“Yoda?” Zak called out. “Tash?”
No answer.
Zak looked around for the hole that led out of the cave. He must have fallen farther than he’d thought, because it was nowhere in sight. He started to walk blindly through the darkness, holding his hands out to keep from bumping into things.
“Tash? Yoda!” he called again, but no voice answered. Had they forgotten about him? Had they been captured by the Children?
Zak shivered. The cave was as cold as ice. And darker than he had ever imagined any place could be. He was sure he would freeze to death if he didn’t find his way out soon.
But how?
If Tash were here, she would use the Force. But Tash wasn’t here. Zak had only himself to rely on-unless he could use the Force, too.
The thought seemed so ridiculous Zak almost laughed at himself. He had never even thought about using the Force, let alone tried it. I don’t even know what the Force feels like.
But that wasn’t true.
He had felt it twice already. When Tash had used the Force on Nar Shaddaa, he’d felt a tingling sensation rush through him. Then, in Yoda’s presence, Zak had felt the calm, peaceful feeling of the Force gathering around the Jedi Master.
That’s what the Force feels like, Zak thought.
Remembering, he felt it again. A warm tingle passed over his skin, the feeling of a gentle touch. But what was touching him, he realized, was everything. That was the Force-the energy that connected all living things. That must be how Jedi used the Force to move things and to find things. If the Force touched all objects, it could lead him from one place to another. Even out of the cave.
Before Zak knew it, his feet were moving. He no longer held his hands out in front of his face. He knew he wouldn’t bump into anything.
In moments, the darkness thinned. Zak saw a shaft of gray light ahead. He’d found the entrance to the cave.
But before he could reach it, a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder.
Boba Fett had found him.
CHAPTER 19
“Don’t move. Don’t shout,” the bounty hunter ordered.
“You’re still here?” Zak said. Somehow, he had thought Boba Fett was gone for good.
“Still here,” Fett said. “The job isn’t done.”
“But …” Zak tried to find words. “Did you see anything? Here in the cave. Did you … see anything?”
“Nothing.”
“I thought-I thought maybe you had a vision-“
“Nothing,” Fett repeated. “Now move.”
The bounty hunter shoved Zak forward into the light. Together, they scrambled up and out of the cave into the gray gloom of the swamp.
The Children were gone, but Yoda and Tash were waiting for them. Fett indicated that Zak should stand next to Tash and Yoda. He hefted his blaster, growling, “No more malfunctions. Sit.”
They sat. Tash and Zak looked frightened. Yoda smiled as if he didn’t understand what the blaster could do. “Now we wait for Hoole.”
“I’m here.”
Hoole’s voice came from the left. Boba Fett whipped his head around and saw Hoole standing there, alone. Sensing a trap, the bounty hunter launched himself backward as blaster fire peppered the ground-from his right.
Fett rolled into a crouch and sent three shots shrieking into the swamp brush to his right, then dove behind a nearby log.
Platt, Tru’eb, and the remaining smugglers appeared from behind a gnarlwood tree, blasters blazing. Energy bolts
shattered
the
log, disintegrating it. But as wood dust floated to the ground, they saw that Boba Fett had vanished.
“Tactical retreat,” Zak guessed.
“Are you all right?” Hoole asked, reaching Zak and Tash in an instant. He glared at Yoda. “If they are hurt, I will-“
Yoda slipped into his fool act, cackling like an idiot. “Hurt? Hurt? It is I that is hurt. My home, this is. My home, you trample! Go away!”
“Uncle Hoole, we’re fine,” Tash said.
Platt scanned the area. “Tru’eb, run a quick perimeter search. Let’s make sure Fett’s really on the run.”
As the smugglers turned away, Tash whispered, “Uncle Hoole, we have a lot to tell you.”
“Tash,” Zak asked. “All that time you spent with Yoda. Did he … Did he teach you to be a Jedi?”
“This creature?” Hoole asked, pointing at Yoda. “A Jedi?”
Tash looked at the Jedi Master. “Can I tell him, Yoda?”
The little creature’s eyes grew soft. “Yes.”
Zak swallowed, expecting to hear that Tash had learned some great secret, that she was going to become a Jedi and leap light-years beyond him. He wondered if they would still be friends after she had mastered the Force and he was still just Zak.