Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [57]
Luke remained very still for a moment, then slowly shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“But it would have to be a Jedi, or someone with the knowledge of the Jedi ways and, presumably, considerable power in the Force.”
“I think so, yes.”
“And yet, last night, when we were all so open to the Force that we were able to catalog stars, we didn’t feel the presence of such an individual right here?”
Luke’s eyes became sapphire slits. “No.”
I shivered, and it wasn’t because I was soaked in sweat. “Does that worry you as much as it does me?”
“More, I think, Keiran.” Luke’s cloak rippled with a shudder. “Much more.”
FOURTEEN
Running down the hallway toward Gantoris’ room I caught a whiff of the poisonously sweet scent I’d smelled a couple of times before during my days with CorSec. I didn’t want to look inside the room because I knew what I would see. The knot of students at the doorway shielded me from the sight, but did nothing to block the scent.
I heard Master Skywalker say, “Beware the dark side,” then a greasy thread of smoke twisted through the apprentices, driving them apart. Several turned away and stumbled down the corridor with hands over their mouths. Streen and Kam Solusar hung on either side of the doorway, ashen-faced and staring inside. I slipped between them, raising the neck of my tunic to cover my nose. They turned away, leaving me alone with Luke and what was left of Gantoris.
Gantoris’ body lay near the far wall of his small stone chamber—at least I assumed it was Gantoris because it did not much look like him. He had been burned to death. Carbonized flesh had crumbled to ash at some points, revealing blackened bone. The heat had contracted his muscles, arching his spine and pulling his head back. His mouth remained open in a wordless scream. Smoke still rose from the charred remnants of his Jedi robes, and his lightsaber had rolled over to rest against the wall itself.
Luke Skywalker stood over him, staring down at his blackened remains.
“What happened here? Did he attack you again?”
Luke turned to look at me with haunted, red-rimmed eyes and I could tell this wasn’t the first time he’d seen a body in this condition. “Do you think I did this?” The pain in his voice knifed right through me.
“I wasn’t accusing you. I just want to know what happened.” I crouched by the body. “Occupational hazard. Who found him?”
“Dorsk 81 came for me, so I suppose he did. The others gathered after we got here.”
I nodded. “I’ll want to talk to them.”
Luke blinked away some of the shock in his eyes. “You are going to investigate this situation?”
My head came up. “Shouldn’t I?”
The Jedi Master hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, of course you should. We need to know what happened here.”
“Right.” I pointed toward the body and circled my finger around the general area. “I can give you some basics right now. The lack of a consistent pattern of charring, as well as the absence of a chemical scent, suggests no accelerant was used. In other words, no one poured something flammable over him and turned him into a torch.”
Luke winced at that description. “I see.”
“Take a look at the fingers and ears.”
“Badly burned.”
“Right, but they’re not gone. Bodies lit on fire tend to have those little bits burn off quickly. And the fact that he’s still got clothes on him, albeit badly charred.…” I let my voice trail off because the conclusion I was being led toward ran counter to my previous experience. “It almost seems as if he was burned from the inside out. That would require an incredible amount of energy: a lightning strike or lots of microwaves, and we don’t have either here.”
“Yes, but he had such energy.” Luke’s voice dropped to a whisper. “His anger.”
“You think he was consumed by his anger?”
“I do. I think he used it to unleash dark-side forces he could not control. Had you not been able to shunt aside the energies you absorbed last evening in the grotto, you, too, might have been burned up by them.”
I reached a hand out toward the lightsaber, but could feel no heat from it, nor see any signs