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“Hey, what is this stuff?”

Laranth stared down at the rising mist, then swore. Spinning back the way they’d come, she drew her blasters and took one step, then stopped.

“Inquisitors,” she snarled and turned again.

Kaj’s blood pumped harder. “It’s okay. I can take care of them.”

“No, you can’t.” She took the right branch of the intersection. It was blocked not a meter and a half from the junction by what looked like a block of solid ferrocrete.

Kaj stood in the center of the intersection watching the fog rise, catching the scent of it. He knew it was a drug even as the first wave of vertigo hit him. He saw Laranth tear by him in a curling wake of the stuff, futilely checking the center and left-hand corridors.

She staggered as she came back into the junction, swore again, and bolted back the way they’d come. The logic of that hit Kaj as his knees buckled. Their captors had all the time in the world to completely plug the corridors ahead of them with objects they’d be unable to manipulate, but their back trail would have to be guarded. His first impulse had been right, he thought as the fog seeped into his mind. He should’ve turned around and blasted them.

He tried to summon the will and focus to do that now, but his mind would not cooperate. He felt as if his body had been disconnected from his brain and the different parts of his brain blocked from communicating with one another.

He fell into the swirl of mist, watching Laranth’s silhouette move away from him through it. He heard the hum of lightsabers and saw red flashes.

How would Jax find them? How would he even know what had happened to them?

Pebbles.

The answer came from a simple childhood tale about a young sister and brother whose evil father took them out into the fens to lose them, lest they grow to adulthood and fulfill a prophecy that foresaw his demise. They had dropped pebbles along their trail to find their way back.

Kaj had no pebbles, but he did have a taozin chain. With his last shred of focused thought he wrenched the thing from his neck and tossed it behind him.

Jax couldn’t have said where the dream twisted and became a nightmare. It wasn’t a Force dream, just a reeling off of recent events seen in strobe-like splashes of color and movement. Then, with a suddenness that thrust him into a half-waking state, the entire atmosphere of the dream altered, becoming viscous, fluid, and terrifying.

He plunged through layers of oily cloud in a cold, narrow place that was as dark as an Inquisitor’s heart. He was dropped into a maze to run blindly here and there, seeking escape. But escape was barred at every turn and someone or something was seeking him, drawing ever nearer in the dark.

He dragged himself to wakefulness, a chemical taste in his mouth. After a moment, he recognized it.

Spice gas.

He sat up, the oppressive foreboding he’d felt since yesterday now a crushing weight that sat in the middle of his chest. He rose and pulled on his tunic. Any more sleep was out of the question. He’d go see Thi Xon Yimmon. He checked the wall chrono. If he went now, he could help Laranth align the light sculptures.

He hung his lightsaber at his belt, arranged his vest over it, and went out onto the upstairs gallery. I-Five looked up from his inspection of the cloth Rhinann was holding out for him. The Inquisitor’s cloak, Jax realized.

“Where are you off to?” I-Five asked.

“I’m going to check on Kaj.”

“We are scheduled to meet with Sal again shortly to finalize—”

“I know. I’ll be late for that, I guess.”

The droid blinked. “Jax, may I remind you that we’re plotting to assassinate the Emperor, not planning a family picnic.”

Jax hesitated. I-Five was right, but the nightmare still sat on him—in him—making his thoughts slow and disjointed. He took a deep breath. “I think I felt a disturbance in the Force. I was asleep, so it’s all muddled up with a dream I was having.”

Rhinann turned to I-Five. “Can you translate that into Basic for me, please?”

I-Five sounded annoyed. “It’s Jedi for something bad has happened.” He thrust the cloak back into Rhinann