Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 06_ Jedi Under Siege - Kevin J. Anderson [16]
It floated, held up by nothing but the power of the Force. honne's students maintained their concentration.
The Dark Jedi swallowed hard.
"You can try to escape if you like," Tionne said. "Maybe you have enough power to subdue all of us with enough left over to catch that block of stone before it falls down on your heads. Maybe." She shrugged. "It's your choice, of course. But I wouldn't risk it." The four Dark Jedi exchanged glances, unable to find words. Finally, one by one, they lowered their clenched hands and surrendered.
Tionne heaved a quiet but heartfelt sigh of relief.
Another tree stood in the forest, short and stunted, with a thick trunk.
Branches extended out in such a way that, if looked at in a certain light, it had an almost humanoid appearance: one of Master Skywalker's Jedi, a slow-moving, long-lived plantlike creature.
She often went out to spend days in the sunlight, using photosynthesis to drink in nourishment, absorbing minerals from the soil, water from the river, and carbon dioxide from the air.
She would spend all day, many days at a time, simply contemplating the Force and her place in the universe. @ees remained alive for a long time and did not rush into ill-considered action; yet at times such as this, she could manage to move fast enough.
She understood the importance of protecting the Jedi academy.
She had entered into her training to understand the Force, vowing to defend the side of light-and here she found herself in a clear-cut battle against the Shadow Academy. Dark Jedi enemies coursed through the jungle, searching for victims, but Master Skywalker had taught all the trainees well. The light-side students would put up a good fight.
The treelike Jedi stood motionless, watching, sensing the jungle... and she knew her enemies would come to her. She had only to wait. Her roots dug deeper into the soil, drawing on it for greater energy. She felt the sap pulsing through her, boiling in her veins, allowing her to gain the speed for the unwavering action that she would require just this once...
she hoped.
She had chosen her spot well, next to an ailing Massassi tree, tall with outspreading branches. Its trunk was nested with vines and dripping with parasitic shelf mushrooms that had tapped into its heartwood and begun devouring the great tree from within.
The Jedi could tell that this great-grandfather of a tree had lived for centuries and centuries.... It was the way of things, the cycle of the forest. As plants grew, they went to seed to bear their young, and then slowly decayed to warm organic matter and fertilized the forest for subsequent generations.
She saw how the old Massassi tree leaned, observed the surrounding jungle... waited.
She reached out with the Force subtly, gently, so that even the adepts of the Dark Side would not know they were being manipulated. "Come here,"
she thought, broadcasting it over and over again. At least one of them would catch the hint. They would think they had detected one of their lightside enemies-but it would be all the plant Jedi's doing.
After an indeterminate period-she did not measure time in small incrementsshe sensed a clumsy disturbance: two attackers from the Shadow Academy storming through the forest, as if the delicate ecosystem was no more than a nuisance that they would eradicate completely, given the chance.
The Jedi waited. She had to concentrate.
She had to act at the right moment and not waste time thinking, or else her opportunity would pass.
Curled within one of her gnarled branchesa handlike appendage-was a knobby lightsaber built to accommodate her wooden grip.
The two Dark Jedi came into the clearing and stopped. "I see nothing here," said one.
"Lord Brakiss would be ashamed of you."
Lord Zekk would take away your lightsaber.
"The powers of the dark side are wasted on you."
"I tell you, I sensed it," said the other. He stepped