And in that split second, the Jedi Master struck. It was only a small rock, as rocks went, but it came in out of nowhere to strike her gun hand with paralyzing force. The blaster went spinning off into the darkness as her hand flared with pain and then went numb. 'Watch out!' she snapped to Skywalker, dropping down into a crouch and scrabbling around for her weapon as a second stone whistled past her ear. There was a snap-hiss from beside her, and suddenly the terrain was bathed in the green-white glow of Skywalker's lightsaber. 'Get behind the ship,' he ordered her. 'I'll hold him off.' The memory of Myrkr flashed through Mara's mind; but even as she opened her mouth to remind him of how useless he was without the Force, he took a long step forward to put himself outside the ysalamir's influence. The lightsaber flashed sideways, and she heard the double crunch as its silent blade intercepted two more incoming rocks.
Still laughing, C'baoth raised his hand and sent a flash of blue lightning toward them.
Skywalker caught the bolt on his lightsaber, and for an instant the green of the blade was surrounded by a blue-white coronal discharge. A second bolt shot past him to vanish at the edge of the empty zone around Mara; a third again wrapped itself around the lightsaber blade.
Mara's fumbling hand brushed something metallic: her blaster. Scooping it up, she swung it toward C'baoth And with a brilliant flash of laser fire, the whole scene seemed to blow up in front of her.
She had forgotten about the droid sitting up there in the X-wing. Apparently, C'baoth had forgotten about it, too.
'Skywalker?' she called, blinking at the purple haze floating in front of her eyes and wrinkling her nose at the tingling smell of ozone.
'Where are you?'
'Over here by C'baoth,' Skywalker's voice said. 'He's still alive.'
'We can fix that,' Mara growled. Carefully picking her way across the steaming ruts the X-wing's laser cannon had gouged in the ground, she headed over.
C'baoth was lying on his back, unconscious but breathing evenly, with Skywalker kneeling over him. 'Not even singed,' she murmured. 'Impressive.'
'Artoo wasn't shooting to kill,' Skywalker said, his fingertips moving gently across the old man's face. 'It was probably the sonic shock that got him.'
'That, or getting knocked off his feet by the shock wave,' Mara agreed, lining her blaster up on the still figure. 'Get out of the way. I'll finish it.'
Skywalker looked up at her. 'We're not going to kill him,' he said.
'Not like this.'
'Would you rather wait until he's conscious again and can fight back?' she retorted.
'There's no need to kill him at all,' Skywalker insisted. 'We can be off Jomark long before he wakes up.'
'You don't leave an enemy at your back,' she told him stiffly. 'Not if you like living.
'He doesn't have to be an enemy, Mara,' Skywalker said with that irritating earnestness of his. 'He's ill. Maybe he can be cured.' Mara felt her lip twist. 'You didn't hear the way he was talking before you showed up,' she said. 'He's insane, all right; but that's not all he is anymore. He's a lot stronger, and a whole lot more dangerous.' She hesitated. 'He sounded just like the Emperor and Vader used to.' A muscle in Skywalker's cheek twitched. 'Vader was deep in the dark side, too,' he told her. 'He was able to break that hold and come back. Maybe C'baoth can do the same.
'I wouldn't bet on it,' Mara said. But she holstered her blaster. They didn't have time to debate the issue; and as long as she needed Skywalker's help, he had effective veto on decisions like this. 'Just remember, it's your back that'll get the knife if you're wrong.'
'I know.' He looked down at C'baoth once more, then back up at her.
'You said Karrde was in trouble.'
'Yes,' Mara nodded, glad to change the subject. Skywalker's mention of the Emperor and Vader had reminded her all too clearly of that recurring dream. 'The Grand Admiral's taken him. I need your help to get him out.'
She braced herself for the inevitable argument and bargaining; but to her surprise, he simply nodded and stood up. 'Okay,' he said. 'Let's go.' With one last mournful electronic wail Artoo signed off and with the usual flicker of pseudomotion, the X-wing was gone. 'Well, he's not happy about it,' Luke said, shutting down the Skipray's transmitter. 'But I think I've persuaded him to go straight home.'
