Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 11_ Dark Journey - Elaine Cunningham [109]
The Dark Lord staggered and went down, his gloved hands grasping at the smoking line Jaina’s lightsaber had seared across his throat.
She dropped her weapon and hurried to her opponent, tugging at his helm, praying that she would see Darth Vader’s face beneath, or even her own.
The holographic disguise faded away, and Jaina’s heart simply shattered. A lanky boy sprawled on the ground, his brown hair tousled and his sightless eyes looking faintly puzzled.
Jaina pushed herself to her feet and stumbled back. She hadn’t killed her brother. She had not.
Her own disguise did not fade away, so she wrenched off the helmet. The visor opened of its own accord. Startled, she dropped the helmet and watched it roll slowly toward Jacen. It stopped, and Kyp Durron’s face gazed out at her. His lips moved, but she could not hear his words.
Jaina awakened from the vision with a start, breathing as hard as if she’d just run a twenty-kilometer sprint with Tenel Ka. Slowly she became aware of an urgent voice, and turned dazedly to face it. She recoiled at the sight of Kyp Durron’s concerned face.
“You brought me out of the trance,” she repeated. “Why?”
He rocked back on his heels and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe I have some sense of what you were going through.”
She shook him off, but she couldn’t dismiss the vision or its obvious symbolism. And there was something compelling in Kyp’s watchful green eyes that, for once, had nothing to do with the Force.
“I never had the problems that Jacen and Anakin had with the Force,” she said slowly. “They debated its true nature, and struggled to understand what it means to be a Jedi. I just did what needed to be done. Up to now, that has always been enough. Now I’m being forced to question, and to choose.”
She told Kyp about Ta’a Chume’s offer. “I’m not considering it, but it made me think. The queen mother operates behind a line I’m not willing to cross.”
“Which begs the question of what your parameters are.”
“Exactly. And I realized that I’ve unwittingly crossed a number of lines without paying attention.”
“I’ve crossed a few myself,” Kyp agreed. “It’s hard not to—the vapin’ things keep moving.”
She smiled faintly. “This is a decision point: I can back out now, or I can move forward and push this offensive as far as it will take me.”
Kyp studied her. “You’re going to continue, whatever it costs you.”
“I don’t see any other way,” she said with a helpless shrug. The way she saw it, a Jedi would willingly sacrifice her life in service against evil. Faced with the Yuuzhan Vong threat, how could she turn away from this darker, greater sacrifice?
“Did you find the answers you sought?” Kip asked.
Jaina started to say no, but a brief, vivid vision enveloped her—an image of a tiny Jag imprisoned in the tangle of an X-wing’s circuitry. The mental picture faded as quickly as it came, leaving Jaina with two startling realizations: first, the outer edges of the “maze” actually followed the pattern of the lower levels of the palace. But even more startling, Jaina realized that she could feel Jag’s presence through the Force.
That should have been impossible, given her particular talents. She couldn’t even connect to her own twin brother. She’d had to feel Jacen’s death through the collective pain of several Jedi. Whereas Tenel Ka—
Realization slammed into her. She could sense Jag Fel’s presence for the same reason that Tenel Ka had been so open to Jacen. The connection had grown unobserved. Or perhaps it had always been there.
Kyp took Jaina by both shoulders. “What now?” he demanded, giving her a little shake.
Without responding, she pulled away and raced off in the direction her vision had indicated.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Jaina and Kyp found Jag exactly where Jaina had envisioned him—in a small room hidden deep in a labyrinthine maze.
Kyp felt her bright anticipation, the excitement that came with her sudden