Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 12_ Return to Ord Mantell - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
"Protas!" she shouted, knowing in the pit of her stomach that there was nothing she could do. She found the young man's body lying broken and bent in odd places, as if someone had folded him up and swatted him like a bothersome insect. His skin was burned, his open wounds bled, but his heart no longer pumped. Breath no longer filled his lungs.
She looked up in bleak despair, her dark eyes burning as she blinked and blinked. Her throat constricted painfully. Heedless of the blood that stained her hands, she touched the young man's shoulder, ran her fingers along the wispy blond strands of his beard that now would never grow to bushy fullness like his older brother's.
The commandos stared speechless at what they had inadvertently done.
Anja's heart felt like a lead weight in her chest. She knew that she herself, and no one else, would have to tell Elis.
????? in one of the stone-walled gathering rooms, Elis's anguished wails echoed from the rocks and seemed to hang in the air like cold icicles.
Jacen shuddered at hearing the pain and sadness in that voice. The dark-bearded man cried out again, a wordless moan. He squeezed his eyes shut, and tears coursed down through the rugged crevices in his dusty face.
When he ground his teeth together, his bushy beard stood out like black spines.
Jacen stood without moving, frozen in the moment next to his friends and his father. It was early morning. They had slept uncomfortably, restlessly, and then they had been summoned from their rooms to meet with the mining leader. Elis wanted to discuss what the New Republic could possibly do to improve the situation on Anobis.
With fresh hope, the group had trooped into the room to listen to the village leader and to offer suggestions as to how the long and painful civil war might finally reach a cease-fire, so that the parties could start talking. Although nothing had changed in decades, nothing was likely to change until the miners and the fanners at least began to communicate. Then, perhaps they could learn to talk in a civilized fashion.
But before Han Solo or Elis could speak, Anja had burst into the room, her face drawn, her huge eyes even more grief-stricken than Jacen was accustomed to seeing them. She kept her trembling voice low, but Jacen understood most of the devastating news she passed to Elis. Zekk caught his breath. Lowbacca, with his sensitive Wookiee ears, listened and groaned. Em Teedee made no effort to translate. Han Solo fidgeted uncomfortably. Jacen and Jaina looked at each other.
Elis turned away from them, hiding his face. The dark-haired mining leader clenched his left hand into a fist and began pounding on the stone wall of the meeting room. His chest was racked with sobs that he tried to contain within himself. As Elis smashed his knuckles again and again against the stone, Jacen saw a growing smear of blood blossoming there.
Finally, the leader drew a deep breath and seemed to control himself.
When Elis opened his eyes, the look of pure hatred behind them made Jacen turn cold. "I will kill them!" Elis roared. "Bring Ynos here now!" he shouted, and other miners scurried off to the cells to fetch the one-legged farming leader.
"Why blame him?" Zekk asked, his voice surprisingly stern. His nostrils flared. "Those farmers didn't do anything this time. From what I could hear, the fault belonged to your brother-and those who went with him."
Anja looked up in dismay, but did not argue.
Jaina spoke up. "Ynos and his villagers didn't kill Protas, did they, Anja?" she said. "It was one of your own burrowing detonators, Elis.
You planted them. You seeded the fields so that no one could grow crops anymore. It was an accident caused by your people, with your own weapons."
"Yeah," Jacen said. "You certainly can't be angry with the fanners for this."
"The true casualties of war are rarely those we expect," Tenel Ka added.
Stricken, Elis was unable to sort through