Free The Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader by Ryder Windham Page A

said. “These are good people, Padmé. You’ll be safe.”
    “Anakin…”
    They embraced. Anakin almost wished he could have frozen that moment, just to keep Padmé forever close to him. But darkness was coming up fast, and his mother was still out there somewhere. She’s alive, he felt. I know she is!
    Releasing himself from Padmé‘s arms, Anakin walked to the swoop bike. “I won’t be long,” he said. He swung himself onto the bike, fired the engine, and tore off across the desert floor.

    * * *

    With the hot wind whipping at his robe, Anakin crossed into the Jundland Wastes, where Tusken Raiders were known to hide and hunt among the towering rock formations. He didn’t wonder why the Tuskens had taken his mother, or why they hadn’t killed her as they had the other farmers. For all he knew, the Tuskens were acting out some profane ritual. Their motives were not his concern. He just wanted his mother back.
    He also wanted her back in one piece. He thought about what the Tuskens had done to Cliegg Lars, and he launched the bike faster over the Wastes.
    He was about 150 kilometers from the Lars homestead when he sighted the tall silhouettes of sandcrawlers against the twilight sky. It was a Jawa camp. Although Jawas feared Tusken Raiders as much as anyone on Tatooine, Anakin knew the small, glowing-eyed scavengers would be more willing to provide information if he gave something in return. In exchange for a multitool and a portable scanner that he found in his borrowed bike’s pannier, the Jawas told him he should head east to find a Tusken camp.
    Tatooine’s suns had long since set and the moons hung low over the horizon when Anakin saw the cluster of flickering campfires at the bottom of a deep valley. Leaving the swoop bike on the edge of a high cliff, he kept to the shadows as he ventured down into the valley and moved silently toward the camp.
    The camp consisted of about two dozen tents made of skins and salvaged bits of wood from Tatooine’s long-dead forests. Two Tuskens stood a short distance from one tent, guarding it. Anakin reached out with the Force and sensed his mother was inside. Without drawing any attention to himself, he maneuvered around to the back of the tent, used his lightsaber to cut a hole through the taut skin covering, and stepped inside.
    Anakin found his mother at the center of the tent, tied to a frame made of thin wooden sticks. A small fire burned in a nearby pot and cast warm, wicked shadows across the tent walls. Shmi wasn’t moving. Scared as a child, Anakin said, “Mom?” No response. He could see from the dried blood on her face and arms that she’d been terribly beaten. “Mom?” Still no response. She was barely alive. She moaned as he slipped her wrists free from the leather strips that had bound her to the frame. He gently lowered her to the ground, cradling her upper body in his arms. “Mom?”
    Shmi’s bruised eyelids fluttered open, and she struggled to focus on Anakin’s face. “Ani?” she muttered. “Is it you?”
    “I’m here, Mom,” he said. “You’re safe.” 
    “Ani? Ani?” She seemed confused, as if she were trying to figure out whether he really was there. Then, incredibly, she managed to smile at him. “Oh, you look so handsome.” She brushed her hand against his face, and he kissed her open palm. “My son. Oh, my grownup son. I’m so proud of you, Ani.”
    Anakin swallowed hard and felt the sting of tears in his eyes as he said, “I missed you.”
    “Now I am complete,” Shmi said. “I love y…”  Anakin tensed as her voice cut off. “Stay with me, Mom. Everything…”
    He’d wanted to tell her that everything was going to be fine. And he wanted to tell her so much more. But before he could say anything, Shmi said again, “I love…” Then her eyes closed and her head fell back. She died in his arms.
    Anakin sat there in stunned silence, just holding his mother. If I’d gotten here sooner, I could have saved her. He