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I started us off at a fairly good clip, then slowed my pace a bit as Brakiss struggled to keep up. Being as tall as he was, the orchid roots were giving him trouble. Kam, though middle-aged, was in better shape than Brakiss, but he, too, seemed to prefer a more leisurely pace.

We crossed the river separating the Great Temple from the Blueleaf Temple by walking along the trunk of a Massassi tree that had been uprooted by the river. The river itself was actually shallow enough at a nearby ford that I usually just splashed my way across when running, but Brakiss didn’t really look like he wanted to get his feet wet. Kam and I kidded him, asking him if he wanted us to use our lightsabers to cut him some steps and level off the bumpy parts of the tree, but he just blushed and told us to walk on.

The Great Temple dwarfed the Blueleaf Temple, but the latter building had a great deal of elegance to its construction. It rose only half as high as the Great Temple, but proportionally had a bigger footprint. A lot of brush and scrub shrubs had grown up around it, but not enough to stop us from getting to it.

Brakiss led the way around to the eastern side of the structure. “The Sullustan’s survey said the main entrance faced east so the orange light from the gas giant could fill the lower chamber in the evening.”

We reached the entrance and could see where the Rebels had indeed sealed the doorway with large stone blocks. Clearly they had intended no one ever be able to get into it again. And just as clearly, the Imperial survey team that had studied Yavin 4 after the Rebels abandoned it was just as determined to get in. They’d melted a hole straight through the plug to do so.

Kam ignited his lightsaber and swept some cobwebs from the hole. “The webs aren’t as thick as might be expected. Gantoris may have been in here and the spiders just busy since.”

I unhooked a glowrod from my belt and handed it to him. “Assuming you want to go first.”

“Sure.” Kam snapped it on, then ducked his head and worked his way in. Being smaller and somewhat thinner, I slipped sideways through the hole pretty easily after him. Brakiss brought up the rear and joined us, brushing dust from his robe’s shoulders.

The green light from Kam’s lightsaber and the glowrod’s golden beam didn’t penetrate very far. We found ourselves on a landing with stairs before us going down. Stretching out to fill the foundation of the Temple was one huge chamber with little alcoves built into the walls. We could only dimly see the ones closest to our position, but they looked smaller and slightly more cramped than the rooms we had in the Great Temple.

To either side of us, stairs doubled back up to the next level. I took the glowrod from Kam and played the light over the stairs going down and the two sets heading up. “Dust looks fairly undisturbed. If Gantoris came in here, he was floating himself along, and I don’t think he was quite that good.”

“Maybe this landing is just as far as he got.” Brakiss shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe he didn’t dare go any further.”

“I don’t believe that.” Kam pointed with his lightsaber toward the stairs going up. “Shall we?”

Brakiss smiled. “This is what we came for, after all.”

Kam led the way. Our footfalls echoed dryly through the Temple and my flesh began to crawl as we ascended. From having read Unnh’s survey report, we knew what to expect, and the anticipation had me a little scared. Knowing there was evil afoot and heading toward the reason General Dodonna had ordered the place sealed, I felt we were courting disaster.

Proving I was a true Halcyon, however, I had no intention of retreating.

The stairs came out onto another landing that served as a foyer for the Temple’s Grand Audience Chamber. The sharply sloped outer walls came together high above the chamber floor to form the ceiling. Three towers set equidistant down the chamber’s midline came to a point well below the roof’s apex, yet somehow seemed to be holding the roof aloft nonetheless.