• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

He stormed across the camp toward his communications tent, ignoring the questioning looks of Githany and the others. They wanted an explanation, but he didn’t have one to give. Not yet. Not until he got a status report from Admiral Nyras. How did Farfalla break through the kriffing blockade?

His anger was so great that he didn’t notice Qordis’s flier parked near his tent, or the droplets of blood scattered on the ground nearby. If he had, he might have searched the area and found the body stashed in the nearby undergrowth. But all of Kaan’s focus was concentrated on reaching his tent and the communications equipment inside.

He found Bane there waiting for him, standing still as stone.

“Back so soon, Kaan?” he asked. “What happened to your glorious battle?”

“Reinforcements,” Kaan snarled. “Somehow Farfalla found a way to break through our blockade.”

“I told your fleet to engage the Jedi,” Bane said, his words as casual as if he had been discussing the weather.

Kaan’s jaw dropped. He had suspected treachery, but he wasn’t prepared for the traitor to openly admit it! “But … why?”

“I wanted all the Jedi here on Ruusan at the same time,” Bane replied.

“You blasted fool!” Kaan shouted, waving his arms madly as if they were gripped by uncontrollable spasms. “Victory was ours! We had Hoth beaten!”

“That is your goal, not mine. I’m after a prize far greater than the death of General Hoth. He is but one man.”

Kaan barked out a harsh laugh. “We all know what prize you seek, Darth Bane. You’re here to take over the Brotherhood.”

Bane shrugged indifferently, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other to him.

He seemed so calm, so certain of what he was doing. It was all Kaan could do to keep himself from leaping at the larger man’s throat. Didn’t he understand what he had done? Couldn’t he see that he had doomed them all?

Kaan slumped wearily into a chair. “If you lead them against the Jedi, you lead them to their slaughter.”

Now it was Bane who laughed—a low, sinister chuckle. “How quickly you’ve fallen into despair, Kaan. It seemed only hours ago you were certain of victory.”

“That was before Farfalla and his reinforcements arrived,” Kaan shot back. “Back when we had the advantages of numbers and air superiority. All that is gone, thanks to you. We can’t possibly defeat them now.”

“I can,” Bane vowed.

Kaan sat up straighter in his chair. Again, there was that unwavering confidence. Bane knew something he didn’t. Some trick. “Another ritual like the last one?” he guessed.

“I know many rituals. Many secrets. And I have the strength to use them.”

Dread gripped Kaan. “The thought bomb,” he breathed.

“Your leadership has failed,” Bane declared. “Now I will take the Brotherhood down the path to victory.”

“And what of me?” Kaan asked, already knowing the answer.

“You can swear your loyalty to me with all the others,” Bane told him, “or you can die here in this tent.”

Lord Kaan knew he was no match for Bane, either physically or through the power of the Force. Yet he wasn’t about to surrender so easily. Not while he still had cunning, guile, and his unique talents of persuasion on his side.

“Do you really believe the others will follow you?” he asked, pushing out with the Force to plant the first seeds of doubt in his rival’s mind. “They are still wary of you after your last ritual.”

A flicker of uncertainty passed across Bane’s hard features. Kaan increased the pressure of his invisible compulsions and continued to speak. “The Brotherhood is about equality, not servitude. Asking the others to bow down before you will only drive them away—or turn them against you.”

He rose from his chair as Bane nervously stroked his chin, weighing the arguments. “How do you think the others will react when I tell them how you orchestrated the arrival of the Jedi reinforcements?”

Bane’s dark eyes flashed angrily, and his hand dropped to the hilt of his lightsaber.

“Killing me won’t keep your secret,” Kaan warned him. “The others know you weren’t at the battle when Farfalla’s ships arrived. More than a few of