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  “Right.”

  “And she’s gone?”

  “Headed out as soon as her yacht was refueled. By the way, its name is She’s a Chancer.”

  “Somehow appropriate.” Finally Luke did open his eyes, and Ben was once again struck by how tired his father looked, tired to the bone and to the spirit. “I can still feel her path. I’ll be up in a minute to lay in a course.”

  “Right. Don’t push yourself.” Ben backed out of the cabin and its door slid shut.

  SEVERAL DAYS LATER

  JADE SHADOW, IN HIGH DATHOMIR ORBIT

  Luke stared at the mottled, multicolored world of Dathomir through the forward viewport. He nodded, feeling slightly abashed. Of course it was Dathomir.

  Ben, seated to Luke’s left in the pilot’s seat, peered at him. “What is it, Dad?”

  “I’m just feeling a little stupid. There’s no world better suited to be the home of this new Sith order than Dathomir. I should have realized it long before we were on our final leg here.”

  “How so?”

  “There are a lot of Force-sensitives in the population, most of whom are trained in the so-called witchcraft of Dathomir. There’s not a lot of government oversight to detect a growing order within the population. There are lots of individual, secretive tribes.” Luke paused to consider. “Jacen was here for a while on his five-year travels. I wonder what he learned and whether it relates to the Maw … And there are mentions in ancient records that there was a Sith academy here long, long ago.”

  Ben nodded. “Well, I’ll prep Mom’s Headhunter and get down there. I’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground.”

  Luke gave his son a confused look. “I’m not going down with you? I’m feeling much better. Much more rested.”

  “Yeah, but there’s a Jedi school down there. The terms of your exile say that you can’t—”

  Luke grinned and held up a hand, cutting off his son’s words. “You’re a little bit behind the times, Ben. Maybe you need your own galactic map updated. More than two years ago, when the Jedi turned against Jacen at Kuat—”

  “Yeah, and we set up shop on Endor for a while. What about it?”

  “We pulled everyone out of the Dathomir school at the time. Jacen’s government shut the school down. The Jedi have yet to reopen it.”

  Comprehension dawned on Ben’s face. “So there’s no school, and it’s legal for you to visit.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s kind of getting by on a technicality, isn’t it?”

  “All law is technicality, Ben. Get authorization for landing.”

  DATHOMIR

  Half an hour later, Luke had to admit that he was wrong. Most of law was technicality. The rest was special cases, and he, apparently, was a special case.

  He stood on the parking field of the Dathomiri spaceport. Perhaps “spaceport” was too generous a term. It was a broad, sunny field, grassy in some spots, muddy in others, with thruster scorch marks here and there. Dull gray permacrete domes, most of them clearly prefabricated, dotted the field; the largest was some sort of administrative building, the smaller ones hangars for vehicles no larger than shuttles and starfighters. A tall mesh durasteel fence surrounded the complex, elevated watch towers dotting its length, and Luke could see the wiring leading to one of the permacrete domes that marked it as electrified. The spaceport facilities offered little shade, so the Skywalkers stood in the darkness cast by Jade Shadow, but even without the heat of direct sunlight, the moist, windless air was still as oppressive as a blanket.

  Luke poured thoughts of helpfulness and reasonability into the Force, but it was no use. The man before him, nearly two skinny meters of red-headed obstructiveness, would not yield a centimeter.

  The man, who had given his name as Tarth “not Darth” Vames, again waved his datapad beneath Luke’s nose. “It’s simple. That vehicle—” His wave indicated Jade Shadow. “Neither it, nor anything with an enclosed or enclosable interior, can be inland under your control or your kid’s.” He turned his attention to Ben, who stood, arms folded across his chest, beside his father. Ben glared but did not reply.

  Luke sighed. “Is any other visitor to Dathomir operating under that restriction?”

  “Don’t think so, no.”

  “Then why us?”

  Vames thumbed the datapad keyboard so that the message scrolled downward several screens. “Here, right here. An enclosed vehicle, according to these precedents—there’s about eight screens of legal precedents—can be interpreted as a mobile school, especially if you’re in it, especially if its presence constitutes a continuation of a school that’s been here in the past.”

  “This is harassment.” Ben’s words were quiet, but loud enough for Vames to hear.

  The tall man glowered at Ben. “Of course it’s not harassment. The order came specifically from Chief of State Daala’s office. Public officials at that level don’t harass.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  “Ben.” Luke added a chiding tone to his voice. “No point in arguing. Vames, are you also prohibited from answering a few questions?”

  “Always happy to help. So long as it’s within latitudes permitted by the regulations.”

  “Within the last couple of days, have you seen any sign of a dilapidated yacht called She’s a Chancer?” Luke knew the yacht had to be here; he had run his blood trail to ground on Dathomir, and the girl had not departed this world. But anything this man could add to his meager store of knowledge might help.

  Vames entered the ship name in his datapad, then shook his head. “No vehicle under that name made legal landfall.”

  “Ah.”

  “Dilapidated, you say? A yacht?”

  “That’s right.”

  Vames keyed in some more information. “Last night, shortly after dusk, local time, a vehicle with the operational characteristics of a SoroSuub yacht made a sudden descent from orbit, overflew the spaceport here, and headed north. There was some comm chatter from the pilot about engines on runaway, that she couldn’t cut them or bring her repulsors online for landing.”

  Ben frowned at that. “Last night? And you didn’t send out a rescue party?”

  “Of course we did. As per regulation. Couldn’t find the crash site. No further communication from the vehicle. We still have searchers up there. But no luck.”

  “Actually, that is helpful.” Luke turned to his son. “Ben, no enclosed vehicles.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Rent us a couple of speeder-bikes, would you?” Ben grinned. “Yes, sir.”

  About the Author

  TROY DENNING is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost; Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Star by Star: the Star Wars: Dark Nest trilogy: The Joiner King, The Unseen Queen, and The Swarm; and Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Tempest, Inferno, and Invincible—as well as Pages of Pain, Beyond the High Road, The Summoning, and many other novels. A former game designer and editor, he lives in western Wisconsin with his wife, Andria.

  Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

  Excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash copyright © 2009 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

  Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-51872-9

  www.starwars.com

  www.fateofthejedi.com

  www.delreybooks.com

  v3.0

  Table of Contents

  Co
ver

  Other Books By This Author

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright