As Alema crashed into the blartrees, she heard Lumiya on the other side, calling down the walkway to Jacen.
“Go on! I’ll handle this.”
“No.” Alema wanted to yell. Lobi is too dangerous-we need all the help we can get!
But of course, she did not dare. During the early stages of the Killiks’ conflict with the Galactic Alliance, her nest-the Dark Nest-had attempted to assassinate Jacen’s daughter, and she was quite sure that he’d be happy to let Lobi kill her. So she pushed out onto the walkway just far enough to reveal herself to Lumiya.
The Sith scowled and ignited her own weapon-an exotic one that seemed equal parts whip and lightsaber, with long flexible strands of metal and bright hissing energy.
“Who are you?” Lumiya demanded. “Why are you…”
“No time!” Alema launched herself back through the blartrees; if Lobi had not yet followed, that could only mean she was fleeing. “Come, before the Jedi spy escapes!”
Alema emerged from the hedge to find Lobi twenty paces away and already fading into the night. Alema dropped her lightsaber and pointed in the Chev’s direction, opening herself completely to the Force, using her anger and fear to draw it deep down inside. A moment later its power began to burn, and she released it in a long crackling bolt that caught her target square between the shoulder blades-and drove her to the ground.
Lumiya emerged from the hedge, her lightwhip burning a bright-colored hole in the fog. She glanced at the blue bolts coming from Alema’s fingertips, then asked again, “Who are you?”
“We’re a friend.” Continuing to pour Force lightning into Lobi’s prostrate form, Alema limped forward on her throbbing knee. “One who doesn’t wish Master Skywalker to learn what you are doing with his nephew.” Lumiya followed. “We? I don’t see…”
“Later!” Alema snapped. They bad closed to within five meters of Lobi. “Right now, we are in too much trouble to …”
Lobi suddenly stopped writhing and extended a hand toward a nearby patio. A decorative urn came flying out of the fog.
Alema let the Force lightning sizzle out and tried to redirect the urn, but Lobi’s Force grasp was too secure. The urn caught her full in her crippled shoulder and sent Her flying. She landed in the chrysanthus shrubs several meters away, her body throbbing with pain and her mind numb with shock.
The hum-and-sizzle of clashing weapons slowly brought her back to her senses, and she sat up to find Tresina Lobi spinning and parrying, slowly forcing Lumiya back, probing and feinting, trying to work her way past the crackling strands of Lumiya’s exotic lightwhip-and into the striking range of a lightsaber.
Alema summoned her own weapon back into her grasp, then stood and limped forward to help.
Lobi sprang into a backflip and sailed over a crackling whip strike. Then, as she was still descending, she extended a hand in Alema’s direction and used the Force to pull her into the path of the flashing strands. Lumiya barely managed to shut down the weapon before it struck, and even then the hot filaments cut through Alema’s robe, burning a rainbow of hot welts into her thigh and ribs.
Alema was still screaming when Lobi landed at Lumiya’s side. The Chev brought her lightsaber down, and Lumiya’s weapon arm-one of her many cybernetic parts-fell to the ground trailing sparks and hydraulic fluid.
Lobi reversed her blade instantly, angling for Lumiya’s torso, but Alema was already leaping forward to catch the Chev’s attack on her own lightsaber.
Lobi whipped her lightsaber around low, aiming at Alema’s knees and forcing her to leap back.
Alema pointed at Lumiya’s severed arm, then used the Force to send it spinning toward Lobi’s head-The Chev woman ducked easily, but that gave Lumiya time to call her lightwhip into her remaining hand and strike again. Lobi pivoted away from the attack. Alema sprang at her from behind, striking for the Chev’s thick neck, then cried out in surprise as a huge foot glanced off her ribs … and still sent her staggering back.
Lumiya seized the opportunity to launch a flurry of attacks, fanning the strands of her whip to make it more difficult to block, striking right and left to prevent the Chev from pivoting away again, slowly driving Lobi back toward Alema’s droning lightsaber.
Then, finally, Lobi faltered, gathering herself for a Force leap, but hesitating and retreating another step toward Alema instead.
It was the moment Alema had been waiting for.
“You are good, Master Lobi-but not that good.” Alema spoke in a Force whisper so soft that it was little more than a thought. “Even you cannot defeat two of us.”
Lobi’s head snapped around, her eyes filled with confusion and doubt, and she spun into a whirling charge of crescent kicks and horizontal iightsaber strikes.