Again, Luke explained as briefly as possible about the treasure vault on Ossus, and before long they had struck a deal to purchase one industrial-grade Corusca gem.
That done, Luke probed the middleman for information about who else might have bought industrial-grade gems. The man’s eyes grew wary and distrustful. “No names—that’s the bargain,” he said stoutly.
Tenel Ka pulled off another string of the fine Corusca gems that hung around her neck and placed them on the table beside the payment she and Luke had already made for the large gem.
“Surely you understand our caution,” Luke said. “We must know if there is anyone capable of stealing our treasure from us.”
The middleman picked up the string of gems and looked them over carefully. “Can’t tell ya much,” he said in a low voice. “Last shipment o’ big industrial gems, one person bought ’em all. Big order.”
“Can you describe their ships, tell us what planet they came from?” Luke pressed.
The bearded middleman still did not look up. “Not much, actually. Never saw the ship she came on. All I knows she called herself a … a lady of the evenin’ … er a daughter of darkness, er somethin’ like that.”
Tenel Ka caught her breath, and she felt Luke stiffen beside her. “You mean a—a Nightsister?” Tenel Ka asked with a quaver in her voice.
“Yeah, that was it! A Nightsister,” the middleman said. “Goofy name.”
Luke’s eyes met Tenel Ka’s and held.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” Luke said slowly. “If you’re right, I’m afraid this ‘Nightsister’ may have taken some of our valuables already.”
8
Jacen stood behind Qorl’s pilot chair, biting his lip. The Nightsister Tamith Kai loomed over them, powerful and threatening. He flashed a glance at Jaina, but he didn’t think they could do anything to resist.
Not yet anyway.
Docking doors on the ring of the Shadow Academy eased open in the silence of space, exposing a dark cavernous bay rimmed with flashing yellow lights to guide Qorl’s ship in. The Imperial pilot worked the controls with grim proficiency, and Jacen noticed that his damaged left arm—which had never properly healed when his TIE fighter had crashed on Yavin 4—was now bulkier, encased in black leather from the shoulder down, wrapped with straps and battery packs.
“Qorl, what happened to your arm?” Jacen asked. “Did they heal it for you, like we promised we’d do at the Jedi academy?”
Qorl diverted his attention from the docking maneuvers, turning his haunted pale eyes toward the boy. “They did not heal it,” Qorl said. “They replaced it. I now have a droid arm, which is better than my old one. Stronger, capable of more tasks.” He bent his leather-bound arm.
Jacen caught the faint whirring of servomotors. His stomach clenched in sick revulsion. “They didn’t have to do that,” Jacen said. “We could have healed you in a bacta tank, or a medical droid could have tended you. At worst you would have been fitted with a biomechanical prosthetic that looks just like a real arm—even my uncle has one of those. There was no need to give you a droid arm.”
Qorl’s face was stony, and he turned his attention back to piloting his craft. “Nevertheless, it is done. My arm is better now, stronger.”
The Imperial ship drifted into the docking bay, and lines of pulsing lights continued to illuminate the reflective metal walls. A transparisteel-encased observation bay with angular windows protruded from the inner wall above. Jacen could see small figures running diagnostics, working systems to guide Qorl’s ship in.
The ship settled down with barely a bump. The docking-bay doors closed behind them, sealing the prisoners inside the sinister Shadow Academy.
Tamith Kai spoke into the comm channel. “Engage cloaking device,” she said, her deep voice as irresistible and compelling as a tractor beam.
Though Jacen could see or feel nothing different, he knew that the large space station had suddenly vanished, leaving the illusion of nothing but empty space, where no one would ever find them.
Flanked by a stormtrooper escort, Tamith Kai ushered the children down the boarding ramp, away from the assault ship that had kidnapped them from GemDiver Station. She took them across the bay, toward a broad scarlet door that slid open as they approached.
On the other side stood a young-looking man dressed in flowing silvery robes. His smooth skin and silken blond hair seemed to glow. He was one of the most beautiful humans Jacen had ever seen—perfectly formed, like a holo simulation of an ideal man, or a sculptors masterpiece chiseled out of alabaster. A contingent of stormtroopers stood behind him, blaster rifles resting on their shoulders.
“Welcome, new recruits,” he said in a gentle voice that carried undertones of music. “I am Brakiss, leader of the Shadow Academy.”
Jacen heard his sister gasp and couldn’t restrain his own exclamation. “Brakiss?” he said. “Blaster bolts! We’ve heard about you. You were an Imperial spy planted at Master Skywalker’s academy, trying to steal our training methods.”
Brakiss smiled as if inwardly amused.
“That’s right,” Jaina continued excitedly. “Master Skywalker figured out who you were, but when he tried to turn you to the light side—to save you—you couldn’t face the ugliness inside yourself.”
Brakiss’s smile never faltered. “Ah, so that’s how he tells it? Master Skywalker and I did not agree on the … particulars of training in the Force. But he had at least one good idea: He was correct to bring back the Jedi Knights. He realized that the Jedi were the preservers and protectors of the Old Republic. They unified the decaying old government and kept it alive long after it should have dissolved into anarchy.
“And now that there is anarchy among the remnants of the Imperial forces, we need such a unifying force. We have already found a powerful new leader, a great one”—Brakiss smiled—“but we also need our own group of Dark Jedi Knights, Imperial Jedi, who will cement our factions together and give us the will to defeat the wicked and unlawful government of the New Republic and bring about the Second Imperium.”
“Hey, our mother leads the New Republic!” Jacen objected. “She’s not wicked. And she doesn’t torture people, or kidnap them, either.”
Brakiss said, “It all depends on your perspective.”
“Who’s this new leader, anyway?” Jaina interrupted. “Haven’t you tried to find a single leader before—and ended up with everyone fighting to run what’s left of the Empire? It won’t work.”
“Silence,” Tamith Kai said, her voice thick with menace. “You will not ask questions; you will receive indoctrination. You will be trained as powerful warriors to fight in the service of the Empire.”
“I don’t think so,” Jacen said defiantly.
His sisters face flushed with anger. “We won’t cooperate with you. You can’t steal us away and just expect us to be diligent little students for you. Master Skywalker and our parents will comb the galaxy to find us. They will find us, and then you’ll be sorry.”
Behind them, Lowie snarled and spread his long arms as if longing to tear something limb from limb, as his uncle Chewbacca was rumored to do whenever he lost a hologame.
The stormtroopers suddenly trained their rifles on the infuriated Wookiee.
“Hey, don’t shoot him!” Jacen said, moving between the stormtrooper and Lowie.
Jaina spoke up in an authoritative tone that took Jacen by surprise. “What have you done with Em Teedee, Lowie’s translator droid? He needs to communicate—unless of course all of these stormtroopers can somehow speak the Wookiee language?”
“He will be given his little droid back,” Tamith Kai said, “as soon as it has undergone .. suitable reprogramming.”