Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 12_ Return to Ord Mantell - Kevin J. Anderson [44]
Tenel Ka looked sternly at the villagers, who, though exhausted, seemed fearful of going to the mountains. "If this war is to end, many things must change. You must face your fears and be responsible for yourselves."
"I still wish we had weapons... since we're going into the household of our enemies," one of the villagers said.
"Then you'd miss the point entirely," Jaina said, still shaky and exhausted from her battle; she was growing frustrated with the villagers'
stonewalling. It could well be, she mused, that the reason the civil war had dragged on for so long, and with so many innocent casualties, was that no one on either side was ready to face the challenge of making peace.
"Look," Han said, "I'm going up there even if none of you comes with me.
But this is your war, not nne. You should be involved in this."
"We will go," Ynos said. "But I don't expect anything to come of it.
" As Anja boarded the Falcon, Zekk turned back to Jaina. "I'll go with the ship," he said, and then looked at the villagers. "You have to have faith that there are options open to you. Trust in your own abilities, and in each other, and in the Force." The villagers just mumbled. Han hugged each of his children. He looked squarely at Jacen and Jaina. "You kids are awfully brave," he said. "But it may take a while before I learn to stop thinking of you as children."
A few moments later the Falcon lifted off above the trees. Jacen and Jaina waved farewell, and the flattened ship's white sublight engines lit as the craft roared off across the forest toward the mountains.
Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie looked at the refugees around them.
"We're a pretty ragtag group," Jaina said.
Em Teedee drifted back down to be reattached to the Wookiee's belt.
"Indeed, yes," the little droid commented.
"These people are our responsibility," Tenel Ka said. Lowie grunted his agreement and patted Jaina's back with a furry hand.
Jaina sighed. "Right. What are we waiting for?" She looked into the thick forest and gave her brother a nudge.
Jacen turned toward a young woman and two young men who claimed to know the way to the mountain village. "Let's go," he said, lifting his lightsaber like a green torch to light the way through the murk of the trees. "We've got a long march ahead of us before we get to shelter.
" As the ominous animal sounds grew louder, the young Jedi Knights plunged into the thick wilderness, knowing that this forest held as many deadly pitfalls and booby traps as the minefield had.
By the time the Falcon flew low over the knotted mass of the forest, dawn announced its arrival with a splash of color behind the mountain crags.
As the sun rose, light spilled down the rugged stone cliff faces.
Zekk could make out the thin white slash of a road winding its way up the steep mountainside. Scattered black holes marked entrances to mining tunnels and the city within the rocks.
Anja came forward from the passenger compartment and eagerly drank in the sight of the rough stone wall through the windowports.
"It's been many years since I came back here," she said. "I've made my life offworld on Ord Mantell, doing whatever I could to survive."
Zekk looked at her. "Sounds familiar," he said. "I've been through a lot of the same things you have."
She glared at him. "No one's been through what I have."
"Don't be so quick to judge," he replied. His voice was hard, but it held no anger. "My parents were both killed on Ennth. When I was still young I fled offworld, and lived on the streets of Coruscant, deep in the underlevels where no one goes-at least no one who wants to stay alive. I survived for years as a scavenger, until I was kidnapped by the Shadow Academy. They trained me as a Dark Jedi to fight for the Second Imperium."
Anja shrugged one shoulder. "Our mountain villages took the side of the Empire a long time ago. It's