NINETEEN

Enjoy her stay she did, at least as measured by the purely pleasurable expressions she wore when showing me up on our runs, or holding off one more remote than I possibly could at lightsaber practice. She might have been little accustomed to smiling, but she had a triumphant smirk down perfectly, and I got to study it enough to be able to etch it into stone from memory.

This fact was made all that more damning because we actually saw very little of each other. In the mornings we would run together, then Luke would concentrate on working with Mara much as he had with Kyp. That left Kam instructing the rest of us. After lunch we would listen to more Jedi lore from the Holocron, then Mara and I would practice with the lightsaber. While I was not her equal with the shimmering blade, we would have been closely enough matched to seriously hurt each other, so Kam just pitted us against remotes.

Kyp’s disappearance left the apprentices a bit uneasy. The arrival of a new apprentice, the Mon Calamari Ambassador, Cilghal, both brought relief from the dismal mood that had fallen over the students and linked us back to the rest of the galaxy. She told of Admiral Daala’s assault on Mon Calamari and the loss of one of her Star Destroyers, which was good news. The fact that pro-Imperial forces still existed out there also reinforced our resolve to become Jedi Knights, since the need for our presence was very clear.

Early one afternoon I sat in the common room, listening to Tionne practice her ballads and Mara Jade interrogating Cilghal for details about the Imperial assault on Mon Calamari, when Artoo rolled over and tugged on the shoulder of my robe with his pincer. He tootled briefly at me, then spun around and headed back out of the room. I followed him and, not surprisingly, he led me to Luke’s chambers.

Inside the door I caught the acrid scent of melted electronics. A blackened puddle of melted plasteel on the room’s table was the source of the stink. It still smoked and some of it appeared to still be liquid. I looked over toward where Luke sat on his bunk, his brows knotted with concentration.

“What happened?”

Luke glanced at the little droid. “Artoo, close the door.” He waited until the droid had complied with his wishes before continuing. “You remember I said I’d check the Holocron for more information on Exar Kun?”

“I do.”

“There was. Vodo-Siosk Baas was modeled on the Jedi that trained Exar Kun. I used him as a vector for my inquiries about what happened to Kun.” Luke fell silent for a moment. “Baas went to Coruscant, to speak to his disciple, to get him to return to the way of the Jedi. Kun killed him in the Senate Chamber.”

I drew in a deep breath through my nose. “That’s not good news.”

“No, it isn’t. When I asked what happened then …” He pointed mutely at the melted device. “In the resulting fire and bright light I thought I saw the shadow of the dark man and heard his laughter.”

I stared at the black mess again and felt my mouth go dry. “That is the Holocron?”

“I think was is the correct verb tense.”

I ran a hand back through my hair. “I think my brain hurts. And the shadow you saw, could it have been a trick of the light?”

The Jedi Master shrugged uneasily. “Could have been.”

I passed my hand above the melted Holocron and caught some residual heat. “Is Exar Kun our guy?”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. Four thousand years is a long time. I’d rather think someone being trained by the Empire, someone being used like Mara, discovered Exar Kun’s studies and has fashioned himself into a new Dark Lord of the Sith.”

“Don’t have to go far for a candidate.” My nostrils flared. “I think Kyp will do.”

“Don’t think that’s not crossed my mind. He was so powerful and eager, but that just fed his impatience.” Luke looked up at me. “You said the other day I was afraid I’d failed my father. Maybe that’s true. I know I’ve failed Kyp.”

“No, Kyp failed you.” I leaned back on the table. “Kyp agreed to undergo serious training, but didn’t know what he was getting into. He’d been a mine slave all his life. You showed him how powerful he was. He was learning how to make his own decisions and suddenly, grand new vistas opened up for him. It’s all but impossible for people like me or Kam or Mara to deal with such power, but Kyp …?”

Luke’s expression darkened. “You’re not making things better here.”

“I’m sorry. You’re the Jedi Master and you know what you’re doing, but I think you need to refocus on those students still here.” I sighed loudly. “Kyp may be gone forever, or he may come back. We don’t know. What we do know is that your original mission, the reason you created the academy, is still valid. The Jedi Knights need to return to the galaxy and you’re the only hope to make that happen.”

The Jedi Master remained silent for a moment, then nodded just once. “The Order is what we need. That has to be my focus.”

“Agreed.” I gave him a hopeful look. “I also think we need to decide what we’re going to do about Exar Kun.”

“Right.” Luke hunched forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His cloak slid down around his shoulders and flanks, making him look smaller than I’d ever seen him before. “Evidence we’ve got points to Exar Kun or a disciple of his pretending to be. I’ve searched this temple and have found tiny traces of evil. Not enough for Exar Kun.”

I toyed with my goatee for a moment. “I thought I heard someone—Bodo Baas, perhaps—say the temples here had all been raised as a focus for Exar Kun’s power. Maybe this temple isn’t the focus of it, but just linked to it. If the link was forged of Sith magic, Exar Kun might be able to block back-tracing. Another of the temples here, then, would be the centerpoint of his power.”

Luke nodded, then sat back. “Good idea. That temple could also be where Gantoris and Kyp obtained instruction. If we only knew where it was.”

I smiled. “I think we can find out.”

“How?”

“Survey logs. Everyone has been out surveying the local sights.”

“Yes, but that was after Gantoris died.” Luke’s eyes narrowed. “And Kyp would have falsified his logs to hide where he had been.”

“True, but he was out all the time with Dorsk 81, who wouldn’t have any reason to falsify his survey reports.” I smiled slowly. “If you ask for everyone to turn in their survey logs and tell them you will be conducting an exercise about observation, I can go over them and sort out the likely spots our Kun-clone is hiding out.”

“Okay, we’ll do that.” Luke stood and came over to stare at the ruined Holocron. “By destroying the Holocron, our enemy may have done more to hurt us than he knows.”

“In his fondest dreams.” I gave him an easy grin. “What we’ve learned of Jedi history is good. We’re certain we’re heirs to that tradition. Now you need to use what you know to transform us into the people who will further that legend.”

Feeling Mara Jade’s back pressed against mine, I had to smile. “Kam isn’t making this easy, is he?”

Her blue lightsaber hummed then spat as it batted away a remote’s fiery dart. “Easy isn’t for Jedi, is it?”

“Nope.” I extended my senses as far as I could, taking in most of the darkened hangar space. Kam had closed the door and turned off all the lights, leaving our lightsabers to provide the only illumination. Eight remotes floated out through the darkness, dancing through a complex weave of paths that allowed one to eclipse another. If we did not concentrate enough to project our senses into the hollows behind the remotes or the pillars, we left ourselves pitifully vulnerable.

Kam had also turned the exercise into one of teamwork because half the remotes were meant for me to deal with and half for Mara, yet they could target either one of us. For every dart from one of ours that would hit home, we lost a point—points we earned by blocking shots. I was actually less worried about losing in score to Mara than having her at my back with a lightsaber when my remotes peppered her rump with stingers I should have blocked.

Out there, in the darkness, I felt a shift of energy. With my lightsaber on my right, I swept it out parallel to the floor, picking off a low shot coming in at my right knee. At my midline I snapped the blade vertical, then waggled it right and left, intercepting two more bolts sizzling through the dark. Then, releasing with my right hand, I dropped to my left knee and slashed out, deflecting a dart coming in from my flank.

I cranked my left wrist around, relishing the lightsaber’s tenor hum and getting my right hand back on the hilt. While I’d learned enough to be fairly good with the blade in one hand, my left was still my off hand and didn’t possess all the fine control I wanted. The blade itself could be wielded effortlessly, but that made it deceptively dangerous. Twirling it in my hands would have been as easy as twirling a stylus through my fingers, but dropping the lightsaber, or having it wobble in the direction of face or knee, would have hurt. A lot.

I felt a shot coming in from directly above me. My initial reaction was to raise the blade and stab it back behind my head, but Mara was standing there. Given no choice, I leaped up as high as I could and thrust the lightsaber above my head. The silvery blade took the dart on the point, infusing my blade with a red sheen for a moment. I laughed triumphantly, then saw Mara’s cerulean blade whirl through a complete circle, passing beneath me, as it picked off three darts vectoring in at odd angles.

I landed and crouched again, then pivoted left and blocked another shot a second before Mara’s blade came around and struck mine. Light flared where our blades intersected, then I threw myself backward and rolled off to the right, letting the strength of her cut provide the energy for my roll. Coming around and up I one-handed the blade with my right hand, flicking two more remote darts off into the darkness, then I took one straight in the stomach.

I shunted the pain away immediately and stepped back. I saw Mara spin away from a trio of darts, one of which hit her in her right shoulder. Her blade moved a fraction too slow after that, allowing two more to lance through her right hip. Her spin, which had started voluntarily, continued without her consent, dropping her to the hangar floor. Her blade came up and warded off another shot, then a dart hit her in the small of the back, collapsing her legs as she tried to get back up.

I saw her lying there on her belly, her legs tangled, her hair a veil that picked up argent highlights from my lightsaber. At the same time I felt three remotes moving around, closing in for the kill. Two were coming in toward her feet and one near her head. Her lightsaber had winked out and lay there, next to her left hand, now useless in her defense.

I was left one choice that was no real choice at all.

I dove toward her, slicing my lightsaber through the air near her legs with my right hand. The argent blade blocked the two darts meant to further cripple her. I couldn’t help letting a smile get started when that happened because I knew it would not last long.

Two centimeters in front of her face, my left hand snatched the third bolt from the air. Searing pain shot up my arm, but I pulled the energy into me and turned it around to help calm furious nerves. My smile continued to grow as that transformation took place and my spirit soared because of my success.

Unfortunately, a soaring spirit does little for a falling body. I hit the floor rather hard, landing solidly on my chest. I bounced back up a bit, with my toes hitting just before my knees. I tried to twist around and land on my left hip so I could keep my blade in the air and active, but all I really managed to do was start myself rolling, which resulted in my wrapping myself around a pillar. My lightsaber whirled out of my grasp and spun to a stop about ten meters away.

Its silvery glow illuminated the remotes closing in on me.

I sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

The remotes did not shoot.

I rolled over and flopped on my back. In the distance, between my upraised knees, I could see Mara Jade on her side, dragging herself along in my direction. Sweat had pasted strands of her hair to her face and gave her skin an icy blue gleam in her reignited lightsaber’s backlight. The flesh around her eyes tightened as she moved her legs, but she gave no other indication that she felt any discomfort.

Kam’s voice echoed through the chamber. “That’s enough for now. You did pretty well.”

I laughed. “If that’s true, why do I feel so bad?”

“It’s because, Keiran, you didn’t do well enough.”

“Thanks for the clarification, Kam.” I dropped my knees and laid my head back down on the cold stone floor. I ran a hand through my goatee, brushing away the sweat that had collected in it, then felt the sting of sweat leaking into my eyes. I let my head loll to the left and smiled as Mara inched her way into view. “Hurt much?”

“A Jedi doesn’t know pain.”

“Right. Me, too.” I looked over at where my lightsaber still lay. I extended a hand in that direction and tried to call the blade to me, but all I got was a little twitching of the hilt. “These are the times I could really use better telekinesis skills.”

“You’re just being lazy. Just walk over and get it.”

“Okay. In a minute.”

Mara laughed lightly, then sighed. “Thanks for the save.”

“No problem. You’d do the same for me.”

Her voice drained of all lighter tones. “Would I?”

I had to think for a second. “You would. The universe you knew growing up may have changed, but your core values of duty and loyalty haven’t. Not that I think you’d ever feel yourself that beholden to someone else, but you’d extend that sort of courtesy to someone you see as a friend, right?”

Silence answered me.

I rolled myself up on my left flank and rested my head on my left hand. “We are friends, right?”

Her eyes narrowed, then her lightsaber went out again, sinking her into shadow. “I don’t know if I really know what it means to have a friend in the same sense you think of it. I do think I trust you.”

“I’ll take that.”

“Is that why you sacrificed your hand to protect my face, because you think of me as a friend?”

“In part, yes. A very big part.” I nibbled my lower lip for a moment, then continued. “I also did it because I knew I could and, therefore, it was my duty to do so. Even back when I entered CorSec, I knew there were things that I’d be called upon to do, dangerous things, that I would do because others could not. My role in society was to take action and responsibility for those who could not. I think, deep down, that’s the essence of being a Jedi. A Jedi places himself where he can defend the greatest number of people from the greatest evil.”

“Even if it costs him his life?”

I exhaled slowly. “You never want to think about that, but it’s part of the job. I remember a couple of times in my life, with Rogue Squadron and before, when I knew it was my duty to get a job done. I felt pretty certain I would die in those attempts and nearly did on Talasea. Fact was, though, that I had friends who would die if I didn’t do anything and somehow my life didn’t seem to matter all that much in the equation.”

Mara snorted. “The Emperor would have considered you a sentimental fool who deserved to die.”

“I’ll remember that next time I dance on his grave.” I levered myself up into a sitting position and crossed my legs beneath me. “There are just times the sacrifice feels right. It did then, it did today. Just a judgment you’ll have to make for yourself when the time comes, I guess.”

“Not an easy decision to make.…”

“Nope.” I stood and offered her a hand. She took it and I steadied her as she got back onto her feet. “But then, as you said, easy isn’t for a Jedi, is it?”