Zoraida Cordova - A Crash of Fate

“You embarrassed yourself last night when you couldn’t shoot a still target, but I still have nothing but love for you.” Volt gaped at the barrel. It was leaking streaks of brown liquor that appeared to be eroding the metal. “What—Where—This was a gift.”

A Kowakian monkey-lizard above let out a squealing laugh. It sent the other animals into a small frenzy, their own concerto of hollers and shrieks. One of them even sounded like the scream of a person. Izzy noticed the foot traffic was moving faster. Some ladies in rippling silk kept glancing back, pointing at the foremost display cage, which housed a large purple bird with a reptilian tail Izzy had never seen before.

Volt shoved past Jules to try to entice the ladies with a sale. “Loralora bird. A rare hybrid from the jungle moon of Ketz!”

The ladies didn’t spare him a second glance. Jules clapped Volt on the shoulder. Izzy noticed the moment Jules did a double take down the street. She frowned, and he tilted his head to the stall’s entrance. She took that to mean that they needed to leave. But what had he seen to cause that reaction?

“I’ll see you at the cantina tonight, Volt,” Jules said. Izzy made her way to him, but Volt showed no signs of letting them go.

“What’s your hurry?” he asked.

“Dok-Ondar is waiting for us,” Izzy said. “And by the way, Oga said to tell you not to send her that stuff anymore.”

“‘Stuff’?” Volt repeated, incredulously. “Come, I’ll give you both a free sample.”

Jules grabbed hold of Izzy’s wrist, but as they were about to step out onto the street, Izzy realized why he was in a hurry to leave. Delta Jeet stomped against traffic, shoving people aside when they got in her way. Izzy only got a good look at her boots before, but the rest of her was just as intimidating. Cropped brown hair framed her round face, at the moment puckered into a scowl as she searched the crowd.

It was too late. Jules and Izzy had whirled around to go back into the shop when they heard a feral-sounding “You!” shouted in their direction.

Meaty hands grabbed Izzy by her neck and yanked her back. Delta Jeet said, “The next time you think to shoot me, you better finish the job.”

Jules took pleasure in watching Izzy get along with Volt. He pictured her belonging in this world, in his world. That all faded when he saw Delta. He hoped they could get out of there without drawing attention to themselves.

Then he felt Izzy wrenched from his hold.

“I’ll mount your heads on my wall as trophies!” Delta shouted.

Izzy threw a punch, but Delta didn’t seem to register it. Izzy winced and ducked as Delta swung her arm around. The woman was used to fighting in the Galma vicinity, and Jules could already see the blood that would follow.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Volt shouted, and reached for the upturned cage where the loralora bird flapped around wildly. “Take this outside! You’re scaring the animals, for sky’s sake.”

Jules had to do something. The animals were restless, hissing and growling and snapping their teeth. Curious passersby were crowding the exit, sticking out their necks and gasping as Izzy fell into the fyrnock cage. Jules knew Volt would forgive him for what he was about to do—or rather, he hoped.

He pulled the pins keeping the cages locked and unraveled the ties that housed the orange-and-white momongs. The first one to fly out was the loralora bird, its reptilian prehensile tail swinging at Delta’s head, momentarily blinding her.

“Izzy!” Jules shouted.

She stepped over Volt, who was hunched over trying to protect a petrified dokma from getting its shell trampled as the crowds began to swarm closer. Mynocks leapt onto Delta and others, their leathery wings wrapping around her head. She fell into the melee.

Jules ran ahead and barreled into bodies, trying to apologize on his way out. Behind them creatures hissed. Birds took off, finding freedom through the gaps of the canvas roof.

“This way!” he shouted, running past Jewels of Bith and Kat Saka’s Kettle. For the first time in years, he’d taken a wrong turn in the alleys. The whole day felt like wrong turns. But they were so close to Dok’s. They rounded a corner and he’d never been happier to see the den.

Jules slammed his fist on the door. “Tap! It’s me.”

He could hear Delta in the distance, and Volt, too. All right, perhaps Jules’s friend would not forgive him any time soon.

The cool air of the shop hit him square in the face. Tap did not look impressed by the sweaty, dirty sight of them, but the kid stepped aside and let them pass.

“Took you long enough,” Tap muttered.

Jules was almost glad. Tap needling him was the most normal part of his day. Izzy crossed the room and sank against the wall of the mezzanine to catch her breath. Tap glanced back and forth between them. Jules had never taken so long to go on a simple errand, but it was anything but a simple day.

“Dok back yet?” Jules asked.

“I closed up because I’m not authorized to price anything.”

Jules patted the boy on his shoulder. “That was wise, Tap.” He removed the payment Oga had given him and handed it to the boy.

Without Dok moving around the den making sure every item was polished, dusted, and meticulously arranged in an order that only seemed to make sense to him—it felt abandoned and strange.

“Has your contact said anything?” Jules asked Izzy.

She reached into her backpack and withdrew the circular holocomm. When she tried it, a blue light flickered before blurring into static. It might as well have been a coaster from the cantina.

“There’s that,” Izzy said, tossing it back in the pack.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Jules stood at the center of the den. His eyes scanned the display cases to see if anything had been moved or taken, but except for Tap’s tinkering, nothing was out of place. Jules grunted his frustration. Izzy stood and walked over to him, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“Is there anything that feels wrong to you?” she asked.

“Nothing’s been moved,” he said, “and Tap can attest to that.” The kid nodded in agreement.

“Could he have been kidnapped?” Izzy asked.

“Yesterday I would have told you that would be impossible, but after today? I wouldn’t rule it out.” Jules couldn’t shake the feeling that he had missed something. When he got to the den that morning, he hadn’t been worried. Dok was Dok, and he did things his own way.

He ran up the steps where Dok’s desk was situated and went over everything with a sharper eye. Why hadn’t he thought to look more closely before? Because he’d been ready to come and go, and because Izzy had been waiting for him. He didn’t think Dok would leave the shop unattended for so long.

Dok’s desk held wide-open ledgers in languages that Jules couldn’t read. He wished he had Volt’s knack for languages, but it was Basic, some Huttese, and enough Ithorian to communicate with Dok. Under any other circumstances, he would never disturb Dok’s space. With his index finger, he closed the metal binder. Beneath that was a map of Batuu scrawled on a beige canvas scroll. Dok was old-fashioned in that he still used parchments when everyone else used holomaps. Jules recognized the Outpost, the farms, and beyond the river gorge, the outskirts of town and cenotes near the ruins. An old tome was on the edge of the desk, something wedged between the pages. When Jules flipped it over, he found a spoon in the middle. That belonged to the cup of green spiced tea that was barely touched.

“It’s like he meant to come back,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

He stepped around the desk and imagined Dok sitting there. “I mean it was like he was sitting here about to drink his tea. He doesn’t put anything in it, but he stirs it. I don’t drink tea, so I don’t know why you’d need to stir it, but maybe it’s an old Ithorian thing.”