Dragging Luke across the ground with TK, throwing Luke into a grotto wall with a stream of lightning, reading Luke's thoughts with such clarity that Luke had to not think about something to keep Taalon from finding out about it, and holding his own briefly in a lightsaber duel with Luke with the assistance of a lesser Sith.
“Jedi treachery!” Khai extended a hand and used a blast of Force energy to splash the image away, then turned to glare at Ben. “I should have
killed you days aaah—”
Khai’s threat came to a startled end as he went sailing across the Pool. He slammed into the far wall of the grotto and remained there, pinned in
place by the invisible hand of the Force.
“Days ago, Gavar, you might have had a chance to succeed,” Luke said, stepping to the pool. “Now that the odds are more even, you’d do well to
avoid threatening my son.” He glanced over at Ben and flashed a quick smile, then added, “The next time, he just might take you seriously.” Wondering if this was his father’s way of starting the fight thathad to be coming, Ben pivoted around to guard their flank. But the other two Sith appeared less concerned with the developing situation than with the undulating surface of the pool. Taalon was kneeling at the edge of the water,
scowling down at the broken reflection of what might have been a large white throne. Vestara was standing at the High Lord’s shoulder, apparently unaware of—or unconcerned by—her father’s predicament.
Taalon waved a hand over the pool, using the Force to still the shimmering waters, and Ben’s heart climbed into his throat. Sitting on the throne, wearing a simple aurodium crown, was a slender red-headed woman. She looked a lot like Tenel Ka, except that she had two arms and a small, button-ended nose that clearly came from the Solo line. Hanging from the belt of her gown was a long, curved lightsaber with a rancor clawin the hilt, and standing guard around her, with their weapons drawn and ignited, were a dozen Jedi Knights representing a dozen different species. One of those Jedi, the human, had the same square chin and wavy red hair that Ben had seen in his own reflection just a fewminutes earlier.
Taalon turned to glare at Ben. “Who is she?”
Ben shrugged, trying to calm himself and still his Force aura before he answered. A dark fury came instantly to Taalon’s eyes, and Ben realized that the High Lord already knewthat he intended to lie.
“Uh, Dad?”
A lightsaber snapped to life behind him, and Ben realized no further explanation was required. Knowing he would have only one chance to stop Taalon before Taalon stopped him, he jerked his own weapon off his belt. He stepped forward, rolling the hilt around for an overhand strike and angling left to force Vestara to pivot out of his attack path.
But Vestara did not react as expected to the sound of the igniting lightsaber. Her mouth simply gaped open, and her green eyes locked on the sizzling blade in disbelief and confusion. Ben brought his free hand around to trap her weapon arm against her flank and push her aside when she tried to counterattack.
No counterattack came. Vestara’s expression merely melted into disappointment, and her gaze slid away, filled with sorrow and surrender. A cold, sick weight filled Ben inside as he realized what she was thinking, that their flirtations had meant nothing to him and he had planned to kill her all along. Ben drewup short and, unable to reach past her to strike at Taalon, whirled around behind her.
A loud splash echoed through the cavern, and Ben knew he was too late. He came around with his lightsaber in both hands, at middle guard between him and Vestara. She had finally taken her own weapon in hand and stood prepared to defend herself, but she still appeared more puzzled than ready. A couple of meters to their side, Ben was vaguely aware of his own father diving toward the far side of the cavern, and the delicate clinkle of Gavar Khai’s shikkar shattering on the stone floor behind him.
Vestara tensed to spring, confused no longer. Ben sprang forward, swinging his lightsaber at her forward knee. She ignited her own blade and flipped it down to block; then a hardness came to her eyes and her parang began to rise from its sheath.
Ben was already snapping his hips around, launching a vicious roundhouse kick at her sore shoulder. “Out of my way!”
The blowcaught her high on the arm, driving her injured shoulder up toward her head. There was a loud pop, and Vestara staggered away, one arm hanging limp. Ben stepped to the edge of the pool and, belowits surface, sawTaalon’s dark-robed figure swimming underwater toward the far end. Ben stepped after him, gathering himself to dive.
“Ben, no!” His father Force-shoved him back. “Take—”
The order vanished beneath a deafening crackle, and suddenly the blinding blue flicker of Force lightning filled the grotto. Ben pulled his blaster with his free hand and traced the dancing forks to their source on the far side of the pool, where Gavar Khai crouched on the stone floor spraying bolts at Luke.
Ben squeezed his blaster trigger half a dozen times and sawKhai slam into the cavern wall with smoke rising from his robes and armor. He sensed danger, turned to his side and sawVestara flying at him, her blade weaving baskets of crimson light as she whirled it through an attack pattern.
Ben turned the blaster on her, then had to ignite his own blade to deflect the bolts she sent flying back toward his head. They met half a heartbeat later, the power of Vestara’s attack driving his guard down despite her injury and smaller size.
He dropped flat on his back, then aimed his blaster up behind her guard and squeezed off three quick bolts. She threwher chin back, and that was all the opening Ben needed to spring up and land a Force-enhanced elbowstrike to her solar plexus.
Vestara went flying back ... and slammed Taalon in the flank as he came leaping out of the water. The pair cartwheeled sideways, the High Lord filling the air with curses until they slammed into a wall. Taalon rose to his knees, then Ben sawa fist rise and fall, and Vestara groaned in pain.
Luke was on the pair instantly, his lightsaber droning and sparking as he pounded at Taalon’s defenses. Determined to finish the High Lord while they had the advantage, Ben rushed to join his father.
On the other side of the pool, Gavar Khai’s dark figure struggled up and limped toward the fight. For an instant, Ben wondered whether he had seen Taalon strike Vestara—and whether a father’s anger might be enough to turn a Sith against his Lord.
Then Khai’s parang floated from its sheath and came spinning across the pool toward Ben. He brought his lightsaber around to block ... and only managed to slice the glass weapon in two. The hilt went tumbling away and shattered against a wall. But Khai still held the blade in his Force control, and it came swinging back toward Ben. He tried to twist away and felt the broken shard push between his ribs. His flank erupted in fiery pain, and his breath left him in an anguished gasp.
Knowing what was coming next, Ben whirled to face Khai—and found his lightsaber slicing through empty air as Khai leapt toward his father and Taalon. Ben dropped his blaster and extended his hand, intending to Force-slam Khai into the grotto wall. The Sith countered with a Force shove of his own, hurling Ben back toward the grotto entrance.
“Dad!” Ben’s voice was a raspy croak. “Behind ... you!”
He should have known better than to worry. As Khai ignited his lightsaber, Luke was already ducking and reaching up to grab a passing ankle. With a quick, circular jerk, he brought Khai smashing down on Taalon and Vestara. Then he rolled his blade around, brought it down, and sent a Sith forearm sliding across the grotto floor. Whom it had belonged to, Ben could not tell.
In the next instant his father was riding a bolt of Force lightning into the grotto wall beside him. Ben ignited his lightsaber and shoved the blade into the crackling energy, disrupting the current and freeing his father.
“Dad, arrraagh—” The question came to an anguished end as the glass lodged in Ben’s side grated against his ribs. Being careful to grab it by the dull side, he reached over and jerked out the shard. “Dad, are you—”
“Go.” Ben felt his father’s hand on his shoulder, shoving him toward the exit. “Fast.”
Ben obeyed instantly, his chest filling with fire as he dashed for the exit. His father was only two steps behind him, but once they had cleared the mouth of the grotto, Luke stopped and reignited his lightsaber. Thinking the Sith were in hot pursuit, Ben turned to fight—and found his father hacking at one of the pillars beneath the entrance’s massive lintel.
“Dad, wait—”
“Go!” Luke hacked another chunk from the column. “Hurry.”
Ben made no move to obey. “But ... Vestara’s in there.” The act of speaking filled his chest with fire, and he couldn’t get air, but he forced himself to continue. “Taalon was beating—”
“She’ll survive.” The column snapped with a bang like a sonic boom, and one end of the lintel dropped, filling the entrance with rubble and dust. Luke whirled, cleaving through the opposite column with a single stroke, then continued around and started toward Ben. “You, I’m not so sure about.”