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  “Ship is too smart to show itself where the Crusader can get a sensor lock,” Lady Rhea finished, walking in front of the long line of Sabers she had brought down for the recovery operation. “So it will be someone in this party who finds it. If that happens to be you, report its location, then wait for me to arrive and take control of the situation personally. Is that clear?”

  Most of the Sabers assured her it was, but a ginger-skinned woman named Axela Zin asked, “What if Ship attempts to flee?”

  “Don’t let it,” Lady Rhea replied. “Ship obeys any Sith with a strong will. You all have that, or you wouldn’t be here. Simply order it to remain where it is, then wait until I arrive.”

  Axela dropped her chin in submission. “Thank you for your counsel, Lady Rhea. I’m most grateful.”

  Rhea dismissed the gift with a flick of her hand. “Think nothing of it, Saber Zin. I’m certain others were also in need of guidance.” She stopped at the opposite end of the line from where Vestara was standing, then turned and said, “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to watch yourselves in this jungle. But if something does get you, die quietly. Your family will be rewarded if you do—and punished if you don’t.”

  Lady Rhea was correct: the reminder wasn’t necessary. Already, four members of the recovery party had been taken by the carnivorous plants that seemed to be more the rule than the exception on this strange world. But the exhortation to die quietly was received with the shudder that Vestara was certain Lady Rhea had intended, being as it was a none-too-subtle reminder that the reach of a Sith Lord extended even beyond a surbordinate’s grave.

  After giving the warning a moment to sink in, Lady Rhea signaled Master Xal and Ahri to wait, then waved the rest of the party across the river. Most of the Sabers elected to simply Force-jump to the far bank, and, as they landed, Vestara was sorry to see a trio of long-thorned boughs swing down from a tall, funnel-shaped tree to impale ginger-skinned Axela Zin. Already holding her lightsaber in hand, Zin quickly cut the boughs free of their woody stems, but more were already swinging down from other directions. Her search partner and another Saber quickly drew the glass parangs from their belt sheaths and hurled them into the melee. By the time the blades arrived, Zin was already swaddled in vines and being drawn up into the tree’s crown. Vestara hoped the fact that she wasn’t struggling also meant she was already dead.

  “Not a whimper,” Xal noted, stepping over to join Lady Rhea. “I believe her son is a Tyro.”

  “Make a note, Vestara.”

  Although Vestara had every confidence in her ability to remember even a long list of names correctly, her own survival was far from assured. So she dutifully removed a small leather writing case from her pocket, then pricked her finger with a blood stylus and wrote Zin’s name on a leaf of loub-paper.

  “Her name is noted,” Vestara reported. “Did you wish to add something about the son?”

  Lady Rhea nodded. “The boy shall find his Master when we return.”

  As Vestara made the note, Xal smiled his approval.

  “Very generous.” He looked across the river to where the rest of the Sith were already vanishing into the jungle. “You had some special counsel for me?”

  “I did,” Lady Rhea said. “Recovering Ship is more important to Grand Lord Vol than who claims credit for it. If you or Ahri find it, he’ll hear no other names.”

  Xal’s brow rose. “Most thoughtful,” he said. “And yet Ahri and I are only two among many. It is just as likely that someone else will find Ship …especially since you have given them such a significant lead over us.”

  “And if they do, your name will be mentioned alongside my own,” Lady Rhea promised. “I want nothing to interfere with recovering Ship. Is that clear?”

  Xal dipped his slender head in a gesture of acceptance. “In that case, may I suggest we proceed? If we fall too far behind, there will be a gap in the search line.”

  Lady Rhea studied him for a moment, no doubt wondering—as Vestara was—how long it would take Xal to decide that there was more to be gained by betraying the agreement than honoring it. Finally, she dismissed him with a wave.

  Vestara returned her writing packet to her robe, then watched as Xal and Ahri crossed the river, dancing across the surface and using the Force to keep their feet from sinking. They had to pass near an island covered in dozens of green lizards, but the creatures seemed completely uninterested in them. They merely continued to lie with their wings spread, basking in the harsh light of the blue giant sun, and barely raised their long necks as Xal and Ahri raced past. But the island was surrounded by dozens of strandy yellow water plants that, despite the river’s current, all seemed to be growing toward the lizards. As Ahri and Xal approached, several of these strands swam across their path, then suddenly struck like snakes, coming at them from all sides.

  Ahri and Xal ignited their lightsabers and twirled into a spinning flurry of slashing and splashing that left them hidden behind a rising veil of steam. A couple of withered and smoking stalks came tumbling out of the cloud, and soon the pair were dancing onto the far shore. They scrambled up the bank in a series of short leaps, using the Force to push aside—and sometimes even uproot—every bush in their path, then clambered over the rim of a red sandstone outcropping and vanished into the jungle beyond.

  Lady Rhea pointed at the outcropping. “You see where they came out of the river?”

  Vestara nodded. “Yes.”

  “Good. Draw your weapons.” Lady Rhea unhooked her own lightsaber and pulled the parang from its belt sheath, then said, “That’s where we’ll go. Once we’re across, we’ll traverse to our own corridor and go find Ship.”

  It was so classically Sith that Vestara could almost have predicted it: force a subordinate to take the initial risk, then come in behind and claim the kill. Vestara stepped to the edge of the bank where Lady Rhea would have a good view of her as she drew her weapons, then unhooked her lightsaber and unsheathed her parang. An instant later she felt a nudge in the Force and knew she had permission to proceed.

  Vestara opened herself to the Force and felt it rush into her, so dark and cold it was almost overwhelming. She had never before been to a place so strong in the Force, where it actually raised tiny bumps on her skin and made her spine crawl with excitement. None of them had, and she could tell by the precision with which even Lady Rhea drew on the Force here that they were all just a bit frightened of its strength. Of course, that did not stop anyone from actually using it. No true Sith would ever allow fear to stand between her and power.

  Vestara sprang into the air, using the Force to boost herself higher and pull herself to the outcropping Lady Rhea had indicated. Back on Kesh, or on any other planet with near-standard gravity, she would have been able to Force-leap only about halfway across the crimson river. But on this strange world, she crossed the distance easily and came down lightly, ready to defend herself both with her weapons and with the Force.

  When no branches swung down toward her head and no vines lashed out to snare her ankles, Vestara raised the hand holding her lightsaber and signaled that it was safe. Lady Rhea arrived on the outcropping an instant later, and together they traversed downstream along the riverbank. After fifty paces, they reached their search corridor and turned into the jungle, Vestara taking the lead and traveling about five paces ahead. Although her danger sense was far less adept than that of her Master, there was no question of Lady Rhea assuming the hazardous point position. An apprentice was first and foremost her Master’s servant, and that meant taking the initial brunt of any attack that came their way.

  The foliage in the jungle was mostly fern-trees and giant pillar fungi, which—so far, at least—had not proven to have an appetite for animal flesh. Still, Vestara worked with both lightsaber and parang, cutting away any frond, tendril, or lobe that lay within a meter of their path. The plants, they had discovered, usually preferred to attack by surprise, taking their prey from the rear whenever possible.

  As
they walked, Ship continued to push against Vestara in the Force, urging her to turn back and leave. It was Ship’s destiny to serve, and he had no choice but to obey the powerful Will that commanded him to serve here. But it was the Tribe’s destiny to rule, and they could not do that from here. Vestara paid the entreaties no attention, save to note that Ship could probably still see them if he could articulate his concerns to her mind so clearly.

  They had traveled about a kilometer up the shoulder of the volcano when Lady Rhea issued a sharp command, catching Vestara in mid-step.

  “Stop—now.”

  Vestara obeyed instantly, using the Force to catch her weight as it shifted toward her front foot. She stood there using the Force to balance on one leg as Lady Rhea closed the five paces between them. At Vestara’s side, the Sith Lord paused, using the Force to peel away a thin mat of cellulose so perfectly camouflaged that it was impossible to tell it from the humus-covered ground.

  Beneath the mat lay a bushy green rodent about the size of a human hand. Half rotted, the creature was impaled on a carpet of finger-length barbs protruding up from a mesh of half-buried roots. Vestara carefully lowered the foot that had almost stepped into the trap, then made note of the yellow, fan-shaped leaves of the bush from which the roots seemed to emanate.

  “Thank you, Lady Rhea,” Vestara said. “That would have been most painful.”

  “Probably fatal,” Lady Rhea corrected. “Those barbs are poisoned.”

  Vestara let her gaze drop back to the barbs, trying to study them without being too obvious about it. She saw no hint that the the rodent had died of anything other than being impaled, but she knew better than to question her Master’s pronouncement.

  Instead, Vestara said, “This is a backward sort of world, don’t you think, where the plants eat the animals?”

  Lady Rhea nodded. “There’s nothing natural about this world, from where it’s hidden to the life-forms that inhabit it.” She looked up into the jungle, her eyes narrowing in thought. “That’s why Ship led us to it, I think. By virture of its very existence, this unnatural world is a place of great power.”

  “I beg your indulgence, Lady Rhea.” Inside, Vestara was cringing at the punishment she would no doubt receive for disagreeing with her Master, but she had to be sure that Lady Rhea was fully apprised of Ship’s attitude—the mission might depend on it later. “But I don’t think that Ship actually wants us here. He keeps trying to push me away.”

  To Vestara’s surprise, Lady Rhea actually smiled. “Of course it does. It wants to make certain we’re worthy.”

  Vestara saw at once what her Master was thinking. “You believe our presence here has something to do with the Return?”

  “Exactly.” Lady Rhea’s eyes shone with approval. “Ship has been preparing us all along.”

  Vestara had to agree: it seemed very possible. According to Keshiri myth, a species of mysterious Destructors returned to the galaxy every few eons to wipe out civilization and return all beings to their natural, primitive states. Through a combination of historical accident and fate, the Lost Tribe’s Sith ancestors had crash-landed on Kesh more than five millennia earlier, and the Keshiri natives had greeted the survivors as the legendary Protectors destined to defend their world when the Destructors returned.

  At first, the Sith had viewed the myth as nothing more than a convenient way of holding dominion over a much larger native population. But as the centuries passed, their descendants had started to uncover archaeological evidence suggesting that the myth was actually historical fact. Eventually, the Lost Tribe had come to accept that their act of deception was, after all, their destiny.

  And now, here they were, led to a place of darkness by a Ship as old as the Sith themselves—a place that had obviously been constructed by beings who possessed power and knowledge beyond imagining. Was it a leap of logic to believe that Ship had led them here for a purpose?

  Vestara inclined her head to her Master. “Your wisdom outshines the sun above, Lady Rhea. I see no reason Ship would have led us to such a world, if not to bestow on us the might that we need …”

  She let the sentence drop off as she suddenly did see another reason Ship might have brought them to such a place.

  “Vestara?” Lady Rhea used the Force to shake her arm. “Is something wrong?”

  “I … I don’t know,” Vestara confessed. She turned to look Lady Rhea directly in the eye. “I just had a thought—one that must be wrong.”

  Lady Rhea frowned, for this phrasing was the only acceptable way for an apprentice to disagree with one’s Master. “Why must that be?”

  “Because I’m sure you have already thought of this possibility and dismissed it,” Vestara said. “But what if Ship brought us here because this is the home of the Destructors?”

  Vestara knew by the way that Lady Rhea’s eyes hardened that she hadn’t thought of that possibility, but she was disturbed enough by the idea that she didn’t even bother to pretend otherwise.

  “You have an alarming imagination, Vestara.” Lady Rhea remained lost in thought for a moment, then said, “Very well, why would Ship lead us to the home of the Destructors?”

  “What if Ship has been their servant all along?” Vestara asked. “If the Destructors were aware of the Tribe’s destiny, what better way to preempt it than to send an agent to lead us into their grasp?”

  “A sound tactic.” Lady Rhea gestured for them to begin climbing again, then followed close behind as Vestara circled around the bed of barbed roots. “But we are not the Tribe. What would the Destructors gain by destroying one frigateful of warriors?”

  Vestara furrowed her brow. That was a problem. “You’re correct, of course. A spy is worth nothing to an enemy if he is not in their house.”

  “And why would Ship have come to us in the first place?” Lady Rhea pressed. “The Tribe was trapped on Kesh, but now we roam the galaxy at will. Ship has done nothing but make us stronger.”

  “True,” Vestara said. “But now our focus is on the Jedi, not the Destructors. The goal may be to keep us looking in one direction when we should be looking in the other.”

  “Then what are we doing here?” Lady Rhea asked. “If this is the home of the Destructors, Ship has done nothing but draw our attention to it.”

  “And reveal its location,” Vestara added, seeing the weakness of her own argument. “I apologize, Lady Rhea. I have done nothing but fill your head with foolish notions.”

  “Our enemies sometimes have foolish notions, Vestara, and it is good to understand them.” As Lady Rhea spoke, they crested the shoulder of the volcano and saw ahead the dark outcropping that was their destination. “Do continue thinking on this—and fill my head with any other foolish notions you may have.”

  “As you wish,” Vestara promised. “Thank you for not thinking poorly of me for suggesting such nonsense.”

  “There’s no need for gratitude,” Lady Rhea said. “Just be careful not to voice your foolish suggestions where others can overhear. We do have our reputations to consider.”

  Vestara smiled, then realized that she had not felt Ship trying to push her away for several minutes now. She used her lightsaber to hack through an umbrella-sized leaf that came dropping down from a tangle of foul-smelling vines, then extended her Force awareness up toward the outcropping—and instead of Ship, she felt her friend Ahri.

  Even before Vestara could curse under her breath, Lady Rhea asked, “What is it?”

  “Apprentice Raas,” Vestara said. “I think Master Xal abandoned the search corridor you assigned to him and went straight to the outcropping.”

  “And that surprises you because …?”

  Vestara exhaled in exasperation. “Because I thought you made a deal with him.”

  “I offered him a deal,” Lady Rhea corrected. “Which he didn’t decline.”

  “Isn’t that the same as accepting?”

  “Close enough,” Lady Rhea said, snorting in amusement. “Obviously, he had no intention of ho
noring our agreement in either case.”

  “So why offer it?” Vestara asked.

  “You tell me,” Lady Rhea countered. “What did I accomplish?”

  Vestara thought for a moment, then saw what she had done. “You got him playing your game,” she said. “He thought he was already deceiving you, so he didn’t try something else.”

  “We’ll make a Saber out of you yet.” Lady Rhea put a hand on Vestara’s shoulder and stopped her, then spoke more softly. “Now tell me about you and Apprentice Raas. You’re close enough that you can recognize his Force aura?”

  Vestara immediately felt guilty. “There’s no disloyalty to you, Lady Rhea. Ahri and I have been best friends since we were Tyros.”

  “I thought as much,” Lady Rhea said. “That’s why Xal picked him.”

  Vestara’s brow shot up. “I thought it was because Ahri is …well, Keshiri.”

  “And Xal is … not?” Lady Rhea smiled. “That’s part of the reason, I’m sure. It never hurts to draw the eye away from one’s weaknesses—as you well know.”

  Lady Rhea ran a finger along the carefully applied eye swirls that Vestara painted on every morning to draw attention away from the small scar at the corner of her mouth.

  “But the truth is, Master Xal was hoping that Ahri’s relationship with you might be of benefit.”

  “Me?” Vestara gasped. “Because of Ship?”

  “Because you are my apprentice,” Lady Rhea said. “I’m sure Xal was hoping that your friendship with Ahri might give him some insight into my thinking on occasion.”

  Vestara’s heart rose into her throat. “Lady Rhea, I never—”

  “I know, Vestara,” she said. “And I’m sure that’s why Xal is so disappointed with your friend.”

  Vestara’s heart sank. The last thing she wanted was to make Ahri’s life difficult, but she wasn’t going to betray her own Master to make him look good.

  But that was exactly what Lady Rhea seemed to have in mind. “I don’t know how close you two are,” she said. “But it wouldn’t hurt to let Ahri make some progress.”