Star Wars: The Last Qymaili | ✔

29 | Swallowed Whole

Song: "Anakin Defeats Sebulba" from The Phantom Menace OST

"Naidvar...." he choked out, closing his trembling hand around hers. He examined her frail body, looking for how her attacker had ended her life. His hands landed on a single incision made in her lower stomach. Her lump of pregnancy had been split in half, and sticky maroon had pooled around the wound, seeping into her armor and linens.

Breath exited his mouth in short wheezes. I couldn't save her. I sent her without accompanying her.

I should be dead right now, not her.

The hand of Bentilais san Sk'ar went to his shoulder. "Qymaen," he whispered. "Come here."

But Khetsuu was still as the corpse of Naidvar. His voice came out shakily. "If I hadn't married her, she would be alive."

Gently prying Khetsuu's hands from Naidvar's body, Bent wrapped his khagan in an embrace as the only person who would stay true to him even now. Still Khetsuu only sat frozen in his friend's embrace, dried of tears.

"The other two were Lyankhua and Mergen," Bent said. "Saikhan may still be alive."

"But where are the children?" Khetsuu grasped at his friend's headscarf. "Were they attacked on the way back?"

Bent continued to hug him. "I don't know. But I can't conduct this investigation myself."

With the help of his friend, he stood again. "Clues," he said. "We must look for clues."

"First off," Bent said, "Saikhan wouldn't stay at the lodge with the kids. She'd have been kidnapped, and if she was kidnapped, so were the kids. We find Saikhan, we'll find out if the kids were kidnapped too."

Khetsuu nodded. "She probably wasn't killed here, at least not with any sort of blood wound. They've dragged her off somewhere else to finish the job—whatever they're planning to do—and don't want to leave a trail where they can be found."

Bent nodded, his blue-violet eyes studying the forest floor. "Saikhan was—is—fairly tall," he murmured. "If they didn't leave a trail of blood, at least there must be some sort of ruffling of the foliage."

Khetsuu traced the forest floor, then sighed. "But that is where our lead stops. Saikhan took a wagon in addition to everything else. That'd be a great place to hide a trafficked woman and your trail."

Bent tilted his head. "You think she was trafficked?"

Khetsuu's fists curled. "It's certainly a possibility. Polygyny is permissible, and we have a stagnant economy. Why not invent counterfeit currency and make money using them as....as...."

The memory of Ronderu's words to him when they'd been nineteen rang clear even today. There are evil people on Kalee. They just know how to hide it. She'd then told the story of how a khan from Bent's home tribe had taken her virginity when she'd been only twelve. When Khetsuu had heard of how the love of his life had been mistreated....

Bent nodded. "Must've taken her somewhere secluded. There are several places where the trail pivots. The Lig, Gerelakh, Duuna, Chimeegui, and at least twelve more."

"All large tribes," he muttered. "Of course."

"But there is a way we can find them," Bent pointed out. "It would be a fool's errand to search every tribe, but we could look through the underground ones first. Easier to hide illegal activity in a canyon than on a prairie."

"Should we split up?"

"Definitely," Bent said firmly. He fished in his pocket, pulled out a map of the area. "The largest underground tribes should be dealt with first. I vote on going after the Duuna and the Gerelakh first."

"Get your cohort," Khetsuu said with a nod. "I'll rally the izvoshra. We'll track down this fool and make him pay....one way or another."

✺✺✺

It was morning when Ronderu had to bid Kalee farewell once more. If these rumors of Dooku wishing to warmonger against the Republic were false, she would be confined to Arna's service for another six months. If they were true, she would go free, and the galaxy would tear itself in two.

She took a last look at the happy town of Bos'wellia, the place she had once called home, before stepping onto the ramp and joining him in the cockpit.

✺✺✺

The people dwelling on the insides of the Duuna canyons parted like sand from the shores as Khetsuu and his soldiers entered the public square of the underground space.

He stepped up to the podium. "Citizens of Duuna, I must ask every person to cease their duties."

They froze. Khetsuu pressed his lips together. "One of the izvoshra, Ikha jai Saikhan, went missing a few days ago. Stay here, and we will investigate the scene. It will take three standard hours at most."

He sat down, casually brandishing his Czerka rifle. If Saikhan—one of the great khans of the Huk system's conquest—had been trafficked, this problem must be bigger than they'd thought.

And even more perplexing was why they would take her and leave the three weaker voshrati dead in the woods. The only difference between Saikhan and her sister-wives was that Saikhan hadn't been pregnant.

When Naidvar had been attacked by the cannibals, her claim had been that Kummar had rescued her from the group and sent her on her way, with the request to 'give him her best regards'. He had attributed the whole situation, including the attempted capture, to hunger hallucinations.

Now, he was not so sure. A woman without an extra body to nourish would have more muscle, more meat if killed and cannibalized. Curling his fists in disgust, he reflected on it more. They know they can't kill me, for they have seen how I act in battle. So they dare steal my wives.

But if the rumors about the cannibals were true, what about Kummar? For the first time, he questioned his outburst at Bentilais san Sk'ar those months ago. Could the impossible have happened—that Ronderu had lived?

His com buzzed, and he pressed the button. "This is Khetsuu. What do you have?"

"Sir?" Bent's voice came from the other end. "We've found her."

◈◈◈

Did you know....

● Kalee's surface, particularly at the equator, is very hot because it's close to Iminec (the star of the system). Because of this fact, I figured it made sense that a tribe would lay nestled in the craggy canyons.

Tell me what you think....

● Will Saikhan survive?

● Does Khetsuu truly care about her, or is he just terrified of loss?