Sabeeth slipped, and he caught her by the left hand. She hung suspended between him and Bethra, who jerked at the whip with his right hand, laughing insanely. Obi-Wan braced himself and held on. The blades were shredding her clothes, carving deep gashes in her thigh and calf. He was treated to the hellish sight of her blood raining down on Bethra's upturned maniacal face.
A small explosion jolted the vehicle. The ship rocked, nearly dumping them from their precarious perch in the hatch. Jefin made the ship rise, and now Bethra was being lifted, hanging from the whip-knife. Sabeeth cried out as his full weight dragged on the blades, digging them cruelly into her flesh.
Using all his strength, both physical and mental, Obi-Wan pulled her up until she was able to catch hold of the retracted edge of the ramp. She hooked her left elbow over it and clamped her wounded right arm with that hand. Her teeth were clenched tight, her eyes slitted.
Obi-Wan leaned down as far as he could, and sliced a blue-white arc in the air. Bethra screamed as he tumbled down and away, his severed hand still clinging to the haft of the whip-knife. The Warden landed with a bone- jarring crash atop his vehicle, tried to raise his head, and was engulfed in red-orange as the power core blew up. The shockwave tossed the ship onto its side, sending Obi-Wan tumbling across the floor and flipping Sabeeth after him. They fetched up in a heap on the curved wall of the passenger compartment.
"Hatch closed!" Jefin called back. "We're away!"
XXX
"Is she all right?" Governor Tredze asked.
"Unconscious." Obi-Wan used a damp cloth to wipe Sabeeth's brow, and checked the bandages that wrapped her from elbow to shoulder, and from ankle to hip. Her boot had protected her lower leg from the worst of it, but maroon flowers were slowly blossoming higher on her thigh.
"I am in your debt, both of you."
"Then I must ask that you indulge us a while longer."
"Of course. Anything."
"Before we can take you to Coruscant to present your case to the Senate, we need to stop on Naboo and retrieve my apprentice. As well as seek proper medical attention for both of you."
Tredze glanced wryly down at himself in the dirt-smeared and singed gray prison uniform, then skidded a hand up his gaunt, stubbled cheek. "And an opportunity to clean up?"
"I'm sure that can be arranged."
The governor nodded. Obi-Wan could see the weariness in his eyes and feel it radiating off of him. He packed up the rest of the medikit and dimmed the lights, then made his way to the front where Jefin was alertly scanning the starfield.
"All's well," the pilot reported brightly. "After what happened, I wouldn't have put it past the Wardens to be hiding their own armada, but we're alone up here. Naboo, next stop. The passengers?"
"Resting."
"I sent a transmission ahead telling Naboo we've got wounded."
"Good." He slid a small glass tube into the ship's scanner and observed with no real surprise as the readout confirmed in Sabeeth's blood sample what he'd already determined for himself. And what, he wondered, would the Jedi Council make of that? What would Master Yoda, who had been so opposed to the young and harmless-seeming Anakin, have to say now?
When he leaned back and closed his eyes, he saw flames leaping there. Violet-edged black ones with hearts of gold. Never mind the Council's reaction to Sabeeth, what would they think of him? Would they see it as he did? Would they understand?
All of his musings left him with no greater insight, and before he knew it, the blue-green ball of Naboo was growing in the viewscreen. They touched down in the same spot, in the marble courtyard. Obi-Wan went back and roused the governor.
Even before the hatch opened, he could hear Anakin's high, excited voice assuring someone, the Queen, most likely, that she shouldn't worry, that Jedi never got hurt.
"If only that were true," he murmured to himself. He helped Governor Tredze down the ramp, and felt the wave of relief emanating from both Anakin and Amidala when they saw him unscathed.
The Queen retained her demeanor, her regal manners, and inclined her head to the governor just as if he'd arrived in state as an honored guest, instead of haggard and in rags.
"You're back!" Anakin crowed, rushing up to Obi-Wan. "I knew you would come back!"
He smiled at the youth. "Is this the same Padawan who was certain I was going to die?"
"Aw, I never meant that!"
The physicians came forward as Tredze finished managing a polite greeting to Amidala, and coaxed him onto a floatpad. As they ferried him through the great arch and out of sight, the Queen approached Obi-Wan.
"We are pleased to see you return promptly, and unharmed," she said, extending her hand.
He touched it. "I'm pleased to do so, Majesty."
"Tell us all about it!" Anakin enthused. "How did it go? Was there a lot of fighting?" "I will ..." perhaps not all of it, he amended mentally, "but first, the physicians --"
"Are you hurt?" Amidala asked anxiously.
"No, I --" he began, then stopped, feeling her presence without even needing to look. Confirmation of it was in the Queen's gaze that shifted past him and upward. He turned as Sabeeth emerged into the clean light of a living sun. She winced and recoiled, then nearly fell as her leg threatened to buckle.
"So ... bright!" she said as he reached her side. "The world is full of colors. I ... can't see."
"I should have warned you. It does take some getting used to." He took off his dark brown robe and draped it over her shoulders, then raised the hood, as tenderly as he might turn down a bride's veil, to shade her eyes. As he did so, he sensed sudden hurt comprehension from the Queen and a sort of leering curiosity from Anakin, but his attention remained fixed on Sabeeth.
She blinked several times, then peered squintingly up at the crystal-blue sky fluffed here and there with pristine clouds. "It's ... pretty," she said.
"You shouldn't be walking."
"I'm fine." She tried to take a step to prove it, and this time her leg did buckle. He caught her even as she began to lose her balance and supported her with an arm around her waist. She laid her hand alongside his cheek and smiled through the pain. "All right, maybe I'm not, but you're not going to carry me, Jedi!"
"Will you let the physicians do it, then?"
"I suppose."
"Um ... Master Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked hesitantly. "Who's this?"
"This is Sabeeth, who helped us greatly on Rannok."
"She's a --" Anakin broke off and looked meaningfully at Obi-Wan.
"Here we go again," Sabeeth muttered. "He's one, too. Please tell me I'm not getting the lecture on evil and the Dark Side again."
"This is my Padawan Learner, Anakin Skywalker. And this ... this is Queen Amidala of the Naboo."
The two women regarded each other, and Obi-Wan felt a flurry of unspoken exchange pass between them. It occurred to him that perhaps bringing Sabeeth here had been a mistake ... or the best thing, under the circumstances, that he could have done.
Sabeeth's lips curved. "Your highness. I'd curtsey, but then I'd fall down and bleed all over your nice clean courtyard."
"We'd not want that," Amidala returned coolly. "Welcome to Naboo."
"What's going on?" Anakin wondered in an undertone to Obi-Wan. "Why's Padmé mad?"
"That ... might be an explanation best left for another time."
XXX
He woke, bathed, changed, and was just readying himself to go down to the formal dinner the Queen was holding in the Governor's honor when the chimes over his door sounded their sweet music. "Come in."
Sabeeth walked in with the barest hint of a limp, her hair drawn back not in her customary simple braid but in two golden clips that spilled it in a loose torrent down her back. "Talented physicians," she said.
"Talented tailors," he replied, taking in the sight of her with great admiration. She stroked the simple gown of deep violet-colored silk. "I'd prefer black."
"It matches your eyes."
"These Naboo are very generous. This belt ... what are these stones?"
"Black pearls, from one of the Gungun seas." "I've brought your cloak." She set it over the back of a chair.
"Thank you."
She walked over to one of the huge windows, facing the Royal Gardens. "It's one thing to hear of sunlight and flowers, another to see it for myself." "There are many more worlds for you to see. Snow-covered mountains, desert sands, deep forests ..."
"And the planet wide city where your Jedi Council might condemn me straight back to Rannok as a threat to their galactic order."
He took her hands. "I will not let that happen."
"Nice to have at least one ally."
"You will win many others."
"Not your Queen." A grin played about Sabeeth's mouth. "She doesn't seem to like me much."
"Ah. Yes. Well ..."
"What is there between the two of you?"
"It's not like that. Only her unspoken fancy." "Not tempted?"
"Once, perhaps ... but she is very young. And Anakin ..."
"Gallant of you not to steal the queen away from your smitten apprentice. But does she know your feelings?"
He caressed the side of her face. "I imagine she does now."
She covered his hand and led it to her mouth to kiss the palm. "Careful, Obi-Wan... remember, I'm dangerous."
"Only to those who stand between you and your revenge."
"Which you did. But then you killed Bethra, so I suppose I'll forgive." She sneaked herself into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. "What do you think your Masters will have to say about me risking your life for the sake of revenge?" I'm so sorry... her mind whispered. I don't want to loose you...
You wont loose me, Sabeeth... He planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I do not know what they'll say. I doubt they'll let you become a Jedi", he smiled at her and added. "But then again, the restrictions of our codes and ways would infuriate you." His smiled faded as he became serious." Yet the Force is so very strong in you. You've already learned much. Your gifts should be trained. If only they could understand, as I do, what the Soulfire was, and what it meant."
She backed away from him, intent in concentration. Placing her fingertips and thumbs together, she made a space like a rounded diamond between them. "Watch." The air in that space began to darken, to flicker. It took on the inconstant shape of flames, then took on the deep, distinct colors.
"The fire ... how?"
"It's in us all, Obi-Wan. It's in me. I am Noct's daughter; where I go, the fire goes with me." He passed a hand into it, and felt the same things that he had before -- serenity, awareness, peace, knowledge. And presences, fleeting but comforting, brushing against him like the barest flick of a moth's wing. Presences of the dead.
"Master," he breathed as he felt the familiar spirit nearby. Offering him silent strength, counsel, support. Assuring him that what he did was the right thing. Then he sensed another, stern and strong but kind.
Through the smoke, Sabeeth's face relaxed into a smile. "Noctus."
Obi-Wan reached out, seeking. "A ... a Jedi? He was Jedi! Wait! Who are you? What was your name?"
Reached, reached ... gone as the chimes sounded again, startling Sabeeth so that the flames dissipated.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"He was Jedi," Obi-Wan insisted. "I touched his mind. The training was there, Sabeeth. He was one of us."
"That's impossible. He was Noctus, always Noctus."
The chimes rang longer. Shaken, Obi-Wan called, "Come in."
The door opened and Anakin was there. He spied them standing so close together, and grinned. "Dinner time," he said.
"A moment." He looked at Sabeeth. "Where is your lightsaber?"
"I'm never without it." She hiked her skirt and Anakin's eyes grew round. The weapon was bound to her thigh with violet ribbons. She extended her leg to untie it and the youth's eyes nearly fell from his head.
"Are you expecting trouble at dinner?" Obi-Wan inquired amusedly.
She turned and pressed her hip against his side. "I could ask the same of you, or are you just pleased to see me?" she teased.
"I can tell them to re-heat your soup for you if you're going to be a while," Anakin offered with a smirk. He looked at his Padawan and sent a very clear message, which Anakin ignored. Sighing, Obi-Wan took Sabeeth's lightsaber and studied it. "This was made by a Jedi. I'd stake my life on it. See these symbols?"
"It doesn't make any sense," Sabeeth argued. "He told us of the Jedi, but he would have said if he'd been one!"
"The Council will have to see this. They'll have the answer." "Um, so, are you coming down or should I go make excuses?" Anakin said.
Sabeeth retrieved her lightsaber. "It can wait for the Council. But I don't know what kind of answer they'll be able to give."
"Nor I ... but there must be one."
They followed Anakin to the spacious dining hall, where the setting sun through the arched windows turned everything to crimson and orange, and the dancing waterfalls became showers of jewels cascading into the dusk- shadowed chasms below.
Obi-Wan was just a little too late to stop his apprentice from gleefully announcing to the assembled that he was so sorry for the delay, but he'd practically had to drag the two of them out of Obi-Wan's room.
"There is such a thing as manners," he scolded the boy as they sat, very conscious of the way the Queen's spine stiffened and her clipped tone as she ordered the droids to begin serving the meal.
"I thought you wanted me to be truthful." Anakin put on his most innocent face and held it for several seconds before breaking into snickers.