Staring down at the pit as if it were nothing more than an architectural curiosity, S’ybll said, “The pit was already here when I arrived. I think these caverns were once a hideout for a gang of pirates.”
The male scout turned his head in response to S’ybll’s voice and gazed up through the bars of the cage that held him and his fellow scout. “Look!” he said. “It’s Luke Skywalker!” I
The female scout said, “Thank the stars!”
Luke reached out with the Force. He sensed panic and confusion, and also that the pit and the life-forms in it were not illusions. He returned his gaze to S’ybll.
“Yes, the blood eater is quite real,” she said, reading his mind. “The Imperials brought it here. Now it does my bidding.”
“Release the scouts, S’ybll.”
“As you wish.”
From below, the blood eater let out a loud roar. Luke glanced down into the pit and saw that the cage that had held the scouts had vanished, leaving the two scouts standing out in the open. Across from them, the blood eater’s claws began hammering at the bars of its own cage.
Directing his gaze to the terrified scouts, Luke said, “Stay calm. Don’t move.”
S’ybll pouted. “Did I do wrong? You don’t want me to let the blood eater know that his cage is just an illusion too, do you?”
Luke moved closer to the edge of the pit, preparing to leap into it and defend the scouts if necessary. Glancing at S’ybll, he said, “Why are you doing this?”
“I told you,” she said. “An alliance. Between us.”
“For what purpose?”
“You want to defeat the Empire once and for all, don’t you? With our combined powers, they wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Luke looked at her skeptically. “What about what you want?”
S’ybll placed her hands on her hips. “It takes a great deal of energy for me to maintain this form and generate illusions. I can’t keep living this way, Luke. Waiting for people to find me. That’s why I want. . . I hope you’ll bring them to me.”
“You want. . . people?”
“I’d be quite content with undesirable Imperials.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Luke said. Shaking his head, he continued, “You’re better at casting illusions than telling the truth. If it’s people you wanted, you could have tricked the Imperials into flying you to a populated world instead of this one.”
S’ybll shrugged. “Just because I need people to survive doesn’t mean I like crowds.”
Luke thought, She’s insane.
S’ybll’s head snapped back as if she’d been slapped. “Insane? Do you really think so? That’s a shame, Luke Skywalker. Because if you don’t agree to join me, I. . . well, I just don’t know what I might do.”
“I’ll stand by my thoughts, S’ybll. I won’t allow anyone else to fall victim to you.”
“So be it.”
The blood eater roared again. Luke looked down into the pit to see that the second illusory cage had vanished. Luke did not hesitate. Still clutching the glowlamp in his left hand, he reached for his lightsaber with his right as he sprang forward and leaped down into the pit.
He landed between the blood eater and the two scouts, who fell back against the wall behind him. He cast the glowlamp aside, letting it clatter against the floor, and faced the hulking blood eater as he activated his lightsaber. But as his weapon hummed to life, he was surprised to hear the two scouts shout, “Behind you! Behind you!”
What surprised him was that their excited shouts sounded as if they came from in front of him.
And then the monster attacked.
Luke was knocked off his feet by a massive arm that struck him from behind. He held tight to his lightsaber as his body slammed into the pit’s wall and rebounded onto the floor. Recovering his wits as he rolled swiftly to his feet, he realized what had happened. He had been so intent on defending the scouts, he had neglected to consider one of the first lessons Ben Kenobi had taught him about the Force: that his eyes could deceive him. S ‘ybll had tricked him into mistaking the scouts for the blood eater.
Luke squeezed his eyes closed, calmed his mind, and relaxed his muscles as he reached out with the Force.
He sensed the blood eater coming at him again. But this time, he dodged the claw that had been aimed at his head, and he swung his lightsaber’s blade through the monster’s arm.
The blood eater howled with pain and rage. Luke heard its wail but kept his eyes shut as he ducked the next incoming claw and swung his blade through one of the monster’s legs. The monster howled again as it came crashing down on its wounded appendage. Luke had hoped the monster would surrender, but when he sensed another claw tearing through the air toward his chest, he knew it never would. Not before it tasted blood.
He jumped back to avoid the incoming claw, then kicked off the wall, launching himself over the monster’s torso while swinging his lightsaber downward and through the thing’s head. Eyes still closed, Luke landed near the two scouts.
The blood eater remained standing on its one leg for a moment, but it was already dead. A moment later, Luke heard the monster’s body collapse to the pit floor.
Luke deactivated his lightsaber. Before he could address the scouts, S’ybll called down from above, “You killed my pet. Now I’ll have to bury it.”
Luke heard a rumbling sound and recognized it as the mechanism for closing the pit’s ceiling. But a moment later, he heard an entirely different noise: a loud, explosive rush of water. He was compelled to open his eyes to confirm not only what he sensed through the Force but also what he felt rising up around his boots.
On the opposite wall of the pit, illuminated by the glowlamp that rested nearby, a concealed hatch had opened to release water into the pit. The water pounded against the blood eater’s dismembered carcass, sending the body parts, along with the glowlamp, toward Luke and the scouts.
There was a loud slam from above as the pit’s ceiling slid closed. Luke turned to face the astonished scouts, still visible by the soft light of the glowlamp. The water level was already up to their waists. As water continued to flood into the pit, the male scout said, “There’s no way out!”
“You two stay close to me,” Luke said. He kept his lightsaber deactivated but held it above the water with one hand as he used his other to shove one of the blood eater’s floating claws aside. “The rising water will carry us up; then I’ll cut a hole through the ceiling.”
Glancing at Luke’s lightsaber, the male scout said, “We’re lucky you found us. I’m Andur Thorsim, by the way.”
“And I’m Glaennor,” said the female scout.
“Glad to know you,” Luke said.
Glaennor said, “What’s the story with S’ybll? I can’t tell if she wants to kiss you or kill you.”
“She’s a mind witch,” Luke said. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He kept his lightsaber held high as he and the scouts began treading water. When the gap between the ceiling and the water’s surface was just over a meter, he activated his blade and drove it up through the retractable duracrete ceiling. He made a broad circular cut and then pulled his arm back quickly as a thick, disc-shaped piece of duracrete fell into the water, leaving a wide hole overhead.
He deactivated his lightsaber. Casting a quick glance at the scouts, he said, “I’ll go up first in case S’ybll’s waiting for us, then you follow.”
Luke was about to climb up through the hole when Glaennor said, “Something’s moving in the water!”
“What?” Luke said. “Where?”
Before Glaennor could answer, a tentacle coiled around Luke’s left ankle, and his entire body was yanked below the water’s surface. He closed his mouth the moment he went under, but never had the chance to take a deep breath.
The bobbing glowlamp allowed him to see the large tentacled creature that had slipped in through the open hatch. All his senses told him that the creature wasn’t an illusion. He didn’t recognize the species; he merely knew that
he had to free himself from it, and fast, before it yanked him out of the water-filled pit and into some narrow tunnel that lay beyond.
Twisting his body, Luke activated his waterproofed lightsaber and then angled it at the flexible appendage that was coiled around his leg. The lightsaber severed the tentacle, and the creature instantly released Luke before it retracted through the hatch, leaving a thin trail of black blood in its wake.
Luke deactivated his weapon and secured it to his belt as he turned and swam back toward the area where he’d left the scouts. He could see only one figure moving in the murky water, and realized that one scout must have escaped through the hole in the ceiling. He swam down and kicked off the pit’s floor, launching himself up with so much force that he nearly hit his head on the duracrete ceiling when he broke the water’s surface. The gap had closed to just a few centimeters.
Luke gasped for air as he faced Glaennor, who was still treading water. But then he looked up at the apparently solid ceiling and saw why she had not already exited.
“Andur made it through!” Glaennor said, her eyes wide with fear as she moved beside Luke. “But then the hole sealed itself!”
Luke closed his eyes and reached out with the Force. “It’s just an illusion. The hole’s over here.” Eyes still shut, he reached up with one arm to catch hold of the hole’s edges. When he opened his eyes, his arm appeared to be embedded in the ceiling. “C ‘mon!” he said. “This way! Give me your hand!”
But as he felt Glaennor’s hand clamp around his wrist, he saw her suddenly transform into a withered crone with wet, filthy white hair that hung around her leering, skull-like face.
S‘ybll!
Luke recoiled and thrashed in the water, trying to free himself from S’ybll’s clutches. He knew that she would try to drain him of his life energy if she got her arms around him. But as she held tight and he felt no ill physical effect, he immediately realized that he had allowed his eyes to deceive him again.
He closed his eyes, and the woman swimming beside him shouted, “What’s wrong? Why’d you pull away?”
“Sorry, Glaennor!” he said, his eyes still shut as he reached up through the invisible hole in the ceiling again. “S’ybll made me think you were her.”
“Oh,” Glaennor said, tilting her head back to lift her chin above the water. “I hope she doesn’t do that again.”
“Let me handle her. Just hang on!”
Keeping his eyes closed and one hand on Glaennor, Luke hauled himself up through the hole, then pulled her up after him. They were both thoroughly drenched. Luke was doing his best to remain calm when Glaennor screamed, “Andur, look out! Another blood eater!”
And then Luke heard Andur shouting too. Speaking calmly, Luke said, “No. It’s just another one of S’ybll’s illusions. Just relax and close your eyes.”
The two scouts obeyed. A silence fell throughout the cavern. It didn’t last long.
“That’s right, close your eyes,” S’ybll said from few meters away. Then she cackled and added, “I wouldn’t want you to see what’s coming.”
Luke sensed something large moving fast toward him. It was a block of stone, traveling through the air from near the architectural columns. He threw himself down over Glaennor, shielding her body as the stone sailed over them. A moment later, the stone crashed upon the cavern floor.
Glaennor said, “That didn’t sound like an illusion to me!”
“Stay put, and don’t move,” Luke said as he got up and stepped aside. He wanted to draw S‘ybll’s attention away from the scouts.
S’ybll taunted, “Going somewhere, Luke?”
He knew that opening his eyes would be risky, but he did it fast. He saw Andur, who leaned against a nearby wall with his hands held over his eyes, and also S’ybll, who stood before the old columns. Unlike the illusion of the crone he’d seen in the water-filled pit, she still looked young and beautiful.
S’ybll smiled and said, “Our reunion doesn’t have to end in death and destruction. My offer of an alliance still stands.”
“You never give up, do you?” Luke said. “If you can read my mind, you know that nothing could convince me to join you.”
S’ybll arched one eyebrow. “Nothing?”
A light shimmered in the air near Luke, and then a ghostly apparition materialized. It was a man wearing the robes of a Jedi. Luke recognized him. It was his father, Anakin Skywalker.
“Luke,” Anakin said. “I know you still have many questions about me.”
Luke swallowed hard. He knew that the apparition wasn’t really his father’s spirit, but. . . His voice is just as I remembered.
“I’ve missed you, son.”
Luke tore his eyes from the apparition to face S’ybll.
The apparition said, “Just as you found goodness in me, can you not find any in S’ybll?”
Luke kept his gaze fixed on S’ybll. “No,” he said. “I can’t. I sense only darkness in you.”
S’ybll took a step back, moving closer to the columns.
Watching her, Luke wondered why she was staying so close to the ancient structure. Does it make her feel protected? And then the realization hit him. It gives her power!
Reading Luke’s mind, S’ybll winced. She said, “You’re wrong.”
The illusion of Anakin Skywalker’ s spirit vanished.
Luke said, “These columns are identical to the ones at the ruins on the jungle world. What do they do exactly? Increase your psychic abilities?”
“My powers are my own!”
“You came here after you destroyed your old home because you needed a new one, and you knew about this place. Now you’re afraid of losing power. You’re afraid of leaving Tarnoonga.”
“I’m afraid of nothing!” S‘ybll extended her arms toward Luke, and two more large stones launched away from the structure.
Luke dodged both stones with ease and they smashed into the wall behind him. Remembering how he’d defeated her before, he said, “Keep it up, S‘ybll, and you’ll find yourself homeless again.”
Enraged, S’ybll lifted yet another large stone. Following her gaze, Luke saw she was aiming for Andur. He leaped over to Andur and yanked him aside. A split second later, the stone crashed against the wall where Andur had been standing. Luke shoved the startled scout against the ground and said, “Stay here.”
S‘ybll lifted two stones at once. Luke ran, weaving away from Andur and then turning to sprint straight for S’ybll. Without breaking his stride, he activated his lightsaber and dragged its blade through the nearest column, and then the next. The brittle columns shattered and collapsed.
S’ybll turned fast, trying to redirect the stones at Luke. She failed, lost control, and both stones crashed to the ground. Luke chopped through three more columns and then leaped away from the structure. He rolled and came up standing, turning just in time to see the broken columns fall.
The columns crashed down on top of S’ybll.
Or was it another illusion? Keeping his eyes on the rubble, Luke said, “Andur and Glaennor! Stay where you are! S’ybll might still be —“
Before he could finish, he was tackled from behind and felt a jolt travel through his nervous system. It was S’ybll. He hadn’t sensed her coming. As her pale, bony arms locked around his torso, his own arms flung out away from his body, and his lightsaber fell from his grasp.
“Remember my touch, Luke?” S’ybll said, squeezing him tight. “When I’m done with you, I’ll be more powerful than ever!”
Luke groaned.
And then the cavern’s ceiling exploded open. It was unexpected, taking Luke, S’ybll, and the two scouts by complete surprise. The power of the blast sent Luke and S’ybll tumbling across the floor. Stones rained down from above, leaving an immense gaping hole in the ceiling, exposing the sky above.
S’ybll gasped as Luke fell back on top of her, causing her to lose her grip on him. As he rolled away from her, he glanced up through the hole in the shattered ceiling and saw what had caused t
he explosion. It was his X-wing starfighter, which hovered above the newly formed hole. The X-wing’s cockpit was empty, but the socket behind the cockpit was not.
Artoo?
And then, from his comlink, Luke heard R2-D2’s excited beeps.
Luke realized that his comlink probably had been working all along, but that S’ybll had manipulated his mind so he couldn’t hear it. He also realized that the astromech had disobeyed his command to leave Tarnoonga, assumed control of the X-wing, and homed in on his comlink to pinpoint his position. But before Luke could answer the plucky droid, S’ybll shifted on the floor beside him.
Luke spied his lightsaber lying near the rubble. Using the Force, he drew the weapon through the air, and it landed with a smack against the palm of his hand.
Star Wars - A New Hope - The Life of Luke Skywalker Page 14
