Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights 01_ Jedi Twilight - Michael Reaves [108]
With that, Xizor jerked the lightsaber down in front of himself, brought his other hand over the handle, and aimed the tip of the blade at Jax’s left eye as he attacked.
Jax backpedaled, trying to gain as much time as he could to get more familiar with this new weapon. It wasn’t as elegant as an energy sword, or as powerful, or able to cut through as much. It did however, have the advantage of length—easily twice that of his lightsaber’s blade at full extension. The metallic core’s length was also elastic, he found, to a limited degree.
The Falleen brought the blade around and down in an attempt to sever the Jedi’s wrist, but Jax blocked it with the thick part of the thong, near the hilt. Xizor recovered, twirling the lightsaber around his wrist.
Jax flicked the lightwhip again, sending a traveling wave down its length, snapping the tip with another supersonic crack! that warned Xizor to keep his distance.
It didn’t matter how well versed the Falleen might be with a lightsaber, he told himself. No ordinary humanoid could contend with a Jedi one-on-one and expect to win. Even a true teräs käsi adept, harnessing his own inner energy and drawing on decades of honed skill, could hope, at best, for a draw, and there weren’t more than a handful of those in all the galaxy.
The prince edged in, corkscrewing to his right, keeping the lightsaber before him. Jax turned slightly, reaching for the Force …
And, once again, he found nothing.
He kept his expression blank, but he could tell by the fierceness of Xizor’s grin that the prince had somehow sensed his concern; smelled his fear sweat, most likely. And in that instant Jax realized what at least part of the problem was. All the months of hiding, of constant vigilance to avoid connecting to the Force in an active way, to avoid the possibility of alerting Vader to his presence, had become second nature. And now, in the extremity of his need, he found he couldn’t connect.
Over the months he’d come to regard the Emperor’s minions, especially Vader, as akin to carrion deathbirds, ever circling overhead, their sharp and cold vision catching the slightest movement below. Call on the Force and one of them would know, would swoop down and pluck Jax from the multitudes like a single fleek from a vast bevy of them. Even if he was wrong, even if Vader and his myrmidons weren’t that constantly watchful, the effect was the same.
Whatever the reason, he could not let his inability undo him now. Jax slid his left foot back and turned almost ninety degrees aslant to Xizor. He raised his arm and rotated his wrist, whirling the lightwhip above his head in a circular pattern.
Xizor nodded, as if acknowledging the move. He turned to his left a bit and began to rotate the lightsaber over his wrist, nimbly switching hands at irregular intervals while moving forward. Jax tensed, waiting for the inevitable moment when his opponent would falter, when he could snap the energy braid forward and flick the blade from—
Suddenly Xizor ceased the almost hypnotic movement of the blade and leapt over him, tucking and somersaulting while slashing downward.
Jax wouldn’t have thought anybody but a Jedi could pull a stunt like that. Frantically he struck up from the circle pattern, wrapping the energy braid around the lightsaber. Blue and green arc waves sparked and sang of conflict, searing the very atoms of the air around them, filling his nostrils with the tang of ozone.
But before he could follow through and yank the lightsaber from Xizor’s hand, the prince thumbed off the blade’s power. The lightwhip’s length dropped, and Jax had to dodge to avoid the deadly lash himself.
Xizor landed and reactivated the blade. From his crouch, Jax swung his arm back in a low arc, then back up and over his shoulder. The lightwhip sang through the air and wrapped again about the blade. Before Xizor could deactivate the lightsaber again, Jax yanked as hard as he could, pulling Xizor off-balance.