[Jedi Quest] - 03(10)

Anakin found himself face-to-face with his old enemy, Sebulba.





CHAPTER FIVE


Anakin’s fingers itched for his lightsaber. The last time Sebulba had threatened him, he’d been just a child and untrained. Now he could dispatch Sebulba before the Dug could manage to blink.

But he saw immediately that Sebulba didn’t recognize him. His gaze was hostile, but the hostility wasn’t personal. He had no idea that Anakin was the young slave boy who had humiliated him in a race years before.

Anakin smiled again.

The smile infuriated Sebulba. “What are you smiling at? And how dare you bully my son!”

“He’s wasn’t bullying me, Father,” Hekula whined in Huttese. “I am bullying him!”

“You were doing a very poor job of it,” Anakin answered in Huttese. “But that doesn’t surprise me.”

“How dare you!” Sebulba roared. “Prepare to die!”

Deland quickly moved between them. “Who’s talking about dying?” he said in a jovial tone. “Let’s save that for the Podrace. Right, Hekula? I’d worry about crashing more than spies, if I were you. I’ve seen you race!”

Hekula’s long head thrust toward Deland. “You’ll choke on my dust, son of a Raft!”

Sebulba was more clever than his son. He grinned craftily and shot a look at Djulla, who was standing by Hekula’s Podracer, preparing a snack for the two Dugs. “I hope you’re alive to see your sister wipe the floor under our feet,” he hissed. “For the next fifty years!”

Anakin and Deland both tensed, ready to strike. In Sebulba’s taunt Anakin heard every cruelty he and his mother had ever endured.

Doby grabbed the hems of Anakin’s and Deland’s tunics. “Just let them go,” he murmured. “We’ll win the race. That is our better best revenge.”

Anakin saw Deland’s hand clench and unclench. His own fingertips burned to slip his lightsaber from its sheath.

“Let’s leave the cowards to their play,” Sebulba sneered. He and Hekula slithered off, their footfalls clattering on the stony ground.

Deland wiped his oily hands with a rag viciously, as though wiping away the memory of Sebulba’s taunt. “We’ve got to beat them. We’ve got to.”

“He’s fast,” Doby said, watching Hekula and Sebulba return to their entourage. A look of pain crossed his face as Djulla handed Hekula a cup of juma juice and Hekula spat it out while shouting an insult. “He’s just as cruel and dangerous as his father. Maybe more so, because he takes more chances.”

Temptation loomed before Anakin. He could help Doby and Deland beat Hekula. He knew it. It was not part of his mission here. But Obi-Wan had allowed him to have free time. What better way to use it than free a slave from the grip of a harsh master?

“Sebulba taught him how to cheat, too,” Deland said worriedly. “Come on, Doby. Let’s get back to work.”

“You can beat him.” The certainty in Anakin’s voice made the two brothers turn to face him. “With my help. Hekula has my old Podracer. I built it with my own hands. They may have painted it and buffed it, but I still know those engines. I know its weaknesses. I know how Sebulba cheats. I can help you win.”

Doby and Deland exchanged a glance. “We can’t ask you to do that,” Deland said.

“You’re not asking.”

“We can’t pay you,” Doby said. “All of our credits are tied up in the Podracer. We barely have enough to get home.”

“I don’t need credits. And I don’t need thanks,” Anakin said. “I just need you to win.”





CHAPTER SIX


“So you promised me inside information,” Obi-Wan said to Didi. They could not locate an air taxi, and all the Transits were full, so they had to walk to the swoop seller. Obi-Wan didn’t mind. It gave him a chance to get a feeling of the streets. He reached out to the Force and received nothing alarming back.

“My son-in-law is an idiot.”

“That’s not exactly the kind of information I had in mind,” Obi-Wan said mildly.

Didi sighed. “You’d think Astri would have more sense. Did I raise her to fall for the first tall, handsome idiot who walked through my door? I did not! Is it my fault she picked such a stiff-necked, rule-following, small-spirited, mid-Rim, mid-minded, puffed-up bonehead?”

“Well, at least he’s not a criminal,” Obi-Wan said. “Maybe Astri wanted a quieter life. Maybe she was tired of dealing with a rule-breaking, truth-stretching, scam-running scoundrel of a father.”

“So it is my fault,” Didi sniffed.