“Are you sure he knows?” Anakin asked.
“I’ve sensed all my life that he knows more than he’s said,” Tahiri replied.
Sliven barked once, and the banthas halted at the top of a large sand dune. Anakin looked around them. There was nothing in sight-no structures, no other Raiders.
“Can you feel them?” Tahiri whispered to her friend.
“Who?” Anakin whispered back.
“The tribe-they’re all here,” she replied. And, as if on cue, some twenty Raiders topped the sand dune to the left of the group. Silently they walked toward the Jedi candidates. Tahiri commanded Bangor down, and the bantha knelt so that she and Anakin could drop to the ground. Tahiri stood erect, her blonde hair blown back from her face by the licks of a hot evening breeze. The suns were beginning to set, casting a pale pink shadow along the dunes. Anakin watched his friend as she faced her tribe. There was confusion in her large green eyes, but there was also a resolve he hadn’t seen there before.
The Raiders who had traveled with them moved to join the rest of their tribe. All except Sliven. He stood one meter to the right of Tahiri. A female Raider’s voice rose from the group and spoke.
“Her name is Vexa,” Tahiri. said, not trying to hide her dislike. “She says welcome home.”
The Raider stepped forward. She, too, was covered from head to toe; only her voice indicated that she was a woman.
“She says that they did not expect me to return. They did not expect me to fulfill the promise.”
“What promise?” Anakin asked under his breath. He sensed that Tahiri was uncertain, but his friend said nothing. The Raider continued in her strange, rough dialect. Tionne stepped forward. Seeing Anakin’s confusion, she began to translate.
“Sliven said you would come, that you would fulfill the promise he made many years ago. I myself am sorry to see you, for two reasons. First, I do not think you will survive, and the tribe will gain nothing by your death. Second, if you do survive, Sliven will remain the leader of our tribe.
“There are many of us who do not wish to follow Sliven. Years ago he showed his weakness. He brought an outsider into our tribe, one who was a child and could not add to our strength. If you survive, you will prove that Sliven was right, that you did grow into an adult member of our tribe. If that is the case, Sliven will continue to lead us. If not, he will die, for that is the promise he made.”
Tionne paused.
“You knew this,” Tahiri said in a flat voice as she turned toward Sliven. “You made this promise and never told me about it. All my life you taught me how to survive in the desert, and I thought you taught me as your own, as one you cared for, maybe even loved. But you taught me so that one day I could fulfill a promise you made without my permission-a promise that might end my life or save your own.”
Sliven was silent.
“What did he promise?” Tahiri quietly asked Vexa.
As Vexa spoke, Tionne translated for Anakin.
“You will be taken deep into the Dune Sea, which borders the Jundland Wastes. It is the place you were found, a desolate place not often visited by Sand People. You will be left there without food or water, alone-or if you prefer, with the boy. I suggest you go alone-there is some chance that your skills may enable you to survive, but the boy is not from Tatooine, and he will be a burden to you. You willl be left to find your way back to this tribe. To do so will mean using your strength and wits to find your way safely through the Dune Sea, across the mountains and the canyons of the Jundland Wastes, and then through the harsh, hot desert. “You have one week. During that time we will remain in this exact spot. If you do not return to the tribe in that time, we will know that you have either been captured by enemies or have not survived. Whatever, if you return to the tribe later than seven days from your departure, you will also have failed to fulfill the terms of the promise. But Tahiri-you do not have to do this.
“
Tahiri thought for a moment, then spoke.
“What happens if I don’t?” she asked.
Tionne gave Tahiri an incredulous look. How could the child even consider agreeing to such a thing? If Luke Skywalker had known that this was why Sliven had asked that she be returned, he would never have allowed Tahiri to go back to Tatooine, Tionne thought. And there was no way she would allow the child to fulfill Sliven’s promise. Tahiri’s safety was Tionne’s responsibility.
“What happens?” Tahiri asked again. This time Sliven slowly answered in Basic.
“You will be returned to your ship,” Sliven said. “And then shuttled back to the Jedi academy.”
“And you’ll be put to death,” Tahiri said more to the tribe than to Sliven.