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[Junior Jedi Knights] - 01(20)

By:Nancy Richardson


“Hey, it worked!” Tahiri called down. “Do you hear that, Anakin?

Something is happening. Maybe a hidden door is about to open,” Tahiri suggested breathlessly. Anakin’s neck was bent back so far that he felt it might break. He stood staring up at his friend. When he heard the rumbling sound he knew something wasn’t right. No doorway was opening. Anakin looked above Tahiri’s head. A big block of stone had come loose. If his friend didn’t move quickly the stone would drop from the roof and crush her! There was no time to shout a warning. Anakin closed his eyes and concentrated on pushing the stone to the side. A thunderous crash jolted Anakin’s eyes open.

He turned to see that the stone block had landed centimeters from his left foot. It had missed them both. Tahiri was scrambling down the wall toward him.

“Anakin, that rock would have crushed me if you hadn’t moved it!” Tahiri cried.

“We had better think things through before we push any more secret buttons,” Anakin said gruffly. Tahiri nodded.

“Okay, so now we know that there are traps built into the wall,” Anakin said.

“And we know that a wrong move could hurt us,” Tahiri added. “We also know that it is impossible to move the biggest stones with our minds. The only thing I’ve been able to move is all this glittery gold stuff,” Tahiri said as she brushed off her jumpsuit. It was covered in golden dust.

“You look like a magic fairy,” Anakin laughed. Even Tahiri’s eyelashes were glittering with dust.

“Watch it or I’ll cover you with this stuff,” Tahiri giggled back. Just to prove her point, she ran her hands along the wall to pick up glitter and then shook them over Anakin’s head. His hair sparkled.

“Very funny,” Anakin said as he tried to shake the glitter off.

“Hey, Tahiri, what if this glittery gold stuff really is magic?” Anakin asked.

Tahiri made a face at her friend. “Next thing you’re going to say is that the glitter is the way we will unlock the wall,” she added with a laugh.

“I think it is, Tahiri. This golden stuff is the only thing we’ve been able to move. Let’s try rubbing it along the stones to see if we can highlight any cracks or pathways that we haven’t seen.”

“It’s worth a try,” Tahiri agreed.

Anakin moved to the far left wall and began to rub the golden glitter along the stones. In most spots it rained down to the floor and formed piles of gold. Tahiri had begun to rub the glitter along the same wall from the other end.

“It’s not showing us anything,” she grumbled.

“Keep trying,” Anakin said. As he reached the center of the wall, Anakin began to notice that a thin line of gold was sticking to some of the stones. He bent down and continued to rub the glitter on them.

Tahiri had almost reached the spot where he was rubbing. She crouched by the bottom stone.

“So the glitter sticks in some spots,” Tahiri began. “But I don’t see a doorway.”

Anakin moved back and looked at the lines where the golden dust had stuck.

“Tahiri,” he said in an awed voice, “step back and look.”

Tahiri moved away from the wall.

“Holy bantha!” she cried. “Anakin, it’s the outline of a child!”

Anakin nodded at his friend. Before them a single golden line traced the form of a child on the stone wall. Tahiri raced forward and tried to push the outline in. The stone wall didn’t move.

“How do we open it?” Tahiri asked in a desperate voice.

“Look, Tahiri,” Anakin replied. “To the right of the figure is another outline-it looks like a handprint, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s what triggers the secret door.”

Tahiri moved to the golden hand and gently placed her own palm over the print. Nothing happened. “You try, Anakin,” Tahiri whispered.

Anakin stepped forward and placed his palm on the golden print. Again nothing happened.

“What do we do now?” Tahiri asked her friend. “We seemed so close to unlocking the wall….” Tahiri’s voice trailed off as she watched her friend race toward the stone stairway.

“Where are you going?” Tahiri cried.

“I’ll be right back,” Anakin called. Moments later Anakin returned to the room with the small bone Tahiri had discovered on the stairway. “Maybe our hands aren’t exactly the right shape,” Anakin offered in a breathless voice.

Tahiri nodded in excitement. Anakin walked toward the golden figure, the Massassi child’s hand stretched out before him. He placed the skeletal fingers against the wall, and they clicked dully against the stones. Then, as the fingertips of the bony hand touched the golden print, they began to disappear. Anakin kept pushing until the entire hand had vanished inside the wall.