Qui-Gon sprang at Xanatos, his lightsaber humming and flashing. He delivered one blow after another, which Xanatos deflected. Smoke and sizzle filled the air. Xanatos laughed again.
Qui-Gon used a slashing sequence of moves to position Xanatos against the wall of the building. But Xanatos leaped onto the slag heap and flipped over in midair, landing on Qui-Gon’s other side.
“You destroyed everything I loved,” Xanatos accused, his lightsaber barely missing Qui-Gon’s shoulder, so close it singed the fabric of his tunic. “You destroyed me that day, Qui-Gon. Yet I was reborn. Stronger, wiser. I have surpassed you.”
Their lightsabers tangled, buzzing furiously. Qui-Gon felt the charge in his arm, but didn’t waver. Xanatos kicked out with a foot, but qui-Gon was expecting it, and moved aside. Xanatos lost his balance. He almost fell, but recovered in time.
“Your footwork has always been your weakness,” Qui-Gon said dryly as he dealt a blow to Xanatos’ shoulder. Xanatos twisted away, but not before Qui-Gon saw him grimace with pain. “If you’ve surpassed me, it’s only in your mind.”
Perhaps it was the taunt. Perhaps it was because Qui-Gon had finally caused him real pain. Xanatos whirled the other side of his cape behind his shoulder. A second lightsaber was suddenly in his hand.
Startled, Qui-Gon lost his focus for an instant. There was only one person to whom that lightsaber could belong.
“And where is your new apprentice?” Xanatos sneered.
So Xanatos had been responsible for Obi-Wan’s disappearance. Now he knew for sure.
Xanatos faked a charge to the left, went right, then danced back to the left again. Qui-Gon remembered the move from the Temple. He easily blocked the blow.
He was fighting the past. His past. Perhaps he could defeat Xanatos, but the battle would not be won. Only the future mattered now. Obi-Wan was the future.
The past would wait.
Qui-Gon paused, knowing Xanatos was ready to escalate the fight. Ready to deliver a death blow, if he could.
Suddenly, Xanatos whirled around, took three long steps toward the slag heap, and pushed himself off, flying through the air with both lightsabers slashing toward Qui-Gon, every muscle ready to drive the blow home.
He met empty air. Qui-Gon twisted away, grabbing Obi-Wan’s lightsaber from Xanatos’ unprepared grip.
Then, for the first time in his life, Qui-Gon ran from battle. He had to find Obi-Wan. The cold wind whistled past his ears as he crossed the mine yard at top speed.
He heard Xanatos’ voice rise from the mist.
“Run, coward! But you can’t escape me!”
“It appears that I have!” Qui-Gon shouted.
Xanatos’ laugh was chilling. “Only for now, Qui-Gon. Only for now.”
Chapter 13
For two nights and two days, Obi-Wan struggled to use the Force to override his electro-collar. His wounds were healing slowly. His body was worn down by work in the mines.
The miners were kept in half-starved condition, but id anyone faltered, the guards beat them savagely with an electro-jabber. All of the guards were Imbats, creatures known for their size and cruelty, not their intelligence.
They were tall as trees, with leathery skin and massive legs ending in broad, grasping toes. Their heads were small for their bodies and dominated by large, drooping ears.
Lift tubes took the miners below the sea floor. The small tunnels were hazardous. There were frequent leaks, and occasionally a tunnel would burst, drowning everyone inside. But what the miners dreaded most was a backflow of bad air into the tunnels. It was a slower death by suffocation.
“I’ve been looking forward to today,” Guerra remarked as they waited for their turn on the lift tube.
Obi-Wan’s heart dropped. Whenever Guerra was especially pleased, he knew he was in for trouble. Guerra dealt with the terrors of mining by treating it as a huge joke played on them all.
“Why?” he asked warily.
“You there!” a guard shouted. Obi-Wan stiffened, but the guard crossed to a Meerian who had stopped to adjust his servo-tool belt.
“Stop holding up the line!” he bellowed, lashing out with the jabber. The miner cried out and crumpled to the floor. The guard kicked him aside. “No food for three days for that!”
Nobody tried to help the Meerian. They all knew that they would get the same treatment. Obi-Wan squeezed into the tube with Guerra.
“Today we go to the deepest sublevel,” Guerra said. “Traces of ionite.”
“What’s wrong with ionite?” Obi-wan asked.
“Even traces of the mineral carry an alternative charge,” Guerra explained.
“Not positive, not negative, void. So! The instruments can go dead. If bad air backflow happens, no warning. Makes the work fun. Ha! Not so.” His yellow eyes stared bleakly at Obi-Wan amid the white circles.