Tags:
Fiction,
General,
Science-Fiction,
Fantasy,
Action & Adventure,
Juvenile Fiction,
Fantasy & Magic,
Space Opera,
Life on other planets,
Interstellar Travel,
Leia; Princess (Fictitious character),
Skywalker; Luke (Fictitious character),
Solo; Han (Fictitious character)
I’m about to tell you, you’ll never live to see another Yavin Four sunset," Grand Moff Hissa said. "Tell me, are you a healer, like the rest of your people?"
Baji nodded but didn’t speak.
"I command you to answer!" Trioculus shouted in a hoarse voice.
Suddenly realizing that Trioculus was unable to see, Baji replied:
"For the sick and weak do I care
Be they powerful or meek, old or fair."
"They tell me you’re a Ho’Din," Trioculus said, "but at the moment, I can’t tell. My eyes have betrayed me. I order you to heal me!"
"This is the most powerful patient you’ve ever had, Ho’Din," Grand Moff Hissa explained.
"He commands the Empire. He is the ruler of the galaxy. Your life is in his hands."
Baji leaned forward and stared cautiously at Trioculus’s glazed eyeballs. Then he noticed the glove Trioculus was wearing on his right hand. Baji kneeled down and touched it.
Quickly Trioculus pulled his hand away.
"I asked you to examine my eyes, Ho’Din, not the glove of Darth Vader," Trioculus said.
"Now heal me, understand?"
Baji replied:
"The glove you wear
Brings blindness and gloom
Remove it now
For it seals your doom."
"This glove has doomed many men, Ho’Din," Trioculus said, sneering. "Men who have angered me. But it will never doom me."
Baji replied:
"Since Darth Vader’s glove
You now do wear
Blind you are
And next goes your hair
Take off the glove
Or there is no doubt
Your teeth and nails
Shall all fall out
Your hands will rot
Your face will welt
Loud you shall scream
As in terror you melt."
"I should have your eyes plucked out for saying that!" Trioculus exclaimed.
"Master," said Emdee, "the Ho’Din makes a medical point-one that did occur to me. The devices I inserted into the glove’s fingertips so that you could send out deadly sound waves might possibly be the cause of your side effects."
"Go on, Emdee," Trioculus said, gritting his teeth, "continue."
"The sonic charges in the devices are probably causing damage to your nerve endings, affecting the optic nerves in your eyes."
"Perhaps you should consider taking off the glove, my Dark Lordship," Grand Moff Hissa said. "It’s worth a try."
Reluctantly, Trioculus removed the glove of Darth Vader. Grand Moff Hissa and Baji couldn’t help but gasp when they saw Trioculus’s right hand-it was all red, blistered, and withered. And just as Baji had warned, the flesh on his hand had already begun to rot.
Trioculus blinked. The yellow, glassy look slowly faded from his eyes. "I can almost make out the shape of your face, Ho’Din," Trioculus said in a hoarse, deep voice.
"Your Excellency!" Grand Moff Hissa said. "The Ho’Din healer has brought back your eyesight!"
Baji reached into his pocket and took out a few kibo seeds-all that he had. He placed them in Trioculus’s raw and withered hand. Then said:
"Eat the seeds of the purple flower
Or your sight shall lose its power
To be fully cured you must feed
For a hundred days upon the kibo seed."
Trioculus chewed and swallowed the kibo seeds. Moments later, his face brightened and his eyes cleared. A faint smile formed at the corners of his lips as his vision was slowly restored.
"Ho’Din, your medicine is impressive," Trioculus said. "I now see better than ever. Tell me, where can I get enough kibo seeds to eat them for a hundred days?"
Baji sadly lowered his head.
"Kibo flowers, so very rare
Will soon be found nowhere
For the flames that you have spread
Shall soon make all kibo plants dead."
"What is he saying, Hissa?" asked Trioculus. "I can’t follow all of this Ho’Din’s rhyming!"
"If I understand him correctly," the grand moff replied, "the kibo flower is very rare-nearly extinct. And your decision to burn the rain forests is about to destroy the last of them. You must eat their seeds for a hundred days, or-"
"Go on!" Trioculus said. "Then what?"
Emdee finished the sentence for the grand moff, who was too frightened to say any more.
"Then,
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