Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 01_ Onslaught - Michael A. Stackpole [85]
His amphistaff hissed and slithered away.
Anakin looked at the fallen Yuuzhan Vong warriors and began to tremble. He sank to his knees and killed his lightsaber’s blade. Somehow he’d managed to kill two trained warriors—warriors that had given Mara trouble. Granted, I got one with a trick, but the other . . . He knew his victory should have been impossible, but with the Force as his ally, he had succeeded.
Anakin felt hands on him. He looked up and saw Tuber standing over him. Somehow the Dantari’s hands had been freed. Tuber handed him a vincha root, then popped one into his own mouth and began chewing it. After a considerable amount of crunching, the Dantari spat a thick paste of vincha and saliva into his hand and started to smear it on his own wounds.
Anakin nodded and chewed the root himself. It tasted bitter and puckered his mouth immediately. He almost gagged as he swallowed some of it, but he could feel the pain beginning to ease in his shoulder. He dabbed the paste into the wound, and the pain stopped almost immediately.
No wonder they value this root so highly. Anakin slapped a hand against his forehead. And he wouldn’t take my last ones because he expected me to use them on Mara. It wasn’t a coincidence that we came to Dantooine. This stuff might not cure her disease, but it might be able to help her fight against it.
Tuber pulled Anakin to his feet. The Dantari began to bellow orders to the others in his band. They began to gather their belongings and head for the trail up to Anakin’s camp. Tuber wore a big smile on his face and shouldered the bag of vincha roots.
Anakin shook his head. He knew these primitive people had decided, somehow, that he and Mara were godlike beings who would protect them. Anakin wanted to believe that he could protect them, but he knew that allowing them to travel with him and Mara would not work. “It would be like me allowing you to build your houses in a floodplain. You’d always be in danger.”
Tuber looked down at him, puzzled.
Anakin knew what he had to do. He concentrated and gathered the Force to himself, then projected into Tuber’s mind the image of a mountain valley with long grasses and vincha plants by the dozens. It would be a place of easy living, a paradise for the Dantari. And, even though Anakin thought he was constructing this place in his mind—creating an illusion to fool Tuber—part of him knew the place was very real, and that he was seeing it as it appeared right that moment.
Anakin took quick stock of the sun’s position in the image, the length of shadows, the position of Dantooine’s larger moon, then pointed off to the northwest. “Go, there, in that direction. That will be your new home. Follow the coast and you will find it.”
Tuber blinked, then reached out with a hand as if he were trying to touch the vision he’d been given. Anakin took his hand and pointed to the northwest. “Go.” He gave the Dantari a gentle shove, then managed to keep himself upright until they crested a small hill and disappeared from sight.
Anakin sank to one knee beside the Yuuzhan Vong he’d slain with the lightsaber. The armor had another similar depression beneath the right armpit. Thin, feathery membranes filled it, and Anakin decided that the twin depressions must have been roughly akin to gills. The lightsaber had punched through the vulnerable points in the armor and killed the Yuuzhan Vong. The armor’s own death convulsion had saved Anakin’s life by hindering the warrior’s attack.
It had been a lucky shot, but he knew Luke would never accept that explanation. There is no luck, only the Force.
Weary beyond what he thought the effort should have