Trapped by Alex Wheeler Read Free Book Online

fixed on the gleaming blue beam. Div kept his eyes fixed on Ferus.
    Ferus Olin, after all these years. A fairy-tale hero from his childhood. Ferus, who’d had all the answers.
    Ferus, who’d turned his back and walked away.
    May the Force be with you, Lune, he had said as Ferus prepared to leave. At the time, Lune was dimly aware that his mother had fallen in love with Clive Flax and that together they would be starting a new life and a new family. But all he really cared about was that he was getting a new brother. Trever, the teenaged orphan from Bellassa who needed a home. Take care of Trever, Ferus told Lune. Trever was like a son to Ferus—yet here he was, leaving the boy behind.
    Ferus had said one more thing before saying good-bye forever: You would have made a fine Jedi.
    With Garen Muln and Ry-Gaul dead, Ferus was the only person left in the galaxy who could teach Lune the Jedi way. And Ferus was saying good-bye. At the time, Lune had just grinned, thinking that it was a compliment. Not realizing everything he was about to lose.
    Ferus hadn’t aged well. The lithe, resolute man Div remembered, the proud Jedi with laugh lines creasing his worried face and a defiant gaze that dared the world to cross him, that person was gone. In his place was a prematurely old man with gray hair and a soft, bulging belly. As far as Div could tell, everything about him was soft. Since the last time they’d met, nearly twenty years before, Div had become a warrior. And Ferus had apparently become a Corellian cream puff. Though that cream puff had just put Luke on the ground.
    Div would never have imagined that Ferus Olin, of all people, would turn to the dark side. But there he was, flying a TIE fighter. There he was, standing over Luke’s unconscious form.
    People changed.
    â€œYou’ve grown,” Ferus said, a smile creeping across his face. He seemed unconcerned by the lightsaber aimed at his throat.
    He still has the Force, Div reminded himself. The man might have grown old and soft, but he could likely disarm Div with a single thought.
    â€œIt’s good to see you again, Lune,” Ferus said softly. “Better than I could have imagined.”
    â€œDon’t call me that. It’s Div.”
    Lune was a child, who had needed protecting. A prodigy, a Force-sensitive. A hope. Lune was special, according to those who had died for him. Lune was the naive child who’d been stuffed into an escape pod, blasted off from the asteroid, leaving his friends behind, stranded. Brave Rebels before the Rebellion, they sent their one and only hope flying to safety, then waited to die. Lune was the boy who’d floated through space in an escape pod, helpless, useless, as an energy bolt slammed into the asteroid and blasted it into debris. And then, years later, when the scars had finally healed, Lune had sat on a hilltop and watched his entire family die.
    Div was a man. He had only one thing in common with that ignorant boy: He was a survivor.
    â€œI take it this is as much of a joyous reunion as I can expect?” Ferus said with a glimmer of his familiar dry wit.
    â€œIs he going to be all right?” Div asked, glancing at Luke.
    Ferus nodded. “Sleep dart. He’ll be awake in an hour or so. I needed to buy us some time to talk—privately. There are certain things about me that Luke doesn’t need to know.”
    â€œLike the fact that you’re a Jedi,” Div guessed.
    â€œAnd does your friend know that you are?” Ferus asked.
    â€œHe’s no friend. And I’m no Jedi.”
    Ferus didn’t reply. He just looked pointedly at the lightsaber in Div’s hand. As always, it felt so right. Like a piece of him too long absent had finally returned. Div deactivated the weapon and returned it to Luke’s side. He had turned away from that life and away from the Force. He had lived with that empty hole inside him, that knowledge that he could have been