[Junior Jedi Knights] - 02(17)

At least the reels and raiths didn’t. The Melodies were different, more difficult to trick and snare. Catching them as regular food was too much work-which was why she waited for the changing time. She didn’t like to work too hard for her food. And there was no need to. When she heard the sounds she was momentarily puzzled. They were neither the snarls and grunts of raiths nor the slithering hisses of reels. And then she felt the familiar pains in her underbelly, felt thick ropes of saliva begin to form in her mouth and drip heavily from her pincers. Melodies.

Never before had they come here. They knew this was the dwelling place of the purella. She did not pause to wonder why they were here. Instead she skittered to the top of the passageway, over the strange carvings that marred the purple rocks. She would wait, unseen, above them. And when the Melodies came through the tunnel, came to her, she would be ready. Oh yes, she thought greedily, she would be ready.

“This is as far as I can take you,” Sannah whispered. She stood in the rippling pool of yellow that blazed from the torch she carried. Deep within the mountain, there were no holes or cracks in the rocks to let in the soft evening light. As Sannah, Anakin, and Tahiri had descended into the bowels of Sistra, they had been swallowed by the darkness. Without Sannah’s torches, they would not have been able to see.

“What you are about to do is folly,” Sannah warned for the last time. She’d spent the past hour trying to turn the Jedi candidates back from what, to her, meant certain death. But her words had fallen on deaf ears, and there was nothing left to say.

“May your Force be with you,” she solemnly whispered to Anakin and Tahiri. And then she turned and became a receding circle of yellow light, consumed moments later by darkness. Anakin held his torch high to dispel the blackness of the passageway before him. He heard Aragon ‘s translation of the carved symbols ringing in his ears. If he and Tahiri could see the carvings that Aragon had remembered in this tunnel, and then use Aragon’s translation to decipher the symbols, they’d be able to do the same with the ones from the Palace of the Woolamander.

“Anakin, we forgot to bring something to copy down the symbols,” Tahiri whispered, interrupting her friend’s thoughts.

“I’ll remember them,” Anakin reassured Tahiri. Just as he’d recalled the symbols from the palace, he knew he’d be able to draw the carvings in this passageway once they were safely back on Yavin 4. Anakin turned to Tahiri, whose green eyes glowed nervously in the pale yellow light of their torch.

“Are you ready?” Anakin asked.

“Let’s get this over with,” Tahiri agreed. “I can sense danger.”

“Me too,” Anakin said softly. “Me too.”

Slowly he led Tahiri into the passageway. He held his torch high, his eyes darting from side to side, searching for the red spider he’d never seen but knew enough to be afraid of. The passageway dove steeply into the mountain, and several times Anakin and Tahiri almost lost their footing.

“Anakin, over there!” Tahiri cried. She pointed to a smooth segment in the rocks. Then she raced ahead until she stood before the same strangely twined symbols they’d seen in the palace on Yavin 4. Her eyes raced across the message left in the walls of Sistra by the ancient Massassi.

“This is it, Anakin!” she called back happily. Anakin walked carefully toward his friend. He sensed danger, grave danger. His ice blue eyes studied the rocks around him, but he saw nothing, heard nothing. Maybe all the stories he’d heard from Sannah about the purella had been exaggerations. And perhaps the warnings that were screaming inside his head were his own imagination. Still, all his senses jangled with alarm.

“Tahiri,” Anakin began.

But it was too late. The purella that had been silently waiting above the carvings dropped on top of Tahiri, flattening her with its giant red-bristled body. In a split second, eight legs wrapped around Tahiri and four large pincers sank through her orange academy jumpsuit. Tahiri screamed, but her cries ceased as her body jerked once, then fell limp in the spider’s deadly embrace. Anakin watched in horror as the purella turned from Tahiri and slowly approached him, its double-jointed legs moving with casual grace. He began to back away, his torch held in front of his body to ward off the spider’s attack.

The creature ‘s eyes glowed orange as they studied him carefully. Anakin’s glance flew around the tunnel. It was roughly two meters wide, and so was the spider. There was nowhere to dodge or roll from the creature’s attack. So Anakin stood his ground, and when the spider moved forward, he lashed out with his torch, searing one of its legs. Thick ropes of yellow spittle flew from the spider ‘s jaws as it recoiled in pain. The purella’s savage eyes glowered at Anakin. And then she sprang toward him, crashing the torch from his grip and quenching its flame. The giant red spider knocked Anakin flat on his back, pinning his arms and legs with four of her eight limbs. He stared up into the spider’s horrid face, all jaws, pincers, and glowing eyes that lit the tunnel in orange flame.