The Crystal Star (30 page)

"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 stream.

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 because

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.

"Where are we?" "I dunno," he said. "A wallow, maybe.

For the critters who made the trail. The bat led us here." On the other side of the wallow, a huge tree

rose up through the bushes. Its shadow darkened the gold-green of the shade beneath the bushes. Its

roots twisted together, spreading out across the far side of the swamp.

"Look!" Jacen pointed. The little bat flitted across the swamp and into a dark place among the roots.