Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [51]
Bane released his hold on the drexl’s mind and concentrated his awareness on the terror of the other three riders. He drank in their fear, using it to fuel his own emotions. He focused his power and channeled it through the orbalisks, letting them gorge themselves on the dark side. In return they pumped a fresh dose of adrenaline and hormones into his blood, allowing him to generate even more power in a cycle he repeated over and over until the moment before impact.
Zannah saw the last three flying creatures lock onto one another. As they dropped from the sky, spiraling down faster and faster, she watched them, waiting for one to break free and mount back up to the heavens. None ever did.
She screamed in horror as they all slammed into the ground together. The sound of the crash was like an explosion; the shock wave knocked Zannah off her feet and launched a great cloud of dust and debris into the air. The cloud rolled quickly over the ground to envelop her.
The would-be Sith apprentice struggled to rise, coughing and choking as small chunks of dirt and stone rained down on her. Through the haze she stared in wonder at the twenty-meter-wide, two-meter-deep crater left behind. In the center was a gore-covered mountain of pulverized flesh: the individual bodies of mounts and riders compacted into a single pulpy, quivering mass. And walking toward her from the carnage was the blood-soaked form of her Master.
He was limping and hunched over, with one arm clutched at his side. Yet even through the obscuring dust Zannah recognized him immediately. She could only stare in utter disbelief as he drew nearer, his gait becoming more sure and steady with every stride. With each step he stood taller and straighter, and when he let his arm fall away from his side, her heart began to pound with excitement.
Darth Bane was alive! And the power that had let him survive this incredible ordeal—the power of the dark side—would one day be hers to command! Overcome with emotion, she stepped forward to embrace her Master … only to recoil when she saw the alien growth protruding from his chest.
“They are called orbalisks,” Bane said, offering an explanation rather than a greeting. “Creatures that feed on the power of the dark side. Without them I could never have survived what you just witnessed.” He gasped faintly as he spoke, though whether from pain or the recent exertion of using the Force—or possibly both—she couldn’t tell.
He stopped in front of her, and Zannah reached out slowly to touch the cold, hard shell. She pulled her hand back with a start when she felt it twitch beneath her fingers.
“They feel the power of the dark side within you,” Bane said, speaking like a proud father.
“How do you get them off?” Zannah asked, her question an equal measure of curiosity and revulsion.
“I don’t,” Bane replied. “This armor is permanent.”
“Will I have to wear them, too?” she asked softly.
Bane considered before replying. “The orbalisks give me great power, but there is a cost. The physical demands can be … taxing. It would be too much for you to bear as a child. Maybe too much for you to ever bear.”
Relieved, Zannah only nodded. Her Master seemed to be almost fully recovered now, though his face and armor were still drenched in blood.
She noticed him looking past her at the Star-Wake on the far edge of the clearing.
“I stole a ship,” she told him. “I … I had to kill the crew.”
“You did what was necessary to achieve your goal,” Bane said. “You showed the power and the strength of will to destroy those who stood in your way. You saw what you wanted and you took it, no matter what the cost.
“You acted like