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Chapter 10 Katrina felt another mind touch hers and shivered. It touched, gripped, and squeezed her mind until she fell forward, shaking with cold. It slithered away again, feeling an evil satisfaction in what it had done to the girl. “What’s wrong with you?” Tabi took Katrina’s shoulders in her hands and shook the girl, trying to snap her out of whatever was happening. “Answer me!” Katrina responded by bursting into tears and trying to curl herself into a ball on Tabi’s lap. Startled by the sudden change in her young friend, Tabi found herself petting Katrina’s hair covering and making soothing sounds. “Cha-Lee?” Katrina whimpered, sending out the call with an unseen, unfelt wind. “Xenritha?” “What has happened?” Cha-Lee replied, far more gently than his thoughts generally came. “He’s alive. He’s found me!” “Katrina, what has happened?” “Avlis Ker lives!” “I don’t understand,” Xenritha admitted slowly. “He’s very dangerous and he’s found me!” The continued confusion of the Zaenspots only made Katrina feel worse so she cut off the mental connection and sobbed into Tabi’s tunic. The Weequay had not stopped trying to calm the girl but was growing more and more worried. “Tabi?” “Tell me what’s wrong, young Katrina. Let Tabi make it better.” “I’m a slave,” Katrina admitted for the first time since she had run through the jungle of Manooglious Prime, escaping the compound where she had been born and raised. “My mother was taken as a slave when she was only a few years older than I am. The Empire was new still and many did not believe such horrors as slavery could touch their worlds. One day it arrived on my mother’s home world and young women, mostly, were gathered up. My mother begged and pleaded not to be taken. She cried and cried that she could not leave her younger sister. The imps gave in…they took her sister as well.” “I am sorry,” Tabi whispered, still rubbing the soft fabric over the girl’s hair. “They were young and pretty and most became slaves to the Emperor, personal slaves.” Katrina shuddered but continued speaking. “They were treated brutally and in the worst ways females can be treated. Many died but those that lived bore child after child for Palpatine. The children were raised in a secret building in the middle of nowhere and buried deep beneath the planet’s surface, where they could not be found but easily destroyed if need be. They were clothed, fed, and, to some degree educated. None were forced to work but all were kept only for the future potential. Some were or would be given into marriage as rewards or offerings to leaders, officers, and such. Some were trained to serve the Empire in one way or another. Many would probably be kept as slaves. “I escaped, Tabi. Just before I was brought here I escaped when one person took pity on me after Palpatine locked me in a bare cell. I did not know it then, but he had handed over my ownership to what is called a Dark Jedi.” “You fear this man?” “Monster,” Katrina sniffed. “He is no man. He had wanted me for many years, I don’t want to think of what use he had in mind.” “But you’re just a little girl,” Tabi protested. Katrina said nothing but began wiping her tears and straightening herself. She felt warmer, not safe and calm as before, but better. “He may not know exactly where I am, but he knows that I live and he will find me. He will lay claim to me.” “He will not get you,” Tabi said resolutely. “I will not let him.” “Thank you, Tabi, but I fear that if he wants to get to me there is nothing anyone short of Guardian, creator of the galaxy, that can stop him.” |
