Dark Apprentice
Page 33
smoked fish and a pungent-tasting grain mash she enjoyed. Finally she asked
the students in general, "Where is Master Skywalker?"
The trainees looked at each other as if they had been wanting to ask the
same question.
Streen stood up and looked around in alarm. "It's too quiet," he said.
"Too quiet. I wanted it quiet, but this is too much. I can't hear Master
Skywalker. I could always sense voices in my head. I hear all of yours. It's
too quiet." He sat down again as if embarrassed. "Too quiet."
Tionne rushed into the dining hall, clutching her twin-boxed musical
instrument. Her silvery hair streamed behind her in a wild mass, and her
pearly eyes were wide and panic-stricken. "Come quickly! I've found Master
Skywalker."
Without question, without confusion, all the Jedi trainees rose in a
coordinated, flowing movement. They moved together and sprinted after Tionne
as she ran down the winding moss-grown halls. Cilghal attempted to keep up
with the more athletic members, such as Kirana Ti and Tionne.
They ran through the echoing grand audience chamber where vines covered
the walls and the long polished seats stood empty in shafts of sunlight.
"This way," Tionne said. "I don't know what's happened to him."
They reached a back staircase of worn stone steps that led to the
observation platform at the top of the ziggurat.
Cilghal drew up short as she noticed the robed figure sprawled on the
flagstones under the sky. His hands were thrown back as if to defend against
something.
"Master Skywalker!" she called. The other trainees rushed forward.
Cilghal pushed through the gathered students and knelt beside the fallen
man.
Luke's face seemed curdled in an outcry of pain or fear. His eyes were
squeezed shut, his lips were curled back in a grimace.
On the stone floor beside him lay his lightsaber, as if it had proved
useless against whatever enemy he had fought.
Cilghal propped Luke's head up, touching his pale-brown hair. Rivulets of
cold sweat glistened on his face, but she felt no warmth on his skin. She
probed, using her newfound abilities in the Force, desperately searching.
"What happened to him?" Dorsk 81 said in great alarm.
"Is he alive?" Streen asked. "I can't hear him."
Cilghal probed with her sensing abilities and shook her orange and muddy-
green head. "He's breathing. I can sense very little heartbeat, just the
faintest pulse. But I can't find him inside. When I touch him with the
Force,
all I find is a great empty spot...."
She turned to look at the others with her sad round Calamarian eyes.
"It's as if he has left us."
"What can we do?" Kirana Ti asked.
Cilghal cradled Luke's motionless head in her lap and blinked her huge
Calamarian eyes, unable to speak for a long moment.
"We are all alone now," she finally said.