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

Chapter 53: The whole galaxy was quiet.

The shockwave of the proton torpedo bombardment raced across the short distance from the ion cannon's armoured shell and into the hangar area. A hundred thousand drumbeats assaulted Ella's ears. The compression of gases, carried before the wave itself, heated up and simultaneously knocked Ella off her feet, hurling her several yards to crash against the side of the nearest ship. Her skin felt burned, and it tingled beneath her own touch.

She couldn't remember blacking out, but if she had been knocked unconscious then she realised it could only have been for a few seconds.

But she was blind. She knelt, feeling her surroundings in the darkness, waiting for the echoes to die down from the rampaging sound. She listened for any other voices, for Cor or Lance or . . . Jish!

"J-Jish?" she called. But the sound of her own voice was a tiny tremble, pathetic in a war-blighted galaxy, and did not carry more than the distance of her own awareness.

She stood and looked to where she imagined the platform to be. The darkness of her sight paled and grew lighter, and she knew then she wasn't blind - but it was the dust that had been carried in from the bombing.

It swirled on the wind and Ella's sight returned, vague and unfocused.

She saw the platform high up.

A figure moved near the edge. Its brown cloak fluttered and the hood fell away. The familiar auburn hair of her mentor fell loose in a dishevelled abandon.

Lady Jish crawled to the platform's edge and put her hand to her face.

"Jish!" Ella yelled again, this time louder than before but still not loud enough for her teacher - her saviour, to hear.

But another sense took over.

Ella felt Jish's attention. She tried to reach out to it, to draw her–

Suddenly Jish looked down, directly at Ella, and gave a single nod.

Pain and exhaustion took her. Ella's legs buckled and she sank to her knees. Her shoulder burst into pain, yet after a second, her mind was calm. The pain didn't matter. She felt prepared.

Cor croaked at Ella's side. The Corvian limped toward her and offered her support.

But Ella couldn't accept it. She looked at the platform again–

"JISH!"

The black figure of Mahon emerged from the dust. He stood over Jish and plunged his red saber down.

It entered her back, between her shoulder blades, and burst through her sternum.

Jish spasmed. Her arms shook uncontrollably and her face erupted in the briefest of agonies before she fell, face down, in a slump at Mahon's feet.

The Assayer withdrew his lightsaber and looked down at Ella, his face bloodied and his eyes fixed in rage.

"I'm done with her," he said. "Take her back."

He put his foot under her body and gave a kick.

Lady Jish fell over the platform's edge and spun twice in silence before she hit the hangar floor, hidden from Ella's sight by the Farsalt fighter.

The body hit the floor with a hideous 'crunch.'

Silence followed. The whole galaxy was quiet.

"J-Jish?" Ella whispered. It couldn't be true! It couldn't!

She moved to stagger around the nose of the fighter but Cor held her back.