"I'd love to know." Jax activated his lightsaber and moved cautiously toward the fray, keeping low and moving from cover to cover, laranth at his back.

They had reached a particularly large block of ferrocrete when the fault between the two fields erupted in a fitful blaze of blue-white light that seemed to grow exponentially.

"Now that is Force-lightning," Jax murmured.

"From the Sith?"

"Must be. The other one just disappeared."

The other one reappeared suddenly, shooting out through the narrow interstice at a height of at least two stories. Clear of the repulsor fields, he executed a perfect somersault in midair and landed on the slab of ferrocrete beside which Jax and Laranth sheltered. With a motion that suggested the closing of a curtain, the youth-for he couldn't have been more than about fifteen or sixteen-closed the lips of the flux zone, sealing the Sith within. A heartbeat or two later, the fields blazed brighter than the noonday sun on Coruscant's uppermost levels and gave a sound that made Jax think the sky was splitting. The concussion hurt his ear. and buffeted him even in the lee of the ferrocrete block, and it knocked the boy from his high perch to the ground.

He wasn't unconscious when Jax and Laranth got to him, but he was stunned. Aware of the other's obvious power, Jax projected feelings of calm as he knelt beside him.

"That was a pretty neat trick you did with that field Kick there," Jax said mildly. "Is that dead end going to last much longer?"

The boy blinked and shook his head.

"Then we'd better get you out of here. That Inquisior's going to be pretty mad when he comes to."

"If he's still alive," Laranth murmured.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, confusion and fear intertwining in his voice and invading his gray eyes.

Jax held his lightsaber up between them, then deactivated it. "I'm a Jedi Knight," he said. "My name is Jax."

Chapter Six.

Jax and laranth stopped to reconnoiter in the confluence of corridors where they'd met on their way to the Force eruption. The boy, who'd mumbled that his name was Kaj, seemed less dazed now. His eyes kept going to Jax's lightsaber.

"Which way from here?" Laranth asked, jerking her head toward the alcove terminus of the shaft she'd descended earlier. "That comes out in Ploughtekal. Near the heart of it, in fact. If the Inquisitors are looking for our friend, the market might offer us the best cover.

How did you come down?"

Jax grimaced. "I barely remember. Kaj here sort of swept me off my feet."

"If you're a Jedi, where's your lightsaber?"

Laranth and Jax turned in unison to look at the boy. He actually blushed.

"Strictly speaking," Laranth told him, "I'm a Gray Paladin. We have a somewhat different approach to a few things, lightsabers being one of them. A Gray Paladin isn't married to a particular weapon. We simply use the Force through whatever tool we prefer. I like blasters." She patted the pair bolstered at her thighs. "Though I've been known to use a vibroblade from time to time."

The boy turned his eyes to Jax. "Your lightsaber is red. His was red." He flicked his gaze back the way they'd come. "How do I know you're really Jedi-either of you? How do I know you're not Inquisitors?"

Jax could feel the uncertainty and fear building up behind the pale eyes. Building toward panic. He'd already seen what this Force prodigy could do when panicked.

"I'm not," he said. "Touch me. Use the Force to reach out and read me. I won't stop you." He saw Laranth's eyes widen just before he closed his own and opened himself to this strange boy. He felt her trepidation as a cascade of cold lines down his back, felt the boy's tentative touch as a cool tendril of uncertainty.

Blue. The Force manifested in Kaj as amorphous blobs, blue tending toward violet. Jax saw them in his mind's eye reaching out for him, encircling him, probing.

After a moment the touch was withdrawn and he opened his eyes to see the boy looking at him, perplexed.

"What did you sense?"

"There's no anger in you. No rage. I have so much and I have to fight it so hard sometimes. And he . . ." Again, the flicker of attention back toward the debris field with its possibly dead Inquisitor. "... he was like a furnace. He burned with it. Why are you so different?"

"Because I'm a Jedi," Jax answered him. "Our Inquisitor friend is-something else."

"A Sith?"

Jax glanced at Laranth. "What do you know about the Sith?" he asked Kaj.

The boy shrugged. "Legends. Myths."

"Well, there are all kinds of Sith. As far as I know, an Inquisitor isn't actually a Sith. But they do use red lightsabers. It's a function of the crystal that's used. Different crystals produce different colors."

"So ... it's a choice you make."

Jax and Laranth traded glances. "Yes," Jax said. "Usually. Only I didn't choose this lightsaber. The one I had, the one I built and trained with, was destroyed. This one"-he patted the hilt-"was given to me by ... someone who knew I needed one."

Laranth moved restively. "I hate to break this up, but we have a logistical problem-how to get Kaj onto friendly turf."

"Yes, but which friendly turf?" Jax met her eyes, which made his stomach feel strange. "I can take him back with me, or you can smuggle him to Thi Xon Yimmon."

"Yimmon has a lot on his plate," the Twi'lek said. "I can't conscionably give him yet another consideration without asking."

Kaj, who'd been sitting against a pile of rubble, scrambled to his feet. "I'm not a consideration. I'm a Jedi. At least, I want to be a Jedi," he amended when the weight of dual gazes fell on him. "I want to be trained. I want to-to learn to use the Force. To control it instead of having it . . . burn through me like it does. It-it scares me sometimes. The way I feel. The way it feels."

He ran down, his hands tugging at his cloak, his eyes pleading. He looked and sounded so very young and fragile ... which made what he'd done to the Inquisitor back there all the more astonishing.

I-Five's words came back to Jax at that moment- what the droid had said about Jax being needed to train the next generation of Jedi. Perhaps that need was already presenting itself.

"We'll take him to the conapt," he told Laranth. "But be sure to give Yimmon a full report. Maybe it's best for him to train with you, learn the ways of the Paladins."

"Maybe it's best he gets the high points of both philosophies," said Laranth. "Circ.u.mstances being what they arc, mutual exclusivitv is a luxury the Jedi can't afford."

She was right, of course. They were stronger together than apart. Which brought Jax's mind forcibly around to the fact of her leaving their team. He opened his mouth to say something about it, to suggest that she come back, but she was already moving into the alcove, craning her long, graceful neck to scan the vertical shaft with its inset hand- and footholds.

She flicked her green gaze back to Kaj. "Can you do a controlled leap when you're not under attack?" she asked, and Jax thought that her lips curled slightly at the corners.

The boy moved to peer up the ferrocrete tube. He nodded. "I think so. At least I've leapt as high as that cross-shaft." He pointed straight up.

Jax joined them in the small access, following the boy's gesture to a point roughly ten meters up, where a durasteel catwalk skirted the shaft, halving its diameter.

"Good," Laranth said. She drew one of her blasters. "I'll go first. Follow me up."

She leapt, reaching the metal platform easily and lighting on it with a soft tap of her booted feet. Kaj glanced at Jax, who nodded encouragingly, then followed, overshooting the catwalk by almost a meter. Laranth snagged his cloak and reeled him in before leaping away to a higher perch.

Jax took that as his cue to move, and joined Kaj on the catwalk. The boy peered at him in the twilight gloom, his eyes betraying fear.

"Won't they feel us? The Inquisitors, I mean. Won't they feel us using the Force?"

"Probably. But they certainly felt that big explosion you set off back there, and hopefully that's where they'll concentrate. It'll take only a few seconds to reach the bazaar, and once we're there, we can blend in. Now go on up. laranth is waiting for you."

They got him back to Poloda Place without incident. The market was, in fact, curiously empty of Imperial presence, and Jax, despite stretching to the limit of his Force senses, detected not even an Inquisitor- or, rather, the "hole" in the Force that would suggest the use of a taozin cloak such as some of the Inquisitors used to hide their presence from other Force-sensitives.

Jax was surprised when Laranth accompanied them all the way to the conapt. Rhinann and I-Five were both connected to the HoloNet when they entered the living area. Rhinann glanced up with obvious surprise, whether at seeing Laranth or their guest or both, Jax couldn't say. I-Five s photoreceptors blinked once, then settled on Kaj.

"Are Dejah and Den around?" Jax asked.

"Dejah Duare is out," said I-Five in his obedient-protocol-droid voice. "Den Dhur is in his room composing a correspondence."

Jax smiled at how jarring it was to have this particular protocol droid behaving in ways that were normal for a protocol droid. "It's all right, I-Five. Kaj is ... Kaj is a friend. And he's a Force-sensitive. He just took down an Inquisitor single-handedly and unarmed."

"He did what?" Den Dhur stood in the doorway to his quarters, his already large eyes looking huge in the wash of full-spectrum light from the room's cleverly concealed indirect illumination.

"Kaj, this is Den Dhur. A member of our team."

The short, stocky Sull.u.s.tan came farther into the room, his eyes on the newcomer. "Oh, great. Sure. Let's make polite introductions while ever Imperial stormtrooper on Coruscant is out looking for him."

Jax shook his head. "Den, didn't you hear what I said?"

"Yeah, I heard what you..."

"Kaj is a potential Jedi," said Jax patiently. "The Inquisitor was after him. He didn't get him. That's good news."

"Good news? He's a potential time bomb, Jax. Can't you..." He cut off as I-Five's metal hand came down on his shoulder.

"Den, it's rude to talk over someone as if they weren't there. I know-people do it to me all the time. What Jax is telling us is that the Emperor failed to get yet another valuable prize. For all his trying, he has failed to capture Jax, and now he's failed to capture our new friend..." The droid tilted his head toward the boy, who blinked.

"Uh," Kaj said. "Kajin. Kajin Savaros."

Jax steered Kaj around the Ves Volette light sculpture that Dejah had installed in their living s.p.a.ce and into the seating area. He sat him down in a formchair, then moved to sit on one corner of the couch, facing him. "Are you hungry, Kaj? Thirsty? It can't be easy living out there on the street like that."

"I'm starved actually. I'd stolen some stuff from the market, but the Inquisitor smoked me out before I could eat much of it."

Jax started to rise, but I-Five waved him down. "Allow me. laranth, would you also like some refreshment?"

The Twi'lek opened her mouth, glanced at the droid, then simply nodded and followed him over to the beverage dispenser.

"The Inquisitors are after you, too?" Kaj asked Jax, pulling his eyes from the light sculpture's kinetic, ever-changing display. "Because you're a Jedi?"

"That's the official reason, I guess. It's really a lot more complicated than that. What about you? How long have you been dodging Inquisitors?"

"Since I turned fifteen six weeks ago. That was when the Force really woke up in me. Before that, I was just another street kid who occasionally made strange things happen."

"But you haven't always lived on Coruscant."

Kaj shook his head, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the plate of ghibli fruit and a tall gla.s.s of some sort of red tea that I-Five carried toward him on a tray. One of I-Five's soothing concoctions, Jax figured. The boy accepted the food and took a healthy bite before answering Jax's implied question.

"I got here about . . . oh, seven months ago, I guess. From M'haeli." The expression on his face froze, and Jax could feel the cold, swift stab of grief that lay behind it. "My parents' farm was destroyed by Imperial troops. My father was a local elder. They wanted to make an example of him-show that they were the leaders now. So they sacked the farm and drove us off it. Mother and Father put me on a transport to Coruscant, hoping..." He shrugged, swallowing a mouthful of fruit. "I'm not sure what they were hoping. My parents knew I was different. Since I was a baby I'd occasionally, like I said, make strange things happen-you know, levitate something to make it come to me. that sort of thing." He drank most of the tea in a single gulp. "They knew the Jedi Temple was gone, but I think my mother was hoping I might find someone . . ." His eyes sought Jax's, then moved to Laranth. who had come back into the room behind I-Five.

"Someone who would train you," Jax finished.

"Train who to do what?" Dejah Duare swept into the room, unwinding a king, pale scarf of translucent golden synthsilk from her deep crimson hair, which blazed when the light hit it.

Jax felt his throat constrict and used a tendril of the Force to fend off the effects of Dejah's sensual aura. At first he thought she must have caught something of the tenor of their discussion and that concern had caused an unconscious spike in her pheromones. Then he realized that her gaze was not on Kaj, but on Laranth.

The Twi'lek didn't so much as twitch a muscle, but she disappeared from Jax's sense of the Force almost as effectively as if she'd put on taozin-scale armor.

"I need to report to Yimmon," she said. "Let me know what you decide, Jax. Good-bye, Kaj. May the Force be with you. You've found a good teacher."

She glided past Dejah without so much as a glance. Jax opened his mouth to call after her, but couldn't think of anything to say. He shrugged mentally; that was just Laranth's way. He should be used to it by now.

"Report what to Yimmon?" Dejah asked coming farther into the room, settling the scarf about her shoulders. "Decide what? What's she talking about?"

Den, who'd been hovering between anteroom and living area, scuttled quickly out of her way and took a seat next to Jax on the couch.

Only when she'd rounded the chair Kaj was sitting in did her eyes fall on him. She smiled, radiantly, her smile like a benediction.

Kaj's eyes widened, then flicked toward Jax as if seeking instructions. "You're a Zeltron," he said with something like awe in his voice.

"Oh boy," Den muttered.

Jax elbowed him. "Dejah, this is Kajin Savaros from M'haeli. He just had a narrow escape from an Inquisitor. Laranth and I were lucky enough to have witnessed Kaj's powerful use of the Force in defeating that Inquisitor. Alone. Unarmed."

Dejah drew in a deep breath and exhaled, her eyes meeting Kaj's. "Remarkable. Then ... are you a Jedi?"

"I want to be. I'm hoping Jax will teach me."

Dejah's regard swung to Jax. "That's what you meant, then. Teach him to become a Jedi. You want to take him on as a Padawan. There, you sec, it's just like I-Five said: if the Jedi Order is to be rebuilt, you'll have to have a hand in it. Surely you can sec that now."

"I wasn't blind to it before," said Jax gently. "I was just aware that there are other priorities."

"What could be more important than that?" Dejah demanded. "What could be a more valuable thing for you to do than to train this young man?"

She was trying to make points with him by flattery, of course, Jax realized. Trying to convince him to stay out of Tuden Sal's plottings. He smiled, warmed by the fact that she cared so much for him.

Den growled. "What a bunch of bilterscoot."

I-Five stirred and made his throat-clearing sound. His sudden reappearance in the conversation startled Kaj. Jax saw the boy's reaction as a sudden appearance of a mult.i.tude of Force spikes that darted out and receded as soon as he registered the source of the sound and movement.

Jax frowned. That had been an involuntary reflex; Kajin Savaros was wearing the Force awfully close to the surface. If it was that easy for Jax to sense him, how much easier would it be for an Inquisitor?