[Junior Jedi Knights] - 01(19)

“The gold is coming from behind this wall, Tahiri,” Anakin whispered. “There must be a hidden room back there.”

But how were they going to move thousands of kilos of stone? Anakin wondered. Sure they had lifted Artoo, and even a two-kilo hunk of metal, but this was different.

As if reading his mind, Tahiri said softly, “I guess we should give it a try.”

Sweat dripped down Anakin’s forehead. He had been trying to move the stone blocks for a long time. Tahiri rubbed her fingers against her eyes. The strain of trying to move the stones had given her a terrible headache. Neither of the two Jedi students had been able to move the blocks even a centimeter. They walked over to the last step of the stairway and sat down.

“I don’t want to give up,” Tahiri began, “but this just isn’t working. “

Anakin nodded at his friend’s words. There has to be another way, he thought; maybe strength isn’t the answer. Then he heard the voice in his head again. He turned to Tahiri, his blue eyes open wide.

“The voice in my head just spoke again,” he said softly. “It said that there are different kinds of strength. One is physical, like the lifting of the droid. Another is the strength of the mind.”

Tahiri stared at her friend. For once she was speechless. Anakin thought about those words. He and Tahiri had proven that they could move heavy objects. But their use of the Force was still limited; they were not powerful Jedi yet.

What exactly was “the strength of the mind.”? What had the voice in his head meant? He remembered a gift his father had once given him. It was a laser puzzle, the kind that had thousands of smaller puzzles within it. His father had said it would take his strength to figure them out. But it hadn’t taken any muscle for Anakin to solve the puzzle. He had used his mind, not his body.

“That’s it, Tahiri!” Anakin cried. “The stone blocks are a puzzle that we have to figure out with the strength of our minds. We solve the puzzle, and we’ll find out what’s behind that wall!”

“I’ve never been very good at puzzles,” Tahiri said to Anakin.

“It’s not that hard. You just have to look for patterns,” Anakin explained. “Try to look at the shapes of the stones or the cracks between them. Maybe you’ll see something in them,” Anakin offered. Together he and Tahiri walked along the stone wall.

“All I see is a lot of gold glitter,” Tahiri grumbled. She still had a splitting headache. “Hey, this looks like an arrow,” Tahiri said, pointing to a crack in one of the stones. It was a dark brown, and wiggled in a curving line up the stone wall. “There’s another one,” she cried.

Anakin stood beside his friend.

“You’re right-there are at least five arrows that I can see from here. And they all seem to be pointing up,” Anakin noted.

“Well, then that’s where I’m going,” Tahiri said with a grin. She began to climb the stone wall. Her small feet wedged carefully between the stones and her hands gripped tiny bumps on the rock.

“Tahiri, be careful,” Anakin called to his friend.

Tahiri had climbed halfway up the strange stone wall and now stood two meters off the ground.

“There’s got to be some sort of secret button that will open this wall,” Tahiri said. Her hands flew around the corners of the stone blocks. She didn’t feel anything, so she moved higher. Tahiri was still following the brown arrows. Only now the arrows had grown larger and were much easier to see.

“It can’t be this simple,” Anakin called to his friend. “If the secret to opening the wall was arrows and a hidden button then anyone could find it. This wall has been standing for thousands of years. The secret just can’t be that easy.”

“Maybe we’re really smart,” Tahiri called down to her friend.

“Tahiri, you should come back down,” Anakin instructed. “We need to think this through. Those voices that told us to go back or fear for our lives? Maybe they meant that if we do something wrong down here we could be in danger. Anyway, we aren’t using the strength of your muscles.” our minds to figure out the puzzle. You’re just using the strength of your muscles.”

Tahiri grunted in response. She was almost to the top of the wall. Her hands ran along a stone block. There was something there. It felt like a smooth button.

“Anakin! I think I’ve found the secret button!” she called.

Anakin was overcome by an immediate sense of dread, so strong that he could almost taste it.

“Don’t do anything!” Anakin screamed to his friend.

But it was too late. Tahiri pushed the smooth button. It made a soft popping sound, but nothing happened. Tahiri pushed the button again, this time harder. A loud rumbling began.