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Taalon’s Force aura grew acrid. “If you hope to take me Mind Walking again—”

Skywalker can find it here, Ship insisted. He knows what to look for.

Taalon narrowed his eyes, then cocked a lavender brow in the direction of Luke’s voice. “Is that so?”

Luke did not answer quickly, and Ben knew his father was weighing options. Ryontarr, the Jedi deserter who had served as Luke’s Mind Walking guide during the visit to Sinkhole Station, had claimed that anyone bathing in the Pool of Knowledge would see all that has passed and all that will come. And that kind of knowledge was simply not something that Taalon—or any Sith—could be allowed to acquire.

After a moment, Taalon let his hand to drop toward his lightsaber. “Well?”

Luke sighed, then stepped into the light just inside the hatchway. “Look for a grotto,” he said, peering down into the chasm. The crowns of the tree ferns lay thirty meters below, and the ground was probably another twenty meters beneath that. “Somewhere in the bottom of the gorge. That’s all I can tell you.”

Taalon smirked. “Are you sure?”

“Well, I could warn you not to go inside alone, but I doubt you’d trust me on that.”

“What makes you think you won’t be along to join us?” This from Khai, who was standing on the ramp between Ben and his father. “No one here is foolish enough to trust a Jedi he cannot see.”

“We need to split up,” Luke said. “It’s a long gorge, filled with jungle so dense we’ll have to cut it away just to see the canyon walls. Every day we spend doing that is another day Abeloth spends recovering.”

“Which is probably why she had Ship bring us on this galoomp chase in the first place,” Ben added.

“Assuming she’s still alive,” Taalon said.

“You don’t believe she’s dead any more than I do,” Luke replied. “If you did, you wouldn’t be here looking for a way to find her.”

“Perhaps I enjoy your company, Master Skywalker,” Taalon retorted. “The opportunity to learn so much about your Order is not likely to come my way again soon.”

“On that much, I think we agree.” Luke pointed up the gorge. “How about if Ben and Vestara head upstream, while the rest of us go downstream?”

Taalon’s gaze shifted toward the ramp. He studied Vestara for a few moments, no doubt using the Force to impress on her the importance of not letting Ben out of her sight, then turned back to Luke.

“Very well, two groups.” Taalon nodded to Vestara. “You have your orders.”

“And be wary of ambushes,” Khai added. “Master Skywalker may be right about Ship’s loyalties.”

Vestara inclined her head, acknowledging her father’s concern, then glanced over at Ben. “Ready?”

Ben felt an affirming Force nudge from his own father. “Sure.” He started down the ramp toward the gorge rim. “Don’t wait on me.”

“I’m going to have to,” Vestara said from behind, “if you insist on taking the long way around.”

As she spoke the last few words, her voice seemed to be growing more distant and to be coming from beneath Ship. Ben turned to see her already several meters below the ramp and floating down into the gorge under clear control. He glanced toward her father and found Khai gesturing in her direction, obviously using the Force to lower her. Ben was more surprised than he should have been; he had been around these Sith long enough to know they employed the Force as casually as most beings used comlinks or holoprojectors.

Ben glanced over at his own father and cocked a brow. Luke rolled his eyes at such casual overuse of the Force, but nodded and tipped his head toward the gorge. Vestara was as much a Sith as her father and Taalon, and it wouldn’t do to have her down there searching for the Pool of Knowledge alone—not even for a few moments. Ben took two quick steps toward Ship, then jumped off the ramp and felt his stomach rise as he plummeted into the chasm.

Vestara had already disappeared into the jungle below, and Ben dropped so fast and so long he began to worry he would crash down on top of her. Then his stomach sank with sudden deceleration