'There it is,' Nick said. His voice was low and grim. 'Pretty, ain't it?' 'Yes. Pretty.' Mace stepped around the grasser. 'Pity we didn't make it.' Any Force-sensitive could have felt the menace that lay across their path; to Mace, it felt like an arc of forest fire ripping through the trees. He couldn't feel exactly what was down there, but he knew it was Vaster: whatever forces he had brought after them now sealed the mouth of the canyon.
Nick nodded. He unslung his rifle, checked the clip, and cocked it. 'Just couldn't move fast enough.' He glanced back to where the Balawai were now struggling out to the fringe of the undergrowth. He shook his head. 'Only needed an hour. That's all. One more hour, we woulda been clear.' 'What's going on?' The boys' father joined them near the rim of the cliff. 'Is that the track?
Why have we stopped?' The Akk Guard with the bruised face Came out of the trees; the six dogs and the other guard were fanned out behind the prisoners. He nodded toward the thick arc of danger that all but the grassers and the Balawai could feel ahead. 'Hard luck, huh? Told you Kar would come, me.' 'Yes.' Mace folded his arms. 'It was too much to hope that he might let us go.' He turned to the Akk Guard. 'You can go to him, if you like.' 'Maybe will, us.' The Korun had recovered some of his former swagger. His chest swelled out, and he looked down at Mace with an air of contempt that might have been convincing, if he hadn't been so careful to keep himself just out of arm's reach. 'Not going nowhere, you, huh?' Mace glanced at Nick; Nick shrugged dolefully. Mace said, 'It seems not.' Knots of exhausted Balawai untied themselves and frayed to pieces to let the departing Akk Guard through. He joined the other, and along with the dogs they faded into the trees beyond the reach of the afternoon sun.
Nick fingered his rifle. 'Think they'll really go down there to Kar?' 'Not at all,' Mace said crisply. 'They'll move up the switchback to cut off our retreat.' 'Don't much like the sound of that. What's our move?' 'You tell me, Major.' Nick blinked. 'You're kidding.' 'Not at all. Given our victory conditions-saving as many of these people's lives as possible-what should we do?' 'I can't believe you're asking me.' 'What I'm asking you,' Mace said, 'is not what we're going to do, but what we should do.
Let me put it another way: what does Kar think we'll do?' 'Well.' Nick looked back up the trail, then forward down toward the mouth of the canyon and the steamcrawler track. 'We should split up. If we all stay together, we all get caught either by whatever Kar's got below, or the guards and the ULF behind us. If the prisoners scatter, some might slip through while Kar's rounding up the rest.' 'Exactly.' Mace pointed at the boys' father. 'You. Get the others out of the trees. I want all of you on this rock. On your knees, with your hands behind your heads.' The Balawai gaped. 'Are you crazy?' 'Y'know,' Nick said, sighing, 'I ask him that all the time. Somehow I never get a straight answer.' Mace folded his arms across his chest. 'All those who don't want to do what I say are welcome to take their chances with the jungle and the ULF.' The man turned away, shaking his head.
'What are we gonna do?' Nick asked.
'Something else.' 'Y'know, if you hadn't told Kar about going to the steamcrawler track, he wouldn't be down there right now.' 'Yes: he would have overtaken us in the jungle, and we wouldn't have had a chance.' 'Wait-wait, I get it-' Understanding dawned on Nick's face.
Mace nodded. 'Back under the trees, the prisoners would have scattered. Some might have escaped as you say. He's expecting us to scatter, just as you did. From his point of view, it's the obvious move: let some die to save the rest. That's why I expected Kar to try this, instead: find a place where he could trap everyone. Because Kar and I have this in common: with these people, it's all or nothing. He wants to give them all to the jungle. I want to send them all home.' Muscle bunched along Mace's jaw. 'I am not willing to purchase life with death, unless that death is my own.' Nick looked impressed. 'Kar's not an easy man to lie to. He's so hooked into pelekotan that lying's a tricky business; I once saw him yank out a guy's tongue-' Mace gave him a sidelong look. 'Who lied? I told him that he and Depa would be able to find me at the steamcrawler track this afternoon. The lie is in what he assumed I meant, not in what I said.' 'And you had me lead, because you figured he'd be able to guess what route I'd take-and you brought the' Akk Guards along so that he'd be able to track us.' Mace nodded.
'But why?' 'To get us all in a place just like this. Here, I'm sure he thinks he has everyone boxed.' 'And he does.' 'So he's in no hurry to come and collect us. Now: what's the steamcrawler track good for, in view of our purpose? It's a broad open area, where any passing gunship will spot these people, and it's clear enough to use as a landing zone.' 'Yeah.' 'So how much good does it do him to cut us off from an open area-' Mace reached inside his vest and pulled out the lightsabers. He tossed Depa's to Nick, who caught it reflexively. '- when all we need is a little time, and we can make one of our own?' Nick stared down at the lightsaber in his hand. 'It could work,' he admitted. 'And you want me to teach people warfare?' Mace shrugged. 'This isn't warfare, it's dejarik.' 'Yeah, sure. When Kar shows up, you can be the one to clear the board. Go right ahead.' He ducked his head gloomily. 'He's gonna kill us both, y'know.' Mace's lightsaber found his palm, and a meter-long fountain of energy grew from its emitter.
'That remains to be seen.' FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNALS OF MACE WlNDU It took only minutes to clear a landing zone. I had used the Force to pile some of the smaller trees, intending to kindle their damp wood with my blade to make a huge smoking bonfire, but I didn't have to; before we had even cleared the zone, three flights of gunships swarmed overhead. They didn't seem to have much difficulty understanding the situation: twenty-eight kneeling Balawai with fingers laced together behind their necks must have made matters clear enough.
'Looks like we pulled it off,' Nick said, though he seemed to take little satisfaction from success. 'We saved 'em. Wish they could return the favor.' We had barely begun cutting when we had both felt Vastor's forces drawing tight around us: a living noose. Nick had commented that my little deception hadn't fooled him for long.
I didn't answer. I had a feeling that in this particular game of dejarik, Kar was not my true opponent.
One of the gunships circled close overhead: offering itself as bait, to see if hidden guns would open fire when it came within range. And in the Force, I could feel the gunners inside it targeting Nick and me with laser cannons; only our proximity to the Balawai held them back.
As Nick would say: it was time to saddle up.
But before we left, I crouched beside the father of Urno and Nykl. 'I want you to take a message to Colonel Geptun.' He looked dazed, and his words slurred with exhaustion. 'Geptun? The security chief in Pelek Baw? How am I supposed to get in to see him?' 'He'll debrief you personally.' 'He will?' 'Tell him the Jedi Master has handled his Jedi problem. Tell him that if he disarms his irregulars and withdraws the militia from the highland, this war is over. He has my word on it.' The man goggled at me as though antlers had suddenly sprouted from my forehead- and his astonishment was no greater than Nick's.
'One more thing: remind him that in less than a week I've solved a problem he couldn't manage in four months.' I rose, and stood over him so that my shadow fell across his face.
'Tell him that if he does not do as I suggest, he'll be the problem. And I will solve him.' 't't led Nick off into the jungle without waiting for a reply.
I did stop for a moment, though, and looked back through the trees, to where the boys' father held them in his arms as they waited for the descending gunship.
