Darkest Knight

17

The forest darkness was so thick Jaina could practically taste it. She followed the agile Chewbacca more by sound than by any other sense, finding herself relying more and more on the Force to guide her hands and feet. The air was cooler here below the canopy. Jaina shivered, though she doubted it was entirely because of the drop in temperature.

With his sharp Wookiee vision, Chewie led the way without hesitation. He barked an occasional warning about a patch of slippery moss or a weak branch. Neither made any great attempt to keep quiet: their one concern was to catch up with their friends before it was too late.

Gradually Jaina’s eyesight adjusted enough that she could make out the shadowy forms of tree trunks, black against deep gray. It wasn’t much to go by, but it helped. Chewbacca made a snuffling sound and gave a low woof of triumph.

“They came this direction?” she asked.

He yipped an affirmative. Their smells were here. He detected four … no, five of them, as well as a faint smell of metal. Jaina decided he must be picking up on Em Teedee. Chewie growled low in his throat, muttering about other smells too: plasteel, burned branches, the thunderstorm-smell of ozone from blaster discharges.

Jaina’s heart skipped a beat. “Definitely sounds like the Nightsisters brought stormtroopers down here with them.”

Chewbacca increased his speed, following the fresh trail. Once Jaina misjudged the spacing and almost fell between a pair of tree branches that were farther apart than she’d thought. “Chewie, I can barely see,” she said.

With a chuff of understanding, the Wookiee stopped briefly, rummaged through the emergency pack he had taken from the fabrication facility, and pulled out a small mesh jar. Jaina recognized a phosflea lure. He broke the seal.

Moments later, as if the glowing specks had materialized directly from the air, the lure’s surface was covered with tiny phosphorescent insects. Chewbacca fastened the lure to a strap around Jaina’s waist. The “light” now shed a pinkish glow directly in front of her that swirled like a comet’s tail as she moved along.

Chewbacca pointed below Jaina to a freshly broken branch and the burned scoring from weapon fire. The others had come this way.

“You’re right,” Jaina said. “I can feel them, not too far ahead.”

The Wookiee helped her across the broad gap and they resumed their descent. Jaina climbed after him, watching handholds and footholds more carefully now as the glowing phosfleas lit her way. A feeling of dread mounted more strongly within her as they descended to each deeper level. She could feel the weight of the overlying forest pressing down on them.

Unseen predators bounded across leafy limbs, pursuing their quarries; the shriek of victims fallen in the endless hunt echoed through the thick labyrinth of branches. Smaller creatures chirped, buzzed, and chittered. None of them sounded friendly to her.

Jaina knew that her friends were good fighters, but she knew, too, that even Lowie, the strongest of all of them, feared the jungles of Kashyyyk. That alone was cause for worry, but the young Jedi Knights and Sirra had more to fear than the deadly plants and animals that populated the lowest levels of the forest.

Jaina could feel that something was about to happen. “No time to lose!” she urged. She picked up her pace. Chewbacca, sensing her urgency, did the same, barely taking time to rest his foot on one limb before bounding down to a lower branch.

In the distance Jaina heard a shout, a human voice that sounded loud and chilling, mixed with the wild noises. When she stopped to look in that direction, she saw flickers of light and heard the sizzle of blaster fire.

Just then, the rotting branch beneath her feet creaked and threatened to give way. In her haste, she had not bothered to check the branch before stepping on it. Chewbacca spun and reached out to pull her to safety on a thicker branch closer to the trunk. She scrambled for purchase.

But the whole side of the wroshyr tree must have been weakened by rot or disease, for at that moment the bough on which the large Wookiee stood gave way as well. Snapping and popping, the gnarled wood dropped out from beneath him.

Jaina watched, her mouth open in a silent scream, as Chewbacca plummeted, crashing into the darkness below.