“I knew these Imperial rations would be good for something,” Anakin muttered. He threw another packet of rations down the hole to check it for depth. It landed a long, long way down. Anakin sighed.
“There’s too much of a drop, so we can’t follow Tionne and Ikrit anyway. One of us might get hurt if we tried.” He nodded. “All right. We’ll go after the lightsaber irst.”
ArtooDetoo beeped mournfully. Tahiri put a comforting hand on the little droid.
“It’s okay, Artoo. We’ll find Ikrit and Tionne and get the lightsaber back.”
Tionne opened her eyes to total darkness. A voice came out of the inky shadows beside her.
“Are you well, my friend?”
“Yes. Thank you, Ikrit. Nothing is broken, but my body feels like it’s covered with one giant bruise.”
“That was a long fall,” Ikrit said. “You used the Force well to control your slide and land with so little harm to your body.”
“You must have controlled your own fall fairly well,” Tionne responded. “You don’t sound like you were hurt.”
“True.” The furry Jedi Master cleared his throat and sounded a bit embarrassed. “But you cushioned my fall. I believe the bruise on your shoulder will be Ikrit-shaped.”
“Oh! Is that why it feels like an Imperial chicken walker stepped on my shoulder?” Tionne groaned. “Where do you think we are?”
Ikrit gave a wheezing chuckle. “I could use the Force to sense what is around us,” he said dryly, “but it might be simpler ii”we used light.”
“I must have fallen harder than I thought,” Tionne said ruefully, unclipping her lightsaber from her belt and turning it on. With a snap - hiss, the beautiful glowing blade sprang forth, shedding a bright pearly glow on their surroundings. They were in a small room with rough stone walls and an uneven rock floor. A narrow metal staircase ran up one wall and vanished into darkness above.
“Can you walk?” Ikrit asked. “We must find our young Jedi friends.”
Tionne got to her knees and then to a squatting position. She tested her weight on her legs before standing up completely.
“I think so,” she said in an unsteady voice.
“Mmm. Either you can walk or you cannot,” Ikrit said. “Thinking will not help us reach the children.”
Tionne thought about the junior Jedi somewhere above them in the castle with a strange man who claimed to be a magician and who was certainly a thief and possibly worse.
“Yes, of course I can walk. `Do or do not: there is no try,’ as Master Skywalker always says.”
Ikrit nodded. “These were Master Yoda’s words as well.”
He began to climb the steep steps that ran along the wall.
“We will find our friends, and we will get the lightsaber back. Who knows-by the time we track them down, the young ones may have found the Mage for us already.”
“Yes,” Tionne said thoughtfully, “that’s exactly what worries me.”
“I don’t believe Orloc has any real magic,” Anakin said, “so he can’t have gone far.”
“Then there’s no time to lose,” Uldir said, dashing out into the hallway and looking both directions for some sign of the Mage.
Anakin and Tahiri followed him out, and ArtooDetoo trundled after them.
“There,” Tahiri said, pointing at the floor.
Anakin looked down and saw the outline of a sooty boot print.
“He must be heading back toward the room where the statue is,” Uldir said.
ArtooDetoo warbled excitedly.
“All right, let’s go,” Tahiri said.
Together they ran to the end of the corridor, but they found no more footprints.
“Which way now?” Uldir asked. “Can you sense anything?”
Anakin saw Tahiri close her eyes. He closed his own eyes and reached out with the Force.
“No, I can’t sense him,” Tahiri said.
Anakin opened his eyes. “Neither can I”
He heard a distant slapping sound.
“Sounds like someone running on stone,” Tahiri said.
“It came from this direction,” said Uldir, heading at a brisk trot down one of the corridors they had not yet explored.
Anakin and Tahiri dashed after him. ArtooDetoo, tweeting and bleeping encouragement, followed as fast as he could with the damaged circuits in his right leg. Before long they came to a branching point in the corridor.. Straight ahead of them a broad stairway rose at a sharp angle, while off to the left a small squarish tunnel led away to some other part of the castle.
“I’ll bet he went this way,” Uldir said, pointing toward the tunnel.
“Are you sure?” Tahiri asked.
Uldir snorted. “Of course not. I could be wrong, but we don’t have time to waste talking about it. Now if I were Orloc, I’d go this way.”