Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 06_ Vortex - Denning Troy [57]
All he had to do was be patient.
As they drew nearer to the gorge wall, Ben began to feel the breeze Vestara had mentioned. The air was damp and cool, and she was right. He could smell a definite hint of rock and mildew, and something more caustic, too—perhaps sulfur. Within a few steps, the ground started to rise sharply, and they began to catch glimpses of a tangled curtain of moss fluttering in the jungle ahead.
Ben risked moving close enough to grab Vestara’s shoulder. “Okay, so it was that easy. But hold up here for a second.”
“What for?” Vestara continued to clear vegetation, increasing her pace and drawing half a dozen steps closer to the mossy curtain. “Come on, Jedi. Show some initiative.”
“It’s called the Pool of Knowledge, Vestara.” Whatever happened, Ben knew that he could not allow her to enter the pool before his father arrived—that even if she survived, the experience would change her into something he had no chance of pulling back into the light. “Does that really sound like something we should mess with?”
“Sure.”
Vestara used the Force to hurl the last meter of vegetation aside, then drew up short. The grotto could be seen less than two paces ahead, a fluttering rectangle of shadow only half visible through the yellow moss hanging down the gorge wall. About the height of a Wookiee and wide enough to admit a speeder, the portal looked more like an underground hangar entrance than a cave—especially when Vestara slashed the moss curtain away, revealing a lintel and support columns carved with the same ophidian grotesques they had found at the Font of Power.
Vestara smiled. “Knowledge is good for you, right?”
“Not always.” Still holding his own lightsaber, Ben stepped toward her—and the grotto entrance. “Some knowledge destroys.”
“Don’t be silly. Knowledge is just … memory and thought.” Despite Vestara’s bravado, she paused at the entrance to glance back at Ben—and at the unlit lightsaber in his hand. “How can it destroy anything?”
Ben remained where he was. “Has your mother always been faithful to your father?”
Vestara scowled at him. “What business is that of yours?”
“It isn’t,” Ben admitted. “But what if you knew she hadn’t been? Would you be obligated to tell your father?”
“Of course,” she said. “He’s a Sith Saber, and she is … well, she isn’t.”
“And what would happen then?”
Vestara’s eyes went hard, revealing more about Keshiri society than she probably realized. “I see no point to your questions,” she said. “My mother would never be unfaithful to my father.”
“Of course not. But if you knew that she had been, you’d be obligated to tell your father.” Ben paused, then added, “And that is knowledge that destroys. Just one example. Are you sure you want more? Are you sure you’re ready?”
Vestara glanced toward the grotto entrance, and her expression turned more thoughtful than troubled. “The Pool of Knowledge can do that? How?”
Ben saw his mistake at once, of course. To the Sith, no knowledge was forbidden, no mystery better left unsolved. To them, it was all just information, to be gathered and utilized in their pursuit of galactic domination—which meant they could never be permitted to enter the Pool of Knowledge. Ben and Luke would have to stop them.
And Ship had known that when it brought the Skywalkers and the Sith here together. Ship wanted them to fight.
“Vestara,” Ben said, “you’re going to have to trust me on this, but we need to back out of here and think about what we’re doing.”
Vestara barely glanced back. “Nice try, but the only place I’m going is in there.” She swung her lightsaber toward the grotto entrance. “With you or without you.”
“Hold on.” Ben extended a hand. “Think. Why did Ship bring my father and me along?”
“To help us find the Pool of Knowledge, of course.