Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 02_ Dark Apprentice - Kevin J. Anderson [35]
Behind them Gantoris emerged from the shadowy mouth of the temple, striding into the hazy light. Luke turned to watch him approach.
“Glad you could join us, Gantoris!” he said with a combined touch of good humor and scolding as he looked significantly up at how high the orange gas giant had risen to fill much of the sky.
Gantoris’s face looked rough and red, as if scorched; tough, smooth skin covered his forehead where his eyebrows should have been. He had braided his thick black hair into a long strand that hung past his shoulders.
“I have been preparing for a new test,” Gantoris said, and reached into the folds of his robe. He removed a black cylinder.
Luke blinked his eyes in astonishment at seeing a newly constructed lightsaber.
Artoo crashed to the ground with a terrified squeal as both Kirana Ti and Tionne lost their concentration. The others ceased their lessons and stared in astonishment.
“Fight me, Master Skywalker,” Gantoris said. He removed his robe to display the padded captain’s uniform he had worn as the leader of his people on Eol Sha.
“Where did you get a lightsaber?” Luke asked cautiously, his mind whirling. None of his students should have been able to master the technology or the discipline yet.
Gantoris fingered the controls on the handle, and with a loud spitting sound the glowing blade extended, a white incandescent core of energy fringed with deep violet. He moved his wrist, flicking the blade back and forth, testing it. A bone-vibrating hum scalded the air. “Isn’t it the test of a Jedi to build his own lightsaber?”
Luke proceeded carefully. “The lightsaber may seem the simplest of weapons, but it is difficult to master. An unpracticed wielder is as likely to injure himself as his opponent. You aren’t ready for this, Gantoris.”
But Gantoris stood like a weathered Massassi colossus, holding the blazing edge of his lightsaber vertically in front of his face. “If you don’t ignite your lightsaber and fight me, I will cut you down right here.” He paused with a smirk. “That would be a rather embarrassing fate for a Jedi Master, wouldn’t it?”
Reluctantly, Luke shrugged out of his robe. He pulled his own lightsaber from the waist of his comfortable gray flightsuit and, feeling the Force thrum through him, ignited the yellow-green blade.
The other trainees watched in amazed silence. Luke wondered how he could have miscalculated so greatly, how Gantoris had gained access to information that only an advanced student should have obtained.
He stepped forward, raising his blade. Gantoris stared unblinking. Luke saw his red-rimmed eyes burn with a depthless intensity, and he felt a twinge of fear.
They crossed blades with a crackle of dissipating power, testing each other. He felt the resistance of the energy blades, the flow of the Force. He and Gantoris struck again, harder this time, and sparks flew.
Abandoning all pretense of testing, Gantoris launched himself at Luke, hacking and slashing with the white-violet saber. Luke blocked each blow, but fought only defensively to keep from provoking his student.
Gantoris made no sound as he struck again and again. The lightsabers intersected with a flash of multicolored lightning. The fury in Gantoris astonished Luke, and he backed toward the jungle’s edge, unnerved by the violence.
Gantoris pressed his advantage. Luke blocked away all thoughts of the other trainees watching.
“Am I a Jedi now?” Gantoris asked in a husky voice.
Luke parried, then blocked another blow, locking both blades in a snapping, sizzling spray of discharged energy. He spoke through clenched teeth. “Training requires diligence and commitment. And control. A Jedi needs to know more than how to build a lightsaber. He must also learn how and when to use it!”
Luke drove forward, suddenly taking the offensive. He struck and struck,