[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(77)

For another moment C’baoth seemed to study him. Then, abruptly, the hardness in his face vanished. “But you’ve come,” he said, the lines in his face shifting as he smiled. “That’s the important thing. They weren’t able to stop you.”

“No,” Luke said. “They tried, though. I must have gone through four Imperial attacks since I first started out this way.”

C’baoth looked at him sharply. “Did you, now. Were they directed specifically at you?”

“One of them was,” Luke said. “For the others I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe the right place at the right time,” he corrected.

The sharp look faded from C’baoth’s face, replaced by something distant. “Yes,” he murmured, gazing into the distance toward the edge of the cliff and the ring-shaped lake far below. “The wrong place at the wrong time. The epitaph of so many Jedi.” He looked back at Luke. “The Empire destroyed them, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” Luke said. “They were hunted down by the Emperor and Darth Vader.

“And one or two other Dark Jedi with them,” C’baoth said grimly, his gaze turned inward. “Dark Jedi like Vader. I fought the last of them on-” He broke off, shaking his head slowly. “So long ago.”

Luke nodded uncomfortably, feeling as if he was standing in loose sand. All these strange topic and mood shifts were hard to follow. A result of C’baoth’s isolation? Or was this another test, this time of Luke’s patience? “A long time ago,” he agreed. “But the Jedi can live again. We have a chance to rebuild.”

C’baoth’s attention returned to him. “Your sister,” he said. “Yes. She’ll be giving birth to Jedi twins soon.”

“Potential Jedi, anyway,” Luke said, a little surprised that C’baoth had heard about Leia’s pregnancy. The New Republic’s publicists had given the news wide dissemination, but he’d have thought Jomark too far out of the mainstream to have picked up on it. “The twins are the reason I came here, in fact.”

“No,” C’baoth said. “The reason you came here was because I called you.”

“Well:yes. But-“

“There are no buts, Jedi Skywalker,” C’baoth cut him off sharply. “To be a Jedi is to be a servant of the Force. I called you through the Force; and when the Force calls, you must obey.”

“I understand,” Luke nodded again, wishing that he really did. Was C’baoth just being figurative? Or was this yet another topic his training had skipped over? He was familiar enough with the general controlling aspects of the Force; they were what kept him alive every time he matched his lightsaber against blaster fire. But a literal “call” was something else entirely. “When you say the Force calls you, Master C’baoth, do you mean-?”

“There are two reasons why I called you,” C’baoth interrupted him again. “First, to complete your training. And second : because I need your help.”

Luke blinked. “My help?”

C’baoth smiled wanly, his eyes suddenly very tired. “I am nearing the end of my life, Jedi Skywalker. Soon now I will be making that long journey from this life to what lies beyond.”

A lump caught in Luke’s throat. “I’m sorry,” was all he could think of to say.

“It’s the way of all life,” C’baoth shrugged. “For Jedi as well as for lesser beings.”

Luke’s memory flicked back to Yoda, lying on his deathbed in his Dagobah home:and his own feeling of helplessness that he could do nothing but watch. It was not an experience he really wanted to go through again. “How can I help?” he asked quietly.

“By learning from me,” C’baoth said. “Open yourself to me; absorb from me my wisdom and experience and power. In this way will you carry on my life and work.”

“I see,” Luke nodded, wondering exactly what work the other was referring to. “You understand, though, that I have work of my own to do-“

“And are you prepared to do it?” C’baoth said, arching his eyebrows. “Fully prepared? Or did you come here with nothing to ask of me?”

“Well, actually, yes,” Luke had to admit. “I came on behalf of the New Republic, to ask your assistance in the fight against the Empire.”

“To what end?”

Luke frowned. He’d have thought the reasons self evident. “The elimination of the Empire’s tyranny. The establishment of freedom and justice for all the beings of the galaxy.”