Shadow Academy

1

Jacen grasped the lightsaber, feeling its comforting weight against his sweaty palms. His scalp tingled beneath its unruly tangle of brown curls as he sensed the approach of his enemy. Closer, closer … He drew in a slow breath and reached with one finger that trembled ever so slightly to press the button on the handle.

With a buzzing hiss, the cold metal handle sprang to life, transforming into a sword of glowing energy. The deadly lightsaber pulsed and vibrated in his hands like a living thing.

With a mixture of fear and excitement, Jacen’s wiry frame tensed for the attack. His liquid-brown eyes fluttered shut for a moment as he visualized his opponent.

Without warning, he heard the hum of a lightsaber slice down from above.

Jacen whirled just in time and caught the blow with his own lightsaber. The deep red of his opponents weapon throbbed with power, filling his vision as the two glowing blades warred for dominance.

Jacen knew he was far outmatched in size and strength, that he would need all of his wits to get out of this encounter alive. His arms ached with the strain of holding off the blow, so he took advantage of his smaller size, spinning under his opponents arm and dancing out of reach.

The attacker advanced toward him, but Jacen knew better than to let him get that close again. The ruby glow flashed toward him, and he was ready. He parried the blow and then swept sideways with his own blade before dodging backward and blocking the next thrust.

Attack and counterattack. Thrust. Parry. Block. Lightsabers sizzled and hissed as they clashed again and again.

Though the room was cool and dank, perspiration ran down Jacen’s face and into his eyes, nearly blinding him. He saw the arc of red light barely in time and ducked to avoid it. A cocky lopsided grin sprang to his lips, and he realized he was enjoying himself. Stone chips flew around him as the deadly ruby blade gouged the low ceiling just over his head.

Jacen’s grin faded as he tried to take a step backward and felt cold stone blocks press into his shoulder blades. He parried another thrust, sprang sideways, and fetched up against another stone wall.

He was cornered. An icy fist of fear clenched his stomach, and Jacen dropped to one knee, flinging up his blade to ward off the next blow. A sound like thunder echoed through the chamber….

Jacen opened his eyes and looked up to see his uncle Luke standing in the doorway, clearing his throat. Startled, Jacen fumbled to turn off the lightsaber and accidentally dropped the extinguished handle to the flagstones with a clatter.

The sandy-haired, black-robed Jedi Master strode into the private room that served as both his office and his meditation chamber at the Jedi academy. He held his hand out toward the lightsaber, and the weapon sprang to his palm as if magnetized.

Jacen gulped as Master Luke Skywalker fixed him with a solemn gaze. “I’m sorry, Uncle Luke,” Jacen said, his words coming out in a tumbling rush. “I came here to ask you for your help, and when you weren’t here, I decided to wait, and then I saw your lightsaber just lying on your desk, and I know you said I’m not ready yet, but I didn’t see how it could hurt to just practice a little. So I picked it up, and I guess I just got carried away and—”

Luke held up one hand, palm outward, as if to forestall further explanation. “The weapon of the Jedi shouldn’t be taken up lightly,” he said.

Jacen felt his cheeks flush at the gentle rebuke. “But I know I could learn to use a lightsaber,” he said, defensive. “I’m old enough, and I’m tall enough, and I’ve been practicing in my room with a piece of pipe I got from Jaina—I’m sure I could do it.”

Luke seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head slowly. “There’ll be time enough for that when you are ready.”

“But I’m ready now,” Jacen protested.

“Not yet,” Luke said, smiling sadly. “The time will come soon enough.”

Jacen groaned with impatience. It was always Later, always Some other time, always Maybe when you’re older. He sighed. “You’re the teacher. I’m the student, so I have to listen, I guess.”

Luke smiled and shook his head. “Ah. Be careful—don’t assume a teacher is always right, without question. You have to think for yourself. Sometimes we teachers make mistakes, too. But in this case, I am right: You’re not yet ready for a lightsaber.

“Believe me, I know what it’s like to wait,” Luke continued. “But patience can be as strong an ally as any weapon.” Then his eyes twinkled. “Don’t you have more important things to be worrying about right now than imaginary lightsaber battles—like getting ready for your trip? Don’t your pets need to be fed?”

“I’m all packed, and I’ll feed the animals just before we leave,” Jacen said, thinking of the menagerie of pets he had collected since coming to the jungle moon. “But the trip is what I came here to talk to you about.”

Luke raised his eyebrows. “Yes?”

“I—I was hoping you could talk to Tenel Ka and convince her to come with us to see Lando Calrissian’s mining station.”

Luke’s brows drew together, and he chose his words carefully. “Why is it important to change her mind?”

“Because Jaina and Lowbacca and I are all going,” Jacen said, “and … and it just won’t be the same without her,” he finished lamely.

Luke’s face relaxed, and his eyes sparkled with humor. “It’s not so easy to change the mind of a Force-wielding warrior from Dathomir, you know,” he said.

“But it doesn’t make sense that she wants to stay behind,” Jacen exclaimed. “She made up some dumb excuse that it would be boring—said she was sure Corusca gems weren’t any more beautiful than rainbow gems from Gallinore, and she’s seen plenty of those. But she didn’t sound bored; she sounded worried or nervous.”

“We must think for ourselves,” Luke said, “and sometimes that means we have to make difficult or unpopular decisions.” Luke put an arm around Jacen’s shoulders and led him toward the door. “Go feed your pets now. Have a safe journey to GemDiver Station—and rest assured, Tenel Ka has good reasons.”

Tenel Ka woke with a start, shivering and drenched with perspiration in the cool, stonewalled chamber. Sunset-copper hair hung across her vision in tangles that had once been orderly braids. Her bedsheets were twisted about her legs as if she had been running in her sleep.

Then she remembered the dream. She had been running. Running from black-cloaked shadowy figures with purple-splotched faces. Muddled memories of stories her mother had told her as a child swirled through her sleep-fogged brain. She had never seen those terrifying forms before, but she knew what they were—witches from Dathomir who had drawn on the dark side of the Force to work all manner of evil.

The Nightsisters.

But the last of the Nightsisters had been destroyed or disbanded long before Tenel Ka had even been born. Why should she dream of them now? The only Force-wielders left on Dathomir used the powers of the light side.

Why these nightmares? Why now?

She squeezed her eyes shut and flopped back on her bed with a grunt as she realized what day it was. This was the day that her grandmother, Matriarch of the Hapan Royal Household, was sending an ambassador to visit Tenel Ka, heir to the Royal Throne of Hapes. And she didn’t want her friends to know she was a princess….

Ambassador Yfra. Tenel Ka shuddered as she thought of her iron-willed grandmother and her ambassadors, women who would lie or even kill to preserve their power—although her grandmother no longer ruled Hapes. Tenel Ka shook her head in wry amusement. The impending visit must be why she had dreamt of the Nightsisters.

Although the inhabitants of her mother’s primitive planet of Dathomir and her fathers plush homeworld of Hapes were light-years apart, the parallels between the Hapan politicians and the Nightsisters of Dathomir were obvious: All were power-hungry women who would stop at nothing to keep the power they craved.

Tenel Ka levered herself into a sitting position. She did not relish the idea of meeting with Ambassador Yfra. In fact, the only positive thought she could muster about it was that her friends would not be here to observe it. At least Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca would be far away on Lando Calrissian’s GemDiver Station before the ambassador ever arrived. They would not be here to wonder why their friend, who claimed to be a simple warrior from Dathomir, was being visited by a royal ambassador from the House of Hapes. And Tenel Ka was not ready yet to explain that to them.

Well, she couldn’t stay in bed any longer. She would have to get up and face whatever the day had to offer her. The meeting was unavoidable. “This,” she muttered, flinging aside the covers and standing, “is a fact.”

Jaina and Lowbacca sat in the center of Jaina’s student quarters surrounded by a holographic map of the Yavin system.

“That ought to do it,” she said. Her straight shoulder-length hair swung forward like a curtain, partially veiling her face, as she hunched over to scrutinize the input pad for her holoprojector. She had built the projector herself, piecing it together from her private stock of used electronic modules, components, cables, and other odds and ends that she kept neatly organized in a bank of bins and drawers that filled one wall of her quarters.

“Pretty impressive, huh, Lowie?” Jaina asked, flashing a lopsided grin at the ginger-furred young Wookiee. She pointed at the luminescent sphere drifting above their heads that represented the gas-giant planet of Yavin.

Lowbacca pointed to the image of a small green moon that hovered just above his left shoulder, in orbit around the big orange planet. He gave an interrogative growl.

“Ahem,” the miniature translator droid Em Teedee said from the clip on Lowie’s belt, as if clearing its throat. Em Teedee was roughly oval in shape, rounded in the front and flat on the back, with irregularly spaced optical sensors and a wide speaker grill at the center. “Master Lowbacca wishes to know,” the miniature droid went on, “if the sphere he indicated represents the moon Yavin 4, where we are now.”

“Right,” said Jaina. “The gas planet Yavin has more than a dozen moons, but I haven’t managed to program them all in yet. What I mainly wanted to see,” she continued, “was the trajectory we’re going to follow when Lando takes us to his gem-mining station in the upper atmosphere of Yavin.”

Lowie growled a comment, and Jaina waited impatiently while the prissy translator droid interpreted for her.

“Of course it’s a bit dangerous,” she responded, rolling her brown eyes in exasperation, “but not much. And this is too good an opportunity to pass up. Lando’s going to let us help with some of the mining operations, not just watch,” Jaina said, pointing to a spot just above the glowing surface of Yavin.

Lowbacca reached for the holoprojector’s input pad and pressed a few buttons. In a moment a tiny metallic-looking object appeared near the surface: GemDiver Station.

“Show-off,” Jaina said, chuckling at the speed with which Lowie had programmed the holo map. “Tell you what, from now on I build ’em, you program ’em—fair enough?”

Lowie pretended to preen, rumbling his agreement as he smoothed his hand along the black streak that ran through his fur from his forehead down his back.

Just then Jacen bounded through the door. “They’re here,” he said breathlessly. “I mean almost here. They’re on approach. I was in the control room and I heard that the Lady Luck was coming in.” Twin pairs of eyes—each the color of Corellian brandy—met in a mixture of excitement and anticipation.

“Well, then,” Jaina said, “what are we waiting for?”

Jaina watched with admiration as Lando Calrissian strode down the ramp of the Lady Luck, an emerald-green cape billowing out behind him and a broad smile on his dark, handsome face. His frequent companion, the bald cyborg assistant Lobot, followed him down the gangplank and stood stiffly at his side.

Lando greeted Jaina with a gallant kiss on the hand before turning with a formal bow to her twin brother Jacen and Lowie. Next, he clapped the shoulder of Luke Skywalker, who had come to meet the Lady Luck, his barrel-shaped droid Artoo-Detoo following close behind him.

“Take good care of them, Lando,” Luke said. “No unnecessary risks, okay?” Artoo added a few beeps and whistles of his own.

Lando looked at Luke, pretending to take offense. “Hey, you know I wouldn’t let these kids do anything I didn’t think was a safe bet.”

Luke grinned and gave Lando’s shoulder an affectionate slap. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“You’re just worried that once they see my GemDiver Station they’ll be so impressed they won’t want to come back to your Jedi academy,” Lando joked.

Then, with a flourish of his cape, Lando Calrissian motioned Lowie and Jacen up the ramp. He turned to Jaina. “And what can I do to make this field trip more interesting and rewarding for you, young lady?” he asked, offering her his arm to escort her into the ship.

“The first thing you can do,” she said, accepting his arm with an enthusiastic smile, “is tell me all about the Lady Luck’s engines….”