[Junior Jedi Knights] -05(23)

“Neither can I,” said Uldir. “But how do we know it even works?”

The instructor’s pearly eyes blinked with surprise.

“I, well… I suppose we don’t. I think it would be all right to test it.”

She sat on the floor and held her hands out in front of her, palms up. The others arranged themselves in a loose circle around the Holocron and sat down to watch.

“Just a minute,” Tionne said. The strange object rested lightly on her hands, as if floating on water. A hologram blossomed in the air over the Holocron.

“Welcome, my children. How may I teach you today? I am Ash Krimsan,” said the glowing figure of a tiny plump woman with black hair and eyes the color of smoky topaz. She wore a long soft gown as red as wine. “I am a Jedi Master whose duty it has always been to teach those young ones who are gifted in the Force. Even before they become Jedi, the powerful ones must learn why they can sense people’s feelings and how not to misuse that power. They must learn patience and Jedi relaxation techniques, and many other important things.”

The old woman’s face shone with patient kindness.

“Come listen to me, my child, and I will teach you.”

Oh great. Baby lessons, Uldir thought. Just what I need. Well, he told himself, at least it looked as if the old lady would cover everything he might need to know to become a Jedi. And after all, he was pretty intelligent-how long could it take to learn it all?

“Let us begin with a Jedi relaxation technique. First I will show you how it looks on the outside; then I will describe how it feels inside.”

Suddenly the hologram was hidden by a cloud of roiling gray smoke. Uldir coughed. At first, he didn’t understand what was happening. Then he saw a flash of purple cloth and heard a gloating voice say,

“Why, you didn’t really think I would give up my prize so easily, did you?”

Uldir came to his feet, waving smoke away from his eyes. The Holocron was gone.

“Neither will we, Orloc,” he said.

“Then you’ll have to catch me,” the Mage countered.

Anakin looked around to see where Orloc might have gone with the Holocron. Ikrit or Tionne must have used the Force to clear the smoke away, he guessed, because within a second or two it was almost gone. The two Jedi opened the main chamber door and looked up and down the passageway. With a whoosh, the doors shut behind them, locking them out.

“He’s in here!” Anakin shouted, pointing to the far end of the chamber behind the platform that held Darth Vader’s sleeping cylinder. Orloc stood beside a control panel that had been hidden by a slab of polished black stone. ArtooDetoo trilled a warning and moved to the door control panel by the main entrance, just behind Anakin.

“I’m coming,” Tahiri called.

The Mage pressed a button-and Anakin jumped to safety a split second before a trapdoor opened in the floor where he had been standing. ArtooDetoo tweedled frantically but was unable to close the pit in back of Anakin. Anakin ran toward the Mage, who growled and pressed another button. Somewhere behind Anakin, Tahiri squealed. She must have jumped over a trapdoor, too, because the next sound heard was the slap of her bare feet on the polished floor as she landed behind him. ArtooDetoo chittered angrily at the magician. Anakin kept running forward, with Tahiri following close after him. The Mage merely chuckled and pushed a button to unseal a set of double doors behind him that led out of the chamber.

They swung outward. Then, with one arm clutching the Holocron tightly to his chest, he reached out to push a final button on the control panel. A new trapdoor angled open between Anakin and the Mage, who stood in the doorway he had just unlocked. Anakin stopped running and skidded to a halt right at the edge of the hole, with. its steep, steep slide down into the secret depths of Bast Castle. Tahiri pulled him back before he could lose his balance and fall in. He gulped at the close call and glanced up to see a grin on Orloc’s neatly bearded face, as if the magician were hoping they would fall down the chute. The purple-robed Mage shrugged.

“Too bad. Maybe some other day, hmmm?”

He turned to leave. But ArtooDetoo had managed to reverse the double doors from his control panel across the room. They were now swinging back toward Orloc. Soon there would be no place for the magician to stand as the doors,swept backward toward the hole in the floor. Beside Anakin, Tahiri gasped. The Mage tried to push the doors forward, away from the edge of the pit. Anakin and Tahiri both stretched out their arms, trying to reach Orloc, but it was no use.

As the doors shut he gave a yelp of alarm and flailed his arms in an attempt to keep his balance.

“Can you close the pit, Artoo?” Anakin called.