by Jude Watson
together as they evaded the darts. They managed to get them in a rough
circle where Qui-Gon had indicated.
Qui-Gon leaped into the air and grabbed a high branch. As he swung,
he aimed his light-saber at the net holding the boat aloft. With a series
of rapid cuts he sliced through the thick netting. The boat, along with
supplies, began to tip. With a final thrust he cut the last cords, and the
boat crashed to the ground below.
The kidnappers saw it coming and dropped flat to the ground. The boat
reversed in the air and fell over them, forming a solid cage. Supplies
rained down on the boat - food, breathing tubes, utility packs, and
medpacs.
"Stay under there or we'll blast you," Drenna warned in a loud voice.
She raised an eyebrow at Qui-Gon.
He jerked his head toward the beach, and they took off. Most likely
the kidnappers would be afraid to follow - at least for a while.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan supported Leed as they ran to the shoreline. They
dove into the warm sea. Leed gained strength as he swam, with Drenna
helping him along.
Drenna pointed to land in the distance. "There," she said. "That's
the mainland. We can get to a main road from there."
They struck out toward land. Leed flagged as they got nearer, and
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had to tow him ashore. He collapsed on the sand and
took deep breaths.
"Thank you," he said when he could speak. "I could not have escaped
on my own." He gave them a weak smile. "As I'm sure you can see."
"Do you know who the kidnappers were?" Qui-Gon asked.
He shook his head. "They did not speak. They would not answer my
questions. I don't know why they took me, or what they were planning to do.
"
"I am glad you're safe," Drenna told him, gazing at him anxiously.
"But you're so weak."
"It's the paralyzing dart," he said. "I'll be better soon."
"We must get to a main road and find a way back to the main city and
our transport," Qui-Gon said. He turned to Leed. "Your father is
threatening to invade Senali. He means it this time, I fear."
"Taroon is furious," Drenna put in, her eyes flashing. "He thinks you
and I arranged the kidnapping. No doubt he will tell his father this."
Leed's eyes were clear. "I must return," he said.
"We are close to a road that often runs supplies to the city," Drenna
told the Jedi. "We can hitch a ride from a passing transport."
"Then let's go," Qui-Gon said.
Luck was with them. They flagged down a transport, and the driver
quickly agreed to take them back to the floating city. There, they hurried
to the Jedi's starship. Leaving word for Meenon that Leed was safe, they
took off for Rutan.
"I'm glad you are coming with me," Leed told Drenna. "This won't be a
pleasant trip."
"I wouldn't let you go alone," Drenna said gently. "You need care."
"I'd better contact your father," Qui-Gon told Leed. "There's no time
to lose." Quickly, he accessed the comm unit and contacted King Frane. He
told him that they were on their way to Rutan.
"I'll believe it when I face him on his own royal land," King Frane
said, brusquely cutting the connection.
"So much for thank-yous," Obi-Wan muttered.
"He is still worried about his son," Qui-Gon said gently. "He hides
his fear well."
"He hides his manners better," Obi-Wan replied.
They landed the craft on the palace grounds and made their way to see
the king. He was pacing anxiously outside the Great Hall. When he saw Leed,
his forbidding expression gave way to one of delight.
"Ha! I was afraid something would go wrong!
My son, my son!" King Frane hurried forward and hugged Leed. He let
him go and mopped at his streaming eyes with the edge of his tunic. "How I
missed you. Thank the stars you have come home."
"I came home to talk to you, Father," Leed said. "Not to stay."
Instantly, King Frane's face grew red. "Not to stay?" he shouted.
"That's impossible! You are here. You will stay!"
"Father, can we talk without shouting?" Leed asked.
"I am not shouting!" King Frane bellowed. Then he lowered his voice.
"It's just that I must speak up, because apparently nobody listens to me."
"I have listened to everything you and Taroon have said," Leed
responded steadily. "I have tried to find a way to do my duty. But Father,
I know that if I return it will break my heart. I can't rule this world - I
don't know it. I don't love it the way I love Senali. You sent me there and
made sure I was taken care of. You succeeded. I made a new family there. I
belong there. But I assure you I don't mean to be a stranger to my blood
family or to Rutan. Senali is close - "
"It's close, but who wants to go there?" King Frane said furiously.
"Obviously, you have been swayed by forces on Senali. I'm sure if you spend
time on Rutan you will forget these foolish ideas."
"I will not forget them," Leed said, exasperated. "They are part of
me."
King Frane visibly calmed himself, dropping his hands to his sides
and taking a breath. "Leed, I must speak to you as a king as well as a
father," he said in a voice that struggled to be steady. "I do not want to
bully you into doing your duty. That is an option that is open to me as
king. But as your father I prefer a more reasoned way. You will break my
heart if you do this. You will kill my love for you."
"This is your way of reason?" Leed asked in astonishment.
"Hear me," King Frane said, holding up a hand. "Our family line has
ruled for a hundred years. The firstborn child of the king or queen has
taken his or her place without fail. Do you realize what you do when you
break that chain? Do you take your responsibility to your family and your
world so lightly? How can you decide at this young age what is right for
the rest of your life?"
King Frane's words struck Obi-Wan as none had before. When he'd left
the Jedi, he had not fully realized that he'd not only broken a bond
between himself and Qui-Gon, but had violated a deep tradition between all
Masters and Padawans. He had come to see how important his place in that
tradition was.
Should Leed return to Senali and turn his back on generations who had
prepared the way for him? Suddenly, Obi-Wan wasn't sure.
"You expect me to rule a year from now," Leed countered. "I will have
to make such important decisions for all Rutanians. If you trust me to do
that, you should trust my own mind now."
King Frane's temper grew, no matter how he tried to suppress it. "You
turn your back on those Rutanians you speak of so lightly."
"No," Leed said firmly. "I cannot be a good ruler. This I know. So I
turn the honor aside to one more worthy."
"Your brother?" King Frane asked in disbelief. "Taroon is soft. He
has no head for leadership. Who would follow him? As soon as he was picked
up from that awful planet, I sent him back to school, where he belongs."
"You do not give him a chance," Leed said.
"I don't have to!" King Frane said, his voice rising again. "I am
king! I c
hoose! And I choose my firstborn, as my mother chose me, as my
grandfather chose her!"
Leed did not answer. His mouth set stubbornly.
King Frane did not speak for a moment. Father and son faced each
other. Neither flinched.
Obi-Wan glanced at Qui-Gon, but as usual the Jedi gave no clue as to
what he was thinking. He was merely waiting for the situation to resolve
itself as it would. He was so calm! Obi-Wan could feel the tension coiling
inside him. He sought for the Jedi composure and could not find it. He
could only find confusion.
At last King Frane spoke. "This discussion is over," he said stiffly.
"I will not accept disloyalty and betrayal. You must take up your legacy.
My son must rule after me. I am doing what is right for you."
"You can't make me do this," Leed said firmly.
King Frane's laughter had a harsh sound. Obi-Wan tried to listen as
Qui-Gon would. He realized that the laughter was fueled by bewilderment and
hurt, not contempt. "Of course I can! I am king!"
"What about Yaana?" Qui-Gon spoke up. "We have brought Leed to you.
Now you must deliver your part of the bargain and free her."
"I made no bargain," King Frane said, his eyes glinting dangerously.
"But you did," Qui-Gon said steadily.
"Well, perhaps I did, but I am breaking it," King Frane said,
watching Qui-Gon warily.
"Yaana stays in custody until Leed agrees to begin royal training."
"So that is how you'll force me!" Leed cried. "You'll hold an
innocent girl hostage! You are no better than a bully!"
King Frane's expression instantly changed to rage. "Yes, I will do
this," he bellowed furiously. "Have you not been listening, you fool? I am
king! I can do what I want. I know what is best for Rutan!"
King Frane stalked off, followed by his cluster of advisors and
guards. Leed gazed after him, a look of disgust on his face.
"You see why I did not want to return?" he said. "He has found a way
to keep me here against my will."
"So it appears," Qui-Gon said neutrally. "What do you mean?" Drenna
asked.
"If we return Yaana to her father, King Frane has nothing to bargain
with. He will have to face Leed as father to son, not king to subject."
"But she's in prison," Drenna objected.
"That is the difficulty," Qui-Gon agreed.
"Not necessarily," Leed said slowly. "I think I know how to break her
out."
CHAPTER 13
"I'll explain on the way," Leed said. "I know where Yaana is being
held. Can we take your transport?"
Qui-Gon nodded. "Let's go."
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Obi-Wan murmured to Qui-Gon
as Leed and Drenna hurried ahead. "We're not supposed to break the laws of
a planet."
"Well, we're with the prince," Qui-Gon observed. "Officially, he's
now in royal training. We have his permission."
"But if we help Leed, we'll be taking sides," Obi-Wan pointed out.
"No, we're rescuing a hostage," Qui-Gon corrected. "King Frane has no
right to hold Yaana in prison. She's only ten years old."
Obi-Wan fell silent. There were times when he had to struggle with
Qui-Gon's decisions. His caution would lead him to choose a different way.
But it was at such times that he was learning to let go and trust his
Master. He knew that it was unjust to hold the girl.
"Don't worry, Padawan," Qui-Gon told him. "I am beginning to see how
this situation can be resolved." He smiled. "We just have to break someone
out of prison first."
"That's all?" Obi-Wan said. He returned Qui-Gon's smile. Whenever
they got out of rhythm, Qui-Gon managed to get them together again, either
with a small joke or a gentle correction.
Obi-Wan jumped into the pilot seat of the starship. On Leed's
direction, he punched in the coordinates for the landing platform on the
outskirts of the city, close to the prison.
"So tell us why you think you have a way to rescue Yaana," Qui-Gon
said to Leed as soon as they were under way.
"It was last summer on my visit," Leed began. "I was already trying
to tell my father that I preferred Senali to Rutan. Of course he wouldn't
listen. There was a grand hunt that day, and I refused to participate. So
he threw me in prison."
Qui-Gon looked at him, startled. Drenna gasped.
Leed gave a faint smile. "Just for a day. He said it was for my royal
training. So that I would know how Rutan treated its prisoners. It wasn't
too bad. Of course everyone knew who I was, so I was given the best cell
and no one mistreated me. But an interesting thing happened while I was
there. A bird got into the exhaust system and began to fly around the
place. It kept tripping the sensors. The guards could not seem to catch it
or shoot it, and the sensors kept alerting the main system that a massive
prison breakout was in progress. It took them awhile to figure out it was
the bird - at first they thought the system had been triggered by a
prisoner. But every time they checked out a sensor and did a cell check,
everything was fine. The problem was that the system calls for an automatic
notification to the king's guard when there is trouble at the prison. My
father kept getting notification that a major breakout was going on, and
then was told that it was nothing. The hunt was disrupted, and he was
furious. They finally had to confess a bird was tripping it. He told the
prison to turn off the system and catch the bird, or he'd fire every single
one of them."
Drenna laughed. "I like the idea of one tiny creature causing all
that trouble."
Leed grinned at her. "I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it
myself. They turned off the system until they caught the bird. Everyone
forgot about me - I was in the warden's office, since they were about to
release me. That's when I noticed something. When the guards change shifts,
they remove their weapons belts if they are leaving and the guards on the
new shift buckle on their own weapons belts. They do this in the weapons
supply room, which is kept locked. When they shut the system down, the
weapons supply room goes into automatic lockdown. That's in case there's a
real breakout. They don't want the prisoners to get access to weapons."
Qui-Gon had already reached Leed's conclusion. "So if the system was
shut down during a changeover, there would only be a reduced guard staff on
duty with no access to additional weapons."
"Three guards per block, to be exact," Leed said, nodding. "It's a
flaw in the system. I tried to tell my father upon my return, but... well,
let's just say he wasn't in the mood to listen."
"I don't understand," Drenna said. "How can we get a bird to invade
the system?"
Qui-Gon smiled. "We don't need a bird. I think Leed has an idea."
"When I arrived, they pretended I was a lawbreaker, just as my father
wanted," Leed said, leaning forward with his excitement. "I was led to the
booking area, then the holding cell. I had to pass at least ten to fifteen
sensors during the whole process." Leed looked at Drenna. "Who has the best
ai
m on Senali?"
"You do," she said promptly.
He shook his head, smiling. "Who tied for first place with me last
year in the All-World Games?"
"I did," she said with a grin. "Almost beat you, too."
"You'll be our bird," he said. "All you need is this." He handed her
a tiny dart shooter. "With some Jedi help, and a bit of bluffing on my
part, I think we can bring this off. You can shoot darts at the sensors as
you move through the hallways." He reached in a pocket of his tunic and
withdrew some darts. They were tiny and made of transparent material.
"These will stick in the wall, but no one will be able to see them."