Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 05_ Allies - Christie Golden [146]
The Sith had betrayed them. Vestara had used her injury to try to play on his feelings for her, to keep him out of the way while her father attacked his. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Taalon and the other remaining Sith using the Force net technique—the technique Vestara had suggested—not to try to stifle Abeloth’s powers, but to try to trap the now seriously struggling Abeloth, even as Luke was using his own mastery of the Force to destroy her. And it was with a fierce sense of pride and love that Ben realized that, despite the odds, his father was winning.
The net was working. It was starting to stifle her ability to use the Force. He could see it in the terror on Abeloth’s face, feel it in the wild flickering of her Force aura. And Luke was fighting as Ben had never seen him before, pain and love and duty grim on his face, darting and leaping, moving his lightsaber so swiftly it was a blur. Ben let out a shout of delight and continued to press the attack on Gavar Khai, who no longer was smirking and gloating, but instead felt genuine concern that he might not make it out of this alive.
A sudden shock wave hurled Ben into the sky. He felt paralyzed for a second, unable to use the Force to direct his fall, and landed hard. He blacked out briefly, and when he came to he heard shouting. Ben got to his feet, grabbing his lightsaber from where it had fallen.
Abeloth was gone. He realized, as everyone else did, what must have happened. She had gathered her strength to send out a powerful Force shock, to throw her attackers off her briefly, and disappeared.
“Where’d she go?” Ben cried, ignoring Khai for the moment.
Luke had recovered faster than he and didn’t reply. Instead, he raced down the tunnel at full speed, even though Ben could see he had been at least slightly injured in the attack.
Their division among themselves forgotten, Ben and the Sith followed. Ben heard Vestara following him at a distance, could feel her pain and mingled regret and resolution in the Force. Wincing, he shut her out.
The three Sith that Taalon had left to aid Dyon had already been dispatched. There was no obvious damage to the corpses, but they all had looks of terror frozen on their faces. And now, Abeloth had returned to Dyon to finish the job she’d started earlier.
Dyon lay on his back, his face contorted in fear. Abeloth straddled him in a horrible parody of lovers, her tentacle fingers pressed to his face, her huge, grinning mouth a centimeter from his. Glowing golden energy wrapped about them. As Luke emerged from the cave, Abeloth hissed, sensing his presence, and turned to look at him.
Her features rippled, melted into those of Callista. She turned to Luke, hand outstretched, imploring.
“Luke—please. You don’t understand. It really is me. It’s Callie, your Callie. I love you. I’ve never stopped. Please—”
She is never what she seems.
And then Luke understood. She wasn’t Callista.
She wasn’t even Abeloth.
Trusting his feelings, as he had so many times before, Luke brought his lightsaber down.
On the writhing body of Dyon Stad.
“Abeloth” recoiled as the bright blade went straight through Dyon Stad’s chest, through the stone floor of the cave. He arched his back and cried out, clawing frantically at Luke’s face.
“Dad! What are you doing?” came Ben’s voice. The Sith were shouting something, too. Luke ignored them all, his blue eyes peering into Dyon’s.
The wide, imploring, human eyes of Dyon Stad changed. They became tiny, hard pinpricks of light, like stars in a dark well of nothingness. The hands clawing at him became tentacles, the mouth wide and gaping. Luke felt one more attack from her, a crashing wave of dark side energy, and braced himself for the assault.
She died halfway through. He felt it. Felt her wink out of existence, strangely small in death. He moved off the body and sat on the floor for a long moment, catching his breath.
Ben was there. “Dad? You all right? Is she