Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 12_ Return to Ord Mantell - Kevin J. Anderson [43]
The Falcon circled back and blasted one motionless knaar who stood in the lead. The other reptiles howled and snapped their jaws in defiance of the disk-shaped ship that cruised overhead. Then they turned about, moving much slower now, and began their trek back through the minefield. The stragglers stopped to snort among the scraps of meat that remained on the carcasses they'd left behind during their chase after the fleeing villagers.
Jacen stood at the edge of the forest, surveying the tall dark trees and the shadows beyond. Farther in the distance, beyond the forest, steep mountains with winding switchback roads led up to the open tunnels and cliffside stone villages of the miners.
The Falcon came to the edge of the forest and hovered low. Jacen and Lowie reached out with their Jedi senses, found an area clear of the burrowing detonators, and gestured for Han to land. With a hiss not unlike that of the monstrous knaars, the ship settled down on the uneven terrain. The boarding ramp extended, and Han and Zekk bounded out.
"You kids okay?" Han said, breathless.
"We are, Dad," Jacen said. His sister, looking exhausted, came up next to him.
"We lost quite a few of the villagers," Jaina said, "but there was nothing more we could do. We tried our best."
Zekk turned his emerald-green gaze on her. "Without you, they would all have been slaughtered. I just wish I'd had my own lightsaber so I could have fought at your side."
Jaina touched his arm. "You'll have one soon, Zekk-and you'll earnit the right way."
"You helped us out just fine in the Falcon," Anakin said.
Jaina smiled. "You weren't so bad yourself-for a little brother, or course." Anja joined them now, sweating, flushed, but seething with energy.
To Jacen it almost seemed as if she wanted the knaars to attack again, just so she could enjoy the fight.
His droid foot clanging on the boarding ramp, Ynos stepped to the opening of the ship and gazed back across the fields to where an explosion boomed in the distance. One of the retreating knaars had stepped on another burrowing detonator.
"That's one way to clear a minefield," Jacen said. Anja chuckled, but Jacen didn't feel like making any more attempts at humor.
"Now we have nothing." Ynos shook his shaggy head, and his broad shoulders appeared to carry more weight than even his once-great muscles could bear. "We've abandoned our village, and the only way to get back is to cross the land-mine field again. Even then, the knaars have destroyed many of our homes, and will be waiting for us if we return to the village now. We've survived this night, but now what do we do?"
Anja stood, flushed, her lightsaber still in hand. Though the other young Jedi Knights had switched theirs off, she kept hers powered on and throbbing. Its garish yellow light threw stark shadows on her face as she pointed it up at the mountains just visible above the trees.
"You can go there. That's where I used to live, my village in the mountains."
The farmers cried out in anger, and Ynos glowered at her. "What, and become slaves to the miners?"
Han Solo, perhaps still hoping to make peace between himself and Anja, ewne forward. "I can take some of you up to that village in the Falcon.
We'll talk to their leader. I need to hear both sides of the story anyway. This could be the best way to get your groups talking."
"Hey, what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Jacen said. "Should we just wait here and make camp?"
"We could walk through the forest," one of the villagers said.
Lowie growled, and Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca recalls hearing about other traps and detonators throughout the forest."
Jaina nodded. "Right. But it could be just as dangerous to sit out here in the open-especially if those knaars decide to come back."
"I know a safe way through," one young villager said. "I've been into this forest many times. We just have to be careful."
Han