Part 17 (1/2)

It was a statement, not a question. Sidious knew Darth Maul would not call to report failure, and there were no untoward signs in the energies that surrounded his image.

”Yes, my master. The Jedi Padawan died in combat. She fought well, for a neophyte. An explosion generated from our battle destroyed Lorn Pavan and his droid.”

Darth Sidious nodded. He could feel the truth of the statement even at this distance. This was excellent news. Any leaks that could impact his plans had been sealed. Certainly there would be other challenges-he didn't trust the Neimoidians' abilities in combat any more than he did their veracity-but such obstacles would come only after his plan was too far along to be stopped.

”I will require you to bring the holocron to this location.”

Sidious gave Maul the coordinates and the specialized instructions his apprentice would require to get past the security droids. Darth Maul acknowledged the instructions.

”Be most wary, my apprentice. Our stealth is vital. The Jedi will be most unhappy at the loss of two of their number, and will be searching for answers. You must see that they find none.”

Darth Sidious did not wait for a response; none was necessary. With a gesture he closed the relay, breaking the connection.

It was time to make other preparations. Time to finally put into motion the plan that had taken decades to set up. The strategy that would culminate in the final destruction of the Jedi.

Soon.

Very soon.

Obi-Wan pushed the skycar to the maximum safe speed, swooping through the narrow maze of streets and buildings. Suddenly his attention was distracted by a rumble and a flash of orange light two streets over.

Yet another explosion, he thought wonderingly as he headed toward its source. He didn't know what was going on, but if it didn't stop soon, this sector of the city was going to look like it had been bombed from orbit.

He brought his skycar to a stop on a landing platform and walked cautiously closer to the inferno, using the Force once more to try to discern what had happened. His senses expanded into the building, detecting no life, but picking up the residual disturbances of a powerful struggle. He could sense Darsha's presence and the same tendrils of evil that had plagued him all day. Looking around, the Padawan noticed a sec- tion of burned rubble that had been blasted from the entrance.

Something gleamed in the debris, and he stepped forward to see what it was.

Shock sent waves of jangling sensations up his body, and he had to still himself, force his mind to unclench and accept what he was seeing.

He used the Force to grasp the s.h.i.+ny bit of metal, pulling it out of the rubble, bringing it to his hand.

It was the twisted, melted hilt of a lightsaber, its body scorched almost beyond recognition.

Almost.

In practice duels at the Temple, two Padawans traditionally exchanged salutes prior to their match, raising their lightsaber hilts to their foreheads before igniting the energy coils. Obi-Wan had noted more than once the carefully wound wire grip on Darsha's weapon, a unique design.

The same design he was looking at now.

The Force confirmed it, as if there were any doubt. Darsha a.s.sant was dead.

Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi stood quietly, looking at the hilt in his hand.

There is no emotion; there is peace.

How he wished it were so.

CHAPTER 33.

Lorn stared up at the brightest light he had ever seen.

He felt ... brittle, as though he might crack into countless pieces if he tried to move. There was a strange ringing in his ears, an odd smell in his nostrils. His eyes refused to focus. Everything seemed dreamlike. He had no idea where he was or how he had gotten there.

Abruptly the light-which he now realized was the sun-was blotted out by a familiar face.

”Good-you're awake. How do you feel?”

Lorn moved his jaw experimentally, found that he could speak without too much difficulty. ”Like a battle dog's chew-toy.” He sat up, his vision still blurred, a mult.i.tude of aches trying to drag him down.

”What happened?”

I-Five didn't reply for a moment. ”You don't remember our recent...

situation?”

Lorn looked around him. He and the droid were on a small setback roof about halfway up the side of a building. The last thing he remembered...

He turned and looked in another direction. Perhaps fifty meters away was the building they had been trapped in by the Sith. He remembered Darsha opening the door, remembered seeing the Sith framed in the doorway-but nothing more than that. He said as much to I-Five.

The droid nodded. ”Loss of short-term memory. Not surprising, given the trauma of recent events and the carbon- freezing.” He helped Lorn to his feet. ”Can you walk?”

Lorn tested his balance. ”I think so.”

”Good. The authorities will no doubt be here soon, but with any luck Tuden Sal will arrive before they do.”

Tuden Sal. For some reason the name triggered more flashes of memory. ”You froze us in carbonite.”

I-Five nodded. ”The waste-treatment chamber we were in was set up to contain volatile materials for transport. It was simply a matter of readjusting the parameters for-”

It hit him then, like a stun grenade at close range. ”Darsha!”

The sunlight, so much brighter than he was accustomed to, faded momentarily back to the grayness of downlevels. I- Five's mechanical hand gripped his upper arm, steadying him.

Darsha, the Jedi Padawan, the woman with whom he'd shared the last tumultuous forty-eight hours- the woman who'd come to mean, in that short and I intense time, more to him than anyone except Jax and I- Five-Darsha was dead.

No. It couldn't be. The droid and he had managed to cheat certain death; surely there had been some way that she, too, might have.

He looked desperately at I-Five. Saw that the droid knew what was going through his head. And read, somehow, in the other's metallic, expressionless face, the truth.

They had escaped because she had bought them time-had bought it with her own heart's blood.

That part came back, too. She was .. . gone.

”What happened?” he asked dully.

”She managed to stack some of the flammable containers together during her battle and ignited them as she was struck down.”