Dorsk 81 nodded. "He defeated Master Skywalker. Your mission will be impossible."

"Could be." I smiled, remembering similar a.s.sessments of missions with Rogue Squadron. "Then again, I've been to the land of the impossible before. If we all do our parts, I may even survive another little visit there."

I used the Headhunter's blasters to burn back enough jungle at the edge of the lake to provide me with a landing site, then I set the fighter down. The landing was a touch rougher than I would have liked. Given that the belly cargo compartment contained a dozen nergon 14 charges all ready to go, I should have focused more on flying, but I couldn't. Using the same technique Luke had showed Streen to shield his mind against picking up the thoughts of others, I was keeping my presence within the Force as undetectable as I could. I found it tiring, but took heart from the fact that Exar Kun likewise liked to remain hidden, and had to expend portions of his power to do so as well.

I climbed out of the fighter and opened the cargo compartment. I shouldered two packs with the explosives in them, gingerly shifting them about to let me maintain good balance. All I needed was to get careless and slip on my way to my destination. Do that and our war against Exar Kun will be lost before it even starts.

I looked out across the expanse of the lake at the small island centered in it. An obsidian pyramid with smooth sides had been erected there, then a wedge had been chopped out of the center of it. From the sh.o.r.e, the interior angles drew my attention to a ma.s.sive statue of a man. I was too far away to discern much in the way of detail, but I had no doubt I looked upon Exar Kun-if for no other reason than someone of his ego never would have let a statue to another be raised on his world.

I knew this is where I would find him. The clues had been painfully easy to put together. Dorsk 81 had reported traveling in this direction, but the survey logs that Kyp Durron had prepared showed no trip here. What little information about this place that had been recorded by the Rebel scout Unnh indicated that he found it unsettling and likely a monument to some ancient lord. The fact that it had escaped the ravages of time further suggested it was a focus for Kun's power. In addition, when I'd plotted the direction from which Kun's power had flowed the other evening, the two courses crossed over this location.

And, as if I needed more proof, I really didn't feel like marching in there.

I frowned at myself. "You've survived having Booster Terrik for a father-in-law, you can survive this."

The water surrounding the island picked up orange high-lights from the gas giant, but the system's dying sun still streaked it with jets of gold. I moved forward, stepping on the first of the stones set bare centimeters beneath the surface of the water. One misstep would plunge me deep into the pond's icy depths, so I moved cautiously. I watched where I placed my feet and had a moment of grudging admiration for Exar Kun. By making the pathway to his shrine so tricky and difficult, he forced all who approached him to do so with bowed heads so they could watch their feet.

Ripples spread out from my every step and lapped against the far sh.o.r.e, but they provided the only activity I saw over there. This pleased me because I was really in no position to deal with Kun's winged terrors.

The fact that Jacen Solo, though not quite yet three years old, had managed to hold a trio of them at bay with his uncle's lightsaber did not make me think my chances would be good in dealing with them. Though I thought myself more nimble than a toddler, with thirty kilos of explosives hanging on my back like lead wings, graceful wasn't going to describe me at all.

I reached the island's sh.o.r.e without opposition and mounted the steps to the temple. Sith hieroglyphs had been incised into the stones, still as crisp and sharp as the day the Ma.s.sa.s.si had carved them. The Sull.u.s.tan scout had translated some of them as magics to preserve the temple, and others to call down doom on defilers. Somehow the Ma.s.sa.s.si script, with hooks and barbs on each glyph, seemed more menacing than any curses they could call down.

Once inside the pyramid I worked quickly, distributing the nergon 14 charges and arming them. I tried to put them near structural points that would promote the collapse of the whole building, but with that ma.s.sive sort of block construction, I couldn't be certain it would work. The detonators could either be set for a time and triggered manually, or keyed by remote through codes I could broadcast from the Headhunter's comm unit. Having seen the results produced by such charges in the past, I didn't want to be anywhere nearby when they went off.

The last charge I brought forward like a sacrificial offering. I paced quickly across the open courtyard and laid it at the base of rite pedestal on which Exar Kun's colossal statue stood. I made certain to wedge the charge tightly against the base and the floor, so when it went off it would open enough of a crater to topple the statue. I measured the height of the pedestal with my eye, then glanced back toward the lake.

I smiled. "Mon Calamari tourists will get a chance to have a good look at you, once this goes."

I retreated to the center of the small courtyard, then unveiled my presence. I pushed my sphere of responsibility out, but had barely gotten it two meters before Kun appeared and swallowed my reflection in the obsidian stones of the pedestal.

"So, you have come to me to ask me to help you." Haughtiness rippled through the Force. "I warned you that I would not be generous with you this time."

I laughed at him. "I remember. That's not why I'm here."

Kun's head came up as his face contracted into a fierce scowl.

"What? Why have you violated my sanctuary?"

"Just the thing I wanted to talk with you about." I stroked my goatee and began pacing back and forth before him. "I checked New Republic law.

Property claims are abandoned well shy of four millennia. As a result, I've filed a claim for this place, and now it's mine. I'd love to have you stick around, but your statue is right where the wife will want the entertainment center. You understand, don't you?"

"You insolent bug!" Kun opened his shadowy arms wide.

"You prattle on as if your wit can armor you against my might."

"And you think you can hurt me?" I scoffed at him. "This is your eviction notice."

"You're playing with powers more t.i.tanic than you could ever know."

"Save the threats." I yawned. "I've been going over all the stuff you've done, and I've figured out your weakness. While disembodied, you can't affect the physical world."

Kun's expression darkened. "No?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Ah, then I cannot do this." The wraith waved an ethereal hand and sparks shot from each of the explosive packets I'd scattered about. Blue flames flared as the detonators each melted.

Just like the Jedi Holocron.

My nose closing against the stink of melted plastic, I glanced up at Kun.

"Ooops."

Kun flicked a finger at me, sending me whirling across the courtyard. I tried to gather the Force around me to protect myself, but the shock at my error kept me from it. I slammed into an obsidian wall and heard a bone in my right forearm crack. I clutched the limb to my chest, but Kun spun me again, smashing my flank into a low wall. Ribs crunched with that impact and I felt something inside go, as well.

Kun was enjoying himself, probably for the first time in millennia, the very thought of which made me vomit. Kun's laughter echoed through his stronghold as he pitched me around, dancing me and rolling me back and forth across the courtyard. I thought his actions were haphazard, especially when he lifted me into the air, then dashed me down, shattering my left leg, but even through the pain I had a clarity of mind. He wanted me thinking, not dead, yet, and that made my stomach roll again.

Eventually, like a child tiring of a toy, he let me go. I slumped to my side and involuntarily flinched as his shade came to cover me. "Just because you never saw me affect the material world, it doesn't mean I couldn't. And even if it is something of an effort to do so, here, in my stronghold, it is a pleasure beyond your possible ken."

I let my words hiss out between clenched teeth. "I think I'll put a wideview holoprojector right where you're standing."

"Childish jokes from a childish mind." He gestured casually and all the explosive charges I'd placed sailed out of the temple and splashed in the black lake. Glancing down at me, Kun let his voice become icy. "You could have been raised to the level of divinity by my hand. Now you will be destroyed by it."

Even before I could taunt him again, he gestured and I felt a presence behind me. I rolled over and saw Mirax standing there, her eyes full of fire. "I should have known, CorSec, that you would abandon me. You said you wanted me more than you wanted your Jedi heritage. I gave you all that I am. I want to bear your children. This is how you repay me'? You leave me alone, all alone, dying alone; while you play games with rocks and pictures'?"

The vehemence in her voice ripped straight through me. It collapsed my stomach and shoved it out through my spine. I wrapped my hands around my belly and hunched forward. "No, Mirax, no!"

The wailing calls of all the infants who had died on Carida swirled around me to accompany her voice. "Hear them, Corran. They are your sons, your daughters. They are the children you have denied to the world. You accused Exar Kun of being a fool because he destroys life, but you are more of a fool. You could have created it. With me. If you wanted me. If you truly loved me."

I hugged my broken arm to fractured ribs, folding around the pain in my middle. I knew she was nothing but an illusion Kun had conjured from my mind, but it seemed too real for me to disbelieve it. Kun was feeding back to me my own image of Mirax, and infusing it with everything I feared. Because the attack came from within, I had no emotional armor with which to shield myself. I heard ill her voice exactly the words that terrified me.

I reached out to her with my left hand, lifting my face toward her. "No, Mirax, no. I do love you!"

"How can you love her?" My father's voice slashed at me from behind. "Her father hired the bounty hunter who murdered me. A murder you could have prevented. Was that it? Had she seduced you even then? Were you her creature? Did she lay warm in your arms so I could lay cold in them?"

I levered myself around into a sitting position to meet my father's accusing stare, then had to tear my eyes from him. Gone was the man I had known in life. His flesh had become ashen, his eyes holes onto a void.

The only color on him came from the blood spurting from his wounds to puddle around him. I heard it splashing from him. I couldn't get the cloying scent out of my nostrils and dreaded the touch of the rivulet slowly snaking its way toward me. "You know that's not true!"

"I only know you failed me. You left me to die."

Mirax chimed in. "As you leave me to die."

My mother's voice joined them. "He never cared if I died, either."

Laughter, low and cold, echoed from the obsidian walls. I looked up and saw the image of Lujayne Forge, one of my first friends in Rogue Squadron. The right side of her face had been burned away by blaster fire. "He let me die. He wanted to play the hero, so I paid the price."

"No!" I slammed my right fist against the courtyard stones, breaking it and grinding the bones in my arm. I latched onto the pain and used it to recapture control of my mind. Their accusations bored into me, freeing the part of me that second-guessed everything I did. I knew that piece of me well and loathed it. I could replay conversations in my mind for hours when it held sway, wishing I'd said this, wondering why I'd said that, hoping things would not be taken in the worst way, but dreading the fact that they would. When I began doubting myself, I was paralyzed. The cycle always built on itself, growing, reviewing more things, until I dissected my whole life. And it continues until I get angry at myself and stop it.

The desire to give in to the anger and cut Exar Kun short almost overwhelmed me. That option hung there, tantalizing me. I could use my anger like a lightsaber. I could slice to ribbons these false spirits, these treacherous phantoms. I would cut down Exar Kun's army, then I would rip into him. He would be nothing before me and my anger. I would sunder him the way my explosives should have sundered his shrine. And then I can find other targets that deserve destruction... I raised my right hand triumphantly, then curled it down into a fist.

Pain jolted through me again and in its wake came outrage. I slammed my hand against the ground and screamed, then shot Exar Kuna sidelong glance. "No. My anger is not for you to use."

The Dark Lord towered above me. "Anger is a most sweet nectar. Despair will also suffice."

Another phantom congealed before me, looking and feeling and smelling and sounding more real than I was myself. The little boy, all tow-headed and grey-eyed, barely older than Jacen Solo, looked at me with his lower lip quivering. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes. He reached out with little stubby-fingered hands and took my broken hand into his.

"Who hurt you, Daddy?" His innocent gaze searched my face. "I can make it better. I can. Let me. Please . . ." His voice became a plaintive wail that faded with his image. I felt his grip, feathery and gentle, soothing and kind, fading to be replaced with pain. "Why won't you let me help?"

The lump rising in my throat strangled me. Through the boy's fading image I saw Mirax, no longer hateful, standing there. She wore a simple white gown. She rubbed her hands lovingly over her swollen belly, the look on her face one of pure, unadulterated joy. The image shifted slightly as the boy reappeared, older, yet still a child, to place his hand against his mother's rounded stomach.

Then both of their images blew apart into a million razor-edged fragments that burned through me.

"Just as well," I heard my father say, "any child of that union would have been as disappointing as you have been."

That simple remark detonated like a bomb inside me. I had forever hoped that I would win my father's approval, that he would like me for who and what I was. He was never stinting with his praise, but with his death I had been left trying to guess what he would have thought about this action or that. Even my decision to become a Jedi had been made to win his approval and to model myself on him.

Yet in his voice, I heard that I had failed. The sum and total of my life, the'sum and total of the lives of any children I helped create, and whatever they would create; all of it would be worthless in his eyes. One of the anchor points for my life crumbled, eroding in uncertainty, cutting me adrift without a chance of recovering myself. I was lost.

I was hopeless.

I was the ultimate failure.

I could take no more.

"Is that the best you've got'?" The tone of the voice had enough edge to etch transparisteel and would have flensed me alive, but I knew it wasn't directed at me. Through tear-clouded eyes I looked up and saw Mara Jade sauntering into the temple. "Babies crying and ghosts whispering lies from beyond the grave? The Dark Lord of the Sith I knew would have been ashamed to use such tactics."

"What?" Exar Kun's voice roared, as if in volume and intensity it could batter her down. "Who dares?"

"Who cares, more correctly." She pointed at me. "Horn here has been worked over by the Empire's best and never broke. Isard would have had you digitized, a.n.a.lyzed and discarded without a second thought, and she wasn't even Force-sensitive. Darth Vader would have found you amusingly quaint, and the Emperor . . . well . . ." Mara Jade's eyes flashed mercilessly. "The Emperor succeeded in destroying the Jedi, so he'd see you as the very definition of failure!"

"Yes, but your vaunted Emperor is dead!"

I found my voice again. "Something the two of you have in common, then."

I shoved myself up and balanced awkwardly on my good leg. "And something else: he didn't know when he'd lost, either. It's over!"

Kun regarded me anew and I felt his consciousness stab into my brain. It withdrew quickly, as if it had been stung by the thought I had nestled there. Kun laughed aloud. "A trap? You and your companions seek to trap me?"

Kun doubled his image's volume and smiled most cruelly at us. "You think your petty plans will work against me? You thought your coming here would defeat me? Never." He looked away toward the Great Temple, then back down at us. 'This may have been a brave attempt on your part, but your friends have made a grave error. Their defense of Skywalker is only as strong as the weakest person defending him, and they have left him vulnerable again."

Mara looked at me, clearly alarmed. "What's he talking about?"

"Luke's hurt." I winced as pain shot through my belly.

"Streen is guarding him."

Exar Kun laughed again. "Yes, Streen. My Streen." The Dark Lord's image began to shrink back into the obsidian of his temple. "I will finish him, then come again for you. Tremble in fear. Cower in antic.i.p.ation."

His presence faded from the Temple and I tried to straighten up. I managed a half-staggered step, then went down on one knee. I guess I fell further or faster than I expected because I next found Mara kneeling next to me. "C'mon, Horn, wake up. What's this about Streen?"

I managed a weak smile. "Bait. Kun's heading into a trap. A big trap."

She weighed my words. "Any chance he can get out of it?"

"Shouldn't be able to. It really is over for him." I coughed once and felt pain in my chest. "Gonna have to help me out of here, because I can't make it on my own."

"I think I can handle that." She reached down, helped haul me to my feet, then dipped a shoulder and lifted me in a rescue-carry. "Always glad to help a friend."

The sun had set by the time we got back to my Headhunter and the other one that had brought Mara Jade on her second trip to Yavin 4. She lugged me back to sh.o.r.e and eased me to the ground without complaining about what a burden I'd been. She ran to her ship and got a first aid kit.

"Sorry for the rough spots out there."

"No problem. Beats swimming." I coughed lightly. "Besides, a Jedi does not know pain."

"Need to be more convincing when you say that." Mara shook her head.

"Your arm fracture is dislocated. I should set it-unless you want to do it yourself."

I stared up at her. "Set my own arm'? Only an idiot would set his own broken arm."

"Some would say only an idiot would go after a Dark Lord of the Sith by himself."

"Ah, that's "big idiot", thank you." I held my arm out toward her. "Do what has to be done-which is what I was doing out here myself."

Mara crouched beside me and grasped my wrist and elbow. "He worked you over pretty solidly. What little I saw wasn't very pleasant."

The image of the boy's face surfaced in my mind again. "If I never go through that again, I'll be happy." I looked up at her. "Thanks for intervening. If you hadn't have come in then . . ."

"You'd have just broken your other hand." She shrugged her shoulders, then summoned the Force, pulled on my wrist and twisted the bone into place before I even knew what was happening. "There."

I slumped down on my back, determined not to scream.

"Sithsp.a.w.n! Don't ever go into medicine."

"You're welcome, Horn." Mara tucked a strand of red-gold hair behind her right ear. "I found some stuff out about Mirax, which is why I came back here. Details are on a datacard you can review while you're recovering.

Anyway, when I entered the atmosphere I could feel you and Kun tangling.

The Force was boiling."

"And you came anyway?"

"I owed you. We're even now."

I leaned my head back and uttered as much of a laugh as I could muster.