The Trail of the Jedi Read online

  He could sense that his Master was uneasy. Something was bothering him. But Obi-Wan did not confide.

  He never does, Anakin thought. How can we get closer if he keeps all his thoughts to himself?

  He had to speak or he would burst. Anakin stopped and turned around. “You never tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.

  Obi-Wan stopped. “You should be careful when you use words like ‘never’ and ‘always,’ Padawan,” he said. “Things are rarely so absolute. You should be more precise. Clarity of mind is important for a Jedi.”

  Another lesson. Must there be so many? “Yes, Master.” Anakin turned and continued up the mountain. He had only gone a few meters when he realized that Obi-Wan had never addressed what he’d said.

  That’s because he knows it’s true. He had perfect communication with Qui-Gon, and he knows he can never achieve that with me.

  He had been right all along. This exercise was a waste of time.

  The trail rose higher, and the temperature began to drop. The sun still warmed them, so they did not need their thermal capes. But above, Anakin could see the snowy peaks, and he knew if they kept climbing at this rate, they would encounter snow by dusk.

  Anakin felt shivers on the back of his neck. But it wasn’t the temperature. Something was wrong. He tested the feeling. The Force was like a net, closing around him. The trees seemed to hang over the trail, menacing them. The sky seemed lower.

  We’re being watched.

  And whoever it was, it wasn’t another Jedi.

  Anakin glanced at Obi-Wan. He did not move his head, only his eyes, so that if someone were watching they would not see even a wordless communication. Obi-Wan’s gaze told him everything he needed to know. He, too, felt the presence of someone.

  Obi-Wan stopped, and Anakin did the same. “We should split up,” he said in a tone loud enough to carry, but not too loud to be obvious. “We’re getting nowhere. I’ll head back, and you continue ahead.”

  “Yes, Master.” Anakin knew that Obi-Wan would double back in order to trap whoever was following them.

  Obi-Wan moved back down the trail, and Anakin continued on. He did not feel fear or alarm. He felt ready for whatever would come.

  He reached out to the Force beyond the trail, beyond his immediate surroundings. He took in the planet in a way he was learning to do.

  There was darkness here, but the feeling was confused. He could not pinpoint why or how the Force was affected. That was the trouble, Anakin thought ruefully. He could access the Force easily. Interpreting it was another matter. At such times he fully realized why he was still a Padawan, and not a Jedi.

  He was on a switchback trail now that hugged the mountain as it rose. As Anakin turned a corner, the trail behind him would disappear. The rocks rose steeply on his left and a sheer drop was on his right. If he met whoever was following him, the battle would be tricky. And how would Obi-Wan manage to set up an ambush on this kind of terrain?

  Anakin was busy thinking these thoughts when he turned the next corner and saw the flash of a weapon. It was held by a young woman in a gray cloak that blended with the rocks.

  “Don’t come any farther,” she said in a clear voice. “I promise you, I know how to use this. And it is aimed straight at your heart.”

  Chapter Five

  Anakin waited. The Force was around him, rising up from the ground beneath his feet and the forest below. It was not strong in the girl. Anakin guessed she was close to his age. She was afraid, he suddenly knew. He felt her fear ripple out and touch him, as clearly as if she had put out a hand.

  And he felt something else—his Master was near. Obi-Wan was above him. He needed to keep the girl’s attention on him.

  “Why do you want to shoot me?” he asked in a reasonable tone.

  “Do not try to trick me,” she said. “I know you’ve been following me. I know you killed my friends and my teacher.” Now her voice wobbled slightly. “I won’t let you kill me, too.”

  Anakin saw a blur above. It was his Master, leaping down from the sheer cliff above.

  Obi-Wan dropped behind the girl and disarmed her in a move so fast she did not have time to turn or even take a breath.

  Obi-Wan tossed the weapon to Anakin.

  “You know how to use a hydrospanner?” Anakin asked in disbelief.

  “I didn’t have a real weapon,” she said in a small voice.

  “Were you threatening to kill me, or fix my speeder?” Anakin asked. He couldn’t believe he had been fooled by a hydrospanner. What kind of Jedi was he?

  In answer, the girl suddenly whirled and tried to throw herself down the sheer drop. Obi-Wan had anticipated the move and simply reached out with one hand and stopped her.

  “That’s not a solution,” he said. “We’re not going to hurt you. Maybe we can even help you.”

  Anakin took a few steps closer. “What happened? What do you mean, somebody killed your friends?”

  The girl pulled her cloak around her. Her hood fell back, and waves of long blond hair spilled down her back.

  “My name is Floria,” she said. “I’m from the planet Aaeton, only half-day’s journey from here. Young people from my planet often go on survival camping trips on Ragoon-6 when we reach fourteen years of age. We have a special allowance from the Senate because we gave the elders of Ragoon refuge when they handed the planet over to the Senate. My group arrived yesterday. I was separated from them. We were on a hike and I got lost.” Floria’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “When I returned…I…the ship…”

  “Go on,” Obi-Wan prompted.

  She swallowed. “Was completely burned,” she said in a whisper. “I knew we were supposed to meet back there for the evening meal. I am afraid my friends and my teacher were in it. Someone blew it up.”

  “You’re sure they were inside?”

  She twisted her hands together. “How can I be sure of anything? Everything was smoke and ash and fire. Maybe they escaped. Maybe they are lost. I’ve been searching ever since. But lately I am positive that someone has been following me. They were keeping just out of sight.”

  “More than one being?” Obi-Wan asked.

  “I—I’m not sure,” Floria stammered. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I just know that something is. And I’m all alone!”

  So I was right about the darkness in the Force, Anakin thought. Something is wrong on this planet.

  “Dry your tears,” Anakin said gently. “You’re not alone. We will help you.”

  “Who are you?” she asked. “And why would you help me?”

  “Because we can,” Obi-Wan said. “Now, the first thing to do is examine your ship.”

  The ship was just as Floria had described it—a charred hulk.

  “Stay here with her,” Obi-Wan told Anakin. He disappeared inside the remains of the ship.

  He emerged a few minutes later, his face streaked with ash. “There are no remains of beings aboard,” he said.

  Floria closed her eyes in relief for a moment. “Thank you for looking.”

  “This is a small cruiser,” Anakin said, looking at the ship. “It’s for travel within a planetary atmosphere. How did you get here from Aaeton?”

  “We have a space cruiser in orbit,” Floria explained. “We’re supposed to rendezvous with them in three hours. But I have no way to contact them to tell them we won’t be there.” She brightened. “Can you take me? I can tell them what happened, and they’ll send a rescue party down.”

  “Of course,” Obi-Wan said. “We’ll have to hike to our cruiser, but it’s not far.”

  “Thank you,” Floria said. “I feel certain now that my friends are alive. But they could be in danger. We must find them.”

  Obi-Wan drew Anakin aside. “Something dark is present on this planet. Can you feel it?”

  Anakin nodded. “Yes, Master. But it is unclear.”

  “There seems to be different energies operating,” Obi-Wan said. “It is unclear to me, too. We must be on our guard.�
� He frowned. “I have been thinking about Wren.”

  “What about him?” Anakin asked.

  “The clues we have been following…something is wrong. They are too easy, and they lead us to danger. Maybe Wren isn’t the one leaving them.” Obi-Wan gazed up at the mountain. “Something might have happened to him.”

  Chapter Six

  You never tell me what you’re thinking.

  Why hadn’t he answered his Padawan? Instead, he had corrected him. Obi-Wan’s mind churned, and his heart felt heavy. He did not know why he had deflected Anakin’s feelings, but he knew he had been deeply unfair to his Padawan.

  Anakin could speak so easily of his feelings. He often spoke without thinking, often spilled out exactly what was in his heart. It was behavior that was not like a Jedi.

  And I correct him. Is that right?

  Obi-Wan knew why Anakin was this way. It was because of Shmi. Anakin’s mother had given him a great gift. She had given him an open heart. His feelings were deep and spontaneous. That was a good thing. But they sometimes led him to act too fast, to make quick judgments.

  He is the opposite of me, Obi-Wan thought. It has always been difficult for me to speak what is in my heart.

  Anakin had been wrong to say he never told him anything. Obi-Wan only held back what he thought Anakin did not need to know, just as Qui-Gon had done with him. Obi-Wan had begun to suspect that Wren’s clues were not right, but he felt it was better for Anakin to discover this on his own. He could see that Anakin’s eagerness to find Wren was clouding his judgment. Perhaps Anakin was being less careful because he was not on a mission, but an exercise.

  These were things it was not proper for a Master to share with his Padawan. Yet Anakin wanted Obi-Wan to share everything.

  Sighing, Obi-Wan led the way back to their ship. He would have to think of a way to bring up what had happened. He knew he had hurt Anakin’s feelings.

  Obi-Wan knew the terrain by now and led them down the mountain and across rocky hills and meadows so they would not have to double back, which would have cost them time. Within two hours, they were hiking across the meadow toward the cliff face where Wren had docked the ship.

  “Don’t worry,” Anakin said reassuringly to Floria. “We have a comm unit aboard ship, so—Master! Look at that. It’s beautiful…” Anakin frowned, sensing something was wrong.

  Obi-Wan saw the fine blue mist heading for them. “Anakin, move!”

  Anakin’s reflexes were perfect. Without thinking, he leaped to one side as Obi-Wan vaulted toward Floria. He grabbed her and jumped, accessing the Force.

  The spray hit the ground where Anakin and Floria had been standing.

  “Stokhli spray stick,” Obi-Wan said. “Keep moving.”

  “A what?” Floria asked.

  Another burst of spray headed their way. Obi-Wan jumped again, still holding Floria against his side, as he tried to pinpoint the location of their attacker.

  “It’s a weapon,” Anakin explained as they ran toward cover. “It sends a spraynet mist with a stun current. You don’t want it to hit you.”

  “I guess not,” Floria muttered as Obi-Wan gained the shelter of some boulders and pushed her behind them.

  “We have to circle around and stop whoever is doing this,” Obi-Wan said to Anakin. “Stay here, Floria.”

  She gazed at him with wide, frightened eyes. “Don’t worry. Just come back again.”

  “If you head for those trees, I’ll circle around the boulders and see if I can surprise the attacker,” Obi-Wan told Anakin. “Remember, the Stokhli stick has a range of two hundred meters.”

  “Makes it hard to get close enough with a lightsaber,” Anakin said.

  “Exactly,” Obi-Wan murmured. “Just leave that to me. Keep the attacker busy. And don’t take chances!”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Anakin ran out from the shelter of the boulders. Obi-Wan waited for a moment until he saw the spray of the Stokhli stick spew into the air. Anakin Force-jumped, and Obi-Wan could see that the spray would miss him by centimeters.

  His Padawan’s reflexes and timing were extraordinary. Anakin had timed his move so that the spray would miss him, but by so small a margin that the attacker would be diverted and want to attack again. His concentration would stay on Anakin.

  Obi-Wan bent over so he could keep the shelter of the boulders as far as possible. He ran around them, then timed his move to the second attack on Anakin. He dashed across the open meadow toward the screen of trees.

  He made the trees without an attack. Now the rest would be tricky. Anakin would keep himself just out of range of the Stokhli—he hoped—but Obi-Wan’s objective was to get close enough to disarm the attacker. That meant he would have to be squarely in the stick’s range.

  Obi-Wan took off through the trees, heading toward where he had last pinpointed the attacker. No doubt the attacker would keep moving, especially when he or she realized that Obi-Wan was gone. He would count on Anakin’s skill to prevent the attacker from moving too far or too fast.

  Soon Obi-Wan stopped. He concentrated, accessing the Force to become one with the environment around him. The sounds of the forest dropped away. He did not hear the rustle of leaves in the wind, the occasional scurry of a small animal, the rub of a branch against another. He only heard the slight ssiiing sound of the spray stick.

  Thirty degrees to his right. Obi-Wan moved carefully now, moving behind tree trunk to tree trunk. He barely touched the ground as he moved, making no sound.

  Sssing! Another attack from the Stokhli stick. Coming from a few meters to the right of where he’d pinpointed the attacker.

  Now Obi-Wan moved quickly, running over the soft ground, his boots silent, his breathing so controlled he made no sound.

  He saw the attacker ahead. It was a male Tursha. Obi-Wan saw the distinctive headtails and the eleven-fingered hands lightly holding the Stokhli stick. The Tursha was just behind the tree line.

  Obi-Wan drew his lightsaber and jumped. The Tursha turned, his Stokhli stick spewing mist. Instead of leaping to the side, Obi-Wan jumped high. He anticipated that the Tursha would move the stick in a sweeping motion to cover as much air as possible, and he did. Obi-Wan sailed over the mist, his lightsaber high.

  The Tursha had fast reflexes. He moved back, putting himself in the open, past the tree line. Obi-Wan saw Anakin leap toward him.

  Obi-Wan came down. He kept his lightsaber away from the Tursha. He did not want to kill or injure him. He wanted answers.

  Anakin’s lightsaber was drawn as well. The Tursha moved a fraction, enough so that the spray from the stick would put Anakin securely in range. Obi-Wan moved fast. He leaped again, this time adding momentum in midair in a Jedi method that never failed to surprise opponents. He kicked out with one foot at the handle of the stick. He gave his blow topspin, and the stick flew out of the surprised Tursha’s hand and then twisted in midair. Though Obi-Wan didn’t plan it this way, the spray hit the Tursha full in the face.

  He fell to his knees. He gazed out in shock at Anakin and the meadow beyond.

  “They…were…mine,” he managed to gasp out, before the spray paralyzed him completely. He slumped against a tree trunk, his face frozen in a surprised expression.

  Chapter Seven

  “Who is he?” Floria asked in a hushed voice. She tiptoed closer, keeping behind Anakin.

  Obi-Wan bent over the inert form. He examined the Tursha’s utility belt and searched the hidden pockets in his cloak.

  “I’d guess he’s a bounty hunter,” he said to Anakin. “He has a variety of weapons and what looks to be some false ID docs.” He took a restraining device from the bounty hunter’s belt and secured him to the tree.

  “You’ll recover from the stun in about five hours,” he told the Tursha, who could do nothing but stare straight ahead. “But I guess you know that. We’ll return for you.”

  “Can’t you ask him what happened to my friends?” Floria asked.

  “He can’t speak
. Not yet. If he did attack your friends, we’ll escort him to your home planet for trial,” Obi-Wan said.

  Suddenly, tears spilled down Floria’s cheeks. “He killed them,” she said. “I know it. Did you hear what he said? ‘They were mine.’ He did it.”

  “You don’t know that,” Anakin told her soothingly. “He could have meant any number of things. We don’t know anything about him. You can’t jump to conclusions that way. You can’t imagine the worst.”

  Anakin patted Floria’s shoulder as she used the hem of her cloak to dry her tears. Despite his reassuring words, he was worried. He had felt the growing darkness on the planet. Floria could be right. Her friends could have been attacked.

  Obi-Wan stared out at the meadow, thinking. He did not acknowledge Floria’s tears, or try to soothe her in any way. Anakin couldn’t believe it. How could Obi-Wan be so cold?

  Obi-Wan signaled to Anakin and drew him aside. “What is a bounty hunter doing on an unpopulated planet?” he asked. “Why would he attack us? Is he here for another purpose? Why would he attack a group of young students on a camping trip? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “But they’ve disappeared,” Anakin said. “Something happened.”

  Obi-Wan eyed the Tursha. “I wish I could ask him some questions. I’d like to know if he’s operating alone.”

  “We’re running out of time,” Anakin said. “Floria’s group is supposed to rendezvous with the space cruiser in less than an hour.”

  “You are too focused on Floria’s problem,” Obi-Wan rebuked him. “There is a larger issue here, and possibly more important things at stake. What is happening on this planet? We won’t find out if we leave.”

  “We have to leave,” Anakin said. “We promised Floria.”

  “We promised to help her,” Obi-Wan said. “I’m not sure what that will entail. Not yet. Have you given no thought to your fellow Jedi? What if something happened to Wren?”

  “We don’t know that,” Anakin argued. “And we do know that something happened to Floria’s friends. So I say we go with what we know. Aren’t I supposed to tune into my feelings?”