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Ben waved at the cave entrance. “Does it look like you needed our help?”

“So I got lucky,” Vestara said. “It happens.”

Ben shook his head. “You know better than that. Ship put us down right on top of the Pool of Knowledge. It wanted to make sure we found the grotto quickly, so we’d all still be relatively close together.”

A light came to Vestara’s eyes. “The ambush my father warned against?”

“In a way,” Ben said. “Ship is trying to start a fight between us again—between your side and ours, I mean.”

When Ben said no more, Vestara cocked her head slightly and demanded, “What are you keeping from us, Ben?”

“Plenty,” Ben replied. “And that’s not going to change. But trust me, it would be better for everyone if you just forgot we ever found this place.”

The reply came from behind Ben, halfway back to the stream and in a deep, silky voice that was chilling in its calm menace. “It’s too late for that, Ben.”

Ben’s heart jumped for his throat. His thumb dropped toward his lightsaber’s activation switch, and he pivoted sideways, so he could see the stream and the grotto. Taalon was leading Luke and Khai up the path toward them, his lavender eyes fixed not on Ben but on the dark portal that Vestara had cleared just a couple of minutes earlier. The crooked ribbons of pollen and spores that streaked the robes of all three men suggested they had come in a hurry—as did the beads of perspiration clinging to their brows in the humid jungle air.

Ben glanced back toward Vestara. “You summoned them?”

Vestara shrugged. “As soon as I realized we had found it,” she confirmed. “That’s the difference between young Sith and young Jedi, Ben. We are taught to follow orders.”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, I see that.” He stood aside and let Taalon pass. “But when are you taught to think?”

Taalon answered for her. “After we teach them to obey, young Skywalker. A sharp arrow is worthless if it doesn’t fly true.” He stepped to the grotto mouth and peered inside. “Let’s go inside and see what you hoped to hide.”

“You go ahead,” Ben said. “I’ve got a problem with dark side nexuses.”

Taalon turned back to Ben. “Was there something in what I said that made you think I was asking?”

“It’s okay, Ben,” Luke said. He caught Ben’s eye, then slid his gaze toward the grotto and gave a little nod. “I think we’ll all want to see what the pool reveals.”

Ben paused a moment for show, trying to uphold the impression he had been cultivating among the Sith of being an unruly teenager. Clearly, his father had a plan, and it involved being outnumbered in a tight, dark space. Hoping it didn’t involve a thermal detonator as well, he sighed loudly and stepped up behind the others.

“Oh, no—after you.” Taalon pivoted aside and waved Ben toward the grotto entrance. “I insist.”

Ben scowled and, receiving a nod of permission from his father, said, “Thanks for nothing. If I sense any traps, I’ll be sure to leave them for you.”

“That will be fine, young Skywalker,” Taalon replied. “It’s the traps you can’t sense that I wish to avoid.”

The admission sent a shiver down Ben’s back, but he stepped into the grotto entrance and felt no danger in the damp gloom. From ahead came the sound of dripping water, a single blep every two seconds or so. There did not seem to be any living presences within the chamber, only a miasma of sulfurous fumes so thick and rank that even a whiff made Ben feel physically ill.

After a moment, Luke said, “Go ahead, son. The only traps in there will be of our own making.”

“Which are always the worst kind,” said Taalon. “Is that not true, Master Skywalker?”

“Certainly for the weak,” Luke said. “But Ben will be safe enough.”

Recognizing a cue when he heard one, Ben stepped forward and discovered that the grotto was not as dark as it had appeared from outside. A cold, diaphanous light rose from a small pool in the center, filling the chamber with a silvery glow and revealing that the cavern walls were covered in a meshwork of tiny crevices. Seeping from most of those crevices were tiny wisps of yellow, acrid fume—the source of the sulfur smell that Ben