they were brought into the fortress," Ikrit said.
"Our hall was a bit nicer than that," Tahiri said. "More useful, at
least-don't you think so, Uldir?"
The older boy nodded, and his face turned slightly red.
"We, um, found a few old refresher units. They haven't been used in
years, I guess, but they were clean and they worked just fine."
After the other companions had made use of the refresher units, the
groups split up again. This time the passage that Tahiri and Uldir took was
wide and long. The smooth walls were unbroken by doorways, and the hall
appeared to stretch out of sight ahead of them. Uldir picked up his speed.
"That's a long way to go in five minutes," he said.
Suddenly Tahiri stopped still.
"Wait," she said. "Don't go any farther. Something's wrong."
Uldir stopped and put his hands on his hips. "What now?" he asked.
"Something feels wrong," she answered.
"Like what?"
"The stone beneath my feet... it looks the same, but it-it feels
rough. It feels different."
"That's it?" Uldir groaned in exasperation. "We have to turn back to
meet the others in less than two minutes and you're worried about the floor
being rough?"
"Yes. I mean no-I mean, it's more than that," Tahiri said. "Can't you
feel it?"
Uldir stopped and ran his hand along the floor, feeling the texture.
On hands and knees he crept forward, one arm outstretched. Then, all of a
sudden he cried out and scrambled backward a few steps. Tahiri rushed
forward, afraid he was hurt.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
Uldir was shaking and looking at his right hand.
"It-it disappeared!" he said. "Right there. I stuck my hand out ahead
of me and it disappeared. Then I pulled it back, and there it was again."
Tahiri sat beside him on the stone floor and looked at his hand. It
seemed to be fine. She took the pack off her back, pulled out a heavy
square packet of Imperial rations, and gingerly tossed it down the hallway
ahead of them. It disappeared completely-swallowed up by the floor. Uldir
threw a package of rations. The packet vanished. Then, a split second
later, in a flash of sparks, the long hallway ahead of them disappeared as
well. Instead of stretching into the distance, the passage came to a dead
end at a flat metal wall.
Between Tahiri, Uldir, and the wall was a wide, deep pit.
"It was a hologram!" Uldir said.
"The whole hallway."
Together they crept to the edge of the pit and looked down. Ten meters
below, the bottom of the pit was lined with sharp spikes as tall as Tahiri
herself. The floor was littered with bones, and a packet of Imperial
rations was speared on the tip of one spike. Tahiri felt a little queasy.
Uldir gulped and sat up.
"I guess we'd better go back and tell the others," he said.
Both of them turned around to head back, and then froze-for there,
snarling at them in the middle of the corridor, stood three of the most
hideous creatures Tahiri had ever seen.
Standing by the fallen statue of Darth Vader, Anakin looked uneasily
at his wrist chronometer.
"Uldir and Tahiri should have been back by now," he said.
Artoo-Detoo made a soft wailing sound. Tionne's silver brows drew
together in a worried frown.
"It's not like Tahiri to be late. Not unless..."
"Not unless she's in trouble," Anakin finished for her.
"Mmm. Then we should not delay," Ikrit said.
"I sent them down that hallway there," Tionne said, pointing toward
one of the many wide corridors. Without thinking, Anakin ran toward the
hallway.
Ikrit bounded after him.
"Caution, boy," the Jedi Master said. "If our friends are in trouble,
we will not help them by rushing into the same danger. Let the Force guide
you."
Anakin slowed to a walk. He could feel his face flush and he felt
silly, because of course Master Ikrit was right. Tionne and Artoo caught
up, with them a moment later as they stood looking down the long bare
corridor.
"But... it's empty! I was sure this was the passage I sent them to
explore," Tionne said.
"The hallway looks pretty long," Anakin said. "Maybe it branches off
somewhere. Anyway, I can feel that this is where they are."
Ikrit's floppy ears stood up straight and he closed his blue-green
eyes.
"Yes, this is the way they came," he said.
All of a sudden a loud growl rolled up the hallway toward them. Anakin
heard Tahiri scream,
"Help!" She sounded close by, but he still couldn't see her.
"All right, let's go," said Tionne. "But be careful: something is
definitely not right about this corridor."
They had taken only a few steps down the hallway when everything
seemed to change around them. Anakin could now see the end of the corridor
only ten meters away. Between him and the end of the corridor were Tahiri
and Uldir. Unfortunately, between them and Anakin were three snarling
beasts of a kind Anakin had never seen before. Each of the scaly six-legged
beasts had a ridge of spikes that ran along the back of its head and down
its snout. Spines bristled all over their short heavy tails. Their scaly
skin looked as if it was covered with reddish-brown rust, and their
bellowing, growling voices sounded rusty too. Saliva dripped between double
rows of sharp teeth as the creatures snapped at Tahiri and Uldir.
Anakin stood perfectly still.
"What are they?" he asked Tionne. He tried desperately to use the
Force to send a calming message to the animals, but they ignored him.
"They look like drakka boars from Randon," Tionne said.
"The traders from that planet use these creatures to guard their
greatest treasures." Anakin shouted to his friends above the roars and
snarls of the drakka boars. "Can you move farther away from them?"
"No room," Uldir shouted back.
"There's a deep pit behind us," Tahiri added.
Anakin groaned. "I wish I were as good at using my mind to talk with
animals as my brother Jacen is. I tried to quiet their minds, but those
drakka boars don't seem to hear me."
Ikrit spoke. "I have the gift of speaking to beasts, as your brother
does. I too have tried to contact them, but their minds do not hear."
Tionne closed her eyes and concentrated.
"Those can't be drakka boars, then," she said finally. "These
creatures are always mind-linked to their masters, but I can't sense any
minds at all."
"Nor I," Master Ikrit said.
The guard animals snarled and moved closer to Uldir and Tahiri, who
took a few steps backward.
"If none of us can reach their minds," Anakin said, "then maybe they
don't have minds we can reach."
"That's it!" yelled Uldir. "Just like the hallway!"
"You mean holograms!" Tahiri gasped. "Anakin, is there a way to find
out if the beasts are holograms?"
"Artoo, can you shine a bright light at those drakka boars?" Anakin
asked.
Artoo-Detoo tweedled and bleeped. A moment later the little droid shot
a br
illiant beam of light up the corridor. The drakka boars did not cast
shadows. Instead, their outlines became dim and the bright light passed
directly through them.
"They are not real," Ikrit said. "These holograms were put here to
make us afraid."
Uldir snorted. "Well, it worked, furball. We were definitely scared."
"Do you think it's safe to come out, then?" Tahiri asked.
"Just a moment," Tionne said. Drawing her lightsaber, the instructor
switched it on and moved slowly up the hallway toward the pale holograms.
She held perfectly still for a moment and then, with a move so fast Anakin
could hardly see it, she slashed upward. Something gave a loud pop and
sparks sprayed down from the ceiling around Tionne. The images of the
drakka guard boars flickered and went out. In fact, all the holograms were
gone now.
"That holographic projector won't be able to fool us again," Tionne
said with a nod of satisfaction.
"And we have also learned something," Ikrit said.
"You mean that we should trust our Jedi senses and not just our eyes
and our ears?" Anakin asked.
"That is true enough," Ikrit said. "But remember that the more tricks
and traps we find, the closer we are to the treasures your grandfather
wished to guard."
"Then that would mean-," Tahiri began.
"Look," Anakin said. He went over to the wall and traced his finger
along the outline of a doorway that had been hidden by the hologram.
Placing a hand against one side of the stone door, he pushed. It
budged. He pushed again, but nothing more happened.
"Do you think there's a password or an access code?" Tahiri asked.
Then, without quite knowing why, Anakin pressed one hand against the
door and said, "I am Anakin. Let me in."
Without a creak or groan, the door swung open. Carefully, checking for
traps as they went, Anakin, Tahiri, Uldir, Tionne, Airtoo, and Ikrit
entered the tiny secret chamber. The small room was perfectly round, with a
high domed ceiling. A soft bluish light radiated from the walls. There was
nothing in the room except at the very center. There, in a ray of bright
white light, stood a crystal column as clear as water. On the very top of
the column, about at Anakin's eye level, lay a lightsaber.
Glancing at Tionne and Ikrit to make sure that it was okay, Anakin
reached out and took the hilt of the lightsaber in his hand. The handle
felt warm and heavy and perfectly balanced. It was solid and well used, but
not ancient. Anakin knew he wasn't ready to be trained with a lightsaber
yet, but this one held a special interest for him. Obi-Wan Kenobi had been
Darth Vader's Jedi teacher, and his uncle Luke's first teacher, too. Anakin
ran a finger up the ridged handle and over the power stud, but did not
press it.
"Here," he said, handing it to Tionne. "I think this is what we came
for."
Tionne smiled and took it from him. "It was the weapon of a great
Jedi."
"Mmm. It is better that such things never fall into the wrong hands,"
Ikrit said.
Just then Artoo-Detoo beeped an alarm. At the same moment, a puff of
smoke erupted in the doorway, and a dark-haired man with a neat beard,
tawny eyes, and a deep purple cloak stood before them. The man threw back
his head and laughed, although Anakin couldn't see what was so funny.
"The powerful Mage of Exis Station thanks you," he said. "I would
never have found the lightsaber without your help." He snatched the weapon
from Tionne's hand. "But I'll take it now."
As usual, Tahiri's curiosity got the better of her. It didn't occur to
her until much later that she should have been terrified of this strange
dark man brandishing a lightsaber.
"Who are you?" she asked. "How did you get here? And why did you take
that lightsaber? Only Jedi use lightsabers, and you don't look like a Jedi.
You're not going to kill us, are you? Well, aren't you going to say
anything?"
Every eye in the room turned toward Tahiri. Anakin coughed a couple of
times, his brows raised in surprise. Tionne and Ikrit remained silent, but
Artoo-Detoo gave a loud shrill of alarm. Uldir let out a low whistle. The
strange man blinked rapidly several times, as if trying to think of the
proper thing to say.
"I-well, I..." Then he seemed to recover from his surprise. "Behold,"
he boomed in a rich voice, "I am the Mighty Orloc. Who are you?" He drew
himself up to his full height and pulled back the hood of his deep purple
cloak. The silver spangles along its edge glittered in the soft blue light.
Tionne's hair glowed silver-blue as she gazed calmly at the newcomer.
"We'll be happy to introduce ourselves to you, `Mighty' Orloc, if
you'll be polite enough to give our lightsaber back. We need to take it to
the Jedi academy to share with the other Jedi and students."
The strange man ignored her and continued in a louder voice.
"I am the invincible Mage Orloc of Exis Station, and I claim this
lightsaber as my rightful weapon. It is a fitting blade for-"
"Mage?" Tahiri interrupted. "You mean like a magician?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Tahiri could see that Ikrit had climbed
up onto Tionne's shoulder and was whispering something in her ear.
"I...," Orloc seemed to have forgotten what he was about to say. He
blinked furiously again and then recovered. "Yes, I am the most powerful
Mage in all the Galaxy, and-"
"But magic is just tricks," Tahiri said. "Tionne and Ikrit are real
Jedi. If you're only a magician, you don't know how to use the Force."
Orloc waved a hand, dismissing her comment.
"No, I did not need to learn such things as they teach at your Jedi
academy. I studied on my own. "I have magical powers far greater than your
puny Jedi tricks," Orloc went on, clutching the lightsaber handle to his
chest.
"But you aren't a Jedi," Tahiri persisted. "And a lightsaber is a
Jedi's weapon."
At the edge of her vision she saw Ikrit and Tionne with their eyes
closed. She guessed that they were reaching out with the Force toward the
Mage's mind, perhaps to pull the lightsaber from his grasp. But whatever
their plan, Orloc had already made his move. The lightsaber was no longer
anywhere in sight, and the Mage's face grew stormy.
"I have need of it," he said.
"Then why don't you build a lightsaber of your own, like Jedi do?"
Anakin asked in a reasonable voice.
"Silence, fool!" Orloc thundered, pointing at Anakin with one hand.
Fire flickered at the Mage's fingertips, but it was not the electrical
energy that came with extreme power from the dark side of the Force. It was
something Tahiri had never seen before. The Mage took a step backward
toward the rounded wall. He gave a bark of laughter.
"With my powers I see and know many things you do not," he said.
Orloc's hand shot out and touched something on the wall, and instantly one
of the flagstones beneath Tionne's feet turned downward at a sharp angle,
forming a kind of slide or chute. Taken by surprise, Tionne lost her
balance, fell to the f
lagstones, and slid out of sight into the darkness,
with Ikrit still on her shoulder.
Then, without a sound, the flagstone slipped back into place, leaving
the floor as smooth and solid as it had been before. It had all happened in
only a second or two. Tahiri cried out.
"What did you do with them?" Uldir yelled, his voice cracking with
anger. Anakin rushed forward and pushed against the floor at the point
where Tionne and Ikrit had disappeared. Tahiri ran toward the Mage with the
idea of grabbing the lightsaber and forcing Orloc to help them find Tionne
and Ikrit. But before she could reach him there was a blinding flash of
light. Thick white smoke ballooned up from the spot where Orloc had been
standing. His laughter rang through the room. Tahiri reached out her arms
to grab his cloak, or his leg, or whatever she could get ahold of, but
there was nothing there. By the time the smoke cleared, Tahiri, Anakin, and
Artoo were completely alone. The three junior Jedi exchanged worried
glances.
"Are... are they dead?" Uldir asked in a tone that said he feared the
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