• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 2285 0

of a fortress. It was both functional and decorative, but did not seem designed to impose fear and awe on the beholder. The wall was covered in faded designs of hideous, red-eyed, multilegged monsters, images of Sith meditating and sparring, and other designs that Luke didn’t recognize. He wished for a moment he had dared bring Vestara, but that would have been far too risky. Natua was a second-best choice, with her newly acquired knowledge, but she was needed where she was. The gateway was a simple metal portcullis. Luke wondered at that, and spoke into his comlink to the other Jedi.

“Stop at the entrance,” he said. Gateways, entrances, anything that denoted a crossing from one space to another—these were places of power. Innocent looking—well, innocent looking for a Sith construction anyway—though it might be, he needed to proceed with utmost care.

He reached out in the Force, probing for an increase in the power of the dark side here, or even a change or shift in the nature of the energy. There seemed to be nothing unusual. Now more curious than wary, Luke lifted a hand.

The portcullis rose easily, grinding slightly with eons of disuse.

“Oh, I really don’t like this,” Jaina said.

“Neither does this one,” murmured Saba, her eyes narrowing. The Barabel’s tail lashed.

“Come on,” Luke said into the comlink, and the Jedi obeyed. Cautiously they moved into the city proper, all of them looking around, their senses alert to any shift, any change, any danger more immediate than the constant, oppressive hatred that poured from the dark side.

Once the last of them had entered, the portcullis dropped with a loud clang. The sky suddenly darkened, and thunder rumbled. The temperature dropped and the wind picked up. Luke glanced upward at the unnatural cloud that squatted angrily over the city, and saw quick flashes of Force lightning in its depths.

“I’m waiting for the welcoming committee,” said Jaina, her voice soft but her body tense and ready to spring into action.

“Yeah,” said Seha Dorvald, standing beside Octa. “I’d like for something to happen already.”

“Keep your focus, Jedi,” Luke said, projecting calmness. “I’m sure it will come, but you must be prepared to meet it. If you are spoiling for a fight, you give it the advantage.”

“I am sorry, Master Skywalker,” Seha said.

“No need to apologize. Just do it,” Luke replied mildly.

The buildings, like the wall, seemed designed more to protect and shelter the inhabitants than to make a show of fearsome power, although they showed the wear of time in the lack of roofs and other disrepair. Other than the increased hostility of the dark-side energies, which seemed curiously still but, like hunting nexu, straining at the leash, there was nothing obvious to denote that Sith had been the former inhabitants.

“This was not a martial world,” Saba said. “Their focus was different.”

“The tunnels,” Jaina said, and Luke felt a flicker of unease from her. “Their whole culture was centered on those rites conducted in the lava caves.”

“They focused on the metaphysical, not the material,” Luke said, and something settled into place. He was on the right track. “They were not warriors focused on conquering and weaponry, Saba, because they didn’t have to be.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” Kyp drawled.

Luke paused for a moment, closing his eyes and dropping deeply into himself. He extended his perception. They were close to the center of the darkness; close to what this place and these enslaved energies were hiding. A place deep in the planet, close to the mysteries these Sith found so compelling.

What they sought was there. And it knew they were coming.

He opened his eyes. “It’s in the center of the city,” he said. “The underground hangar. And something is definitely there. Activate lightsabers, and prepare for battle.”

As he spoke those words into the comlink, the ground trembled again, more violently this time. Several of the buildings crumbled.

“And whatever it is, it really doesn’t want us to find it,” said Jaina.

Luke gave her a serene smile. “We’re more than a hundred Jedi.