clear, he picked up empty glasses and scanned the room for the perfect mark—a tipsy old man walking in a circle in search of more drink.
Axel noticed the man’s timepiece and a heavy chain made of metal that looked liquid in its iridescence, and expensive. Axel procured a flute of the sour green drink and took it over to the cheery man.
“What is in this? It’s remarkable!”
Remarkably terrible. But Axel said, “Indeed.”
The man gasped and leaned into Axel’s ear. “I thought you lot were not supposed to talk!”
Panic flashed right through him, but clarity and opportunity quickly grounded him. He smiled back at the man. “I couldn’t help it, sir. How could someone not talk to you?”
Happy with the answer, the drunk man grinned and bopped along to the music all the way back to the balcony. Axel shuffled away, using a cloth napkin to cover the trinkets he’d stolen. Heart racing, he moved on to his next target. With everyone out on the balcony, their attentions were focused on the sprawling view of the city and the islands beyond. Axel had witnessed the Queen’s Bloom phenomenon his first year at university. Days after the rainy season, the air was thick with pollen and wet soil. Green shoots popped up everywhere, even in the cracks of paved streets and the marble grounds of the school. Everyone waited and waited—which was how the festivities had developed. Why wait when one could make merry until the flowers opened?
Axel hadn’t been quite ready to admit how much he’d liked the phenomenon. How rare it was that something surprised him out of his boredom. He’d watched from the roof of his dormitory tower as the sun began to set and every bulb in sight opened. Petals spread apart as if they were exhaling into being, the fuzzy pollen shimmering with light. When a breeze blew, it carried the bioluminescent dust on the currents. It was like being surrounded by winking stars. When it got on the skin, as it inevitably did, it smeared phosphorescent. Everything, every single thing, was blanketed with the Queen’s Bloom.
