The Nihil leader seemed to consider this for a moment, before bringing his hands together, as if expecting Loden to clap him in binders. Loden glanced down at the proffered wrists, momentarily confused. What did Ro think he was? Of course, that was his mistake. This was the trick.

Needle-sharp hypodermics sprang from devices on both of Ro’s wrists, the ends glistening with poison. Ro lunged forward, slashing not at Loden’s blade but at the hilt in his hand. At any other time, Loden would have been able to react, to bring his lightsaber around, to sever whatever was jutting out from Ro’s wrists, but the ravages of recent months and the energy expended in his escape finally proved too much. Loden could only jump back, avoiding the needle points. During his confinement, he’d often thought that Ro was poison; now he knew it as a fact. All it would’ve taken was a nick. Just one nick. But the Force had shown him the danger, had saved him. It was just a pity it hadn’t warned him as he jumped back into thin air.

Loden’s eyes went wide as he toppled back, his arms windmilling, the lightsaber he’d only just recovered slipping from his fingers. And then he was falling with the rain. Above, he caught a glimpse of Ro peering over the edge, watching him tumble away. He imagined the hypodermics snapping back into place and then the Nihil was suddenly gone, vanished in a blaze of scarlet light as the approaching Vector unloaded its laser cannons into the open hatch.

Loden called on the Force to slow his descent, but this time the Force didn’t answer. He had exhausted what little strength he had. He was finished.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

The ruin of the main building, Grizal

“You saved me. After everything I did.”

Don’t make me regret it, Indeera thought, but contented herself with asking Klerin if she could find a way out.

“Can you find a way out?”

Elzar had brought the roof down but wasn’t as good a shot as he thought he was. She would have been crushed by debris, Klerin with her, if it weren’t for the Force. Now beams and rockcrete bore down on them as Klerin searched for a gap big enough to wriggle through. Indeera had her back to the Kuranu, a risk she would never have taken if the duplicitous inventor had a weapon in her hands. There were plenty of rocks on the ground, most large enough to brain a Jedi who was struggling to concentrate, but Indeera liked to believe that Klerin’s sense of self-preservation would stop her from trying to kill the person who was stopping her from being crushed.

“Well?”

“Give me a moment,” Klerin said, grunting as she worked. Indeera glanced over her shoulder to see the Kuranu attempting to pry apart two lumps of reinforced rockcrete.

“You’ll never shift them.”