Star Wars
Junior Jedi Knights
3
Promises
by Nancy Richardson
OCR: Ãîëîäíûé Ýâîê Ãðûçëè
upload: 29.XII.2005
The figure loomed above him. Anakin tried to shield his eyes from the
brilliant glare of the golden globe. Tried to see the being whose body was
outlined with a shimmering blue line.
"Young Anakin Solo," a voice whispered, a hand beckoned.
Anakin followed the glow of the being away from the globe. As he
walked, he felt darkness pulling at the loose cloth of his orange jumpsuit.
Fear fluttered in his belly, but he followed, using the Force to calm the
racing of his heart. The figure stopped before carvings in the crumbling
stone walls of the ancient Massassi Palace of the Woolamander. The hand
flickered with pale blue sparks as it swept over the message. Anakin's eyes
scanned the symbols. He and Tahiri had finally been able to read them after
returning from Yavin 8.
Anakin read their message out loud.
"Peace to all. We are the Massassi. Our children have been imprisoned
by the evil Jedi Knight Exar Kun. Locked deep within this palace, hidden in
the glittering sands of a golden globe, they await. The crystal that holds
them prisoner can only be unlocked by children, strong in the Force and
dedicated to the battle of good over evil. If you are the ones, enter the
globe and lead our children to freedom."
The figure nodded, then fell to its knees before Anakin, head dropped.
Anakin sensed its torment.
"Tahiri and I are the ones," he heard himself say. "Don't be afraid-
we'll fight this battle."
The pale blue line around the figure began to spark and flicker until
it faded into the darkness. The being still knelt before Anakiin, unmoving.
Anakin bent down and reached out his hand. The figure slowly lifted its
black hooded head and let out a roar filled with hatred and darkness.
Anakin leapt away as it began to laugh in rolls of icy thunder. Eyes the
color of blue gray burning coals fixed upon Anakin, held him with their
power. The figure rose, unfolding into a creature twice its original size.
It continued to laugh, and Anakin felt swallowed by the darkness of
its hollow cries. He ran, not knowing which way he traveled in the cavity
of the palace. The black-robed being followed, howling in mad glee. Anakin
reached the secret room that housed the golden globe he and Tahiri had
discovered months earlier.
They had instantly sensed its evil, and pledged to understand, unlock,
and free the prisoners that cried from its core. His back to the globe,
Anakin watched as the black-robed figure approached, once again fixing him
with those burning eyes. He backed up until he couldn't move any farther
without touching the globe. There was a powerful field around the crystal
sphere. Tahiri had tried to touch it and had been thrown against the stone
walls of the room. Anakin wasn't going to make the same mistake. He held
his ground.
"I'm going to fight you," Anakin shouted. "Tahiri and I will use the
Force to break the evil curse. We're the ones the Massassi wrote about:
`strong in the Force and dedicated to the battle of good over evil'! You
can't stop us-"
"Why would I want to stop you, boy?" the figure laughed. "I am you!"
The creature threw back its hood, and Anakin stifled a scream that
welled up from the very core of his being and threatened to escape his
trembling lips. He stood looking at his own face. Only his eyes were
different. Instead of being a pure ice blue, they had been replaced with
burning gray coals that smoked and sparked.
"Didn't you hear me, boy?" the figure snarled. "I'm you, you fool. You
use the Force for evil. It's in your blood. Your grandfather served us
well, helped us defeat the Jedi Knights. You were named after him, after
Anakin Skywalker who became Darth Vader. Stop fighting us and embrace the
dark side...."
"It won't work," Anakin said calmly, summoning up the Force to control
himself. "I know who you are."
The figure hissed, recoiling from the power in Anakin's voice.
"You're a follower of Exar Kun, the evil Jedi Knight who enslaved the
Massassi race thousands of years ago by imprisoning its children in the
golden globe. You're not me, and you never will be," Anakin went on,
walking toward the robed figure. "Tahiri and I are going to fight you, and
break the curse of the golden globe."
"This is not over, young Anakin Solo," the figure said angrily. Then
its form began to waver in the golden light of the globe. Moments later, it
had completely disappeared. Anakin turned back toward the globe. He
listened to the cries of the children from inside its swirling sands. Soon,
he thought. Soon Tahiri and I will come to this place and attempt to enter
the globe and lead you to freedom.
"Soon, soon, soon..."
"Soon what?" Tahiri asked as she shook her best friend awake. "Anakin,
wake up, you've been dreaming."
Anakin stared groggily up at Tahiri. Her green eyes were impatient,
and he struggled to sit up.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Time for us to have a serious talk," Tahiri replied. "We've got a
problem. I've been called to see Master Luke Skywalker. And I know why.
I've been at the Jedi academy for six months, and it's time for me to make
my decision about whether or not to return to my tribe or remain here."
"I thought you'd already decided to stay," Anakin said. Not only was
Tahiri his best friend, but they were a team. A team pledged to solve the
riddle of the globe.
"I have," Tahiri replied. "But it's not that simple. Master Luke and I
agreed with Sliven, the leader of my tribe, that I'd return to Tatooine to
make my decision. I've got to figure out a way to persuade Master Luke not
to make me return. Right?" Tahiri didn't wait for a reply. "I mean, we've
finally translated the ancient symbols in the Palace of the Woolamander.
It's time to enter the globe-I can't go to Tatooine now! Aren't you going
to say something?" Tahiri asked.
"I was just waiting for you to run out of breath," Anakin explained.
He swept his long brown bangs out of his eyes and met Tahiri's questioning
look. "I don't think it's going to be as easy as you think," he offered.
"If you gave your word, and Uncle Luke did too, he's going to want you to
return to Tatooine."
"I'll take care of it," Tahiri said. "Don't worry, I'm not going
anywhere." With that, she strode out of the room to meet Luke Skywalker in
the Grand Audience Chamber.
Anakin felt a sense of unease as his friend left. His dream had left
him feeling anxious. The idea that someone might know about him and Tahiri,
and their plans to enter the globe, hadn't occurred to him before. If Kun
's
evil followers knew about them, it would mean that the battle in the depths
of the Palace of the Woolamander would be all the more difficult. He
thought about that first time he and Tahiri had found the palace, They'd
snuck out of the academy and rafted the river. A storm had forced them to
abandon their raft and seek shelter. They'd found the palace, its strange
carvings, and then a hidden spiral stairway that led deep into the
crumbling site. As they'd descended, evil had coated the stones like thick
black fungi, and dark whispers and threats had streamed through the dank
air.
And then they'd seen golden glitter, speckled along the walls and
seeping from behind a secret doorway. Anakin shook off the memory. Tahiri's
Anakin hoped that Tahiri would be able to persuade Uncle Luke to let her
remain on Yavin 4 while making her decision. The time had come to break the
curse. A moment of worry reached out with fluttering yellow fingers and
touched Anakin's mind.
We are the ones, he thought. But are we strong enough to enter the
globe?
Luke Skywalker studied the look of defiance. Green eyes flashed, and
white blonde hair surrounded a stubborn nine-year-old face. Luke's blue
eyes didn't falter as he waited for the child to speak. It would not be
long. Tahiri was rarely lost for words. Luke thought about the time she and
his nephew, Anakin Solo, had snuck away from the Jedi academy. They'd
returned to the Great Temple in the middle of the night. Tired and dirty,
Tahiri had immediately begun chattering, trying to take all the blame for
the adventure, trying to keep Luke's punishment from extending to Anakin.
What Luke hadn't told either of them was that they were two of the most
promising students he'd ever seen. There was no way he would expel either
student. They would make great Jedi Knights one day-if they could keep out
of trouble long enough to learn to use the Force.
Trouble seemed to find Tahiri and Anakin. Only last week they'd
returned bruised and battered from Yavin 8, where they'd gone to help
another candidate, a Melodie named Lyric, survive her changing ceremony.
While on Yavin 8, the two candidates had fought giant black rodents,
vicious snakes, and a red-bristled spider that trapped its prey in thick
black webs and consumed it alive. Luke Skywalker believed that experience
was the best teacher in the use of the Force, but Anakin and Tahiri always
rushed headlong into dangerous situations.
That worried Luke. Still, their ability to use the Force to control,
alter, and manipulate the energy field generated by all living things was
impressive.
"I won't go," Tahiri said defiantly, stamping her bare foot down on
the cool stones of the Great Temple. She'd refused to wear shoes since
she'd come to Yavin 4. On her home planet Tatooine, gritty sand and a
burning-hot desert were a daily reality, and foot coverings a necessity.
"You won't make me go," Tahiri said again, although this time her
voice faltered.
"You're right," Luke replied. He moved to the large open window in the
Grand Audience Chamber. Beneath him the lush jungles of Yavin 4 steamed in
the midday sun. Majestic Massassi trees, their bark a rich purplish brown,
reached up toward the pyramid-shaped Great Temple. The temple was the home
of future Jedi Knights, beings from across the galaxy who studied at the
academy in order to one day use the Force for peace and knowledge, and in
the battle against evil.
Tahiri walked over to Master Luke and stood beside his brown-robed
form. She stared down at the jungle, at the greens, purples, and reds that
made up a landscape she'd once dreamed about. Dreamed of in the heat and
endless sand of her planet. Luke Skywalker understood Tahiri's frustration.
He, too, was originally from Tatooine. He'd spent eighteen years working on
his uncle and aunt's moisture farm. The boredom had threatened to suffocate
him. But there had been something else, too.
"I never knew my father," Master Luke said softly to his student. "At
least not the man he was before he turned to the dark side to serve the
evil emperor Palpatine. I never knew my father, Anakin Skywalker, when he
was a Jedi Knight, determined to use the Force for good. And when I finally
met what he'd become, Darth Vader, it was too late. It's true that he did
turn from evil in his last moments, but there wasn't time for us to develop
a relationship before he died."
Luke paused for a moment.
"Do you understand what I'm saying to you?" he asked Tahiri.
"You were an orphan in a way, too," Tahiri began slowly. "But the
difference is that I won't ever have the chance to meet either of my
parents. The Tusken Raiders said they're both dead."
"What about Sliven?" Luke Skywalker asked.
"He's the leader of my tribe," Tahiri answered evenly.
"Nothing more?" Luke asked.
"I guess he's the only family I'll ever have," Tahiri replied softly.
"Returning to Tatooine may be the last chance I'll have to see him."
"You owe that to yourself, and to him," Master Luke said. "Still, it's
your decision. I'm certain you'll make the right one." He turned and strode
out of the chamber. It's not so simple, little one, he thought as he left.
Not so easy to give up the only family, the only father, you've ever known.
That in itself will test all of your power, and your ability to control
your own inner Force.
And perhaps, just perhaps, your decision to remain at the academy will
change. If that happens, we'll lose a promising student. But, as much as
this would disturb me, your happiness is more important. Luke took the
turbolift down to the hangar. He found the supply ship captain, old
Peckhum. Peckhum had just unloaded crates for the academy. Now he was
preparing to take a delivery to a planet only hours from Tatooine.
Luke asked Peckhum to prepare his ship for a detour to Tatooine the
following morning. When Peckhum asked how many passengers, Luke didn't
hesitate.
Three, he replied. There was no way Tahiri would travel home without
her best friend, Anakin Solo. And no way that Luke would allow them to go
alone. Tatooine was too dangerous a planet. And Luke had a strange feeling
that Tahiri's family, the Tusken Raiders, were dangerous as well.
Anakin watched Tahiri nervously finger the rough sand-colored pendant
that hung from her neck. Since they'd boarded the shuttle at the academy
and shot into the darkness toward the Outer Rim Territories and the planet
Tatooine, Tahiri had been silent. That worried Anakin. His best friend was
rarely quiet. For a time, Anakin contented himself with thoughts of the
golden globe, and the furry white Jedi Master named Ikrit that he and
Tahiri had found sleeping at its base.
Ikrit had discovered the globe over four hundred years ago. He'd
immediately sensed that he could not break the curse, so he'd curled up
beside the globe to wait for those who could. Although he knew little about
the web of evi
l around the globe, Ikrit had a strong feeling that if an
adult tried to free the golden sphere's young prisoners, the globe would
shatter into a thousand shards of crystal.
Anakin and Tahiri hadn't told Master Luke about the globe, its curse,
or their plans to destroy the evil that had festered in the belly of the
Palace of the Woolamander for thousands of years. This was something they
wanted to try to handle themselves. Tahiri was still running her small
fingers over the pendant. Anakin could make out two rough prints on the
surface of the oblong charm. Tahiri felt his eyes, and turned to face him.
"It was given to me by the leader of my tribe," Tahiri offered softly.
She held the pendant up for Anakin to see. "There are two thumbprints in
its center. Sliven told me years ago that they are my parents' prints."
"He knew your parents?" Anakin asked in surprise.
Tahiri had told him she knew nothing of her family before the Tusken
Raiders.
"I can only guess that he did," Tahiri replied. "But other than the
pendant and those few words telling me who the thumbprints belonged to,
he's never given me another clue as to who my parents were."
"But why not?" Anakin asked.
"I don't know," Tahiri answered. "I used to beg Sliven, really beg him
to tell me about my mother and father. He would never answer, although I
felt pain in his silence. After a few years, I stopped asking...." Tahiri
trailed off.
Anakin sensed his friend's torment, and her fear.