Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 52: The red of his lightsaber was extinguished.

"Well done Ella," Jish murmured approvingly. "I'm glad my lessons haven't been entirely in vain. But we do need him alive, to convince Commodore Sarn to pull his forces off Farsalt."

Together, they walked on to the elevator platform, mindful of Mahon. He stood and retrieved his fallen lightsaber.

"You cannot beat us," Jish told him. "This belief that you are a Sith is misguided. You have been lied to–"

"Just as you think you are a Jedi?" Mahon shot back.

"I am no Jedi," Jish replied calmly. "Their ways are known only by a handful who still live, but I am not one of them. Yet I perceive the Force. As my parents did before me. As Ella does too. Had we been born in the time of the Republic, we might have succeeded in passing our trials to become true Jedi. But those days are gone forever. Like Vader, and Palpatine too."

"No!"

Mahon ignited this weapon and launched himself toward them. He went for Jish first, moving to her flank, to keep Ella from engaging him by putting Jish in between them.

Their sabers met and their faces came close together, lit by the crackling blades.

"Vader still lives!" Mahon roared.

He gave a grunt of exertion and pushed Jish back, following up with a brutal knee into her stomach that sent her staggering off the platform, winded.

Ella struck. Her electrostaff swung in, intent on giving Jish time to recover.

But Mahon had already turned his full attention on her.

His weapon batted her staff aside.

She jumped backward, eager to regain her footing.

"Now I shall deal with you," Mahon said.

He gestured with his hand, and from somewhere behind Ella a switch was engaged.

The elevator platform begun to rise.

Within a heart beat it rose to waist height. Mahon gave Jish a glance and slashed at the rim of the platform, sending sparks of molten metal toward her, forcing her to retreat.

And then Jish disappeared, hidden from Ella's view by the rising platform.

Mahon turned toward her again.

"Now. Just you and me."

Mahon charged. His held his saber in both hands, hacking wildly. He swung at her head, missed, and cleaved a molten yellow line through the elevator's control.

Sparks flew. The panel smoked.

The elevator halted with an abrupt shudder and the protest of gears, lurched suddenly upward, and continued on, slower than before.

But Mahon didn't slow. As Ella backed away to regain her footing he came on, wielding his blade with sheer brute force, not fearing any slight contact with her staff but doing just enough to stop her delivering a direct hit.

Her strength was fading. Her parries couldn't halt his attacks. Each time he struck, his strength pushed her staff ever wider, and each time she was forced to exert more energy to repel the subsequent attack.

Ella was out of room. She stood on the edge of the platform. Despair took her as Mahon delivered two strikes to the edge of her staff. She fell to her knees beneath him, thrust her staff up desperately to intercept a hacking downward slice that would cut across her shoulder to her thigh–

'Fitzzz . . .'

Her staff connected, gave a feeble spark, and died.

Its charge was spent. She was disarmed.

Mahon raised his saber over his head and yelled in triumph.

"Ella!" It was Jish's voice, sounding from the platform. She was there! Somehow!

She ran toward Mahon, her lightsaber stretched out.

But there was no time to reach her!

"Jump!" Jish screamed.

Mahon brought his blade down at the same second Ella launched herself from the platform's edge.

She fell, unsure of the distance but desperate to prolong her life by any length, no matter how short.

Ella hit the wing of a star fighter feet first and rolled over the edge to the hangar floor below.

She landed on her back, the strength from her limbs gone in an instant.

Cor ran over to her.

"We've got to get into cover!" the alien shouted, retrieving her electrostaff. "The TIE Bombers are about to hit the ion cannon."

With Cor's help Ella stood, her feet and legs protesting with angry spasms of pain.

She glanced out to the open sky. The ion cannon's heavy shielded dome was blackened by TIE Fighter blaster fire, but still held.

But it would not be so for long. Streaking down was a squad of four TIE Bombers, seconds from dropping their munitions.

Ella glanced back up at the platform, thirty feet above. The hiss of battle reached them, and the occasional flash of lightsaber on lightsaber combat blazed over the edge.

"Jish!" Ella screamed.

Cor put her hand on her shoulder.

"We can't help her," she said. "Lady Jish jumped up to it. I couldn't believe my eyes–"

Suddenly the two combatants came into view. Mahon pursued Jish toward the edge, hacking down, missing her by the tiniest margin, only to find Jish's lightsaber crossing his own, pinning it under hers.

With her free hand she grabbed Mahon's wrist, broke the lightsaber contact, and flicked her blade over her head and toward Mahon's face.

"Argh!"

Mahon's mask was sundered apart by the tip of Jish's weapon as it crossed the front of his helm. The red of his lightsaber was extinguished. He staggered and then fell, beyond Ella's sight.

"Jish!" Ella screamed, not daring to hope. Her mouth formed the next words, to warn her, but there was no time to birth them.

For the bombers had struck.

And any possible sound that Ella could make was instantly overcome.

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What did you think of their battle then? I think it would have been nice to overlay the Star Wars theme "Duel of the Fates" soundtrack as you read this, but I didn't want to add any diversions to the story. What do you think? Should I put links at the tops of each chapter to Star Wars sound tracks from previous movies? Would that add to the experience?