Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 06_ Vortex - Denning Troy [132]
“For now, Master Skywalker, we have no need to kill each other.” Taalon waved a suited arm at the shuttle behind him, where a large company of Sith warriors stood waiting in full hazard suits. “You can’t succeed, and I’m willing to postpone your death until you are no longer of use.”
“Very generous,” Luke replied. “But what makes you think I would want to be of use to you?”
“Your son’s life, of course.” The hazard-suit vocabulator gave Taalon’s voice a droning quality. “If you do what I ask, he will leave Pydyr alive.”
“Provided Vestara is released in exchange,” Khai added.
Luke didn’t believe them for a moment, of course. But at least the negotiations would allow him to stall and learn something more about what was happening to Taalon … and how powerful the High Lord had actually become.
Luke glanced over at Khai. “Vestara has recovered from her beating, but I’m afraid she and Ben have both fallen ill with the plague.” He looked back to Taalon, then said, “Assuming Ben survives, I might be interested in your offer.”
“Survives?” Khai’s vocabulator buzzed with his rage. “Have you not been caring for them both?”
Before Luke could reply, Taalon flicked a hand, demanding Khai’s silence. “I have no time to wait for your son to recover. I must find Abeloth now.”
Even from inside his helmet, Taalon’s voice sounded more pleading than demanding, and Luke realized that the High Lord’s desperation had nothing to do with Abeloth and everything to do with his pain. Taalon needed to understand what was happening to him, and there was only one being in the galaxy who could tell him.
Luke cocked his brow, feigning surprise, then looked out to sea, directly toward the Fallanassi’s hidden island. “And you really need me to show you where she is?”
“Assuming the trouble is worth your son’s life,” Taalon said. He turned and followed Luke’s gaze, but showed no sign that he saw anything except the gray rolling sea. “And, of course, assuming you actually know where to find her.”
Luke smiled. He was beginning to see how he was going to defeat the Sith.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you.” Luke activated his lightsaber and started forward. “We may as well get started.”
A couple of dozen Sith warriors began to surge down the shuttle’s boarding ramp, and Gavar Khai activated his own weapon and stepped forward to meet him.
Taalon’s hand went up immediately. “Hold.”
Khai and the others stopped in their tracks, and Luke knew he had read the situation correctly. Han always said the only time to bluff was when the other guy couldn’t afford to call, and it was growing clear that Sarasu Taalon had a problem far worse than Luke’s. Deciding to press his advantage, he took another step forward.
Taalon retreated and raised a hand.
“I understand your suspicions, Master Skywalker,” he said. “But this time, I do intend to kill Abeloth. I have seen what she can do, and I’m no more eager to see her loose in the galaxy than you are.”
Luke shook his head. “No,” he said. “You don’t understand what’s happening to you, and Abeloth is the only one who knows. She’s the only one who can tell you what you’re becoming.”
Taalon let his chin drop. “There are some … things … that trouble me, Master Skywalker.”
He was silent for a moment, and when he raised his head again, his lavender face had become a withered caricature of itself, a puckered leather bag with a gray-lipped gash for a mouth and two silver suns shining from the bottomless sockets of its eyes.
“Help me find Abeloth,” Taalon said. “And after she tells me what I’m becoming, I will kill her. I swear it.”
A PILLAR OF WHITE STONE RISING THREE HUNDRED METERS OUT OF A rolling gray sea, the island beyond the Jade Shadow’s forward canopy was as beautiful as it was awe inspiring. A wreath