Star Wars - Kenobi

agitated, or bewildered. And Wyle Ulbreck looked ready to explode. “Is that true, Gault? Is that true?”
    Mullen looked at his father, mortified.
    But there was a way out. Orrin fished for his best smile, and found it. “People, people. I’m a farmer,” he said, shouting so all could hear. “Like you. I get water out of the air. That man—he gets stories out of it.” He shrugged theatrically. “You’ve enjoyed my generosity. You know I do well enough on my own. I have all the money I would ever need!”
    “That’s excellent news,” came another amplified voice, this one from the desert. Orrin looked back, suddenly aware of the large hoverskiff floating outside the rift. On its deck, flanked by gun-toting thugs, was Mosep Binneed. He wore a neck brace and held a loudhailer in front of his mouth. “Jabba wants his money, Orrin Gault! And he wants it now!”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
    A’YARK STOOD FLAT AGAINST one of The Pillars and looked down the rocky incline to the settlers far below.
    “The Hutt’s people,” she said, her voice dripping with disgust. “We can smells them.” The Tusken cast her eye across the natural corridor. “You said there would only be settlers.”
    Ben crouched nearby, holding Orrin’s green sound device and surveying the scene below. Below his cowl, Ben had wrapped a loose cloth over his lower face in deference to the Tuskens’ sensibilities; now he pulled it down and scratched his chin. The human seemed startled by the appearance of the skiff. “This wasn’t in my plan.”
    The war leader’s ire boiled. “You told us—”
    “I told you I’d bring Orrin Gault to justice. He could choose between his people’s justice—or yours.” Ben shook his head. “I thought he’d turn back.”
    A’Yark didn’t care what the settlers wanted. Ben had brought the enemy to their gate, as promised, but they’d come in far greater numbers than the clan could oppose. A’Yark had stationed the few warriors she had at the other access points, but if the settlers really wanted to follow Ben up into The Pillars, nothing could stop them. The high camp would be overrun.
    Ben had acted quickly then, calling for the Tusken women and children to herd their precious banthas down into the arroyo. Many of the banthas had lost their riders in the gorge massacre, and A’Yark had been pleased to see them getting some small revenge. The animals had bought them precious time. But now the arrival of the Hutt’s minions had compounded the danger. The criminals did not fear the Tuskens, as all should.
    It was the Hutts that had killed Sharad Hett, years earlier.
    A’Yark knew that Ben deserved death for bringing this upon them. She would give it to him, were it in her power.
    But in the light of the suns, she had to admit their fall had begun long before he arrived.
    “It went wrong,” she said, not knowing why she was speaking. “We are so weak—Tuskens are all so weak—because of what happened, more than three cycles ago.”
    Ben looked at her, curious. “What happened?”
    “There was another massacre,” she said. “A camp of mighty warriors, wiped away. The women and children, too.”
    For some reason, her words seemed to strike a target deep within Ben. “The children, all killed?” He swallowed. “A krayt dragon? Some other predator?”
    A’Yark shook her head. “A predator, yes. But death came on two legs,” she said. “We know.”
    “But the children,” Ben said. “Settlers don’t usually kill them, do they?”
    “Settlers orphan, settlers abandon,” she said. “Predator slaughtered.”
    Ben paused, as if seeming to piece something together. “I wonder …”
    A’Yark saw his eyes fix forward, filling with dread. It looked to her as if Ben was in another place, now, imagining—or experiencing—something that filled his mind with horror. “What?” she asked.
    Ben regained his composure. “Something I’m going to have to look into at another time,” he said. “I’m starting to suspect the Sand People’s confidence may not have been the only victim of that event.”
    “No matter now,” she said, withdrawing form the lookout point. “I must hide my people.”
    “I’ll help,” Ben said, rising to follow. “Protecting homes is my speciality.” With that, he turned back and followed her up the incline.
    Mullen gaped at his father. “Jabba’s people? It’s too soon! We’ve got five hours yet!”
    Orrin stared wordlessly at the new arrivals. More