Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [50]
Apprehension slowed her responses, even while her thoughts raced.
“Twin Suns, fall back to protect the transports,” she said when she had gotten hold of herself. “We’re taking them home.”
TEN
Single file, Luke, Mara, Corran, Jacen, and Saba trailed Danni Quee down into the canyon, where they hoped to find the Yuuzhan Vong priest, Harrar. With the vines that secured the platform hoists hopelessly tangled, they followed a circuitous route of ramps and ladders. Rain was still falling in rippling sheets, and the Jedi had their heads lowered and the hoods of their sopping cloaks raised. Below, partially concealed under a swirling blanket of fog, the swollen river roared.
They were traversing the second tier when Danni stopped and gestured to a small cliff dwelling, where light flickered in the crude window openings.
“It was unoccupied, so we didn’t bother asking for permission to use it,” she said, loud enough to be heard by everyone.
They were twenty meters from the dwelling when a group of eight Ferroan males stepped from the gloom of a natural cave to intercept them. Slender humanoids with pale blue skin, they were not indigenous to Zonama Sekot but had been brought to the living world generations earlier. Their simple trousers and shirts clung to their bodies, and water ran from their angry faces. In his left hand their apparent leader, Senshi, held a glow stick that cast a misty sphere of light around them.
“You captured a Yuuzhan Vong,” he said, breath clouds accompanying his words.
Luke shook his head. “He was found wounded, and brought here to be healed.”
“Not wounded by any of us,” Senshi said. “Though deserving of whatever injuries he sustained, for what he and the others caused to happen.”
Shortly after Luke and the other Jedi had first arrived on Zonama Sekot, Senshi—at Sekot’s insistence—had helped carry out a counterfeit kidnapping of Danni Quee, as a means of testing the Jedi. A farmer by trade, he had goldspeckled eyes and close-cropped hair that had darkened to gray-blue with age. Having lost several family members and friends during the Crossings from known space, he was ambivalent about Sekot’s decision to return.
“We don’t know yet who or what was responsible,” Luke said. “We’re hoping the Yuuzhan Vong will explain.”
He advanced a step, but no one in the group moved.
“You could hurl us aside with a thought,” Senshi said. “But you won’t, if you’re a true servant of the Force.”
Luke lowered his hood and gazed at him. “And if you serve the Force, you’ll allow us to pass.”
The Ferroan gestured toward the cliff dwelling. “As an enemy of Zonama Sekot, the Yuuzhan Vong should be ours to deal with.”
“To deal with how?” Luke asked calmly. “Will torturing or killing him return Zonama Sekot to Mobus? Have you asked yourselves how Sekot might react to your taking matters into your own hands?”
“Look around you, Jedi,” another Ferroan said. “Have you ever witnessed Zonama thus? Not one of us has. For all any of us knows, Sekot could be unconscious—or worse.”
Luke considered mentioning Jabitha’s spectral visit to his and Mara’s dwelling, but decided that Sekot must have had some reason for not appearing to and reassuring the Ferroans as well.
“Give us a chance to talk with the Yuuzhan Vong before you decide on a course of action,” he said after a moment.
The Ferroans mulled over Luke’s proposal. “Only if one of us is present,” Senshi answered for all of them.
“Which of you?” Luke asked, glancing at everyone.
A young man with white hair stepped forward. “I will go. I am called Maydh.”
Luke nodded. “Then it’s decided.”
The Ferroans separated into two groups, allowing the Jedi unobstructed access to the cliff dwelling. Luke and the rest came out of the rain to find Harrar seated on the floor by the hearth, his long legs stretched out in front of him. His face and body were battered, and his front teeth were broken. Tekli stood to one