Star Wars - Crystal Star

by The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

  She cantered one quick step in place, just as she had when Jaina skipped across the gathering room.

  Her dainty hooves tapped on the stone.

  Tigris glanced back to stop the cheerful noise. But the red-gold child was plodding along with everyone else by then. Her tail switched briskly.

  Jaina wondered what the red-gold child meant.

  Play? she thought. I don't believe nasty mean Tigris will ever let us play. Why can he tell me what to do, he isn't a Proctor, I don't think he's even a helper!

  The children marched down another long hallway.

  Jaina wondered why it was so far between places, in these endless underground tunnels. They must have been hard to build. The castle at Munto Codru had been honeycombed with tunnels, but the tunnels connected hundreds of rooms and storage chambers and spy-windows and secret places. Here the tunnels had no windows, no doors, no twists or turns. Each had only a beginning and an ending, with maybe one curve or corner in all its long length.

  Jaina saw light! Real light, white and full of color, not this ghostly gray. It blazed down at her, silhouetting the children ahead of her.

  She wanted to run toward it. She wanted to shout with joy.

  Ahead of her, the other children climbed stairs and walked out into the light. It washed over them, bathing them in radiance. But they just kept walking. When Jaina saw the sun, she would raise her face to it and let it pour down over her. She would run into the brightness-- "Stop." All the children stopped at the Proctor's command.

  Jaina was only a few steps from the dazzling brightness at the bottom of the stairs. She caught her breath. She feared they would take her back into the darkness.

  The Proctor gestured sharply to Tigris.

  Jaina yearned toward the light in dismay, certain Tigris would pull her from the line and make her go back to the dim study cubicle, or the dark sleeping cell.

  Tigris raised her chin and turned her toward him and made her look up at him.

  "You can walk, in the play yard," he said.

  "You can speak quietly in the play yard. You can't shout. You can't run. You can't dig the sand.

  You mustn't pick the leaves. Do you understand?" She nodded. His grubby fingers pinched her chin.

  He let her go.

  "And you can't go near the fence!" he said.

  "Why do you have so many rules?" Jaina asked.

  "That isn't a rule," Tigris said. "If you go near the fence--the dragon will eat you!" A dragon! Jaina was entranced.

  The Proctors allowed the children to move forward again, and Jaina climbed out of the pit into the sunlight.

  It was bright and hot, much more intense than she was used to. She blinked the sparks away from her vision, looking for Jacen, anxious to see him, trying to discover where she was and how they might escape for home.

  Mr. Chamberlain's wyrwulf ran toward her across the sand. She fell to her knees and flung her arms around its neck.

  "Oh, you're all right! Did they leave you out here all alone? You're lucky, though, you don't have to study those dumb lessons!" The heavy black guard hairs of the wyrwulf's coat felt rough against Jaina's face. A heavy metal and leather collar had been fastened around the wyrwulf's throat. Jaina tried to free the wyrwulf.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I can't get it off." Her fingers were not strong enough to unfasten the collar.

  The wyrwulf whined and leaned against her.

  "Let's explore." Jaina got to her feet. "Let's see if there's a way out of here." She looked around.

  The play yard was the bottom of a canyon. The canyon was not very deep, but its sides were very steep and smooth. They would be hard to climb.

  There was some way to get up there. On the cliff high above, the Proctors in their light blue uniforms spun and struck and slashed, practicing with lightsabers.

  Jaina stared at them in disbelief. Why did these bad people have lightsabers? Lightsabers were for good people, for Jedi Knights. She wanted to be a Jedi Knight. She wanted to be old enough to build her own lightsaber, and learn to use it.

  She also wanted to be a mechanic, and a raceship driver, and a drum player.

  She turned her back on the Proctors, up on their high cliff, and kept looking around for a way to escape. Mr. Chamberlain's wyrwulf trotted after her.

  A fence closed the far end of the canyon.

  Jaina walked toward the fence. It might not be as hard to climb as the stone cliffso.

  She was not on Munto Codru. She was not on any world she had ever visited. It was a very small world. Past the fence, the horizon lay very close.

  And the horizon curved. The tiny hot sun moved in the sky, so fast the shadows moved.

  This isn't a real world, Jaina thought. It's too small. It's a made one, a built one.

  Otherwise it wouldn't have this much gravity. And it spins so fast, its day is only a couple of hours long!

  A few prickly plants struggled to grow in the dry sand. Jaina could not imagine wanting to pick their thorny leaves.

  There was nothing to play on, only the bare canyon sand surrounding the staircase pit, and the fence locking them all inside.

  Someone nudged Jaina from behind. The red-gold centaur child danced around in front of her. Her sides and back were spotted with white. Velvety knobs above her temples poked through her wild, curly hair.

  "You're different," the red-gold child said.

  "I'm Jaina." "I'm Lusa." Lusa looked sidelong at the wyrwulf. "Does it bite?" "No, it just has big teeth. Do you see my brothers?" Jaina looked around, but there were only half as many children in the play yard as there had been in the gathering room.

  Lusa took Jaina's hand. "Every day, they mix us up. Every day, it's different. Tomorrow your brothers are in this group, I'm not. Tomorrow, you're in their group, I'm still here." It took Jaina a little time to figure out Lusa's way of talking.

  She tells me different things that could happen, Jaina thought. But that's okay. At least they aren't awful things. Except that I want to see Jacen now, not tomorrow or the next day. And I want to know if Anakin is all right.

  Hand in hand, Jaina and Lusa walked across the yard. Every few steps, Lusa hopped, springing into the air and coming down on all four feet.

  "I want to run," she said sadly when she saw Jaina watching her curiously. "I want to gallop, and jump." "Me, too," Jaina said. She jumped up in the air, like Lusa, and came down on both feet. It was not the same as running, but it helped. The wyrwulf watched.

  The edge of the play area ended ten paces from the fence. All the other children were walking around, but no one entered the undisturbed border.

  Jaina took a step toward it.

  "Don't!" Lusa said, keeping hold of her hand. "The dragon--it'll eat you." "I want to see the dragon," Jaina said.

  Then she thought, Why should I even believe there's a dragon? Hethrir told me my mama is dead. I don't believe that. I don't believe anything he says. I don't believe anything mean nasty Tigris says.

  She looked around for Tigris, but he had disappeared. A few bored helpers stood together and gossiped, hardly paying any attention to the children.

  "There's no dragon out there," Jaina said.

  "There is," Lusa said. "A dragon lives there. The sand hides the dragon!" Beyond the fence, wind had blown the sand into low rolling dunes.

  "There's no place for a dragon to hide," Jaina said.

  She took another step.

  A huge lizard erupted from the sand. It roared. The sound was like thunder, like wind.

  Sand showered up around it, and over the fence, and into Jaina's hair.

  She shrieked in fear and delight. The wyrwulf yelped. The other children ran away, toward the safety of the stairwell. Jaina wanted to stay where she was, on the undisturbed ground, to see what the dragon would do. Lusa pulled her to safety. Lusa tried to run all the way to the stairwell, pulling Jaina, but Jaina pulled against her and stopped them both.

  Just beyond the undisturbed sand, they turned back to loo
k at the dragon.

  It was like Jaina had suddenly turned invisible.

  The dragon crouched on all fours, lashing its heavy tail. It growled. It peered this way, that way. It was beautiful, Jaina thought, not very graceful but powerful. It had thick, muscular legs and a short heavy tail with a spiked knob on the tip. Its huge long head was mostly mouth. Big jaws and big thick drippy teeth.

  Its scales looked like shiny beads, black and tan and pink.

  "It hides in the sand," Lusa said. "The sand looks like its scales." The dragon snorted and blinked. It backed up a few steps, wiggling its tail. It dug itself a basking spot and used its big feet to flip sand up over its back. Lying between two of the low dunes, it looked like a sand dune itself.

  "It's wonderful!" Jaina said. She wished Jacen were here. Jacen would love it.

  Maybe I'll get a chance to tell him about it, she thought. Just a second is all I'd need, practically.

  She almost tried to think at him about the dragon. Just the idea brought her up against the hovering cold cloud of Hethrir's power.

  She decided to wait.

  "What does it eat?" Jaina asked.

  "Children," Lusa said, her voice gloomy.

  "Us when we're bad." "Oh, silly," Jaina said. "Did you ever see it eat anybody?" "No, but they told--" Lusa blinked her red-gold eyes. "They told us... they made it roar. It didn't eat us, it only roared us." She switched her tail and flung back her tangled hair.

  "It only roared us!" Jaina grinned.

  The other children came cautiously out of the stairwell and gathered behind Jaina and Lusa.

  "It didn't eat you!" "I bet it doesn't even eat children," Jaina said. "I bet it eats... bugs or fish or plants or something." "There aren't any fish!" Vram said in a stuck-up voice.

  "Sand fish!" Jaina retorted. "Haven't you ever heard of sand fish? You've never been anywhere!" The other children nodded. But no one stepped onto the undisturbed ground. Jaina had to admit the dragon was pretty scary, when it jumped up out of the sand. It might not eat her. But it might knock down the fence and step on her, without even meaning to.

  Suddenly three ships screamed down out of space and streaked across the sky above the canyon.

  "Look!" Jaina cried out with excitement, knowing, just knowing, that Papa had come to save her with the Millennium Falcon, or Mama had come with Alderaan.

  The wyrwulf pointed its nose in the air and howled after them.

  Jaina did not recognize any of the ships.

  Two were dark, like the Falcon, and one was bright like Alderaan, but the two dark ones were shaped wrong, and the bright one was gold rather than silver.

  The other children stared after the ships. They all fell silent and scared. Jaina expected one of the helpers to come and tell her to be quiet. Maybe even send them all to bed without dinner. Jaina was so hungry now that she wished she had eaten the icky soup. She was sorry she had shouted.

  All the helpers, and the Proctor overseer, had disappeared.

  "Don't they watch us while we're out here?" Jaina asked.

  The other children looked around. A whisper of fear passed among them.

  "What's the matter?" Without a ^w, the other children clustered together.

  Lusa pranced nervously.

  "What's the matter, Lusa? What's going to happen?" Lusa raised her head, her eyes wide with fear. Her long curly mane flew around her face.

  "They come for us, they take us--" Lusa put her hands protectively over the velvet knobs on her forehead. "They cut off your horns!" "You're gonna get sent away!" Gloating, Vram pointed at Lusa; he pointed at Jaina. "You're gonna get sent away-ay, you're gonna get sent away-ay!" he chanted. "Whenever the ships come, Lord Hethrir sends the bad ones away!" Jaina thought, Where could we go that would be worse, why is Lusa so scared?

  "Good!" Jaina said. "Who wants to stay in this rotten place?" She grabbed Lusa's hand.

  "We'll go away together, and my papa will come and rescue us!" "You don't know anything!" Vram shouted.

  "You'll all go away to different places!

  You'll be all by yourself!" That scared Jaina. Lusa was trembling. They could make Lusa go away. They could make Jacen and Anakin go away!

  Vram jumped up and down with glee and pointed at Lusa.

  "I heard them say, they're going to take you away and cut off your horns! Cut off your horns forever. Serves you right!" Lusa cringed away from him.

  I don't have any horns to cut off, Jaina thought. So what would they do to me?

  She held Lusa's hand tighter. Mr.

  Chamberlain's wyrwulf leaned against her.

  Lusa edged toward the other children, till she and Jaina became part of the group. Lusa kept pushing between the other children till they reached the center.

  If I hold Lusa's hand, Jaina thought, it will all be all right. They won't take either of us away.

  Lusa's fingers felt warm in Jaina's hand.

  The centauriform child was trembling. She hunched down and ducked her head. She shook her hair forward. But no matter what she did she was still taller than the others. And no matter what she did, her velvety horn-knobs poked out through her curls.

  "They wouldn't cut off your horns," Jaina whispered. "Why would they? Your horns are pretty!" "They cut off your horns to make you ugly," Lusa said, her voice shaking. "They cut off your horns to make you obey. But my horns haven't come through the velvet yet." She stared at Jaina, fear in her eyes. "If they cut the velvet, I'll die!" Jaina hugged Lusa. She wanted to hit Vram for scaring them all, for scaring Lusa. But Mama always said not to hit. She thought that if all the children stood around Vram in a circle and glared at him, though, they could make him be quiet.

  Before she could try to get everyone to test her theory, a double line of helpers marched out of the stairwell. A Proctor overseer followed.

  The helpers surrounded the children, the way Jaina thought the children should surround Vram.

  "Line up," the overseer said. "Line up, and stand up straight and tall." "He said line up!" Vram pushed one of the smallest children out of the group. The little child stumbled.

  Jaina jumped forward to catch her. Lusa pulled Jaina back. Jaina slipped out of Lusa's grasp and ran toward the little one. When Vram raised his hand to slap the little one, Jaina grabbed him. She was right behind him. She pulled his hand over his shoulder. He fell down, almost on top of her feet. She had to jump away.

  Lusa pranced beside her, and the wyrwulf growled.

  All together they faced the bully. Vram flinched down against the ground.

  He's scared of us! Jaina thought.

  Then she thought, I'd be scared, too, if Mr. Chamberlain's wyrwulf growled at me!

  Vram's fair skin looked grayish and his spiky hair flattened against his head. He backed away. The little one scampered back to the group of children.

  Vram suddenly straightened up, swaggering. His skin flushed with satisfaction.

  "You better get in line," he said.

  "Do line up, children." Hethrir's voice made Jaina shiver.

  Hethrir stood at the top of the stairwell.

  He spoke softly, but there was no mistaking his tone. Frightened, the children broke up their group and shuffled into a ragged line, scuff+ their feet in the sand.

  Vram ran to Hethrir and gazed up at him.

  "I was getting them to line up! I was making them, Lord Hethrirffwas "I see that you were," Hethrir said kindly.

  He placed his hand on Vram's head, ruffling his flattened hair.

  The fast-moving sun touched the canyon wall.

  In a minute it had set. floodlights came on all around, so bright Jaina had to blink.

  Hethrir strode forward. The hem of his long white robe whispered against the sand.

  All the Proctors, in their clean blue uniforms, their medals polished and their epaulets glittering, marched behind him. Their lightsabers hung at their belts.

  More helpers followed, guiding the second group of children. Jacen's group. Jaina wanted t
o run over to him, but she was afraid she would get everyone in trouble again.

  And finally Tigris climbed to the top of the stairwell. Anakin slept against Tigris's shoulder!

  But it was nowhere near Anakin's naptime.

  What's the matter with him? Jaina wondered.