Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 04_ Lightsabers - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
The noise of the crowd gave him no hints... but somehow he was able to hear a faint tink-tinktink, coming from behind two joined cargo containers. Zekk struck out for that point. He didn't know what Vilas was doing, but he wouldn't give the other young man time to complete his plan.
Zekk used the Force to direct himself toward the noise, but when he grabbed the edge of the cargo container and pulled himself around it, his lightsaher at the ready, he found only a small chunk of rock invisibly tapping itself against the metal wall.
Vilas had managed to distract him, creating a diversion with the Force, while he hid elsewhere and prepared to strikeWith a sudden powerful premonition, Zekk whirled. Vilas had to be coming for him. Using his instinct, his sense with the Force, Zekk acted without thinking.
Before he could see, before he could consider what he was about to do, he pulled back to strike with his lightsaber, putting everything he had behind one powerful stroke.
In that instant, through the blaze of light smearing across his eyes, he saw Vilas launch himself out of the cargo container, wearing a predatory grin. He had hidden in ambush, hoping to kill the unsuspecting Zekk.
But Zekk had outsmarted him.
Zekk's slashing blade encountered resistance as Vilas flew across his path. Then, with a flash of smoke and a terrible stench, the bright energy blade cleaved through flesh and bone, cauterizing as it went. Vilas made a choking, gurgling sound and continued his tumbling flight through the air-but now his body moved in two separate, smoking pieces.
Vilas's death rattle was swallowed up in the triumphant roar of the crowd.
Zekk stared down at his pulsating scarlet lightsaber, too horrified at what he had done even to look at the body of Vilas. The spectators still cheered.
This had been no simulation, he realized. This was real.
Zekk knew he had taken one giant step farther down the road to the dark side. He raised his head, speechless, as the voice of Brakiss echoed through the zero-gravity chamber, drowning out the praise of the onlookers.
"Excellent, Zekk! I knew you could do it."
Tamith Kai's somewhat petulant voice came next. "My congratulations, young Lord Zekk."
Then, to his absolute amazement, overwhelming LIGHTSABERS
^ even his shock at the violence he had committed, the air in the center of the arena shimmered until an ominous image engulfed the drifting obstacles. The huge hooded head of the Emperor himself offered its grim congratulations directly to Zekk.
"You have won this battle, Zekk," the Emperor said in a voice so filled with cold power it could freeze blood. Zekk drew in a quick gasp. All of the other trainees watched, absorbing their Great Leader's words.
"You are my Darkest Knight, Zekk. I have chosen you to personally lead my Jedi into battle against Skywalker's Jedi academy."
THE MUFFLED THUMP of an explosion in the middle of the night was already fading by the time Tenel Ka reacted and sat up, suddenly wide awake.
She strained her ears, but heard nothing more.
She had slept fitfully a few times since coming to the thick-walled Reef Fortress-but she had never woken up without cause. Had she really heard the sound of a blast? She couldn't be sure. Perhaps it had merely been a part of her uneasy dream....
Around her, the room was dark and shadowy, lit only by the metallic silver glow of moonlight spilling in from the window. The deep darkness was quiet. Too quiet. With a fluid motion Tenel Ka slid off her bed, stood, paused to listen, then crept forward to the fortress window.
Her skin prickled, but not from cold. She recognized the reaction of her Jedi senses transmitting messages of danger-an indefinable uneasiness that was rapidly growing closer to full-fledged alarm. Something was definitely not right.
Tenel Ka looked out the stone-framed window down to the glossy midnight ocean that stretched into inky blackness.