Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights III_ Patterns of Force - Michael Reaves [84]
Jax’s hesitation was minuscule—only long enough for him to assess the situation—then he ignited his lightsaber and hurled himself at the Inquisitors, hoping that with their attention on Kaj, they’d never see him coming.
In the same instant that he saw Jax’s crimson lightsaber out of the corner of his eye, Kaj beheld the resurrected Inquisitor above him on a high, narrow ledge high up across the street. That he’d wounded him horribly in their previous meeting was obvious from the scars on the man’s face and the unadulterated hatred in his eyes.
He glanced at Laranth, then flicked his eyes upward to telegraph his intentions. She, too, had seen Jax round the corner, and stepped lightly toward the Inquisitor to her right, leveling her blasters at him.
Kaj shut down his Force shield and leapt straight up into the twilight.
From where Rhinann cowered in the apothecary, peering out through the thick transparisteel, it looked as if the boy had taken flight or simply teleported. One second he was there, staring upward, the next he had rocketed out of sight, leaving Laranth at the mercy of the two Inquisitors.
Even as Rhinann was reacting to that, Jax’s lean form soared into the picture from the left, his blade a slash of gleaming red against the window. One of the Inquisitors spun to engage him, while the second was forced to somersault backward to flee a blast from Laranth Tarak’s weapons. She charged after him, disappearing from view.
Rhinann twisted around to look at Dejah. “We’ve got to get out of here. Surely, there must be some way we can slip out—”
“Are you mad?” she asked. “That street is a war zone. The most intelligent thing we can do is stay here and hope that Jax wins.”
Rhinann snorted his disagreement and, seeing that Jax was battling his adversary into the middle of the street, started toward the door. As it slid open before him, the façade of the building began to crumble.
Rhinann quickly changed his mind and dived for cover.
Jax didn’t have time to think about where Kaj had gone. He met the Inquisitor blade-to-blade in a sizzle of brilliant energy. Within the obscuring cowl of his robe, the Inquisitor’s face showed momentary astonishment that the lightsaber locked with his was the same shade of gleaming crimson. His astonishment lasted but an instant. Then he was all business.
He parried Jax’s first stroke, but he had leaned away from the attack and put himself at a disadvantage. Jax pushed him back toward the middle of the street in the direction Laranth had dashed after the second Inquisitor.
This would be a test, he knew, of his raw talent and his training. The Inquisitors were said to have received advanced instruction from Darth Vader himself, and were rumored to be far more powerful than the Jedi by virtue of their not being limited by what they thought of as a pacifist philosophy.
Jax suspected this was little more than propaganda aimed at inspiring fear—the Emperor would hardly care about truth in advertising—but even so, he could feel the tentativeness of his own strokes, as if he were fighting a complete unknown.
He rejected his own trepidation. He’d fought Aurra Sing and Prince Xizor—he doubted this one could do anything more unexpected or accomplished than those two.
He feinted, his blade meeting the Inquisitor’s blade at the hilt. Continuing the movement, he swept it down and around, catching the adept’s robes and charring them. Simultaneously, he leapt, using the point where the two lightsabers crossed as a fulcrum. He somersaulted through the air, landing lightly on the far curb. The moment’s respite gave him a chance to look for Kaj. He glanced upward just in time to see the façade of the building housing the apothecary ripple like the surface of a stormy lake. Masonry began to rain down from above, narrowly missing the charging Inquisitor.
Still there was