[Jedi Apprentice] - 16(19)

Qui-Gon suddenly sensed that someone was behind him, matching his footsteps and trying to match his speed. Qui-Gon melted off into the trees. He made an arc and came up behind his pursuer. He saw a glint of gold hair in the darkness. It was Eritha.

He strode forward and grasped her arm. She gasped, then saw it was him. She was breathing hard, as if she’d just had a hard run. “I’ve been following you since you left Manex,” she said. “Or at least I’ve been trying to. I lost you and kept circling around. Finally I thought I saw you enter the park.”

“Why are you following me?”

She leaned over, trying to catch her breath. Her braids were unraveling, and her face was flushed.

“Does Manex have the list?”

“No. Was that why you are following me?”

Eritha shook her head. “It’s because I couldn’t wait until you contacted me. I guessed you would go to Manex tonight. I’ve got the information you need. I overheard Alani. I know where Balog is. I can take you there.”





CHAPTER 13


The Jedi still kept watch over Manex, who had now retired to his reception room for a rest. Mace covered the front of the residence while Bant stayed outside in the rear. Obi-Wan was positioned behind the curving stairway. From here he had a vantage point to the door of the reception room. He had a feeling it would be a long night.

Use your time. You’ll find one day that you have too little of it.

Qui-Gon’s words rose in his mind. Obi-Wan was still going over and over what he should have done when he saw his Master. The cloudy aura he felt around Qui-Gon had worried him deeply. He sensed confusion and static, and it prevented him from truly connecting. It had shaken him. Maybe it had prevented him from acting more quickly. Should he have followed

Qui-Gon, gone with him no matter what he said?

Use your time…

Obi-Wan didn’t think he could. His thoughts were too confused.

That is the time you need discipline most. That is what your training is for.

All right, then. He would stop the voice of Qui-Gon in his head by obeying him.

Although he was tired, although he felt that he had gone over the events of the past days too many times to count, Obi-Wan focused his mind and started again. He went over every event since he and Qui-Gon had stepped foot on New Apsolon. He turned things over in his thoughts, searching for inconsistencies. He considered every unanswered question and every possible answer.

lrini had sworn that she wasn’t the one who had fired on them on their first day. They had never discovered who it had been for sure. Balog? They hadn’t yet been a threat to him, had they?

Was it just a coincidence that security showed up at Mota’s while they were buying the probe droids? It seemed likely now that Alani had told them about Mote in order to trap them. She could have been the one to alert security that the Jedi were buying illegal goods.

The droids must have been reprogrammed to attack Pleni.

Obi-Wan pushed these questions aside. He did not think they would bring him closer to Balog. If only the answers were clear. If only they could get a solid lead. If only Eritha had come through with information on Balog. She had been at her sister’s side for more than two days now. Surely she must have learned something.

Would it prove too difficult for Eritha to betray her sister?

But she had already taken a step she could not retake, Obi-Wan knew. On finding out that her sister was behind Tahl’s kidnapping, she had gone in search of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. She had risked much to do so. She could easily have lost her life in the cave. Obi-Wan remembered how afraid Eritha had been as the explosives were going off and the cave was collapsing. He admired how she’d been able to go on so bravely despite her fear. He still remembered her scream. They forgot me! They left without me!

Obi-Wan concentrated for a moment. There was something about the way Eritha had sounded that bothered him now. What was it? The emotion that was driving her was slightly off from what he would expect.

Astonished. She’d been astonished. And betrayed.

They forgot me!

As if they shouldn’t have, as if she were somehow privileged, even though she was a prisoner.

If she had been a prisoner…

And why had she been heading toward the back of the cave?

Yes, the smoke had been thick near the front of the cave. But wouldn’t she have tried to push through?

She was heading for the other exit near the back of the cave, Obi-Wan realized. But how had she known about it? They had not found it when Eritha had been captured. She should have had no way of knowing how deep the cave was.

Slow down, Obi-Wan warned himself. There could be other explanations for what had happened. Eritha had been panicked. She was reacting, not thinking.