I steeled myself. I liked sleeping at night.
I was about to stand from my hiding spot to do something,anything, as a distraction—
The body of the Rodian twitched, and his hand shot up to snag my wrist, keeping me hidden. “Always check for a pulse,” he rasped, and from inside his vest he pulled out a blaster.
Oh.
CHAPTER TWO
The Chase
To be honest, I panicked.
There really wasn’t another explanation for it. One second I was staring down at a not-dead Rodian with a blaster in his hand, the next I was diving for the floor as he roared to his feet, taking shot after shot at the men.
Two went down immediately.
Two more ducked for cover.
Using the commotion, the Wild Spacer slammed his head into the man with the blaster aimed at his stomach, so hard I heard the crack of a broken nose from where I was. The man stumbled back, blood gushing down his face. Then the Wild Spacer kicked a shelf where one of the men had taken cover. It toppled over, spilling holobooks and cheap gadgets onto the ground.
I scrambled to my feet.
Mr. Baelor shouted,“Run!”
The leader lifted his blaster and, spinning toward theshopkeeper, took aim. I shrieked. It was all I could do. I was too far away, and he was too fast with his trigger finger. The Rodian couldn’t even aim before the leader shot him square in the chest. He crumpled to the ground.
Then the leader turned his pistol on me.
I was going to die.
Suddenly, a blur dropped from a grate in the ceiling and landed on his head. It was a creature, sort of wide and bulky. It trilled triumphantly as it clawed at the leader’s hair and ears, gnawing with angry teeth. The man yelped and tried to throw it off, but every time he grabbed for it, the swift creature dodged to the other side. And then back again. It cackled, like this was a game.
Someone grabbed my wrist. Without thinking, I swung my hand wildly, connecting with their face. The Wild Spacer yelped in pain. I now understood what that man had meant about his eyes being strange. They were disorienting on a human face. Completely black, save for specks of white that gave the illusion of a night sky. He touched his reddening cheek. “You slapped me!”
“Well you startled me!”
“But you—argh!Chuba,” he cursed, “thatstings.” Shaking it off, he set his mouth into a thin line and took me by the arm as if he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to.“Run,”he advised, and pulled me away.
I stumbled, catching sight of the Rodian on the ground.Check for a pulse, I thought, hoping he was still alive, but with a blaster shot that close…
The Wild Spacer tugged me to move, so I did as he’d said.
I ran.
The next few moments were a blur. Leaving the shop. The door slamming behind us. The humid, smoggy market air.
There was one inalienable fact about Coruscant, however: If you wanted to get anywhere fast, you never took your own feet. The market was loud and congested. We wove and bobbed between groups of people, and I remembered reading something about this in one of Mom’s serials—
Wasn’t it easier to follow people when they tried to claw their way through a crowd, rather than when they tried to get lost in one?
“Slow down!” I cried, pulling at his hand.
He whipped his head back to me, his eyebrows high. He replied, incredulous,“No?”
I tugged his hand again. “Slowdown!”
“If you need me to carry you—”
