[Junior Jedi Knights] - 02(24)

“I had trouble sleeping my first night, too,” she said kindly. Her words drifted softly through the hallway as she led Sannah back to her room. Anakin spread his papers back out and began to match symbols to letters. He turned when he heard a soft sound behind him.

The Jedi Master Ikrit had appeared on his window ledge. The Master sat silently, watching Anakin with round brown eyes. The young Jedi turned back to his work. It makes sense, Anakin thought to himself. The Massassi must have learned the pattern that the Melodies wrote in, and assumed that others would write in the same way. That was why they carved their symbols vertically instead of horizontally, left to right. Anakin watched the words of the ancient Massassi from the Palace of the Woolamander come to life beneath his writing tool. By the time Tahiri had returned to his room, he was finished with the translation. “Did it work?” Tahiri asked breathlessly as she slipped into the stone chair across from her friend. Anakin didn’t answer. Instead he held up the sheet before him and began to read out loud.

“Peace to all. We are the Massassi. Our children have been imprisoned by the evil Jedi Knight Exar Kun. Locked deep within this palace, hidden in the glittering sands of a golden globe, they await. The crystal that holds them prisoner can only be unlocked by children, strong in the Force and dedicated to the battle of good over evil. If you are the ones, enter the globe and lead our children to freedom.”

“We’re the ones, aren’t we?” Tahiri whispered.

“Yes,” Anakin replied, his ice blue eyes flashing. “We’re the ones.”

On the window ledge, Ikrit watched. The Force was strong in these two children, he knew. But he knew, too, of the dangers that lay ahead.