"The Courtship Of Princess Leia (Dave Wolverton)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolverton Dave)

Mon Mothma pulled off her headset and gazed at Leia thoughtfully, one of the
generals in the room swore and grinned, and Han stepped away from the window.
"What?" Han asked. "What does that mean?"

"Ta'a Chume wants Leia to marry her son," Mon Mothma answered softly.

"But, she won't do it, will she?" Han said, and then his certainty faltered.
Sixty-three of the wealthiest planets in the galaxy. To rule as matriarch over
billions of people, with that man beside her. . . .

Mon Mothma looked up into Han's eyes, as if gauging him. "With the wealth of
Hapes to help fund the war, Leia could overthrow the last remnants of the Empire
quickly, saving billions of lives in the process. I know how you have felt about
her in the past, General Solo. Still, I think I speak for everyone in the New
Republic when I say that, for all our sakes, I hope she accepts the offer."

Chapter 2

Luke could sense the ruins of the ancient Jedi Master's home before his Whiphid
guide brought him to the place. Like the landscape of Toola itself?a barren
plain where the short purple lichens thrust up from patches of thin winter ice?the
ruins felt clean and refreshing, yet empty, almost as if they had never been
visited by humans. The clean feeling assured Luke that the ruins had once been
inhabited by a good Jedi.

The huge Whiphid, its ivory fur ruffling under the spring winds, trudged over
the purple moss, a vibro-ax fitted in its paw. It stopped and raised its long
snout in the air so that its massive tusks pointed up at a distant purple sun,
then gave a trumpeting whistle, glaring ahead with small black eyes.

Luke pulled back the hood of his snowsuit and glimpsed the danger on the
horizon. A flock of snow demons was dropping from the shelter of storm clouds,
hairy wings flashing gray in the slanting sunlight. The Whiphid whistled a
battle cry, afraid they would attack, but Luke reached out with his mind and
felt the snow demons' hunger. They were hunting a herd of shaggy motmots that
moved like icy hills on the horizon, seeking a calf small enough to slaughter.

"Peace," Luke said, reaching up to touch the Whiphid's elbow. "Show me the
ruins." Luke tried to use the Force to calm the warrior. But the Whiphid
quivered, clenching its vibro-ax, eager for battle.

The Whiphid whistled a long reply, pointing north, and Luke translated by power
of the Force: "Search the Jedi's tomb if you must, little one, but I go to hunt.
Having sighted an enemy, honor demands that I attack. My clan will feast on a
snow demon tonight." The Whiphid wore a weapon belt as its only article of
clothing, and from the array hanging there, it pulled free a blackened iron
morning star. With a weapon in each huge fist, it charged over the tundra faster
than Luke would have believed possible.