Master Lowbacca suggests that it might, perhaps, be premature to feel
safe and comfortable quite yet," Em Teedee translated. "You see, he
hypothesizes that this wavespeeder was purposely sabotaged."
"What do you mean?" Jacen asked. "Those numbers don't mean anything to
me."
"I think he means this." Jaina nodded down at the console, indicating
the preprogrammed course coordinates. "The autopilot was set to take us
into the middle of that killer seaweed-with no return course!"
^ 7 ------------------THE GURGLING, SHUSHING sound of gentle waves
lapping against stone docks and anchored boats f illed the cave grotto.
With each breath, Tenel Ka drew comfort from the salty smells and the
cool, solid rock around hen Sitting with bare, crossed legs, using a
Jedi calming technique to help herself think clearly, she let her gaze
drift across each of her friends.
Jaina, head under the control panel and feet high in the air, checked
the wiring of the wavespeeder's directional controls. Lowbacca tinkered
with the navigational computer from above, handing Jaina tools as she
asked for them. Tenel Ka felt a pang of loss as she watched her two
friends working witn such confidence and agility, completely unconscious
of how easy it was for them to use either one hand or the other.
Jacen lay stomach down on a ledge beside Tenel Ka, his right hand
reaching deep into the water while the fingers of his left teased the
surface, 162 LIGHTSABERS
^ trying to lure a glowing amphibious creature close enough to grasp it.
"Hand me that hydrospanner, would you, Lowie?"
Jaina said in a muffled voice. "I need to take this access plate off."
Without looking up from his wore, the Wookiee plucked the too] from the
case behind him with one nimble-fingered hand and passed it to Jaina.
It is so simple with two arms, Tenel Ka thought.
As quickly as the jealousy rose within her, she squelched it, chiding
herself for being irrational.
Even if she still had both hands, she might not have been able to do the
things Lowbacca could do with his long, limber arms. He used everything
he had, body and mind, to the best of his ability. Just as Jacen and
Jaina did.
Just as Tenel Ka always had.
Was she still that same determined person, using her skills and
abilities to their fullest, she wondered, or was that person gone now
that she had lost her left arm?
She scowled at the thought. If the missing limb was the only thing that
bothered her, then surely she could have accepted the biosynthetic
replacement her grandmother offered. . . . So perhaps the injury itself
was not her primary problem, after all.
Tenel Ka noticed then that Jacen had propped himself up on his elbows
and had turned to look at her, his eyes serious. "Hey, you fought really
well out there yesterday, against that killer seaweed."
"You mean for a girl with only one arm?" Tenel Ka said bitterly.
"I . . . no, I-" Jacen's cheeks turned crimson and he looked away. His
voice was low when he spoke again. "Sorry. All I remembered was you
fighting that plant. I didn't even think about your missing ann-it
didn't slow you down a bit."
Tenel Ka flinched as if he had slapped her. He was right, she realized:
she had not fought like some weak, pitiable invalid. Instinctively, she
had battled with everything in her repertoire, drawing on all of her
resources. She had truly been herself, using every weapon at her
disposal.
"Do not be sorry, Jacen," she said. "Your words were meant kindly. It is
I who must apologize." She thought again of the battle, niusing over
what she had accomplished. "I might have fought better, though, if I-"
"-if you had had your other arm?" Jacen finished for her. "Hey, I might
have fought better if I'd had a blaster cannon, but I didn't. I just did
my best."
"No." Tenel Ka looked at him in surprise. "I meant to say, I might have
fought better had I used a lightsaber."
With a hesitant smile, Jacen looked up at her again. "Yeah . . . You're
pretty good with a lightsaber. Of course, you're pretty good at a lot of
things."
LIGHTSABERS
^ This was a fact, she thought in wonderment. She was indeed good with a
lightsaber. Still. And s was also still a good swimmer, fighter, runner.
But she had stopped believing in herself, stopped using every portion of
her body and mind to their fullest ability. These things were an
integral part of the person Tenel Ka had always prided herself in
being-and that was what she had been missing since the accident.
"Thank you, my friend," she said. "I had begun to forget who I was."
He dazzled her with one of his famous lopsided grins. "Hey, if it was as
dangerous to be me as it is to be you, I might try to forget who I was,
too."
"There, that ought to do it." Jaina's voice was loud and clear as she
climbed out of the wavespeeder.
Lowbacca growled and gesticulated.
"Yep," Jaina agreed. "Sabotage, no doubt about it." With her usual
directness, Jaina looked at Tenel Ka and asked, "Any possibility your
grandmother could be behind this?"
Jacen gulped. The thought had not occurred to him. "Your grandmother?
She wouldn't try-!"
Tenel Ka considered the question seriously. "No," she said at last. "Had
that been my grandmother's intention, she would have . . . disposed of
me long before you arrived." Lowbacca gave an interrogative growl, and
Tenel Ka continued. "Do not misunderstand me. I believe her capable of
murder-but I also sense that her intention is to keep me from danger, to
protect me, whether I become a queen or a Jedi."
Lowbacca growled a reply, and Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca points
out-and quite rightly, I might add-that with Ta'a Chume traveling back
and forth between here and the Fountain Palace, as she did today, she
can hardly be counted on to provide protection."
"Well, she did leave some guards on duty," Jaina said.
"And Ambassador Yfra," Jacen added, rolling his eyes. "Oh boy."
Jaina bit her lower lip. "Yfra's the one who suggested we go out in the
wavespeeder, you know."
Lowbacca barked a comment. "Not to mention the fact that she claims to
have programmed the wavespeeder herself," Em Teedee supplied. "Oh, my!"
Tenel Ka, who had never trusted Ambassador Yfra, made no comment as her
friends voiced their suspicions. In the distance she could hear the
sound of the large Hapan Water Dragon approaching.
"Perhaps it would be safest for the moment to trust no one," she
suggested.
Jaina and Lowbacca agreed.
"And maybe we'd better stay as far away from Ambassador Yfra as
possible," Jacen added.
Just then, the royal yacht floated into the grotto on a wafer-thin
cushion of air. Tenel Ka's grand LIGHTSABERS
^ mother stood at the helm. Ta'a Chume brought the Hapan Water Dragon to
a complete stop near one of the stone piers and climbed out onto the
dock while her guards secured the craft.
Stepping forward to greet her
grandmother, Tenel Ka tried to sense any
harmful intentions the matfiarch might have. The only emotions she
picked up, however, were weariness, frustration, and a sense of grim
determination.
"We had one of the bomb conspirators in our grasp today," her
grandmother said in a tired voice, "but before I managed to question
her, she was poisoned." Ta'a Chume shook her head. "She was under guard
the entire time. I don't see how an assassin was able to get to her so
quickly."
"You appear to require rest, Grandmother," Tenel Ka said, trying not to
seem unduly concerned at the former queen's haggard appearance. "Perhaps
you should not conduct this investigation yourself."
Ta'a Chume's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "For decades I ruled the entire
Hapes Cluster by myself."
The woman sighed and seemed to relent. "But perhaps you are right. I
will send Ambassador Yfra back to the mainland to continue the search."
Tenel Ka bit her tongue to keep from voicing her suspicions that Yfra
might sabotage the investigation rather than help it. But at least such
an assignment would get the possibly murderous ambassador away from the
Reef Fortress. Far away.
^ 8 BY NOW ZEKK considered his lightsaber an old friend.
Though he had not taken the time or care to build his own weapon, he
practically lived with the scarlet beam. He knew how to make it dance
against imaginary enemies He had fought and defeated every simulated
monster the computers could portray in the training room. He had slain
mynocks, Abyssins, krayt dragons, wampa ice monsters, piranha beetles,
and hordes of angry Tusken Raiders.
In one battle he had even felled a ferocious rancor with his lightsaber.
After that difficult victory, Zekk wished he could have watched the
reaction of his rival Vilas, who seemed so enamored of the hideous
beasts.
Now Zekk strode beside Brakiss as the Master of the Shadow Academy led
him down corridors toward the station's central hub. Busy with his
training, Zekk had never thought to venture here before. No longer an
underconfident and overwheimed trainee, Zekk walked in his full leather
^ LIGHTSABERS
^ armor with ease, lightsaber at his side, as if he were almost
Brakiss's equal.
The Shadow Academy Master seemed quiet and withdrawn, though. The
perfectly chiseled features of his handsome face were set in an
unreadable mask, his forehead showing just a trace of a frown.
Zekk cleared his throat, finally curious enough to speak. "Master
Brakiss, I sense . . . uneasiness in you. You haven't told me about this
next exercise. Is there something I should know?"
Brakiss paused and fixed the young man with a calm, piercing gaze. "You
are about to face your most difficult trial, Zekk. Everything depends on
this. You must dei-nonstrate how talented you truly are."
Zekk lifted his chin and drew a deep breath, flaring his nostrils. His
hand moved instinctively to his lightsaber. "I'm ready for anything."
They reached a thick metal door, and Brakiss punched in a code that
opened pneumatic locks. The heavy hatch opened slowly, revealing a small
airlock chamber and a second sealed metal door blocking the other side.
Brakiss said, "Trust in your abilities, Zekk. Feel the Force."
Zekk nodded solemnly. "As always, Master Brakiss. I will pass your test.
But why is this so important? Why should you be so concerned?"
Brakiss gestured the young man inside the chamber. Zekk entered and
stood waiting, but Brakiss remained outside. "Because it will be a fight
to the death," he said, then slammed the door, locking Zekk inside.
Within the echoing airlock chamber, Zekk waited.
Master Brakiss's words reverberated in his mind.
The doors remained sealed, and he forced himself to breathe calmly,
though he felt claustrophobic and trapped. Drawing his trusted
lightsaber, he gripped it until his knuckles turned white, but he did
not yet turn on the blade.
The seconds pounded by, and still the other door didn't open. Fear
swelled within him, but he pushed it aside. A Jedi had no place for
fear, no reason to fear. The Force was in all things, and the dark side
was his ally.
Still, although Zekk had defeated ferocious creatures in the simulation
chamber, those opponents had been mere phantoms. He knew that many more
dangerous things might happen in a real battle with a real opponent.
He looked at the inner door, wondering if he should hack it open with
his lightsaber and force his way free. He needed to see what lurked on
the other side. Was this perhaps part of the test? How long should he
wait?
LIGHTSABERS
^ Patience, he told himself. He began to count to a hundred-but before
he reached ten, the automatic locks on the inner door gave a thump that
vibrated through the metal wall. The door swung open by itself.
Zekk felt a disorienting lurch as he stepped out into well-lighted
nothingness. . . . The floors and ceilings and walls spun about in a
blur until he finally realized that he had tumbled into a chamber where
the artificial gravity had been turned off the zero-gravity arena at the
hub of the Shadow Academy! He floated free in the open air of the
spherical chamber, with no sense of down or up, with nothing to stop his
motion.
Zekk's stomach gave a lurch, but he drew a deep breath and concentrated
on not throwing up. He focused on the images around him, trying to
snatch answers from the briefest glimpses. Grasping the hilt of his
lightsaber, he slowed his weightless tumbling and balanced himself. Only
then did he notice the seats and standing areas that studded the walls
of the chamber, the dozens of noisy onlookers, the balconies pasted on
at haphazard angles to accommodate spectators in zero gravity.
Stormtroopers stood in ranks, gripping the balcony rails. The other
students at the Shadow Academy sat all around, ready to watch the
spectacle. He stiffened, wondering just how difficult this test was
going to be. What had Brakiss meant? What was Zekk supposed to do now?
Boulders like miniature asteroids floated in the center of the open
arena, along with metal boxes, small cargo containers, and artificial
geometrical constructions. Long durasteel pipes drifted free.
Zekk could make no sense of the random mix of large and small objects.
Suddenly he understood: they were obstacles.
On the curved wall at the far side of the arena, Zekk saw the clear
blister of an observation dome.
With his sharp eyesight he spotted figures inside, figures he
recognized: the silver-robed figure of Brakiss; the intimidating
Nightsister Tamith Kai, with her voluminous ebony hair and her
blackspined cape; and the black-armored figure of Qorl the TIE pilot.
Master Brakiss leaned forward and spoke into a voice amplifier. His
words boomed through the amphitheater, and all background noise faded '
"You are all here to witness the selection of a leader for our new Dark
Jedi trainees-a leader who shall be the first general of our Shadow
Acad
emy forces when the Second Imperium makes its grand foray to reclaim
the galaxy. Here, before you, we will witness the great battle."
On the other side of the chamber, where the view was partially blocked
by drifting obstacles, another LIGHTSABERS
^ airlock opened, and a dark figure emerged. Because of the floating
debris, Zekk couldn't see who it was.
Brakiss continued, "This will be a duel to the death between Zekk"-he
paused, but none of the students cheered; they knew better, for they
Would have to follow whoever the victor of this contest might be-"and
Vilas!"
Zekk turned, keeping his lightsaber handle in front of him as he faced
the thick-browed young man from Dathomir, Tamith Kai's most powerful
trainee. Vilas held his ignited lightsaber ready for the duel.
Vilas pushed off from the far wall and flew toward the obstacles at the
center. Zekk switched on his weapon and did the same, moving to meet his
opponent in the open space. Zekk's heart pounded, and he realized that
despite his anxiety, this was a battle he had longed for. How many times
since he'd come to the Shadow Academy had Vilas been his rival? After
today there would be no question as to who the greater student was.
Vilas shouted in his mocking, oily voice, "If you surrender now, young
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