Suddenly, in the middle of his desperation, Qui-Gon felt something odd — a faint ripple in the Force. As he concentrated, it grew stronger. Someone was calling him, a Jedi.
Obi-Wan needs me! He realized.
Astonished, he pressed himself farther back in the cave. He needed to be calm, to think. The boy shouldn’t have been able to call him. Obi-Wan was not his Padawan. They were not connected.
But he had no time to wonder about the call’s meaning. It was urgent and must be obeyed. Hearing movement, Qui-Gon quickly glanced toward the cave opening. For a moment the draigon beat its wings against the stones, blocking Qui-Gon’s escape. Then suddenly it dropped from its clumsy perch.
Long had Qui-Gon followed the ways of the Force. Now he felt it beckon him. Run, it commanded. Go to Obi-Wan.
Qui-Gon’s heart pounded. He ran three steps and leaped from the mouth of the cave, knowing that two hundred meters below, the sharp rocks stuck up like swords. Yet he trusted the Force.
He did not fall even a dozen meters. His leap carried him straight to a draigon!
He hit the beast’s neck with a thud. The creature was wet and slimy. Qui-Gon almost slipped off, but clung to its scaly hide with the tips of his fingers. The sore muscles in his shoulder throbbed and burned. He managed to swing his legs up and over, so that he was riding squarely on the draigon’s back.
The creature roared in terror. It had been flying up to eat the Jedi. Now it shook its neck, trying to throw him off. It shrieked again and again, then wheeled in panic and flapped its wings, dropping toward the sea.
Qui-Gon clutched his precious bag of dactyl in one hand and leaned close to the draigon’s neck. Using all og the power that he could muster, he whispered to the draigon.. “Friend help me. Take me to the caves. Hurry!”
The draigons that were hunting Whiphids heard the desperate shriek of Qui-Gon’s mount. They looked up and saw the man on its back. Now the draigons rose in a flock to give chase.
His mount flapped its wings and sped toward the caves. Qui-Gon wasn’t sure he could control the beast for long, for its small mind was cruel, and it was driven by ravenous hunger.
Grelb had been lamenting the death of his Whiphid henchmen when he glanced back toward the mountain. Draigons flocks there by the hundreds.
To his amazement, he saw Qui-Gon Jinn leap from his crevasse onto the back of a hunting draigon. The Jedi wheeled away, down toward the ship.
Grelb’s jaw dropped, and he dove for cover beneath a rock. There, he sat trembling. The Jedi was alive and heading back down the mountain. That meant only one thing.
Grelb was done for. Jemba would kill him with one blow as soon as he showed his face. Or perhaps he would kill him slowly as a lesson.
He had not clawed his way to a position of power, second only to Jemba, to let a Jedi defeat him. He had worked so hard! All that killing, all that torture of innocents, all that profit, it could not got to waste.
He would kill the Jedi himself, before Qui-Gon reached the caves and Jemba saw him.
As fast as he could, Grelb slithered among the rocks.
Chapter 20
In the caves the Arconans were fading fast. Their bioluminescent eyes were growing dim, like fading embers from a fire.
Nearby, Clat’Ha and a couple of other Humans helped care of the failing Arconans. The usually fiery woman looked drained, worn out. There was really nothing they could do for the Arconans except make them comfortable.
Si Treemba hadn’t stirred in hours. He whispered to Obi-Wan that he was saving his strength. Yet Obi-Wan guessed his friend was really too weak to move.
Obi-Wan was desperate. He hated sitting by, unable to help, as his friend slowly died. A dozen times he had thought of running out to find Qui-Gon. But he resisted the urge. He had to stay by his friend’s side and protect him.
Obi-Wan rested his forehead on his knees in despair. He stared at the cave floor. What was the use of all his Jedi training? He had never felt so helpless. Nothing he had learned, nothing even Yoda had told him, could have prepared him for this moment. He had come to the end of everything — faith, hope, belief in himself. He had failed. All his life, he would remember this, his darkest moment.
Darkest moment…
A memory stirred in Obi-Wan. He remembered a twilight conference with Yoda. “What is my limit, and how will I know when I find it?” Obi-Wan had asked. “And if I am pushed to the last, where can I turn for help?”
That was when Yoda had told him that in moments of extreme danger, when he had done everything he could, he could use the Force to call another Jedi. “Close, you must be,” Yoda had said. “Connected.”
Qui-Gon may not have thought they had a connection. But Obi-Wan had to try.
In the dark cave, he reached out for the Force. He felt it pulse, and he drew in its energy. He reached out with his Jedi senses, tried to feel the Jedi Master’s presence. But Obi-Wan was a young man, and could not control the Force as he wanted. So silently, he simply called: Qui-Gon! Come back now! The Arconans will die without the dactyl.
From the mouth of the cavern, there was a great rumbling laugh. Obi-Wan looked up. He had called Qui-Gon with everything he had, but instead, he had roused Jemba the Hutt. So much for his abilities.
Jemba towered above them, his immense bulk filled the mouth of the cavern. “How are you all feeling? Well, I hope,” he taunted. “Well, in case you’re not, I have dactyl for sale! Dactyl for the needy. All it will cost is your lives! We have some here, and much more hidden elsewhere.”
All around the cave, Arconans began to moan. Some of them turned over and began to crawl painfully toward the Hutt with his offers of dactyl.
Disgust filled Obi-Wan. He leaped to his feet. “Stop this!” he shouted. Before he knew it, his lightsaber was out. He covered fifty meters of ground, leaping over dozens of poor Arconans, until he stood before the monstrous Hutt. He flashed the lightsaber overhead in a practice swing. The sluglike Hutt could be seen clearly in its light. A dozen other Hutts and Whiphids filled the tunnel behind him, but Jemba’s bulk would make it difficult for them to shoot.
“Well, well,” Jemba roared. “I’m glad to see that you are brave, even when your Master is not at your back!”
“Leave, Jemba,” Obi-Wan managed to say. He was choking on his anger, and because his voice was changing, it cracked comically.
At his back, Clat’Ha appeared, blaster drawn. “He’s right. You’re not welcome here.”
“Very well,” Jemba boomed. “If that’s what you want, I’ll gladly leave your friends to die.”
“Leave them the dactyl!” Obi-Wan ordered. He gripped the lightsaber, could feel its heat warming the heavy handle. The blade thrummed in the air, and his every muscle ached to leap forward and begin slicing. Sweat poured down Obi-Wan’s face, and he gritted his teeth.
“Isn’t this amusing!” Jemba rumbled to his cohorts. “He is not a Force used, this one. It’s in the ship’s records. He is nothing more than a farmer, a reject from the Jedi Temple.”
Obi-Wan fought back his rage at Jemba’s taunt. For long seconds he struggled as he sought within him a place of calm, of peace. Then he remembered Qui-Gon’s words. Jemba was not the true enemy. Anger was.
At last he found the calm he needed. He reached out with his senses to touch the Force. He felt it now, around him, in Jemba, in the stones, in the Arconans fading so fast behind him. He felt it and gave himself to it.
“Qui-Gon!” Obi-Wan shouted in surprise.
He’d been so focused on calling to the Jedi Master for help that he felt astonished to suddenly feel something else: Qui-Gon was calling to him for help.
“Jemba, get out of my way!” Obi-Wan said. “Qui-Gon is in danger!”
“Hah! Hah!” the great Hutt roared. He slapped his sides as if the laughing pained him. “Why does that not surprise me? Maybe it’s because I sent my men to kill him!”
But it wasn’t just Qui-Gon. Danger was coming to all of them. Qui-Gon wasn’t
just calling for his help. He was trying to warn Obi-Wan.
“I mean it, Jemba,” Obi-Wan warned. “We’re all in trouble!”
“What would you have of me, little one!” Jemba asked. “Do you want me to look down at my shoes so that you can stab me? Ho, ho, ho! That trick won’t work on me. Hutts don’t have feet!”
He was wasting time. Obi-Wan somersaulted once in the air, and landed in front of Jemba. Then, using the momentum of his landing, he sprang over the Hutt’s head. Obi-Wan landed on Jemba’s back, and the Hutt howled.
“You have been warned!” Obi-Wan shouted, gripping his lightsaber tightly. Then he raced down Jemba’s tail and sprang over the heads of the surprised Whiphid guards.
One Whiphid fired his blaster at Obi-Wan’s retreating form, but Obi-Wan managed to bring his lightsaber over his back and deflect the blow. He raced through the tunnels, past the startled Hutts and Whiphids. His need to find Qui-Gon was overpowering. He was astonished to feel the Jedi Knight’s warning call, to feel this connection.
Behind him, a few Whiphids roared war cries, but Jemba shouted above the rest, “No! Leave him to me! The boy id mine!”
Chapter 21
“There my friend,” Qui-Gon said to the draigon. He pointed toward the caves. The dozen passages to the cavern were all set within a single hill, and from the sky the cave mouths looked like wormholes.
Qui-Gon fought to control the draigon’s mind, bring it safely to the ground. He was worried. As far as the eye could see, draigons flocked toward the caves. Their roars were deafening as they called to each other.
Qui-Gon had seen the giant trees in the Silver Forest of Dreams on the planet Kubindi. Some of their vast leaves could be twenty meters wide, and when they fell in the autumn, they floated like giant rafts through the sky. That is what the draigons reminded him of. They dropped through the leaden skies, just as the leaves floated from the Kubindi forests.
Yet these creatures were deadly; and like Qui-Gon, they were headed toward the caves.
Qui-Gon called with his mind, warning young Obi-Wan Kenobi again of the danger. Then he waited as the draigon wafted downward, close to the narrow ledge outside the caves. Qui-Gon chose his moment, then sprang off the back of the beast. He landed on the ledge, steadying himself with a hand against the outside wall of the cave. The draigon flew off with a soft confused cry, his mind released.
Qui-Gon had taken two steps toward the cave when he saw Obi-Wan race from its mouth, lightsaber held high.
Obi-Wan ran from the cave only to stop short. He stared at the sky in horror.
At first, he’d thought it was just dark clouds. But now he realized that scores of draigons were blocking the sun. And they were all winging toward the caves.
Never in his young life had he imagined such terror. His legs went weak, and his mind was suddenly blank. He didn’t know what to do.
The he saw Qui-Gon heading toward him. Relief flooded him. The Jedi looked battered and bloody, and he was holding one shoulder stiffly. Still, he was alive.
“Did you get the dactyl?” Obi-Wan called.
Qui-Gon nodded. “The Arconans?”
“Still alive, but barely. Go, Qui-Gon. I’ll hold the mouth of the cave.”
Obi-Wan expected Qui-Gon to argue, to send him back into the cave with the dactyl. The Jedi Knight merely gazed at him for a tenth of a second. In the master’s eyes, Obi-Wan saw respect and acceptance.
“I will return,” Qui-Gon promised, and rushed into the caves.
In seconds, the draigons were on Obi-Wan. His lightsaber slashed and burned, sizzled and shrieked. Draigons roared in pain and fell before him. He was fighting better and stronger than he ever had, ever thought he could.
But he knew he could not hold the draigons off for long.
Qui-Gon raced through the caves, past Whiphid and Hutt guards, carrying his bag of dactyl.
Such was the look of purpose in his eyes that no one dared to stop him. Instead, Jemba’s guards cowered in fear, until Qui-Gon, halfway through the tunnel, meet Jemba himself.
“Halt!” the enormous Hutt ordered. “Where are you going?”
Qui-Gon stared evenly at Jemba. You had better get your guard to the mouths of the caves,” Qui-Gon warned. “We’re in trouble.”
“Hah!” Jemba laughed. “Your foolish pupil already tried that trick!”
Suddenly a draigon roared near the mouth of the tunnels. The sound was astonishing. The cave trembled. Bits of dust shook loose from the roof.
“It has started,” Qui-Gon said evenly.
He shouldered past the enormous Hutt and raced to get the dactyl to the Arconans.
Grelb squeezed between two flat rocks and lay for a moment, his heavy blaster in hand, staring down at the caves. He’d missed his chance to kill Qui-Gon Jinn. The big Jedi had already raced into the caves. But his pupil guarded the moth of the cavern, lightsaber ready.
He wanted the Master, but the pupil would have to do for now.
Draigons hurtled from the sky by the dozens, converging on the lad. Even Grelb had to admire the young Jedi’s skill. His lightsaber struck again and again, and the boy showed no sign of tiring. It was almost a pity to kill him.
Lightning split the sky. Rain pounded the stones over Grelb’s head. One good thing about hiding under these rocks — at least it was dry.
He raised his blaster rifle and tried to aim at the young Jedi. The boy’s lightsaber flashed among the draigons.
All I need now, Grelb thought, is one brief moment to pull of my shot. Just one…
Chapter 22
The battle was like none Obi-Wan had ever imagined. He felt no fear. He had accepted his death. The odds were just too great against him. Now he only fought to protect the Arconans. He felt no anger. He did not hate the hungry beasts that dropped endlessly from the blackened skies.
The Force was his ally.
He could feel it moving him, moving through him, and through the draigons. He leaped and somersaulted. He spun and slashed through muzzles and claws. The battle became a dance of sheer survival.
As he danced, Obi-Wan changed. He felt subtle promptings he’d never felt before. He saw attacks before they came. He sensed the flail of a tail before it happened. The muscles of the draigons seemed incredible defined, so that he could read tiny flickers of movements that revealed which way a draigon would turn. Dead draigons piled on the ground around him. He gave himself entirely to the dance.
After several long minutes, he began backing toward the mouth of the cave. He had an idea. If he could kill the draigons at the very mouth of the cave, the bodies would block the entrance. If enough entrances were blocked, they might have a chance.
He fought his way back ferociously. He had just gained the entrance when he heard a familiar laugh.
“Well done, little one!” Jemba chortled. The enormous Hutt slithered from the shadows farther back in the cave. He held an oversized blaster rifle.
Obi-Wan barely had time to glance at the Hutt, for three draigons had gathered at the mouth of the cave.
“Help me!” Obi-Wan called to Jemba as he fought. It would be easy for the Hutt to shoot the draigons. He could help with his plan. Obi-Wan knew he wouldn’t care to save him, but Jemba would certainly want to save himself.
“Of course,” Jemba chortled. “I’ll help you — to death!” He raised his blaster rifle and aimed.
Grelb huddled beneath his rock. Draigons lay at Obi-Wan Kenobi’s feet. The boy stood with the mouth of the cave yawning wide behind him.
The Hutt chuckled softly. He saw his chance and squeezed the trigger of his blaster.
The bolt shot out — but the Grelb’s surprise, young Obi-Wan must have sensed it coming, for he dodged to the side. The bolt barely missed him.
Grelb shouted in rage and prepared to fire again. This time, he would not miss. But suddenly, he felt huge teeth rip into his tail.
He had been concentrating too hard. He had forgotten to keep a lookout. A draigon had found him.
He barely had time to cry out before the draigon yanked him from under his rock.
Obi-Wan stood panting. He’d felt the Force, had dodged as the blaster bolt came from nowhere and sizzled past his head. Perhaps no one felt as surprised as Jemba the Hutt.
The enormous Hutt took the blaster bolt in the chest. For the briefest moment, Jemba stared down at his wound in disbelief. “Well, ha!” he laughed in horror.
Jedi Apprentice 1: The Rising Force (звёздные войны) Page 10
