Star Wars - Crystal Star

by The Crystal Star (by Vonda McIntyre)

  "Do you--d you want to come with us?" "You'll hit me! You'll kill me!" "I will not!" He took a deep breath. "Help!" Angrily, Jaina slammed the door shut on him.

  Jacen grabbed her hand. Together, they ran into the corridor with their beacons of glowing air swirling ahead of them and behind them.

  The other children followed.

  The tiny sun was just setting when they reached the stairwell to the outside. Jaina ran up the stairs and raised her head above the edge. No one was watching. The playground was deserted.

  "What about the dragon?" one of the other children whispered.

  "I don't know," Jaina said. "Jacen, we can't use the multitool, the sun's going down!" Jacen flicked a tiny swirl of heated air into existence, and concentrated it. It was much brighter than the light from Jaina's multitool lens. It bounced across the playfield. Jaina and Jacen ran after it.

  "Dragon!" Jacen cried. "Hey, you dragon!" The dragon jumped up out of the sand and roared.

  But she did not throw herself against the fence. She looked around and snorted and leaped into the air to try to catch the flame-toy Jacen made for her. Then she hunkered down beside the fence and pressed her shoulder against the mesh.

  Jacen rubbed her pebbly scales. The dragon rumbled.

  I wish I could do that! Jaina thought. Pat a dragon, and make friends with it, like Jacen.

  But she knew Jacen was a little envious of her for being able to take machines apart and put them back together again and make them better.

  Jacen stood nose-to-nose with the dragon. The dragon snorted. Jacen snorted back. He stuck his hand through the fence and rubbed the dragon's heavy brow ridges. The dragon flicked out its tongue.

  Jaina gasped.

  "I think she's just tasting me," Jacen whispered. "If she's like the lizards back home." "Tasting you! So she can eat you, maybe!" "So she knows it's me. Let's go!" "Are you sure?" Jaina asked.

  Then the alarms started ringing and they did not have any choice.

  Jacen scrambled up the fence and over the top.

  Jaina followed. The wire mesh scraped her hands. She scooted over and jumped down on the other side.

  The other children swarmed up over the fence and jumped to the ground, but they stayed as far from the dragon as they could get.

  The dragon slurped her tongue across Jacen's shoes.

  "She just wants to be sure she'll recognize me," Jacen insisted. He slid onto Mistress Dragon's back. "Is this okay; Mistress Dragon? Can I ride you?" She snuffled and raised her head, but she did not buck or roll over or try to rub Jacen off against the fence. Jacen dangled the light-toy in front of her.

  "Come on, hurry!" Jacen held out his hand to Jaina. She grabbed it and jumped on the dragon's back. The dragon lurched to her feet, standing up with her back legs first and then her front legs. Jaina shrieked with surprise and grabbed Jacen around the waist. She would feel a lot more comfortable if the dragon was a landspeeder and she was driving it.

  The other children ran to the dragon. Jaina grabbed their hands and pulled them up onto the dragon's back. Soon the dragon was covered with children.

  Most rode her back, but a few hung on to her legs, giggling.

  "Is this still all right, Mistress Dragon?" Jacen asked. "Can we all ride you?" He glanced around at Jaina. "I don't think she minds." "Hurry, let's go if we're going!" Jaina could hear shouts from back in the canyon.

  She kept expecting Hethrir's power to loom over her. As soon as he knew they were escaping, he would fling her to the ground. He would throw his heavy cold blanket over her, like he had when she tried to protect Lusa..

  Jacen dangled his fire-toy in front of Mistress Dragon.

  Jaina shivered.

  "Be careful, Jasa," she whispered. "Be careful." Swinging along through the sand, the dragon followed the point of light away from the fence and out through the canyon mouth. The fire-toy made the shadows move all around them.

  Jaina wished Lusa was with them. She wondered how her centauroid friend could ride on a dragon. But then she thought that maybe Lusa wouldn't have to ride, since she had four feet to run on. She had wanted so much to run.

  Jaina worried about Lusa, and about Mr.

  Chamberlain's wyrwulf.

  Somehow, Jaina thought, somehow I'll find them and somehow I'll rescue them! I don't care what Hethrir does!

  The dragon climbed a steep dune, lurching up the slippery sand. Jacen grabbed the dragon's neck and Jaina grabbed Jacen's waist and the child behind Jaina grabbed her waist. They all slid back a little. The dragon whipped her tail back and forth and up, holding the children on her back.

  "I think she likes us," Jaina said, trying not to sound scared.

  Jacen grinned. Then he looked serious.

  "Where are we going?" "Away," Jaina said.

  The dragon reached the top of the dune. She stopped and raised her head, nostrils flaring as she drank the wind.

  Jacen leaned forward and whispered to the dragon.

  Mistress Dragon leaped from the ridge of the sand dune and slid down the slope. Everybody yelled with excitement. This was better than any amusement ride!

  Mistress Dragon reached the bottom of the sand dune. She strode across the ground toward the stream and the forest. She could move very fast, when she wanted to.

  Jacen fumbled in the front of his shirt.

  "What are you doing?" Jaina thought he was scratching. "Did something bite you?" "Bite me?" Jacen exclaimed.

  "Someday something will." "Nothing ever bites me!" Jacen said. He pulled his hand out of his shirt and showed her. In the starlight, a little creature wriggled gently in his grasp and looked around with bright eyes.

  "What is it? Was it in your cell?" "No..." He opened his hand a little. The creature stretched its two pairs of wings and grabbed Jacen's finger with its one pair of feet.

  "It's from Munto Codruffwas Jaina said.

  "It's a bat! You weren't supposed to play with the bats!" "I wasn't playing," Jacen said. "I was looking. It's really interesting." The bat yawned. Its sharp teeth glittered in the starlight.

  "It's poisonous!" Jaina said.

  "I was just looking at it," Jacen said again.

  "I didn't mean to bring it along, I mean how was I supposed to know somebody was going to come along and steal us?" "What are you going to do with it now?" The bat crouched in Jacen's hand, stretching its wings in four directions. Jacen touched the bat's wingtip with the tip of his finger.

  "Let it fly," he said. "It's been all cooped up. It's bored." Jacen raised his hand. The four-winged bat raised its head, sang a few notes, spread its wings, and vanished into the dark.

  Mistress Dragon walked and walked across the sand. Jaina kept expecting a skiff to fly overhead. She expected Hethrir and his Proctors to land in it and make them go back.

  But that did not happen.

  Mistress Dragon kept walking. The little sun fell toward the horizon. They had been traveling all day. "All day" was only half as long as a regular day, but Jaina got thirsty, and then hungry, and then sore from riding.

  In the distance, a stream glimmered in the starlight. The stream wound through trees and led to a forest. It would be easier to hide down there than out in the bare sand.

  Mistress Dragon raised her head and sniffed the air. She put her head down again and walked even faster toward the stream.

  Mistress Dragon's feet squished into mud at the edge of the stream. She stopped and snortled. She put her head down and Jacen slipped right off. Jaina grabbed Mistress Dragon's scales and held herself on. All the other children jumped off the dragon's back.

  Mistress Dragon wanted to drink from the stream. Then she splashed in it. She waded out into the stream and lay on the gravel, like a new island. She lowered her head beneath the water and blew bubbles through her nose. She shook herself.

  Jaina fell off into the water. She struggled and splashed onto shore. She knew she should keep running, but she was awfully thirsty and tired and hungry. She drank from the st
ream.

  The sky was turning from black to purple and then to pink and yellow and blue as the sun raced up.

  The trees cast cool shadows. All the bushes at the edge of the stream were heavy with berries. Just looking at them made her mouth water. But she was afraid to eat them.

  I don't trust anything on this world, she thought.

  Except Jacen, and maybe Mistress Dragon. Hethrir said he was our friend, but he wasn't, he wasn't! And he said he was trying to teach us things we need to know. But he was lying then, too.

  And even Tigris, who sometimes was not completely mean, had said Mistress Dragon would eat them.

  Mistress Dragon settled deeper in the water, dunking the children hanging on to her sides.

  She stood up, making a huge splash. Jaina laughed. But she was still hungry.

  Jacen ran up the bank. The four-winged bat landed in Jacen's wet hair. The bat chittered and sang. Jacen went straight for one of the bushes and grabbed a handful of berries.

  "Jacen! They might be poison!" He stuffed them into his mouth and ate them.

  "Don't be dumb, Jaya," Jacen said.

  "I'm not, Jasa!" Jaina said, emphasizing his nickname.

  "Somebody built this place. Right?" "Yeah. That's obvious." "So somebody put stuff on it that's good to eat." He handed her some berries. Jaina ate them.

  They were delicious.

  Later all the children sat on the bank of the stream, full of sweet berries, and getting warm and dry in the sun. One of the little ones-- Anakin's age--cuddled up against Jaina.

  "Can we go home now?" "Pretty soon," she said. "Pretty soon, I hope." "I want my mumma," the little one said, sniffling.

  "Me, too," Jaina said. She hugged the little one. Her lower lip trembled and she had to stop talking so she would not start crying in front of the others. She did not want to scare them. She was scared herself because she did not know what to do now. She looked over at Jacen and she knew he did not know what to do now either.

  Jaina scooted over to sit right next to Jacen.

  "We have to find a place those Proctors can't go," she said.

  He nodded.

  "What can we do that they can't?" Jacen said.

  "Lots of stuff," Jaina said. She almost reached to lift a rock-- "Don't, don't, Jainaffwas Jacen cried.

  Even before Jacen said anything, she had pulled back. She was afraid Hethrir's power would loom up around her. And she was afraid he would find her, if she used her abilities to move anything bigger than air molecules.

  "Lots of stuff, usually," she said sadly.

  "We're little," Jacen said. "And they're big. It isn't fair." "Yeah," Jaina said. "We're little. And they're big." She pointed across the stream, where thick bushes grew down the far bank.

  "I bet they couldn't go in those bushes. I bet we could." Jacen grinned. "It would be like caves." "And then we could sneak out when it's dark again, and try to find their spaceships." "Or their message capsules." "Or kidnap one of them and make them take us home!" Jaina looked at Jacen skeptically. He was mostly joking. But they both wished it was possible.

  "We better go." "Hey, everybody!" Jaina said.

  The other children stopped playing in the shallows of the stream or climbing on Mistress Dragon or eating berries from the bushes.

  "We have to run away," Jaina said.

  "Or those Proctors will come and put us back in jail." One of the little ones came up to Jaina and hugged her around the waist.

  "I'm tired, Jaya," the little one said. She sounded so much like Anakin that Jaina wanted to burst into tears. Jaina missed her little brother and she was worried about him even though he could be a pain sometimes.

  "I know," Jaina said. "I am too.

  Let's go hide in the bushes and then we can take a nap. Okay?" The little one kicked her toe in the dirt.

  "Yeah, I guess," she said reluctantly.

  Jaina held her hand and Jacen held the hand of one of the other little ones. They clustered together and waded into the stream toward the other streambank.

  Mistress Dragon snorted and splashed, switching her long pebble-scaled tail in the ripples.

  She stuck her head underwater and came back up with a big mouthful of water-weed. She munched it contentedly.

  "You're very beautiful, Mistress Dragon," Jacen said, scratching her eyebrows. "But you're too big to come with us. Maybe you should go back to the desert and hide, so those Proctors don't hurt you." Mistress Dragon settled down in the water till only her back and her eyes and her nostrils stuck out above the surface. She blinked. Her eyelids flicked water droplets onto Jaina's face.

  "I think she thinks she's hidden," Jaina said.

  Jacen hesitated, worried.

  "We have to go," Jaina said. "We have to hide.

  She'll be okay, Jacen. Maybe they'll even think she ate us up and they'll give her a reward, they'll be so glad." Jacen grinned.

  The children all splashed through the stream and climbed the far bank and crawled on the wet mossy ground and slipped under the dense bushes.

  Jacen found a sort of trail. He said an animal probably made it. Jaina hoped she did not run into the animal. She imagined that it probably had big claws and teeth.

  But Mistress Dragon has big claws and teeth, Jaina thought, and she turned out all right.

  Jacen untangled the four-winged bat from his hair and held it gently in his hands, looking into its sharp little face. The bat wriggled and Jacen let it go. It flapped away, flitting through the gold-green shadows beneath the bushes.

  "It's going to look for a place for us to go," Jacen said. He had persuaded it, the way he persuaded Mistress Dragon, and the myrmins.

  They crawled down the trail. Jacen took the lead and Jaina went last.

  I bet there's all sorts of worms and stuff on this trail, Jaina thought. Yuk. I wish I was back home in the chemistry lab.

  A few minutes later, Jaina heard voices and the hum of landspeeders. She was scared that Hethrir and the Proctors were so close behind her.

  We almost waited too long! she thought.

  One of the little ones, crawling along in front of her, stopped and looked back.

  "Jaina!" the little one whispered. "Did you hear--?" "Shh! Hurry! Be real quiet and keep crawling!" They crawled as fast as they could. Jaina could not see Jacen and she could barely feel him up ahead. She hoped the bat would find the way through the bushes. But what then?

  Behind her, Mistress Dragon roared and splashed and thumped. The Proctors started yelling.

  I hope Mistress Dragon stomps them!

  Jaina thought.

  She caught her breath. She was afraid she would hear the hum of a lightsaber. She was afraid Hethrir would kill Mistress Dragon with as little thought as the Proctors had crushed the myrmins in their pants.

  Mistress Dragon's huge splashes sounded farther and farther away.

  Jaina grinned. Mistress Dragon is scared, too, she thought. She's running away.

  She'll be safe. But I bet she scared those Proctors first.

  Jaina hoped Mistress Dragon found another succulent patch of water-weed.

  "Look!" one of the Proctors yelled.

  "Footprints, on the far bank. Let's go!" "Hurry!" Jaina whispered again, expecting every second to be dragged backward by Hethrir's power.

  In front of her, the other children crawled as fast as they could.

  The ground got muddier and muddier. The knees of Jaina's pants were soaked and filthy and so were her hands. The leaves of the bushes got droopier.

  But they fluttered away from her face, which was good because of their spines. She hoped the little ones in front of her were being careful about the prickles.

  Nobody had started to cry yet so maybe it would be okay.

  Behind her, one of the Proctors yelled in protest.

  "Ow! What are these, thorn bushes? I'm not crawling through thorn bushes!" "You will," yelled the Head Proctor. "Or you'll be sorry!" Jaina crawled faster. The voices sounded muffled. She was glad b
ecause she did not want to listen to them.

  The trail suddenly opened out into a space beneath the bushes. All the children crouched at the edge of the wide muddy space. Jaina could see across it but she could not see either end of it. It was like the stream, only filled with mud.

  Jaina crawled forward and joined Jacen.