[Legacy of the Jedi] - 02(6)

Grove and Nelia exchanged a glance. “We’re not coming with you.”

“What do you mean?” Qui-Gon asked.

“Dad? Mom?” Taly’s voice suddenly sounded very young.

Nelia crouched to look into her son’s eyes. “Dad and I think you’ll be safer without us. He is too close. If we wait and leave a few seconds after you, he might follow us instead. We can lead him away from you. Give you time to get far from here.”

“This isn’t necessary,” Adi said crisply. “We can protect you.”

“We mean no disrespect,” Grove said. “We trust the Jedi. But we also want every chance for our son.”

“You must come with us,” Qui-Gon argued. “To stay is too great a risk. “

Grove’s eyes filled with steely determination.

“That is for us to decide, not you,” he said. “We have talked about this at length; we know what we have to do. Nothing you can say will convince us. And you cannot force us. If we can do any small thing to save our son, we will. You have a better chance without us, especially if we create a distraction. That is our decision.”

“We’ll find our way to Coruscant,” Nelia told Taly. “We’ll find you.”

Taly had gone very still.

Nelia straightened quickly. Her eyes were wet with tears. “Take care of our son,” she whispered. She put her arms around Taly and held him against her. Grove came behind her and the three of them rocked together. Then the parents broke away.

“No,” Taly said. “Mom! Dad! Don’t do this! I can protect us!”

The sight of their young son made the parents’ faces crumple with love and pain.

“You can do so much,” Grove said. “You can’t do this.”

Over Taly’s head, Nelia turned her stricken eyes on Qui-Gon. “There’s no time. Go. Please. Take him.” Her voice ended in a sob.

Siri put her hand on Taly’s shoulder. “Come on, Taly.” She led him to Qui-Gon’s swoop.

“Are you sure I cannot convince you to join us? Or two of us can stay with you.”

“Go,” Grove said. “Now.”

Qui-Gon rested his strong gaze on Nelia. “I will protect him.”

She nodded but did not speak. Tears streaked her face. The Jedi felt the surge in the dark side of the Force. A warning. He was close.

“Hold on to me, Taly,” Qui-Gon said kindly. “We will be traveling very fast.”

They took off, keeping their acceleration low so as not to make noise. Then Qui-Gon quickly dipped down into a lower space lane so that they would not be visible from the building. Taly’s parents disappeared from sight.

He felt the boy behind him, holding onto his tunic. He felt the cloth dampen with the boy’s tears.





CHAPTER 5


They made a clean getaway in the Republic cruiser. The city of Ciran retreated to a small yellow spot in a wide landscape. Then Cirrus became a yellowish round shape surrounded by clouds. In another few minutes, they were zooming through stars.

Adi piloted the ship. Qui-Gon set a course for Coruscant. Obi-Wan sat, watching Siri and Taly.

Siri did not speak. She moved about the cabin, close to Taly. She placed a small thermal blanket on his knees. Moments later she gave him something to eat and drink. Taly did not touch them. He held the blanket around his small body and stared at the ground.

Finally Siri came and sat beside him. She leaned forward and spoke to him gently. Obi-Wan could not hear her words but he saw by her posture how careful she was trying to be. He saw, gradually, how Taly’s neck muscles relaxed, how his fingers no longer clutched the blanket with the same desperate grip.

Siri slipped something out of her utility belt. Obi-Wan recognized the warming crystal Siri always carried, deep blue with a star in the center. She handed it to Taly and he closed his fist around it, smiling at how it warmed his hand.

Siri drew her legs up underneath her and sat next to Taly, not too close, but not too far away.

Was this the Siri he knew? Hardly. Obi-Wan hadn’t known she possessed such delicacy. Siri was never delicate. She said what she meant and she felt a great impatience for those who did not. She didn’t like emotional reactions, she hated delays, she never waited on anyone or expected to be waited on. She liked to do everything herself.

These were the things he knew about her. But he did not know this. He hadn’t realized she knew exactly what to do for a wounded child.

Suddenly Qui-Gon leaned over the nav console. “Unidentified cruiser coming up fast.”

“I’ll increase speed.” Adi pushed the controls. “He’s speeding up,” Qui-Gon said.

“You think it’s our bounty hunter?”