Star Wars_ Darth Bane 01_ Path of Destruction - Drew Karpyshyn [147]
He had looked disheveled and frantic, lost and confused. For a brief moment she had glimpsed him as he truly was: a false prophet, unable to see past his own delusions. And then the flickering vision had disappeared, forgotten until this instant.
Now, however, the memory came flooding back, and Githany knew she was following a madman. The arrival of the Jedi reinforcements and the shocking defeat had caused something inside him to snap. Kaan was leading them to their doom, and none of the others could sense it.
She didn’t dare to speak out against him. Not here in this cave, surrounded by his once again fanatically loyal followers. She wanted to sneak away, slip quietly off into the darkness beyond the radiance of the glow rods, and escape this horrible fate. But she was caught up by the crush of bodies that surged forward at Kaan’s command.
“Gather in. Closer. Form a circle; a ring of power.”
She felt his hand grab her tightly by the wrist and pull her in so that her body pressed up against his. Even in the chill of the cave, his touch was freezing. “Stand beside me, Githany,” he whispered. “We will share in this moment of exaltation.”
Loudly he shouted, “Join your hands as we must join our minds.”
The fingers of his right hand wrapped around her left, seizing it in a grip cold as ice and unyielding as durasteel. One of the other Sith Lords took her other hand, and she knew all hope of escape was gone.
Beside her, Kaan began to chant.
Githany was not the only one who sensed something wrong with Lord Kaan. Like all the others, Lord Kopecz had been swept up in the excitement of the thought bomb. He had cheered with all the rest when Kaan described how it would obliterate the Jedi and imprison their spirits. And he had eagerly joined in the throng that had followed him to the cave.
Now, however, his zeal had faded. He was thinking rationally again, and he realized the plan was utter insanity. They were at ground zero of the thought bomb’s detonation. Any weapon powerful enough to destroy the Jedi would destroy them, too.
Kaan had promised them that the strength of their combined will would allow them to survive the blast, but now Kopecz had his doubts. The promise stank of wishful thinking birthed from a desperate mind that refused to admit defeat. If Kaan had had this thought bomb all along, why hadn’t he used it before?
The only logical answer was that he was afraid of the consequences. And though Kaan, in his madness, may have let go of that fear, Kopecz was still sane enough to cling to his.
The rest of the Sith pressed forward in response to Kaan’s command, but Kopecz fought against the momentum of the crowd and moved in the opposite direction. None of the others seemed to notice.
A wall of bodies surrounded Kaan, blocking much of the light from the glow rods. In the shadows the Twi’lek moved carefully toward the cavern’s main exit, surprisingly silent for such a large being. He didn’t turn or look back as he entered the tunnel to the surface, and picked up his pace only once he heard the Brotherhood begin a slow, rhythmic chant.
Escape was impossible, of course. By now the Jedi would already have the entire tunnel complex surrounded. Soon they would engage the Sith troops out on the surface, trying to break through their barricade to come after Kaan and end the last great battle of Ruusan. Kopecz didn’t know if they would make it in time. Part of him actually hoped they would.
In the end, though, he wanted to make sure it didn’t matter to him. He’d join the defenders on the surface in one last stand against the Jedi. Death was inevitable; he was willing to accept that fact. But he also knew he’d rather die from a lightsaber or a blaster shot than be caught by the thought bomb’s detonation.
The chant was simple, and after repeating it only once Kaan was joined by the rest of the Brotherhood. They recited the unfamiliar catechism in