The Falcon came to the edge of the forest and hovered low. Jacen and
Lowie reached out with their Jedi senses, found an area clear of the
burrowing detonators, and gestured for Han to land. With a hiss not
unlike that of the monstrous knaars, the ship settled down on the
uneven terrain. The boarding ramp extended, and Han and Zekk bounded
out.
"You kids okay?" Han said, breathless.
"We are, Dad," Jacen said. His sister, looking exhausted, came up next
to him.
"We lost quite a few of the villagers," Jaina said, "but there was
nothing more we could do. We tried our best."
Zekk turned his emerald-green gaze on her. "Without you, they would
all have been slaughtered. I just wish I'd had my own lightsaber so I
could have fought at your side."
Jaina touched his arm. "You'll have one soon, Zekk-and you'll earnit
the right way."
"You helped us out just fine in the Falcon," Anakin said.
Jaina smiled. "You weren't so bad yourself-for a little brother, or
course." Anja joined them now, sweating, flushed, but seething with
energy.
To Jacen it almost seemed as if she wanted the knaars to attack again,
just so she could enjoy the fight.
His droid foot clanging on the boarding ramp, Ynos stepped to the
opening of the ship and gazed back across the fields to where an
explosion boomed in the distance. One of the retreating knaars had
stepped on another burrowing detonator.
"That's one way to clear a minefield," Jacen said. Anja chuckled, but
Jacen didn't feel like making any more attempts at humor.
"Now we have nothing." Ynos shook his shaggy head, and his broad
shoulders appeared to carry more weight than even his once-great
muscles could bear. "We've abandoned our village, and the only way to
get back is to cross the land-mine field again. Even then, the knaars
have destroyed many of our homes, and will be waiting for us if we
return to the village now. We've survived this night, but now what do
we do?"
Anja stood, flushed, her lightsaber still in hand. Though the other
young Jedi Knights had switched theirs off, she kept hers powered on
and throbbing. Its garish yellow light threw stark shadows on her face
as she pointed it up at the mountains just visible above the trees.
"You can go there. That's where I used to live, my village in the
mountains."
The farmers cried out in anger, and Ynos glowered at her. "What, and
become slaves to the miners?"
Han Solo, perhaps still hoping to make peace between himself and Anja,
ewne forward. "I can take some of you up to that village in the
Falcon. We'll talk to their leader. I need to hear both sides of the
story anyway. This could be the best way to get your groups
talking."
"Hey, what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Jacen said. "Should we
just wait here and make camp?"
"We could walk through the forest," one of the villagers said.
Lowie growled, and Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca recalls
hearing about other traps and detonators throughout the forest."
Jaina nodded. "Right. But it could be just as dangerous to sit out
here in the open-especially if those knaars decide to come back."
"I know a safe way through," one young villager said. "I've been into
this forest many times. We just have to be careful."
Han stood close to Anja, who pointedly took a step from him. "We can
take Ynos and the weaker farmers and fly up to the mountains. The rest
of you follow us through the forest. It's safer than any of the
alternatives." Tenel Ka looked sternly at the villagers, who, though
exhausted, seemed fearful of going to the mountains. "If this war is
to end, many things must change. You must face your fears and be
responsible for yourselves."
"I still wish we had weapons. . . since we're going into the household
of our enemies," one of the villagers said.
"Then you'd miss the point entirely," Jaina said, still shaky and
exhausted from her battle; she was growing frustrated with the
villagers' stonewalling. It could well be, she mused, that the reason
the civil war had dragged on for so long, and with so many innocent
casualties, was that no one on either side was ready to face the
challenge of making peace.
"Look," Han said, "I'm going up there even if none of you comes with
me. But this is your war, not nne. You should be involved in this."
"We will go," Ynos said. "But I don't expect anything to come of it.
" As Anja boarded the Falcon, Zekk turned back to Jaina. "I'll go with
the ship," he said, and then looked at the villagers. "You have to
have faith that there are options open to you. Trust in your own
abilities, and in each other, and in the Force." The villagers just
mumbled. Han hugged each of his children. He looked squarely at Jacen
and Jaina. "You kids are awfully brave," he said. "But it may take a
while before I learn to stop thinking of you as children."
A few moments later the Falcon lifted off above the trees. Jacen and
Jaina waved farewell, and the flattened ship's white sublight engines
lit as the craft roared off across the forest toward the mountains.
Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie looked at the refugees around them.
"We're a pretty ragtag group," Jaina said.
Em Teedee drifted back down to be reattached to the Wookiee's belt.
"Indeed, yes," the little droid commented.
"These people are our responsibility," Tenel Ka said. Lowie grunted
his agreement and patted Jaina's back with a furry hand.
Jaina sighed. "Right. What are we waiting for?" She looked into the
thick forest and gave her brother a nudge.
Jacen turned toward a young woman and two young men who claimed to know
the way to the mountain village. "Let's go," he said, lifting his
lightsaber like a green torch to light the way through the murk of the
trees. "We've got a long march ahead of us before we get to shelter.
" As the ominous animal sounds grew louder, the young Jedi Knights
plunged into the thick wilderness, knowing that this forest held as
many deadly pitfalls and booby traps as the minefield had.
By the time the Falcon flew low over the knotted mass of the forest,
dawn announced its arrival with a splash of color behind the mountain
crags. As the sun rose, light spilled down the rugged stone cliff
faces.
Zekk could make out the thin white slash of a road winding its way up
the steep mountainside. Scattered black holes marked entrances to
mining tunnels and the city within the rocks.
Anja came forward from the passenger compartment and eagerly drank in
the sight of the rough stone wall through the windowports.
"It's been many years since I came back here," she said. "I've made my
life offworld on Ord Mantell, doing whatever I could to survive."
Zekk looked at her. "Sounds familiar," he said. "I've been through a
lot of the same things you have."
She glared at him. "No one's been through what I have."
"Don't be so quick to judge," he replied. His voice was hard, but it
held no anger. "My parents were both killed on Ennth. When I was
still young I fled offworld, and lived on the streets of Coruscant,
deep in the underlevels where no one goes-at least no one who wants to
stay alive. I survived for years as a scavenger, until I was kidnapped
by the Shadow Academy. They trained me as a Dark Jedi to fight for the
Second Imperium."
Anja shrugged one shoulder. "Our mountain villages took the side of
the Empire a long time ago. It's nothing to be ashamed of" "Maybe.
But now I've learned and grown and adapted instead of wallowing in
bitterness about my past. Sure, things went wrong with my life, but I
think I've finally learned how to make something better."
"Or you've finally convinced yourself to let the people who hurt you
get away without punishment."
The dark-haired young man could tell that Han was listening to this
exchange with great interest. Zekk gave a wry smile. "If punishing
other people is the most important thing in your life, then perhaps you
need to look for another hobby."
Anja turned away. "Other things are important to me." Somewhat
subdued, she moved to the back of the cockpit.
Ynos staggered forward and looked at the approaching mountain city.
"No one from our village has gone openly into that place since the
beginning of the war."
I'd say it's about time for a change, then," Han said. He arrowed
toward the widest opening in the cliffside, where lights and a landing
pad were visible. Zekk guessed these must be facilities for smuggler
ships, supply runners, and weapons merchants like Lilmit, who came to
take advantage of the desperate plight of the people of Anobis.
Han turned to Anja. "Do we need to contact them or request permission
to land?"
She shook her head. "The only ships that come in are unauthorized
smugglers." She raised an eyebrow. "You know the type, Solo."
Han and Zekk landed the Falcon in the middle of a broad rocky floor.
Tunnels riddled the walls between buildings built from blastedstone
blocks mortared together, chips of rock cemented into multiunit
structures. People came from the buildings and tunnels to study the
ship suspiciously.
Anja recognized the man in front, who had a black beard, thick
eyebrows, and hair with a long streak of gray down the left side.
"He's the one to talk to," she said. "His name is Elis."
The miners held stone-cutting implements, pickaxes, vibrohammers, and
other excavating devices. To Zekk the tools looked like potential
deadly weapons.
Han extended the boarding ramp. "Let me go first. Anja, you can come
with me if you like."
She looked over at him, gave a curt nod. "As long as you don't make it
seem as if we're allies."
Zekk looked at the young woman, wondering what he could do to reach her
and whether he could somehow dislodge the large chip on her shoulder.
Anja Gallandro could have been strikingly beautiful if she hadn't had
such a sour demeanor.
"Just give him a chance, Anja," Zekk said. "Nobody planned that knaar
stampede, but for now we're all in this together." She shot him a
resentful glare.
Han, Anja, and Zekk emerged from the ship together as the miners
pressed forward. Dark-haired Elis took the lead, scrutinizing them
curiously. He recognized Anja. "It's been a long time since we've
seen you," he said. "And who is this you've brought with you? Another
trader?"
"Han Solo," she said. "And aboard this ship are Ynos and many
survivors from a knaar attack on the farming village below."
At this, Ynos hobbled forward on his droid leg. Though broad and
burly, he still held the boarding ramp piston for support. The miners
set up a gruff cheer.
Elis smiled, showing his teeth from within the dark nest of his
beard.
"Excellent work, Anja. With such important hostages, we can end this
war once and for all."
"Now wait a minute!" Han cried.
Elis gestured and the miners rushed toward the Falcon, their
stonecutting implements raised like weapons.
if it hadn't been for the minefield and the ferocious knaars behind
them, the dense dark forest would not have been an acceptable option at
all.
In the dim but colorful light of sunrise, Jacen could see the dense
branches adorned with blue-silver leaves. Some of the trunks were
smooth and metallic, others blistered with scaly orange-red bark.
Lichens and mosses dangled down, clustered with lemon-yellow flowers
that opened and closed in snow plant reflexes.
Tenel Ka stood next to Jacen, ready to use her lightsaber as a
machete.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina asked. "Let's get hiking."
One of the young men from the village gestured ahead. "I know the way,
but you'll have to follow carefully." He started forward, scanning the
ground, squinting in the dim forest shadows as the ragtag band pushed
their way into the wilderness.
Jacen and Jaina flanked the young villager, with Tenel Ka and Lowbacca
each moving out on either side of the group, their senses alert.
Lowie's dark nose snuffled the air, and his ginger fur bristled with
intense concentration. The young Wookiee had survived the dangerous
underlevel forests of Kashyyyk, and had won his precious fiber belt by
snatching the threads from a carnivorous syren plant. Compared with
the ominous forests of the Wookiee world, the woods of Anobis couldn't
be too dangerous, Jacen thought.
But then, he wondered, after twenty years of civil war, how many hidden
booby traps had been planted in the dense foliage?
They crunched their way along an ill-defined path. Jacen's feet popped
spherical mushrooms, and wet shapeless things slithered out of the way
in the weeds. With a buzzing cry of alarm, two flying creatures that
looked halfway between moth and bird fluttered into the upper sparkling
leaves.
Within moments it seemed as if the forest had swallowed them up, and
Jacen could no longer see the cleared cropland behind them.
As the day strengthened and the sunlight grew brighter, the forest
shadows remained a thick lattice around them, allowing only scattered
glimpses of the bright blue sky overhead.
Tenel Ka turned her gray eyes toward Jacen; in a cold voice, she said,
"Anja could have stayed here to help guide us through. Perhaps she and
some of her people planted their own traps."
Jacen felt an irrational urge to defend the orphaned girl. "You don't
know that about her," he said. "Just because her people have suffered
as much as these"-he turned his chin toward the stumbling
villagers"doesn't mean you have to think the worst of her."
Tenel Ka gave him a puzzled look. "We just need to be aware of the
dangers here," she said, and then drifted away.
Suddenly, Lowie howled and raised his hairy arms, gesturing for them
all to stop. The people, already on edge, halted in their tracks,
glancing around with wide eyes. Em Teedee said, "Ah, yes, Master
Lowbacca. I
see it too. How horrible!"
"M%at is it?" Jaina came close to the Wookiee. As the sunlight
glittered through, Jacen could see a fine tracery stretched between the
silver tree trunks, a gossamer line like the whisper of a cobweb.
Lowie picked up a branch from the ground and tossed it in front of
him.
The branch passed through the faint lines and dropped to the ground on
the other side, sliced cleanly into small pieces.
"Monofilament wire?" Jaina asked.
Jacen ewne close and understood the threat: a fiber so strong and so
thin it surpassed even the sharpest razor blade. Anything that touched
it would pass through and be sliced in two.
The villager in front stopped, looking greenish with dismay. "That
wasn't here before," he said. "I slipped through here to the mountain
village just six standard days ago."
"Then everything has changed," Tenel Ka said, not asking what this
farmer would have been doing on his way to the mining settlement.
"We must be cautious."
Carefully, they skirted the wire-strung trees, giving them a wide
berth. But just as they passed into what they thought was safety, a
hidden motion sensor hummed. A laser beam tracked them, spraying a red
Under A Black Sun Trilogy Page 13
