Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 04_ Lightsabers - Kevin J. Anderson [16]
When Jacen laughed with exhilaration, she allowed herself a satisfied grin as well. "You are a good opponent, Jacen Solo," she said.
"You bet I am," he answered.
Tenel Ka knew that her skill was based on her prowess, her physical ability. Though she had constructed a fine lightsaber, she would become a great warrior because of her fighting abilities, not because of the strength of any weapon, no matter how powerful.
Jacen's lightsaber pressed against hers, and she took a step back. They stood deadlocked, slamming energy blade against impenetrable energy blade.
Fiery electricity crackled, and the air thickened with the sharp,scent of ozone. Tenel Ka pushed with all her strength, but Jacen countered with equal force.
Her palm was sweaty, but her hand maintained its grip on the rancor-tooth handle. Inside, the components of her lightsaber vibrated, as if struggling to maintain the full energy of the blade while Tenel Ka pressed so furiously against an equally powerful weapon. She pushed harder. The handle rattled.
Jacen grinned at her. "Hope you don't expect me to surrender too easily."
"Perhaps you should," she panted, and pressed harder, ignoring the strange, unsettling sensations from her weapon. She gritted her teeth. Her arm strained. The lightsabers whined and buzzed. Jacen shoved back with all his might. His eyes glittered with the effort.
Over by the edge of the clearing, Master Skywalker stood watching the tense battle, as did Lowbacca and Jaina.
Tenel Ka narrowed her gray eyes, not easing UP for an instant, wondering how best she could defeat Jacen and end this match.
Suddenly,.something changed inside her lightsaher. She heard a sharp crack and then a loud hissing sizzle.
Jacen pressed harder with his emerald-green blade. For the briefest instant, the golden sparks that shot through her white pulsating energy beam flickered wildly. Her blade bluffed with static, grew less focused.
Intent on the battle, Jacen gave a final, extra push with all his strength.
It happened all at once.
The power source in Tenel Ka's lightsaber gave a shriek of electrical overload-and the blade winked out like a snuffed candle. Sparks and smoke poured from the end of the handle where an energy blade should have glowed.
Suddenly, encountering no resistance as Jacen thrust with his last reserves of strength, the emeraldgreen lightsaber sliced through the opening where Tenel Ka's own blade had been just a moment before-plunging down to the only thing that stood in its way.
Tenel Ka felt a line of blazing agony sweep across her arm just above the elbow. It burned... and yet below the bum she felt only a sickening, horrible coldness-a bone-deep chill like none she had ever felt before.
Somehow her lightsaber thumped on the ground with a soft thud. Impossibly, she saw her hand clenching the carved rancor's tooth. Sparks the size of lightning bolts flashed around the handle as her weapon exploded in a burst of blinding light.
Bright. So very bright...
Tenel Ka felt a dizzying haze swirling up to engulf her. Everything was so confusing. Jacen screamed something she couldn't understand. Tenel Ka hoped intensely that she had not hurt him.
Jaina, Lowbacca, and Master Skywalker all ran toward her, shouting, but Tenel Ka couldn't find the energy to stay upright any longer. Just as Jacen reached a hand out toward her, she felt herself falling to the ground.
Then the pain and shock were completely swallowed up in blackness.
ON THE FRINGES of the unmapped heart of the galaxy, the Shadow Academy found a new hiding place near the flaming shells of two stars that had been dying for the last five thousand years.
Without its cloaking device, the dark Imperial training center hung like a circlet of thorns, washed in the blaze of solar radiation. The whispering trails of thrown-off star gas would camouflage