Soon steam jets began spouting up like geysers all over the floor of
the room. The pirate droids seemed to know where they were going. In the
flashes of bright light Anakin could see that the droids were still coming
toward them and that they were avoiding the steam jets.
"We have to get that lightsaber back," Tahiri yelled.
"It's too dangerous for you," Tionne answered.
"I'll go." Anakin knew that the Force could guide his silvery-haired
instructor around the steam jets, but could she dodge blaster bolts from
the droids at the same time? "Watch out for the droids," he shouted to
Tionne.
"I won't have to," she yelled back. "I'm going up." She pointed toward
the catwalk that ran around the side of the room. It was clearly visible,
now that the wind had blown the mist away. All of the Ranats had
disappeared. On the catwalk, Tionne might be able to go all the way around
to the other side of the room and drop down on the Mage from above.
"Go ahead. We'll be fine," Anakin shouted.
Tionne clipped her lightsaber to her belt and ran toward a ladder on
the wall. The Mage must have seen it too in the flashes of light. His voice
boomed from the wall speakers.
"Get the Jedi woman. She is the most dangerous one. We can take care
of the children and that... that animal later."
"No," Tahiri screamed as the pirate droid nearest them turned and
fired up the ladder after Tionne.
"It missed!" Anakin said. He recognized the tarnished droid as the one
that had been hit by the falling panel when they'd all tumbled out of the
air duct in the other room.
"His aim is off," he yelled to Tahiri.
"Then help me," she said, pointing to a heavy chunk of statue.
Together, he and Tahiri used the Force to lift the solid chunk and send it
flying toward the droid. As the tarnished droid fired again they brought
the chunk crashing down on its blaster arm. In the flashes of light Anakin
saw its arm break off and fall to the floor, but the sound was masked by
the roar of the wind and the chugging of the steam jets. The other pirate
droids were having problems getting through the rubble of the statue.
"Very well then. Behold the power of a Mage," Orloc's voice rang from
the speakers above. With a loud sizzling, all of the ladders leading to the
catwalk lit up in a bright flash.
"Tionne!" Tahiri screamed. Anakin whirled back toward the ladder that
Tionne had been climbing, only to have his worst fears confirmed. His
teacher had almost reached the catwalk, but somehow Orloc must have sent an
electrical current through the ladders that led to the structure. The
Holocron dropped from Tionne's hand and clattered to the floor. The Mage's
laughter thundered from the loudspeakers.
Another jolt of electricity flashed along the walls and through the
ladders. Anakin sensed Tionne using every ounce of Force to push herself
away from the ladder. In the next strobe of light he caught sight of her
again. Tionne hung for a moment high in the air. Then she fell. Heedless of
the danger to themselves, Tahiri and Anakin ran toward their fallen
teacher, dodging jets of hot steam as they went. When they reached her,
Tionne was trying to move, but her muscles were shaking. Anakin could smell
singed hair. He saw that some of Tionne's silvery strands had been
scorched. The instructor tried to reach for her lightsaber but stopped and
cried out in pain.
"Must-fight-Orloc," she gasped.
Anakin reached out and unclipped the light - saber from Tionne's belt.
He tried to hand it to his teacher, but Tahiri yelled, "No! Her hands and
feet are covered with blisters. She won't be able to stand, much less hold
a lightsaber."
In a voice almost too weak to be heard above the wind Tionne said,
"Ikrit."
Then she fainted. Anakin whirled toward the Jedi Master, who, from his
perch on Artoo-Detoo, had just lifted one of Orloc's few remaining droids
using the Force and smashed it down again. As if he sensed Anakin's
urgency, Ikrit looked straight at him in the flashing light. Another droid
advanced toward Anakin and Tahiri and their unconscious teacher. Tahiri
tossed chunks of broken statue at the droid.
"Catch," Anakin yelled to Ikrit, and hurled the lightsaber.
Even though Ikrit was twenty meters away on the other side of the
room, the lightsaber flew straight and true right into the Jedi Master's
grip. Drawing himself to his full height on top of Artoo-Detoo, Ikrit
switched on the blade.
Orloc's booming laughter mocked them.
"Why - do you really want to trust a child's pet to fight me?"
Artoo-Detoo shrilled a challenge and rolled toward the Mage. The blade
in Ikrit's hand sparkled with silver-white fire as he rode forward to meet
Orloc in battle.
A sense of horror flooded through Uldir. With growing alarm, he
watched the fight between those he had thought of as his friends and the
man he had thought of as his teacher. He had never considered the Mage his
friend, of course, but Uldir had believed he could learn the way of the
Jedi from this man. By now, though, Uldir realized that Orloc's power was
not from the Force. The Mage did not use his magic to help others as Jedi
did. Orloc's magic was selfish and destructive.
In a flash of clarity that had nothing to do with the strobing lights
overhead, Uldir knew he had to do something to save his friends. Even if it
meant giving up all hope of ever becoming a Jedi-even if it meant that the
Mage might try to kill him, as well. Uldir could no longer follow Orloc.
The lives of Anakin, Tahiri, Ikrit, and Tionne were in danger. And the
companions would not have been here if it weren't for him.
Uldir knew he had to act, and soon. In the center of the room, Anakin
and Tahiri were busy battling an assassin droid. Far away from them the
wise Jedi Master, on Artoo-Detoo, was now almost directly in front of
Orloc. In spite of the gale-force winds, Ikrit held his lightsaber high and
did not waver. He might not have looked as impressive as a Mage, but to
Uldir it was was obvious that Ikrit was a Jedi Master. Uldir gritted his
teeth when the Mage laughed at Ikrit-a rude, mean-spirited laugh.
"If you insist on fighting me, little hairball," Orloc said, "why, we
must do this properly."
Suddenly the lights stopped flashing. They sank to a dusky glow, so
that the two lightsabers burned brightly in the dimness. The roaring wind
died down to a brisk breeze. The Mage blinked his tawny eyes furiously for
a moment. Then he snapped his fingers and said, "Dispose of the Jedi woman.
I'll take care of this one."
From out of the shadows behind Orloc appeared what must have been the
Mage's last remaining pirate droid. Uldir recognized what kind of droid it
was right away: an assassin. He closed his eyes for the briefest moment.
Uldir knew that he had to act now or his friends were done for.
No guts, no glory, he reminded himself. A torrent of power surged
through him. Anakin Solo crouched beside his friend Tahiri, guarding the
injured Tionne.
Together, they had buried the last droid attacker under a
pile of rubble from the statue. Now, as Anakin watched the purple-robed
Mage again, the pieces of the latest puzzle came together in his mind. He
knew how to defeat Orloc! For the moment, though, he would have to leave
the Mage to Master Ikrit, because Orloc had just sent a new assassin droid
straight toward Anakin and his friends.
They would have to do some fast thinking. The assassin droid used a
repulsor to hover above the floor. Since it had no wheels, it could easily
pass over the shards of broken statue that had kept the other pirate droids
away. The droid's six arms each ended in a different tool. In the dim light
Anakin could make out a blaster arm, a clamp hand with jagged edges, and a
half-meter - long spike. It was too dark to see any more than that... but
that was more than enough.
"Help me move Tionne," Tahiri said. They lifted their teacher, but
jets of superhot steam shot up behind them, blocking their retreat. As they
laid Tionne back down, she moaned a single word, "Holocron," before passing
out again.
Tahiri swallowed hard and gently stroked her teacher's hair.
"Not yet," she whispered, though she knew Tionne couldn't hear her.
"We've got other problems to handle first."
Anakin looked back toward the assassin droid. It was fifteen meters
away now. Across the room, Ikrit's lightsaber and Orloc's stolen one
crashed together in a shower of sparks. The assassin droid fired its
blaster at Anakin and Tahiri, and the two friends dropped to the floor.
Across the room the two lightsaber blades clashed again. At the same
moment, Anakin saw Uldir charging across the center of the room. Looking as
fearless as an ancient Jedi, the teenager nimbly dodged jets of steam and
leapt over chunks of the broken statue. His chestnut hair flying behind
him, Uldir let out a fierce war cry. The assassin droid swiveled toward
him. At the end of one of its arms a jagged saw blade began to spin.
Uldir had untied the belt of his Jedi robe, and now, still running at
full speed toward the deadly droid, he pulled off his brown robe, leaving
only the orange flightsuit underneath. Anakin held his breath and waited
for the right moment. A blaster bolt sang past Uldir's shoulder, but he
didn't hesitate. He dove at the assassin droid and flung his robe over it,
blinding the droid's sensors.
It kept firing through the robe as Uldir fell, catching him in the
shoulder with a wild shot. Uldir hit the floor hard and rolled out of the
way as quickly as he could.
"Now!" he yelled to Anakin and Tahiri. "You can do it!"
The two junior Jedi let the Force flow through them. Anakin gave the
droid a hard shove with his mind.
"You picked the wrong team to attack this time," Tahiri cried, adding
her power to Anakin's. As if the droid weighed no more than a feather, it
floated into the air, spun wildly, and crashed against the wall of the
circular chamber.
Something sparked beneath the brown robe. The assassin twirled and
tried to free itself of its shroud. Wounded though he was, Uldir scrambled
along the wall until he found the precious object he was looking for.
"I've got it!" he shouted, holding up the Holocron. Just then across
the room Orloc cried out in rage, and Anakin saw Obi-Wan Kenobi's light -
saber fly from the Mage's grasp. The hilt tumbled end over end through the
air, no longer lit, and fell to the floor with a clatter just a few meters
from Anakin. The Force flowed, directing Anakin's movements. Even though
Uldir was wounded and Tionne was in danger, he knew he would have to
confront the Mage to save them all.
With two leaps he reached the lightsaber handle, scooped it up, and
sprinted straight toward Orloc. The furious Mage ran his hands along the
spangled sleeves of his cloak and flung his arms out wide. A cloud of smoke
burst in front of Anakin, but he kept going.
Next, swarms of miniature TIE fighters dropped from the ceiling to
head him off. Anakin ducked. Blaster fire exploded in the air in front of
him.
"It's not real, Anakin," Uldir yelled. His strong voice carried easily
above the sounds of blaster fire and steam jets. "Show him, Tahiri!"
With that, he threw the Holocron straight at the blond girl. The
pearly cube sailed through the air in a smooth arc. Tahiri caught it
easily, as if the Force had guided it right into her hands. "Look, Anakin!"
she cried.
Suddenly, a hologram of Ash Krimsan filled the entire room, larger
than Anakin had ever seen her.
"Welcome, my children. What may I teach you today?" the kindly Jedi
Master asked.
"Teach us about lies," Uldir shouted. In the image, the scarlet-robed
old Jedi spread her hands. "Lies can only defeat you if you give them the
Tiny TIE fighters flew through the kind old face, diving and shooting,
and Anakin saw them for what they really were: holograms. As the image of
Ash Krimsan dissolved, Anakin began running again, straight through the
swarm of TIE fighters. He heard the assassin droid smash once more against
the wall, and something in the back of his mind told him that Tahiri had
taken over protecting Tionne.
He also knew that Ikrit and Artoo were on their way to help her.
Thunder boomed from the speakers hidden in the walls, but Anakin did not
stop until he stood directly before Orloc. Then, pressing the switch on the
handle of Kenobi's blade, Anakin ignited the lightsaber. The blade hummed
in his hand, a bright pure blue sending its light through the darkness.
Orloc's tawny eyes blinked furiously and he lifted his arms, as if to bring
lightning down on Anakin. Anakin raised the lightsaber. From a distance,
Anakin heard Uldir cry, "Don't hurt him!"
Anakin didn't put down the lightsaber.
"Trust me," he called to his friend. Then he brought the blade
sweeping downward in a curving arc at the purple-robed Mage. Silver
spangles flew through the air and sparkled as they pattered to the floor.
The holograms disappeared. Anakin brought the lightsaber up again and swept
down once more. Wires sparked and spangles fell.
The Mage howled with anguish, "No! You've destroyed it!" But his voice
no longer boomed from the speakers overhead; it seemed weak and puny. The
Mage ran his fingers along the edge of his purple cloak, which was now in
tatters. There were no more silver spangles-nothing left with which to
control his "magic."
Anakin had realized that the Mage touched the dangling bits of silver
each time he used his "powers." Now Orloc was stripped of his controls. The
Mage looked past Anakin. His eyes held a tortured look.
"Please, help me," he said.
Anakin turned to see Uldir. His friend's amber eyes were filled with
pity-only pity. Uldir slowly shook his head and put a hand up to touch his
injured shoulder.
"You would have killed my friends-and maybe even me-just to keep the
Holocron and Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber. You thought they could give you
tr
ue power, just like I believed you could give me real power. The power of
the Force is real. But you knew you never had it. I was the fool."
"Why, I still have one power left to me," the magician snarled. Anakin
turned to look at Orloc, but in a bright flash and a puff of smoke, the
Mage was gone. Anakin knew that the smoke was not magical. It was merely
one of Orloc's tricks, and he wondered if they should follow the Mage.
Uldir struggled over to Anakin's side, holding one hand to his wounded
shoulder.
"I think we can let him go now," Uldir said. "He's lost his droids,
his Ranats, his robe, his chamber of wonders, the Holocron, and Kenobi's
blade. I don't think he'll attack us again."
"Mmmm. Perhaps he has learned a lesson," Ikrit murmured, coming to
stand by them.
"I hope so," Uldir said. His voice was deep and sad. "I certainly
have."
Tahiri snugged a webbed belt across Tionne's unconscious form. The
Jedi teacher lay on the repulsorsled that Uldir had pointed out to Ikrit.
Artoo-Detoo gave a mournful whistle.
"Don't worry. Ikrit says she'll be just fine," Tahiri assured the
little droid. "We just need to get her to a bacta tank to heal her wounds."
"I'm sorry I caused so much trouble," Uldir said. "I never thought
anyone would get hurt."
"Your injury will also heal in a bacta tank," Ikrit said. The white-
furred Jedi Master finished bandaging Uldir's shoulder where the teenager