Chapter XX – Jedi: A Victory and a Debt
Like Ash, Luke seemed to have snatched a careful plan out of thin air in order to accomplish his quest. Unlike the phoenix, however, he harbored no secrets but divulged his plan in its entirety. At first I was somewhat skeptical – perhaps learning the creature was immune to both the Force and lightsabers had convinced me on some level that it was invincible – but the more he explained, the more certain I became that we could defeat our adversary.
"What a marvelous idea, Luke!" exclaimed Ash once he had described, in detail, what he had planned during the night. "But it seems too big a task for the seven of us…"
"That's why we need help," Luke replied, looking up as Logray entered the hut.
"Well?" he asked. "You called me? You have a plan?"
"Yes we do. And we'll need every pair of hands available to pull it off."
"Whatever you need shall be provided," Logray assured him. "You have the entire village and its resources at your disposal, son. Simply ask and it shall be done."
Luke nodded. "We're going to need rope…"
"I'll have Ewoks gather every length of rope available. If it is not enough, we will make more. Anything else?"
"Yes – we need a tree. A thick tree close to the ravine."
Here Logray paused, frowning slightly. "What do you plan on doing to this tree?"
Luke hesitated.
"Understand that we Ewoks respect the trees greatly," the Ewok magician explained. "They shelter us, provide for us, and in return we protect them from harm. They are, in effect, members of the tribe. We would no more harm a tree of our forests than you would take a knife to your own flesh and blood."
"And yet you live in wooden houses," Fett remarked, thunking the floorboards with a heel.
"Made from wood harvested from dead, sick, or damaged trees, hunter," Logray rejoined. "I ask again – will your plan entail harming the tree involved?"
Luke's gaze wandered off into a corner. "Yes."
Logray gave him a long, studious stare. Then he beckoned. "Come with me, Skywalker. The rest of you may accompany us if you wish."
Puzzled, we followed the sorcerer down to the forest floor and through the trees. Dew-soaked bracken and shrubbery dampened our clothes, and shafts of fiery sunrise slanted through the trees and seemed to ignite the ghostly patches of mist into roiling flames. The air was thick with the smell of wet earth, crushed plants, and decaying organic matter, so strong I could taste it through my mask. Somewhere in the distance a munyip gurgled a call to its brethren, and a korriba bugled a hunting cry.
At last we reached the ravine where the taozin resided. The beast was awake but motionless, crystal coils piled beneath staring, bottomless onyx eyes like those of a demon. Logray did not spare the monster a glance, but continued on until he reached the base of a tree. Robed in deepest green, as thick around as the leg of an AT-AT walker, its branches spread open like the roof of a cathedral, it was a princely specimen, one that would have put any tree in the Imperial gardens to shame. A ring of smooth river stones that alternated between white and black encircled its base, and smaller colored pebbles had been arranged in archaic symbols and runes within that circle.
Unexpectedly, the ring throbbed warmly. I touched the tree with the Force, wondering what could have set off the ring, and was startled to note that considerable power was emanating, not from the tree, but from the ground below it. The very earth here seemed to bleed energy…
"What you see," Logray explained, "is an Ewok's soul tree… or, more specifically, my soul tree. It is the belief of my people that, when an Ewok dies, his soul is reunited with his soul tree, providing an eternal resting place. Without the soul tree, an Ewok's spirit would be condemned to wander Endor for all time." He paused at the very edge of the stone ring. "When I was of the age to plant my soul tree, I selected this very spot for an important reason. Ash, can you tell us why?"
"It is a Place of Power," she explained. "A location where powerful magics and energies converge and pool, where even the most inexperienced magic wielders can draw on the powers here and put them to use."
Nightwind sniffed experimentally. "Don't smell magic."
Logray laughed good-naturedly. "It is not something you can detect with your five ordinary senses, young creature. It takes listening with your spirit."
The acklay cocked his head. "I don't get it."
"Are Places of Power common?" asked Tuck.
"No," Logray replied, "but they are found all over the galaxy. The tree cavern on Dagobah, the sacred springs of the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine, the great stones of Stonehenge on Earth… Even the original Jedi Temple was built upon a Place of Power. And if the Jedi had not moved their headquarters to another part of the planet, their temple would have been an impregnable fortress, fortified with magic against the Sith."
Luke knelt and placed a hand on the ground within the stone circle. "Why plant your soul tree here, then?"
"To keep the young scamps of the village from discovering this spot and working mischief," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "They keep their distance from my soul tree, and in doing so the Place of Power is not abused." He smiled amusedly at Luke. "I'd move your hand if I were you…"
Luke jerked his hand back with a yelp. "Ow! Something bit me!"
Logray chuckled. "Just a minor shock, son. A warning to not underestimate the powers at work here."
"Why are you showing us this?" demanded Fett, totally unimpressed as usual. "I thought you were going to help…"
"Patience, hunter," Logray advised. "This is an important part of your plan, is it not?"
The blow of realization came to me. "You're sacrificing your soul tree?"
He smiled. "Why not?"
"But what about your soul?" asked Jessa, stunned. "You said…"
"You forget that I am a sorceror, like the Shadow," Logray replied. "I am immortal, unless I choose to die. I would probably outlive my soul tree anyhow, so why not give it to your cause? And perhaps by using this tree, which roots itself in earth saturated with powerful magic, you can be assured of victory."
"Thank you, Master Logray," I told him, giving a respectful bow. "Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."
The wizard glanced down into the canyon, where the taozin was untangling its many legs and coils and clashing its jaws ravenously. "If it saves us all, then no price is too great. No price."
Break…
After Logray delivered a rousing speech to the village, explaining that the heroic sacrifice of one of the trees would bring about the monster's death, we had overwhelming support and a seemingly endless supply of volunteers. The few who disapproved of destroying any tree for any reason, let alone a soul tree, went generally ignored. It was a relief to know that we would not be viewed as barbarians for doing harm to a sacred relic.
Luke set the Ewoks to work at once, bringing in rope from the village and knotting ends together to form longer lengths. When they had a sufficient length, one end of the rope would be tied to Logray's soul tree, the rope pulled taut, and the other end would be fixed to an adjacent tree or staked into the ground. Soon the tree had so many lines connected to it that it resembled the web of a massive, deranged spider.
Then Luke sent a team of the more agile Ewoks, led by Jessa, directly into the branches of the tree. They began cutting the branches on the side of the tree facing the ravine, lopping some off and sharpening others to cruel points. Other Ewoks, with the aid of Nightwind and their own beasts of burden, cleared away the fallen branches, some getting hopelessly entangled in the maze of ropes. As a result, Fett, Tuck, and I spent more of my time "rescuing" either Nightwind or trapped Ewoks and horses than doing anything to hasten the plan.
"Whatever you're doing," muttered Chief Chirpa, scratching his white-furred head, "it is beyond my understanding."
"Have faith, my old friend," Logray chided before any of us could retort. "These people know what they are doing."
Two days into the project, however, we hit a snag – the villages supply of rope had been exhausted.
"We've already used enough rope to tie down a rancor," Fett noted, high-stepping to avoid tripping over a line. "Shouldn't this be enough?"
"I just want to be cautious," Luke told him. "Logray, is it difficult to make rope?"
"Not difficult," Logray replied. "All it takes is a few minutes of instruction and time – a great deal of some of the most maddeningly boring time you'll ever see pass by."
The Ewok sorcerer did not exaggerate in the least. Luke insisted that we help with this project as much as we could, which meant all of us – save Nightwind and Ash, spared due to their lack of hands – were drafted into the mind-numbing task of ropemaking. One might think that the knowledge that the work of your hands would be used to defeat a hideous monster would be enough to make the chore interesting, but in reality, once the novelty of trying something new has worn off (which takes all of a few minutes), the brain settles into a deep torpor even as the hands keep working. And the job quickly goes from monotonous to impossibly frustrating when, inevitably, the rope gets snarled…
After untold hours of this madness, I was almost relieved when the ring gave a painful, urgent stab and a frightened clamor rang through the area.
"The beast! It awakens!"
The fearsome insectoid head and no less than four pairs of legs emerged from the ravine, jaws like jagged pieces of glass gaping open. Fett and Tuck drew blasters and opened fire, but the bolts did little more than blotch the beast's shell. The Ewoks immediately dropped whatever they were doing and began hurling stones and spears, most of which bounced harmlessly off the creature's transparent armor. A single spear lodged itself in a gap between two plates of armor, and with an annoyed hiss the taozin curled around, grasped the shaft, yanked it free, and shattered it with a single flex of its jaws.
I ignited my lightsaber. The blade might not inflict much damage, but perhaps the simple threat of pain would dissuade the beast…
A stream of gray matter shot from the creature's maw, pinning an Ewok to the ground and enveloping him in a stringy, sticky mass. The other Ewoks renewed their attack, but the creature seemed to hardly notice.
Then an unearthly scream rent the air as someone totally unexpected bolted forward to rescue our fallen comrade.
The taozin rasped angrily as a jet-black stallion, larger by far than most of its brethren, interposed itself between the incapacitated Ewok and the monster. Rearing and screaming again, he lashed out with heavy forehooves, one hoof catching the monster between the eyes and cracking the shell. Screeching in outrage, it struck, snake-like, slashing open ebony hide and the muscle beneath…
Nightwind charged, forelegs raised, howling a battle cry.
"Get back!" I ordered, but the acklay was past hearing. He stood over the pinioned Ewok and injured horse, straddling them beneath him as he faced the taozin. The beast's head snaked back, and it fired a stream of its binding matter at Nightwind. The substance plastered his chest and flowed over his back in a shaggy gray mass, but he was too big for a single blast to incapacitate. The taozin surged forward to bite, but Nightwind brought a foreleg down upon its back with such force that it punched through the armor and sank into flesh, watery blood flowing from the wound. With an enraged hiss the taozin shrank back, accepting defeat for the time being, and slipped back into the ravine.
Ewoks swarmed forward to cut their shaken but unhurt comrade from his bindings. I ran to Nightwind's side, still stunned by his attack.
"Are you hurt?" I asked.
Nightwind panted, eyes wide and staring and aglow with the thrill of battle, teeth still bared in a snarling grin, strings of gray matter still hanging from his body. It was a moment before the wildness faded from his eyes and he turned to look at me.
"Fought it," he breathed, awed. "Fought it and wounded it. It'll be more careful from now on." He craned his neck about and began tearing away the sticky material. "Not hurt… but the horse is. See to it."
One look at the stallion, however, confirmed my gut instincts – the creature was gravely wounded, too seriously wounded for the ring alone to heal. The taozin's jaws had cut the shoulder to the bone and severed the muscles powering the foreleg, and the deep gashes glistened and gaped like hungry mouths. I was able to seal the blood vessels and halt the bleeding, but it would take a greater power than mine to knit the sliced tissues together again.
"We will see to it," Chirpa assured me. "Our medicine woman is an expert at stitching skin together. She can help this heroic animal."
Yes, but what could she do about damaged muscle? Under the best of circumstances, the animal would be lame for the rest of its life. The one stroke of luck was that the horse lived on Endor, among the Ewoks, who would care for it regardless of its condition. On any other planet, he would have been put down almost at once, for most owners had no use for a creature that was unfit for labor or show.
But soon thoughts of the stallion were far from my mind as the project continued. Logray's soul tree now had so many ropes attached to it that one would think it would shoot into space like an antique rocket were it not tied down. The branches on the side of the tree facing the ravine were gone, giving the tree a weirdly lopsided look. Instead, an array of wicked spikes jutted from the trunk, some as long as a landspeeder.
At long last Luke called a halt to the work. "Done. We're ready to see if this works."
"May the Force be with us," murmured Tuck.
By now the sun had nearly descended below the horizon, casting everything in hues of crimson and purple. The sky seemed afire, brilliant splashes of orange and red staining the clouds. The play of shadow and light upon the ground gave everything a haunting look, as if we had stepped out of the forest of Endor and onto a battlefield. And in a sense, we had.
Two of the strongest Ewoks stepped forward and, after murmuring pleas of forgiveness to the tree, sank their axes into the bark. Their thick arms pumped furiously as they cut away at the hard wood, filling the air with wood chips and the sharp smell of pine sap.
The tree shuddered, then shifted to one side.
"It's falling the wrong way," Luke cautioned. "Cut at the other side. We have to direct its fall."
The woodsmen obeyed. As they worked, other Ewoks edged as far to the lip of the ravine as they dared, tossing debris and garbage at the taozin in the hopes of goading it into another attack.
"Stop!" Luke ordered. "Any more, and the ropes won't be able to keep it up."
The woodsmen stepped back. The entire tree quivered dangerously, its base so badly weakened that it seemed the slightest touch would cause the entire thing to topple. The ropes groaned and shivered with the strain, just barely holding the tree upright.
The taozin reacted with an unholy screech, and the Ewoks scattered as its fearsome, ugly head rose into view again. This time, however, it did not remain in the canyon but lurched upward, dragging its bulk up and over the edge.
Perfect.
"Now!" Luke shouted, and ignited his saber.
Every Ewok drew axes, knives, and spears and sliced at the ropes on the side of the tree opposite the taozin. Ash closed her beak around a line, and it parted instantly. I drew my own blade and slashed through three lines at a time. Fett and Tuck sawed at the ropes with vibroblades, and Jessa hacked at those closest to her with her own claws.
All support on our side gone, the tree fell, first with a horrible agonizing slowness, then gaining momentum as it hurtled toward the monster. Totally oblivious to everything but its prey, the beast did not sense its oncoming doom until the arboreal giant slammed atop it, striking it halfway down its body and crushing and impaling it. It screamed again and thrashed violently, its claws shredding the ground, its body striking neighboring trees with enough force to strip off great sheets of bark, but to no avail. It was trapped.
A victorious roar rose from the Ewoks when, at long last, the taozin ceased thrashing and lay still in the torn earth. Their foe was dead at last.
Luke breathed a great sigh of relief. "It worked."
"Of course it worked," Logray chided. "How could it not have worked with both magic and the Force on your side?"
Luke smiled. "I've been thinking, Master Logray, about what you said the other day."
Logray nodded, apparently expecting this.
"You were right," he went on. "There still is a Jedi left."
Logray smiled.
Break…
The Ewoks insisted on dragging the corpse of the taozin into the upper levels of their village for the victory celebration, propping it up on great poles to simulate an attacking pose. The effect was unexpectedly comical, unfortunately, for in death the creature looked less like a terrible monster and more like a badly made child's toy. Looking at it now, it seemed almost laughable to be afraid of such a ludicrous monster.
Of course, we all knew better.
I stayed at the fringes of the festivities, letting Luke get the attention he deserved. The Ewoks recognized him as the mastermind behind the plan, and they constantly plied him with food and eager questions. And when Chief Chirpa bestowed a gift upon him – a leather headdress with a pair of blue bird's wings sewn in – he accepted it gratefully. And much to the surprise of our company, he wore it for most of the night, enduring Jessa's merciless teasing with considerable grace.
Sometime during the course of the night, however – I'll never know exactly when – the ring burned. It was drawing me down, to the forest floor…
I slipped away, unnoticed, and descended one of the many ladders to the forest floor. I followed the path to the site of our battle with the taozin, guided by the ring. With every step the ring seemed to gather power, glowing like a torch to light my way, pulsing in time to my heartbeat…
There remained naught of Logray's soul tree but a ragged stump, still bleeding pine sap. And standing at that stump, gazing at me with pain-filled, unexpectedly intelligent brown eyes, was the stallion who had been wounded defending his master that very afternoon.
I raised my hand, feeling the ring's power course through me. "I speak your language."
The stallion nodded its head. "I know."
"I cannot heal your wounds. They are too great for my power alone."
"I know."
The circle of stones stood intact about the tree, and the moment I set foot within that circle I felt my entire body shiver with an unspeakable force. The Place of Power…
"But perhaps, with the aid of another power, I can help you."
The stallion bowed his head. "Do what you will, Bearer of the Ring of my immortal brethren…"
The power beneath my feet flowed through me, melding with the power of the ring. I placed my hands upon the horse's shoulder, feeling the ravaged muscles shudder at my touch. Where the skin had been crudely stitched back together I placed the palm of my left hand, and I willed the torn tissues to grow, to renew themselves, to bind themselves together and become as before and better…
The entire forest seemed to shimmer gold and silver, and I staggered with the force of the power as it poured through me and into the stallion. I pulled my hands back, revealing glossy black hide that bore no trace of a scar, let alone a crippling injury.
The stallion twisted his head around and touched my shoulder with his nose, sighing deeply. "You have given me a great gift. I will never forget this."
"It was my duty," I replied, stepping out of the Place of Power, more than willing to let the arcane magic go back to its proper place. "I could not let you suffer. Not while I wore the ring."
The horse snorted and tossed his head. "Upon my back, Bearer of the Ring. I will show you my world, show you what you have saved from our foes, and you will never forget…"
I sat astride the great stallion, and with a triumphant cry he burst into a full gallop, plunging through the trees effortlessly, with neither thought nor fear of a collision. I lay low across his shoulders, both to cut wind resistance and to avoid being knocked off by a stray branch. I could feel the powerful muscles bunching and stretching beneath me as we raced through the forest, feel the raw energy of his body, the tensing and sudden release of power as he leaped an obstacle…
Abruptly the forest ended, and as one we thundered across a great plain that gleamed silver beneath the starlight. Onward and onward, conscious of nothing but the thrill of the race, seeming for several heart-stopping moments to almost lift off the ground and fly over the plains and into the stars…
"For helping me, this is your reward," he intoned as solemnly as a prayer. "For helping our people, our herd, something is still owed. Watch well, Bearer of the Ring, for there will come a day when our kind will help you as you helped us…"
Break…
I told no one of my sojourn with the horse as we packed our supplies and departed the next morning, not even Luke. It seemed intensely personal, something sacred between myself and the stallion, as ludicrous as it seemed. I doubted I would even tell the Shadow of this.
"And then there were two," remarked Jessa cryptically. "What's the next stop on our agenda?"
"Not a clue," Fett replied. "Back to the ship, I suppose… unless the ring has other ideas?" The last he said with only the faintest trace of sarcasm.
I was about to reply, but a strange prompting from the ring urged me to look up.
"That," I told the others, raising my hand to point at an incoming ship. "That is our next stop."
"Are you sure?" asked Luke skeptically.
"Absolutely," I replied. "I do not know who pilots that ship, only that it will take us to our next quest."
No one spoke as the ship – a Republic-era cruiser that had been modified to include an extensive weaponry system – landed at the edge of the forest and dropped its loading ramp.
