Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 10_ Jedi Bounty - Kevin J. Anderson [55]
"Then you can help us make it to the temperate zone?" Jacen asked.
"We need to get out of here and up to where our friend can find us. We have lightsabers to signal with. We know he's coming."
"It is a long way," Kur said. "And very cold."
"It is cold here in this cave," Tenel Ka pointed out. "If I must be cold, I would rather be moving toward a goal."
Kur looked around his squalid chambers. His home in exile. The heat storm had passed now, and the creaking, spinning wind turbines began to slow.
The lights in the chamber dimmed.
With a sigh, he pried up some loose chunks of rock, under which grew a spongy, feathery patch of lichen, veined with blue and red. "You must eat this," he said, tearing off a scrap for himself.
,It is the only food I have, and we will need all our strength to attempt this insane journey."
Jacen took the tart, tough lichen and chewed on it. After the brackish water and the' bitter fungus they had had in the spice mines, he had no complaints about anything that was meant to give him sustenance.
Tenel Ka ate her share without comment.
"If we are to make progress," Kur said, "we should set out immediately, in the wake of the heat storm." He stood, and his arms trembled weakly.
"We will probably freeze to death out there... but for a short while we will have a small amount of residual wax-th to help us alongf Jacen steeled himself for their venture back out into the bitter cold and wind.
He cleared his throat.
"Well," he said bravely, "what are we waiting for?"
The landscape had changed dramatically in the aftermath of the capricious storm. The hot whirlwind from the day side of the planet had blasted across ice patches and glacier fields, leaving spearlike icicles flash-frozen to the rugged cliffsides. Evaporated water that had crystallized in the air now blew around them as dry, scouring snow.
Kur kept his head low; his head-tails twitched around his shoulders as he trudged along the stony slopes toward the faint glow several rugged kilometers in the distance.
The snow that swirled around them blinded Jacen. He took Tenel Ka's arm so that they wouldn't get separated. Once, when they became disoriented, he ignited his lightsaber and let the emerald green blaze like a torch.
Snow sizzled as it struck the energy blade. The wind whistled and howled around irregularities in the cliff faces.
As they climbed higher, the breezes grew more severe, and the biting cold drained Jacen's energy Every step seemed nearly impossible. Slogging through a sea of weariness, he pushed himself to go farther and farther.
In his mind, he cried out with the Force, "Lowie, we're here... don't give up looking for us!"
Tenel Ka stumbled, and Jacen helped her up, only to find that she had tripped over Kur, who huddled on the ground in despair, refusing to go on. Together they pulled the old Twi'lek to his feet.
"Can't rest now," Jacen said. "You won't make it to the Bright Lands."
Kur moaned. "Then I'll just die here."
"That is not an option," Tenel Ka said.
The night sky cleared again, showing a spray of stars. All the snow created by the heat storm blew away, athering in small mounds against the cliffs. Jacen was dismayed to see that their destination appeared no closer than it had seemed hours before.
Tenel Ka pulled in a deep breath. "Master Skywalker once described techniques a Jedi can use to endure cold or heat," she said. "We must use these skills now."
Jacen nodded jerkily. "Our friend here doesn't have those abilities, though."
"Then we must help him reach the temperate zone before it is too late."
The slope grew steeper, rockier, but still they kept moving toward the line of distant twilight.
Tenel Ka once again had to use her fibercord to help them to climb between rocky pinnacles.
With his lightsaber, Jacen cut sturdy footholds into the caked ice inside shallow crevices.
The two companions pushed and dragged the old Twi'lek exile, urging