The strange woman's eyes almost seemed to glow in Cahaldra's eerie light "You helped me against the Kadavs, and I wont repay my debt by leaving you here to be slaughtered for things that I've done." She nodded towards the well. "This way. Quickly."
"There's a Kadav down there."
"And there will be more up here any minute. Hear that? It's one of their groundskimmers." She grabbed one of the vines that trailed into the well and swung halfway in. "Whoever you are and why ever you're here, I don't think getting caught, interrogated, and then executed was part of your plan."
"True," he admitted.
She began a rapid hand-over-hand descent, and he followed. The well opened out at the bottom into a circular chamber with a narrow ledge ringing the water. It was upon this ledge that the unfortunate Kadav had ended up, dead from a snapped neck.
"Now where?"
"There's a hidden door." She edged halfway around the well and her body concealed her action from him, but moments later, there was a grinding squall of stone and part of the curved wall slid back to reveal an opening.
"Are you a prisoner?" he asked as she started into the dark space.
She paused and turned her forearm, pulling up her sleeve. There, burned into the tender flesh of the wrist, was a brand, shaped like a diamond and filled with the caladrian sign for the letter B . "Occasionally."
"They did this to you? The Senate outlawed physical torture --"
"Oh, yes, mind-probe droids are so much more effective, they don't leave marks, the prisoner only thinks he's getting his skin peeled away in strips." She yanked her sleeve back down and looked at him sternly. "And the whip-knives the Kadavs carry are just for show. They'd never use them on the prisoners. Right?"
"They're not supposed to have those. The Senate --"
"-- has a lot to learn about Rannok," she finished. "Or maybe they know, and just choose to hide the truth. Come on."
Her fingers folded around his and pulled him into the darkness. The hidden door closed behind them, leaving them in utter black silence. With his free hand, he tried to explore the walls. Sometimes he could touch them, the bumpy candle wax formations damp and slightly moist and smelling of the same oily mineral odour as the water. Sometimes he stretched his arm as far as he could and found nothing. Once, while doing that, his foot strayed over a drop and he halted with his pulse beating more rapidly.
"How can you see?" he asked, heart still pounding from realizing how narrow their path was, as they began moving up a gradual slope. "I just know. There's a bridge up ahead," the woman said, and though she spoke in a very hushed tone, she may as well have been shouting. "Stay with me, right behind me. One misstep, and ... well, you think the Kadav had a long fall ..."
Obi-Wan shut his eyes and let the Force tell him what was around him. Everything seemed to suddenly swim into visibility, dark on dark, a thousand shades of grey. And, when he realized they were nearing the center of the bridge she'd warned him about, realized that it was a span that he could have encircled with both hands, and that the floor dropped away into a fathomless fissure from which a breeze sighed like cold breath, he almost wished he had stuck to trying to use his eyesight.
They reached the other side and pressed on. When he touched the walls again, he found them to be smooth stone, cut and worked stone, not the natural walls of a cave. Finally, the woman stopped and let go of him. "There are stairs here. Spiral stairs."
Obi-Wan became aware of a faint light that grew brighter as they climbed. It came from a small room that opened off one of the landings.
The room was nearly perfectly round, and monastically simple in furnishings. At the back, water trickled from a fish-shaped spout in the wall and pooled in a small basin. The light source, a battery-powered lamp, rested on a low table ringed by stools. Aside from that, there was a recessed bed-niche piled with blankets, and some shelves holding a few books and other effects.
"This is where you live?" he asked.
"It's a place where I sometimes sleep," she corrected.
"Where do you live?"
"Here and there, if you don't want to be detected by the sensor droids you have to keep moving." She took two earthenware jugs from a shelf, sloshed them, nodded, and gave him one. "Now. I'm Sabeeth. Who are you? And what are you doing on Rannok? You're not a prisoner."
"I am Obi-Wan Kenobi." He paused, gently searching her mind, wondering if he could trust her. An icy chill came over him as he could feel how strongly she hated Dol Bethra. He wondered why but before he could find out she pushed him out, using the Force. The woman, Sabeeth gave him a puzzled look.
" A man is being held unjustly in the prison", he continued, ignoring the questions he could sense she wanted to ask. "And I've come on a rescue mission." He sniffed at the jug. Juice from the vine-berries, he surmised. Risking a taste, he found it pleasantly sweet.
"Just you?" she said, unbelieving.
"Just me. I admit, we'd been incorrectly informed about the size and security of the compound. Dol Bethra has misled the entire Republic as to what he's doing here." She snarled at the mention of the name. "You can't expect to succeed."
"I had hopes."
"You'll die", she stated, then added: "Without help." The touch of a smile curved her lips His eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"
"Bethra claimed one of our Citadels for his headquarters. He keeps his most important prisoners there. I know every inch of it. There are secret passages that they'll never discovered."
"What do you want in return?"
"You must have access to a transport."
"You want to leave your home?"
She gestured at her surroundings. "There's nothing for me here. Bethra's army annihilated everything. I'm the only one left. There's no point in dying for the sake of an empty pile of rocks and the memories of the dead."
He nodded. "Very well. What do we do first?"
"Eat, then rest. The main shift will have started by now. We'll wait until third shift, when the prisoners sleep and the guards are less attentive. Bethra sleeps then, too."
As they ate, supplementing her meager supplies with high-energy bars from his pack, she described the layout of the Citadel for him. Wrapping himself in his cloak and a borrowed blanket, Obi-Wan sent himself into the alert but refreshing trance-state that the Jedi used when they didn't dare risk full slumber. Across from him, the woman fell swiftly into a deep and genuine sleep that erased the habitual pain and anger from her face, and left her beautiful.
"Where did you get that?" Obi-Wan asked, watching as Sabeeth checked her lightsaber, activating it and turning it back and forth.
"It belonged to the Nocust. He taught me to use it."
"Who is this Noctus?"
"Our high priest. Bethra killed him," she said flatly, switching it off and slinging it at her waist. "He foresaw the attack too late to save everyone, but got many of his people into hiding. My mother was a valestia, a holy bride of the Soulfire, he saved her life that day so that she could give birth to me. Noctus said it was fate, that he was meant to save my mother so that I could be born."
The resemblance to his own Padawan's past was almost eerie, but he hadn't come to Rannok to discover another Chosen One. He pushed the mystery aside and focused on the present situation. "Why would Dol Bethra destroy your people?"
"Maybe he feared the power of Noctus and the Soulfire. Maybe he wanted the wealth of our city -- what little of it there was -- for his own." She looked up at him with fierce green eyes. "Maybe he's a viper on legs who deserves to be cut slowly into small, smoking pieces, a bit at a time, while he yet lives."
The sheer venom in her voice made Obi-Wan draw back. "Don't give in to your hate, Sabeeth. It can only make you vulnerable to the Dark Side." "My hate gives me strength, it keeps me going." "It will destroy you. Master Yoda says that fear and hate lead to suffering, which is the path to the Dark Side."
"I think your Master Yoda has it wrong. Suffering leads to hate. And hate hones the blade of revenge."
"Is that the teaching of your Noctus? What would he say to hear you speaking so?" "As a matter of fact, that is what he taught us. It's Noct's will."
Obi-Wan sat down and exhaled slowly. "Did ... did many of your people subscribe to that faith?"
"All of us."
"And your Noctus ... who was he? You said he had powers. What kind?"
"You have them too. When I first saw you, I thought you were him reincarnated. You move like he did, with his speed, as if you know what's going to happen before it does. I saw you throw that Kadav with nothing but your power. Noctus could do that. How can you?" "I am a Jedi Knight."
"Jedi ... Noctus used to tell stories about the Jedi. I never thought they were real." She sat down opposite to him.
"Was Noctus his real name?"
"He was only Noctus, what can be more real than that? " "Did he ever tell you about the Sith?"
"The what?"
"You ... your entire people ... worshiping the Dark Side of the Force! An yet you know nothing of the Sith? This is madness, impossible!"
"How can you have the same powers as Noctus and know nothing of Noct?" she demanded in turn.
"It's the Force, Sabeeth. It's in all of us, in all living things. Stronger in some than in others. I sense it is very strong in you. A Jedi is trained to use the Force, but also to control our emotions so that we do not fall prey to the Dark Side. We serve the Republic, and see that justice is done."
She leaned forward alertly. "So you'll kill Bethra?"
"That's not why I'm here. I came to rescue the Governor Tredze of Lancas before he'll be wrongfully executed. But I will report Bethra's deception to the Jedi Council and to the Senate."
"What will be done to him?"
"I can't say for sure. He may be removed from his post. They might even disband the prison altogether."
"But they'd let him live?"
"Most likely."
"Then it's a good thing that his fate's not up to the Senate to decide." She touched her light sabre and a cold smile curved her lips.
"No!" Obi-Wan recoiled from the surge of deadly emotion he sensed. "Slaying Bethra is not the answer! It will not bring your people back or restore your city. It accomplishes nothing."
"Nothing but his death, and that's enough for me."
"You can't let your hatred for him rule you. To give in to your desire for revenge will lead you down a dark and dangerous path."
She came at him with such speed that even he wasn't prepared. Seizing his chin in her hand, she riveted him with that green gaze. "Have you ever seen someone you care for die in violence and agony?"
"Sabeeth ..."
"Have you?!" She gave his chin a shake.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"My master. My teacher. He was ... he died in battle against a Sith."
"Why didn't you help him?"
"I tried! The energy fields --"
"You couldn't get to him. So you watched him die."
He could feel the Force pouring from her now. Not used with the subtlety and finesse of a Jedi, but a raw bludgeoning that battered at his will. That wouldn't bend the weak-minded but break them.
"I --"
"How did it feel , Obi-Wan Kenobi? Were you angry? Did you know hate? Like a cold black flame consuming your heart? Did you fight his killer? Fight him and kill him, hoping that his death -- and your revenge -- would douse some of that flame? Did you?"
He pulled roughly away. She reached again, lightning-quick, but this time he reacted. Her wrist smacked into his palm and he held her there, his fingers pressed against the coarse scar of her brand. His grip was so tight that his knuckles whitened, but she showed no signs of pain, no signs of backing down. Seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity, neither of them dropping their challenge-locked gaze.
"You did," Sabeeth said softly, knowingly.
"Only for that short time. Only in the heat of battle. But yes. I did." He let go of her. She didn't draw back, but slowly brought her hand back to his chin. She touched it gently, tracing the line of is lips with a feather light fingertip. "See? We're not so different after all." Obi-Wan suppressed a shiver. He dipped his head slightly, brushing his lips against her hand, closing his eyes as conflicting impulses pulled at him. "I wouldn't have hunted him for revenge. I wouldn't have let myself be ruled by that dark desire," he said, his voice little more than a harsh whisper. "That is the difference."
"You killed him. He's dead and gone. You'll never have to find out what you would have done if he had gotten away." Her tentative caress, so warm in contrast to the coldness of her words, moved to his cheek, his jaw.
"There is no good in hatred and revenge. It can only bring evil, only the Dark Side." He spoke the words as if reciting them had become a habit, covering her hand with his and holding it more firmly to his face.
"I don't think life can be that clear-cut. Good or evil, light or dark ... there's some of both in everyone."
"That's why the Dark Side is so persuasive. You must resist it, or it will overpower you." His lips brushed her hand again, almost a kiss, and his soul moaned in mingled yearning and denial.
"I can't turn my back on everything I've ever known." She withdrew, moved away from him, the breaking of physical contact, leaving him both relived and pained by a piercing sense of loss. "On everything I am . You said Noctus was this Dark Side personified?"
He nodded. "So it seems."
"Then I can't ever escape it, even if I wanted to. Noct, the Soulfire that Noctus served, is my father."
XXX
The cavern walls were covered with carved images and statues. In the eerie flickering unlight, they seemed to breathe and stir, and observe the movements of the woman below. Obi-Wan stood among them, concealed, one shape amid many. He knew he should not be here, but when Sabeeth had left to prepare herself for the coming infiltration of the prison, he'd been unable not to follow with discreet stealth. He had to see if what she'd told him was true.
Daughter of the Dark Side. It couldn't be, it was impossible. Conceived through her mother's ceremonial union with this world's god of shadows and secrets? And yet ... and yet ... what of Anakin? His mother had been chosen to bear him; was that so different? Qui-Gon had believed the Skywalker woman, had known her mind so well that lies would have been impossible between them.
He wasn't inclined to disbelieve in the power of Sabeeth's god, not here in this place. This was one of their halls of worship, the deepest and most secret sanctuary known to her people. This was the cave of the Soulfire. It burned in a circular pit in the center of the onyx-smooth floor. With no visible fuel, like no fire he had ever seen before. Its flames were violet- edged black, golden at the heart. They leapt halfway to the high ceiling, not crackling but emitting a low songlike melody. A blaze that size should have warmed even this large chamber, but the Soulfire seemed to give off no heat.
In front of the pit where the Soulfire burned was a long low altar of that same onyx-smooth stone. Sabeeth knelt before it, head bowed, black against black and nearly invisible. If she knew she was being observed, she gave no indication.
She conducted her prayers in silence, then rose and unfastened her light saber, setting it upon the altar. She took off her cloak and laid it there as well. Then her boots. Obi-Wan struggled to mask his sudden shock as he realized she was undressing. Now more than ever, he knew he should not be here, but was unable to leave.
Sabeeth lifted her tunic. She was facing the altar, her back to Obi-Wan, and as the black fabric came away from her pale skin he saw the vivid red whirls that striped her from waist to neck. His fists clenched, recognizing the marks of a whip-knife. They weren't recent wounds but old, so old they must have been inflicted when she was barely more than a child. She removed the last articles of her clothing and unbraided her hair. It fell in ebon waves to the middle of her back. With calm, measured strides, she went around the altar and approached the Soulfire.
"No," he mumbled, knowing what she was about to do.
She stepped into the flames. Her hair streamed upward as if tossed by an unseen wind. She tipped her head back and raised her arms, her features transfigured with joy. Fire wreathed her limbs, danced along her body, clothed her in black and gold and bright violet.
Obi-Wan was drawn helplessly forward by this dreadful wonder. He stopped far from the altar. She opened her eyes, reflected flames shining in their emerald green. Rather than anger at his intrusion, she radiated serenity for the first time since he'd met her. Now hers was the mind of a Jedi, composed and aware.
When she emerged, tiny flames ran along her body like water, coursing down her breasts, stomach and legs to leave glimmering fire-pools in her footsteps. Violet-gold smoke rose all around her. She held out her hands, palms upraised as if to show Obi-Wan that this was no trick. He extended his own hands, holding them above hers, and the smoke curled around his fingers.
"What is in there?" he whispered.
"Everything," she said simply.
"You're not burnt." He touched her hair, then gasped as runnels of flame flowed from it onto his skin in a tingling path that left him unmarked.
"It's the same fire that burns in us all," she said. "It can only harm those who don't believe, or take their fears in with them."
"I do fear the Dark Side."
"Then maybe you need to redefine it ... or me."
"You're too beautiful not to fear." He took her face in his hands, caressed her cheeks and traced the curve of her lips with a light finger. Their minds flared together, setting them ablaze in a way even the Soulfire hadn't done.
Her arms went around him and brought his lips to hers, her body pressed against his, alive with its own heat that went through his clothes and left him feeling as if they were both bare. Her mouth tasted of violet-gold smoke, her kiss both pleading and demanding. There was no hesitation in her; a creature of raw emotion, she gave in to her passion as readily as to her anger.
Caught up in it, Obi-Wan tried to regain control of himself.
"No, don't," she murmured, sensing his sudden resistance. Her breath was warm on the side of his neck as she embraced him tightly. Her lips made a trail down -- below his ear, on the pulse beating in his throat, his collarbone, along the edge of the vee formed by his collar. "Sabeeth, this cannot be," he said, but he was stroking the starless night of her hair, holding her to him.
She didn't answer, just parted his shirt and slid a hand inside, kissing his chest. His restraint, his will crumbled away. He caressed the sleek curve of her hip, the small of her back ... and froze as he felt the ridges and knots of the scars.
Sabeeth tensed at his reaction and moved his hand to her waist. "I know how they look. I know they're hideous."
"It's not that." He very delicately touched them again, shutting his eyes as a terrible sadness assailed him, reading the awful past in the writing on her flesh. "They did this to you. The Kadav. They did this and no one stopped them." "Bethra ordered it done."
"Why? You can't have been very old ..."
"I was thirteen." She pulled away, turned away, crossed her arms over her breasts. "He wanted me. I fought him. Wounded him. He planned to have me whipped to death for it in front of all of his Wardens. He laughed while I bled... cried from the pain", she shivered as the words brought the memories to life. Noctus saved me, and it cost him his life."
"Sabeeth..." he whispered softly and pulled her into his arms again cradling her close, using the Force to gently wipe the pain and horror away. "It's all over now..." He stroked her hair, comforting her as if she were a child. " You're safe now, no one can hurt you anymore."