Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 08_ Edge of Victory 01_ Conquest - J. Gregory Keyes [30]
They followed the vornskrs into the ruins, through crumbling galleries incensed with the crushed-spice scent of blueleaf and the grainy, wormy smell of rotting wood. At first the light was dim but sufficient, falling in shards through gaps in the wall and roof, diffused by mist, leaves, and stringy mosslike stuff. But as they followed the vornskrs, it grew darker, and eventually they reached the opening to a stairwell that dropped steeply down into the bedrock foundations of the place.
Karrde drew his blaster and nodded to Shada, on his right. Most everyone else already had theirs out.
“After you,” Karrde suggested.
“Your beasts,” Yeff told him. “You go ahead.”
“As you wish.”
The tunnel took them down through ages of stone scribed now and then in alien figures and script. Eventually it debouched into a large cavern. The vornskrs stood snarling and spitting at the darkness.
“Sit,” Karrde commanded, the hair on his neck pricking up. Had he just seen a motion, part of a face, or was he just fooling himself? His own life depended on the answer.
He looked again at the vornskrs, at the way their eyes moved. As if watching something walking, very near.
“Where are they? I don’t see anything.” Yeff swung his lamp around.
“No,” Karrde said. “Neither do I.” He raised his blaster and stunned the Peace Brigader.
He managed to nail another one before the return fire came, and by then he was already diving for the rocks. Team members Halm and Ferson, alert for his signal, were already doing the same. Shada, on the other hand, was a gyroscoping blur in the midst of their enemies. Too bad Yeff was already stunned; otherwise he would be learning a whole new appreciation for the “pretty lady” right now.
When they had allowed him only three of his crew, they hadn’t known exactly how good Shada was. How could they? Now it was too late.
The air went thick with energy, and the cave strobed.
By his count it was now four to fifteen.
He heard Halm cry out, and regretfully amended his own forces to three. He pulled his other blaster and leapt up, both weapons blazing, searching for better cover.
“Come on, come on,” he shouted. “I know you’re here! Regards from Luke and Mara’s wedding!”
A bolt singed across his arm, and he stumbled on the uneven floor. I’m getting too old for this, he thought, rolling on his back. Without cover he would last a few seconds, maybe long enough to shoot two more. Shada might still manage to kill them all, but that would leave the galaxy short one Talon Karrde, which would be a terrible tragedy.
Grimly, he raised his weapons and pointed over his feet. Muzzles flashed.
And suddenly a glowing wand of energy appeared above him, cutting complex hieroglyphs in the air. The blaster bolts that had meant to end the glorious career of Talon Karrde whined off into the cavern.
Karrde blinked up at the man standing over him. “Nice to see you, Solusar. What took you so long?”
Then he opened up on the Peace Brigaders, climbing to his feet as he did so. Solusar was his cover now, deflecting the fire directed at them with that eerie Jedi certainty.
Another lightsaber flashed into existence across the room. That would be Tionne.
Karrde now counted five for his side, an estimated ten on the other.
When the Peace Brigaders were down to three, they fled back up the passageway.
“We can’t let them get away,” Karrde said.
“They won’t,” the shadowy figure beside him promised. Then he was gone.
And somewhere behind him in the cavern, Karrde heard the voices of children.
Kam Solusar returned a few moments later. Karrde made out his stern face and receding hairline in the dim light of a glow lamp. Solusar walked up to Karrde and regarded him for a moment.
“You’re lucky I didn’t cut you down,” he said. “Bringing those men down here where the children are. Using your vornskrs against us. What if they had attacked the students?