potted olbio trees.

sequestered

sibilant

indignant,

But Jacen had been too powerful to capture and too destructive to leave free, and in the end there had been no choice except to hunt him down. There had been no choice.

ruddy

cajoling.

“Ancient Hsoosh is still the Language of Ceremony in the best houses of Falleen.”

astonishment

bewildered

self- deprecating

ornuk

reproachful

chitlik.”

scowled.

cannus solix!

encephaloscanner

whorls

accretion gas.

reticle

pensive

unruly,

“I know how to meditate.” Almost instantly, Ben felt bad for grumbling and added, “But thanks for the advice.” “Don’t mention it,” Luke said in a good- natured way. “That’s what fathers do— offer unwanted advice.”

He had no conscious memories of Shelter that were his own, so he envisioned a holograph of the facility that he had seen in the Jedi Archives. The image showed a handful of habitation modules clinging to the surface of an asteroid fragment, their domes clustered around the looming cylinder of a power core. In his mind’s eye, Ben descended into the gaudy yellow docking bay at the edge of the facility

dredge

wary

‘The Path of True Enlightenment runs through the Chasm of Perfect Darkness.’ ” Luke was quoting Tadar’Ro, the Aing- Tii monk

Luke nodded. “The Chasm of Perfect Darkness is an ancient Ashla parable referring to the twin perils of ego and ignorance,” he explained. “The Tythonians spoke of it as a deep dark canyon flanked by high, ever- crumbling cliffs.”

awash

mottled

condemning,

specter.

“Qwallo Mode,

Tapani sector.”

flecks

admonished.

envision

emanations

tank dollies

detritus

fetid,

klaxon.

Fellowship Plaza,

svelte,

pedway

blartrees

rutolu bushes, the purple leaves as long and slender as daggers.

astride

Lovolol cleaning droid

recriminations

tabard,

tawny hair cut in a fashionable short- bang chop.

convulsions.

Melari Ruxon,

“If I go mookey, I don’t want to end up iced and hanging in some GAS block house for the rest of eternity. I’d rather be in a cage down below.” If I go.

taut

“Somatoll

expediency,

lithe

vacillate

retribution,

misconstrued

Ahri Raas, looking in her direction. A Keshiri male, he was as gorgeous as most members of his species, with pale lavender skin, shoulder- length white hair, and large, expressive eyes—

innuendo

snide

blunder.

Battle of Kirrek

quavered

jest.”

enraptured.

desiccated

gaunt

unkempt,

emaciated

emaciated

Seek Ryontarr.”

Nath Goordian heirs.”

“You see, it is nothing to die beyond shadows.” This time, it was the yellow- haired woman who spoke. Her voice was warm and patient, as though she were a mother correcting a child. “But to live trapped in a body, that is… anguish.”

phantasms

maroon

esophagus

The secret to being a great leader, Drikl Lecersen reflected, lay in the ability to recognize intelligence and ambition totally unencumbered by morality.

newsfop

sipping a glass of Ryborean gax that would have cost him a month’s wages.

“I’ll break out the braboli next time.”

efflux

Anji, the last of the nexu cubs Leia had been forced to orphan at the pet expo three weeks earlier.

“The Perre Needmo Newshour is coming up!”

Gizer ale,

Perre Needmo, an elderly news anchor. His Chevin face seemed to be all snout, save for his beady eyes, gray lips, and square yellow teeth. He had two tufts of unruly silver hair, one covering the crown of his narrow skull, the other hanging from his barely discernible chin.

whisked

For Leia, any doubts about letting Allana see the news vanished. She and Han were raising more than their granddaughter. They were raising the heir apparent to the Hapan throne, and Leia could imagine no better way to prepare Allana than to show her how Han and Leia Solo responded to adversity and uncertainty.

“Yeah,” Allana said, nodding. “He’s as stubborn as a ronto in rut.”

fibbing.

Tahiri Veila in shock shackles and manacles, heavily guarded

aide- de- camp

he was still gnashing his teeth

Those are very astute questions.”

A laugh— a guffaw, actually—

Startled from her reverie,

the underdeputy of tenolodium reserves,

white larmalstone foyer.

Jedi Knight was Jaden Korr

And Corran Horn… Corran was the scariest of all, just sitting slumped in his chair, glaring at the floor as though trying to focus all the Force energy he could draw into that one spot. Han could only imagine how the current debate must be playing to him, sitting in a room with a dozen of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, listening to them arguing not about how they were going to get his two sick kids out of carbonite, but about whether they should turn two more young Jedi Knights over to the same people who had frozen Valin and Jysella. In Corran’s place, Han wouldn’t have been anywhere near a council chamber. He would have been holed up in a warehouse somewhere, planning how he was going to break into the GAS blockhouse where his kids were being held and get them back. But Corran had always been a law- and- order kind of guy. Even now, when the government that he had always served so loyally had turned against his own children, here he was, still trying to work within the law to set matters right. It wasn’t something Han could have done, not even something he could truly understand, but he did admire it. Corran was a man of principle, and he stuck to those principles even when they became a dagger in his own gut.

whether to intercede on Tahiri’s behalf.

battle at Shedu Maad.

as a bolt across her bow.”

The Jedi Order is no thedyklae herd. We are shartuukz.”

“It protectz the lair from zo’oxi and tarnoggz.”

Battle of Fondor.”

What had not proved pertinent—

they were absolutely chafing under their new Head of State’s

up on the shoulder of a fume- belching volcano

outcropping from the barren bank where the recovery party was standing,

Baad Walusari, the Keshiri Saber

ginger- skinned woman named Axela Zin

cutting away any frond, tendril, or lobe

Vestara paid the entreaties no attention,

Lignan- powered blade

“We Mind Walkers come from a great many traditions: the Disciples of Ragnos, the Fallanassi, the Jensaarai, the Potentium Heretics, the Reborn, the Far Seekers, the Inner Seers, and ten dozen more.

Luke surmised.

Potentium unity doctrine

Heresiarchian determinism

sublime

inside a pall of steam

filled with sulfur that it was more brown than yellow. “The Font of Power,” said the raspy voice.

his nephew’s sojourn

sculpted decoration that was both sinuous and grotesque.

making him queasy,

he felt as though he might retch.

The fountain was not just tainted with dark side power, it was imbued with it— as if it were rising up from some deep- buried reservoir of dark side energy that had been building, preparing to blow for not just millennia, but since the beginning of time itself.

hit in the stomach with a Stokhli spray stick.

bring the Order itself to heel.

burning with the golden anger of the dark side.

long snout and triple eyestalks of a Gran.

vapor began to coalesce in the steam.

With puckered brows hanging low and heavy over hollow eyes and bony cheeks, Rolund and Rhondi Tremaine reminded Ben of Ugnaughts more than humans.

Sinkhole Station—

were ravenous for fluids

conservator,

Maw Irregular Fleet—

ascetic existence

the ineffable truth

chic LevitaRest couches,

fashionable Freefloater desk,

austere

Judge Arabelle Lorteli.

“I don’t approve of using the judicial system as a political weapon,” Jag replied. “It smacks of tyranny.”

a slender, blue- haired woman entered the chamber. With high, arching brows and a wide, full- lipped mouth, she looked like an attractive human woman of no more than seventy— save for a thin, too- long nose that identified her as a member of the Zoolli species.

Polar water or fizzee,

fizzee splashed onto the CrystaClear surface.

She called herself Abeloth, and she lived in a cave on the side of a volcano because she said the plants there were not so voracious.

alongside the huge drendek lizards that had come down to take the sun on their green, outstretched wings.

worry about eel vines snaking out of the river to snare unmoving ankles, or a hedge of smogbrush filling the air with a cloud of poison pollen, or even a swarm of thirsty fangballs tumbling up from behind. When Abeloth was near, the plants never attacked.

respite

When you saw a mat of dead leaves suddenly chomp off the foot that had just stepped on it, or heard a companion scream because a beautiful white flower had just squirted acid into her eyes,

Abeloth looked lovely and more or less human, but today her hair was brown and long instead of honey- colored and shoulder- length,

Her nose was also a bit longer and straighter than usual, and her eyes were a bit more silver than gray, with a definite upward slant at the outer corners. Abeloth’s face changed like that,

luster

trying to track the wayward vessel

like an uvak with severed wing tendons.

“Siphon reed,”

full of crimson silt that she was blinded

long aquiline nose,

Silly child, Ship said to her. You are strong in the Force— but strong is nothing compared with almighty.

blockhouse

Palem Graser Office Tower,

donning

“You have the writ?”

anguish

Corran nodded curtly,

Jaina used a pedbridge to cross the humming chasm

pair of tunqstoid blast doors.

mounted on mag- lev guides

wariness.

one hand poised over a panic button

WEEZE.

ROSII.

“Aren’t those two of those Jedi Knights who went barvy?”

puffy

done with relish,

stood scowling out from beneath his bushy mustache.

wary

frigidation pods

“Four seventy?” She turned and added the level designation for the benefit of her companions and the reporters. “The executive officez?”

young Bothan

The lieutenant— the name above her pocket read KE’E, RASHER—

impish face was already creased in outrage and grief.

curt,

vaulted ceiling

exotic water species from Pavo Prime.

bas- relief sculpture

mouths hanging agape

hulking Yaka in a GAS colonel’s

scowling

“Colonel Wruq Retk,” the Yaka continued,

commander of this toxiden,”

lighting her up like a Jabori spirit singer on stage,

unabashed.

Unfortunately for her, the only being more ruthless than a politician with an agenda was a reporter on the trail of a good story.

FloatVan full of

“Those boombuggies don’t belong down here. And they sure the kark don’t have any business parking on the Krabbis.”

The Krabbis Inn was one of the grungy under- plaza hostel towers that provided convenient tourist accommodations at cut- rate prices.

ruggedly sleek Aratech BeamStreaks. Used by Coruscant Enforcement Services as pursuit speeders,

PsiCor “wallscope” surveillance packages being developed for military intelligence.

gentler benzodi- class drug to put him into a state of anxiety- free obedience.

cheerful young man by the name Avinoam Arelis.

climbed into the aphotic murk of the gargantuan

dribbling bolts back through the deluge pouring

BlasTech R- 20 scatterblaster.

cajole

Shedu Maad.”

Seek Ryontarr, the onetime Jedi

But as Han was fond of telling him, the best time to bluff was when you knew the other guy couldn’t call.

bewilderment

whose own amused scowl suggested that Gotals,

mirror- like sheen of a pool

sheer- sided

Celestial.”

furtive

“He saw a dark man in dark armor, sitting on a golden throne and surrounded by acolytes in dark robes.”

Darth Krayt?

obtuseness

emaciated

foraging old dehydros from other vessels

lazuline

rivulets

purling

saffron

withering

taloned

Lake of Apparitions,”

Mirror of Remembrance.”

water was no more than calf- deep,

Depths of Eternity,”

scowled,

Every Jedi Knight has to be his own light, because the light shouldn’t go out when one Jedi dies.”

haunches.

“I want you to learn from what I did, Ben. It’s not the result that counts, but the action.” Her eyes grew hard and angry, then she said, “Jacen’s goals were noble; he acted for the good of the galaxy. But his acts were horrific, and nothing can change that. Even if he did bring peace to the galaxy, the stain remains, and it will darken him for eternity. Do you understand that?”

“It’s not about the legacy you leave, it’s about the life you live,” she continued. “Remember that, live by that.”

Mists of Forgetfulness,

under the tutelage of his Aing- Tii instructor,

pompous,

But his expression remained calm, becoming almost beatific.

surrounded by a retinue of species from all across the galaxy.

wry

“Damnation,”

scowled,

amends

voracious

Coruscant’s contrail- laced troposphere.

Toydarian double- reverse spinner.”

Allana nodded. “Give the other guy credit,” she said, quoting one of Han’s favorite high- stakes credos. “If he’s good enough to be in the game, he’s good enough to take your credits.”

Please proceed to impound station Trill Aurek Papa for inspection.”

FIXED FACILITY

speeder across the Big Snarl at the height of Crash Hour.

Nargi- class pursuit frigate

Galactic Alliance pursuit frigate Fast Death.

A massive KDY orbital defense platform

found a huge wheel station orbiting nearby,

suspect vessel in flight.

Han groused.

PharmCom Orbital Processing Plant One. Pharmaceutical production facilities were usually several kilometers across, more than large enough for his purposes.

held together by dozens of glittering yellow spokes—

XJ5 ChaseX starfighters.

ship- disabling System Burner ion torpedoes.

“Heave to,”

big Slayn & Korpil ion drives

emphatic

They were like fangflowers that way, always thirsting for a kill.

despaired

drendek lizards that were resting on the beach, taking the sun on their huge green wings.

Ship slowed, but did not veer toward her,

Wary

gruesome

forestall

Keshiri canakal bird could survive outside its cage.

deliverance

astonishment

thrall?

penitent apprentice

few inviolable rules.”

“Worse than a triple hit of yarrock, even.”

Ben sighed. Sometimes he really hated having a Jedi Master for a father. Everything was a lesson.

her chafed wrists.

it’s where they abide

muffled karrummph of a detonating magmine

reverberated

Rhondi staggered to her feet

“You murglak!”

diversionary

two sheaths, one for a slender glass- handled dagger and one for a curved, heavy- bladed parang.

during the Battle of Mindor, on the approach to Qoribu in the Gyuel system in the Unknown Regions.

unwitting

“The whole thakitillo?”

shenbit,

In the palatial suite called simply The Presidential by the hyperattentive staff of the stately Corusca on Fellowship, everything was done on a grandiose scale.

palatable.”

But as for seeing Jacen… how sad it had been to discover him so alone and so lost— not bitter, but completely aware of the monster he had become. Jacen understood the harm he had caused so many, the anguish he had inflicted on the ones who had loved him most. And the thing that really got to Ben— the thing Ben knew would bother him for the rest of his life— was how accepting Jacen had been of it all. Jacen had seemed almost smug about it, as though all of the suffering he had inflicted on himself and others had been the necessary cost of pursuing some far greater end.

“What Jacen saw on the Throne of Balance doesn’t matter— not to you.” His smile returned, this time filled with equal parts sadness and hope. “And you know what’s really wonderful about that? It never will.”