Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [193]
I felt the firestorm’s power begin to wane and I knew things were almost over, but I still had lots of energy left in me that I had to vent somehow. I looked up and allowed my smile to broaden. Everyone knows the Jedi came here to die. Let’s show them he did no such thing!
I expanded my sphere of responsibility and touched every mind I could find. Into them I projected a simple vision, one that would terrify many and reassure others. I let them see the shaft of fire stabbing up into the sky, and at its bottom was the hilt of a lightsaber. A giant figure of a man clad in green and black rose up through the black smoke, then the fire vanished as he switched his lightsaber off. He faded back into the smoke and was no more.
I opened my eyes and nodded as I surveyed the destruction. Shala had set a trap, and, in turn, had been trapped himself. I should have died, but I survived—survived in a way that Corran Horn of CorSec could never have managed. I had survived—no, I had won. Shala’s spectacular defeat would certainly crack the resolve of the other groups. A push here, a nudge there, and they would fall.
I hooked my lightsaber on my belt, then looked down when I heard it clunk on the duracrete. It lay there on a fireblackened floor, when it should have been on my hip. And it wasn’t because I didn’t have a belt to clip it to. While the Force allowed me to absorb energy and avoid being hurt by it—and lightsabers were notoriously durable—apparently my cloak and uniform were not.
It was at the point when I realized that I was naked that the first wave of exhaustion hit me and I began to notice other things. The imploding viewports had shattered into tiny little transparisteel fragments that had scourged me. I was bleeding from dozens of little cuts, including one across my nose and another somewhere in my scalp. I knew a simple Jedi healing technique could seal them and accelerate healing, but I found I was having trouble concentrating. Fatigue dragged at me, and I staggered back to sag against one of the amphitheatre’s walls.
In doing all I’d done, I must have burned off most of my personal Force reservoir. I couldn’t use it to link myself to the Force, to refresh myself. I was alone and tired, not thinking particularly sharply, but I knew one thing: if I stayed where I was, I’d be found and found out. The Jedi clearly survived the battle with Shala, but there was no way Jenos Idanian could have.
I scooped up my lightsaber and ran out of the warehouse. I headed north; at least, I think it was north. I kept with the way the night breeze was blowing most of the smoke, allowing it to cover me. From there I moved into the shadows and alleys, keeping low, watching carefully. I know a chunk of my feeling exposed came from my being naked, but a bigger piece came from my inability to touch the Force. With it to armor me, I could have pranced naked through the streets and no one would have given me a second glance. Now I was a naked guy with a lightsaber, which was bound to be seen as peculiar to even the most jaded eye on Courkrus.
I thought I had figured out where I was. I ran across a street and paused in the shadow of a store front to confirm my bearings, then I heard a lock click and the door began to open outward. Even though the store had been long closed, employees had been working inside. As they came out, I yelped and darted around the corner into an alley.
Which turned out to be a dead end. My dead end. And the single alley in Vlarnya that had a working light in it.
The two women came around the corner and stared at me. I stared back at them. They began to giggle and point. I leaned against a wall