Soara's lightsaber whipped through the air. In seconds, the bones were dust. She stepped forward to help Darra.
'Careful — ' Obi-Wan began.
It was too late. An energy net fell from the ceiling, trapping Soara and Darra. At the same time, blasterfire pinged throughout the tomb in a zigzag fashion. They couldn't tell where it was coming from.
Obi-Wan leaped to protect Soara and Darra. Tru and Ry-Gaul moved forward, trying to detect the source of the fire. Anakin followed while Ferus and Siri slashed at the energy net, trying to release them.
From the rear of the tomb, a fireball erupted. It rolled toward them, fast and deadly.
'We have to get out of here!' Obi-Wan shouted.
Soara began to kick free of the net, grabbing Darra's arm and hauling her out. The Jedi hurtled toward the door. It was sealed tight.
They were trapped.
Chapter Twenty
There was nowhere to go but up. The heat of the fireball singed them as they leaped. It hurtled under them and smashed against the door. The Jedi were able to hang in the air, using the Force, for the crucial seconds they needed. They watched in astonishment as the fire blasted through the closed door. Corrosive, annihilating, the fire ate through stone.
The Jedi landed on the still burning ashes and made it outside. The fire burned itself out until it was just a pile of ash on the floor.
'Are you all right?' Soara asked Darra.
Darra nodded, but she still looked shaky from the electrical pulses in the stun net.
Obi-Wan knew one thing. They could not search every tomb like this.
They would lose their energy, lose their focus.
He faced the tombs. He reached out, feeling each dark place, sending his concentration to every corner.
He felt him again. Omega was close now to his goal. Obi-Wan smelled his triumph.
He turned. 'There.' He pointed down the row. 'Zan Arbor and Omega are in there. They've gone to meet the Sith.'
Singed by the fire, bloodied by the tuk'ata, they moved as one body toward the tomb Obi-Wan had indicated.
Anakin knew he was there. The Sith was somewhere in the vast tomb. He was waiting. He was watching. But Omega didn't interest him. The Jedi did.
When they entered, it seemed even darker than the first tomb had been.
The air was close and smelled of decay. The tombs here were in worse shape, crumbling, some of them decayed so much that they could see the bodies inside wrapped in shrouds.
Obi-Wan held up his lightsaber. From its glow they could see pictographs on the walls, images scrawled in red that had faded. Images of deeds done by the Sith. Wars. Massacres. Anakin turned his face away.
Join us darkness conquer dominance glory..
Anakin saw one of the shrouds rise. The layers of gray, shredding rags fell away. He gasped in shock. It was his mother, Shmi.
'Annie,' she called. 'Annie.'
'Mother.' The word was wrenched out of his belly. How much had he longed to say that word again, to see her again? It was the Jedi who kept him from her, the Jedi who had taken him away….
'Anakin!' Obi-Wan's voice was sharp. 'It's a vision. Nothing more.'
Anakin swallowed. The shroud was back in the crypt. He gazed at the others, embarrassed. Ferus looked at him with pity. Pity! His hatred for Ferus flooded him again. He had embarrassed himself in front of Ferus!
The visions came to all of them then. Sith Lords rose and walked toward them, their mouths gaping, their hands grasping, and then disintegrated onto them with foul smells and tastes. The Jedi walked on, through the corpse visions, through the whispers, through the taunts.
You are blind and you are fools and you understand nothing….
The dark side of the Force was like a thick curtain Anakin couldn't draw aside. It got in his mouth and eyes and felt as though it could slow his hands, stop his legs. Still, he kept on walking, kept on moving. There was nothing else to be done. They had to get to the end of it.
The creatures carved from stone that sat on the ledges took flight in shimmering images of fire and destruction. Tru ducked as one of them flew directly in his face, but the creature became nothing but particles of dust. Anakin saw Tru grip his lightsaber more tightly.
Tru's lightsaber! He had forgotten to tell him to check the readout for the flux aperture! He had walked away, angry and hurt. Why hadn't he remembered?
Had he wanted to forget?
He couldn't do it now. If he did, the Masters would know that Tru's lightsaber had broken and he hadn't told Ry-Gaul. He would get himself and Tru in trouble. And Ferus probably had fixed it perfectly, the way he did everything else.
