Read Online Star Wars - Kenobi by John Jackson Miller - Free Book Online Page B

“No need to go to Bestine.” She looked at some of the gear jutting from Rooh’s saddlebags. “You’re closer to the oasis.”
    “The Pika Oasis?” He scratched his beard. “I heard there was a shop there.”
    “Dannar’s Claim. Best store in the oasis.”
    “ Only store in the oasis,” Kallie piped in from behind.
    Annileen spoke without looking over her shoulder. “Girl, I hope you’re not talking again. Because if you are, you should be apologizing to me and to this man. And to the dewback you nearly killed.”
    Ben chuckled, and then stifled it. Annileen calculated he had kids of his own, or that he’d at least worked with them. He looked down at the eopie’s load. “This store. It has vaporator parts?”
    “Wouldn’t be much of a store without. And besides, you’re looking at the—”
    Before Annileen could continue, Ben’s expression changed. Suddenly alert, he held up his hand. “Wait,” he said, turning.
    All three fixed their eyes on Snit’s motionless body—and watched, as it began to descend, sinking in the sand. A groan came from beneath, and a tremor rocked the place they were standing.
    “I’m afraid that’s your sarlacc,” Ben said. Tendrils snaked upward, lashing around the huge form of the dewback.
    Annileen saw Ben reach for an object beneath his cloak, only to stop when he noticed her watching. She waved him off. “There’s no blasting at a sarlacc,” she said.
    “Perhaps you’re right.” The tentacles began straining at the dewback, pulling it downward. Ben grabbed at the lead on his startled eopie. Annileen hustled her daughter toward Vilas.
    Kallie looked back in anguish. “Snit—”
    “Comes out of your earnings,” Annileen said, shoving the girl onto Vilas’s saddle. She climbed in front. “And you hang on this time.”
    From atop Rooh, Ben paused to look in amazement at the disappearing beast. The appetite of a sarlacc was something no traveler could see and forget, Annileen knew.
    She wanted to ask where he was from, but it clearly wasn’t the time. “Thanks again! Maybe we’ll see you in the oasis!”
    Ben smiled mildly and nodded. “Maybe.” He pulled his cowl back over his head.
    “See you soon, Ben!” Kallie yelled, waving.
    Annileen rolled her eyes. So much for remorse over Snit. Beneath them, Vilas started walking, eager to get away from the new sarlacc pit.
    Remembering something, Annileen looked back at Ben, poised to head off to the southwest. “Hey!”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t catch your last name!”
    “Oh,” he said, only to tilt backward as Rooh broke into a sudden trot. “Sorry,” he said with an apologetic wave as the eopie ran. “I think she wants to get home!”
    No doubt, Annileen thought. She’s not alone!
    From behind a dune, A’Yark watched the trio part company.
    The warrior’s one good eye was very good, indeed, and the lens in the eyepiece could see far, when adjusted. Whoever had crafted it had done a useful thing with his or her existence. But A’Yark now doubted the work, because the eyepiece had seen something that made no sense at all.
    Just after the eopie-riding male had plucked the young female from the racing dewback—an impressive feat, to be certain—the out-of-control creature had tripped in a hole and flipped over, throwing the woman who was riding it. She should have been crushed by the dewback—but instead of falling on her, the beast had been caught by the air itself and actually hovered there, bobbing, for a second. It was as if the world itself had rejected the mad thing. Then it tumbled once in midair and fell away at an angle, coming to rest just shy of the woman’s body.
    The younger woman, partly hanging over the eopie’s saddle in the wrong direction, had not seen it. But the male rider had seen it happen—and was unfazed by it. Surprise was the one human expression all Tuskens learned to recognize. This man had not displayed any at all—not even when a giant