Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [97]
“I can give her to you. I can tell you exactly where she is.” Exar Kun shaped his face into what he thought was a compassionate expression. “You know the Force allows me to show you the past, the present, the future. This is where she is, your wife, right now. Hidden away, where you will never find her without my help.”
“And what would you have me do for your help?”
“Kill Skywalker.”
I smiled. “Mirax’s life for his? No deal.”
“You want more?” The Dark Lord laughed defiantly. “I can give you more, I will give you more. I will give you your wife and Tavira. You can have her ship and destroy her fleet. You can destroy your father-in-law’s ship. You can return to Corellia and destroy those who hate you there!”
I shook my head. “No.”
“No?”
“No.” I sighed. “You don’t get it, do you? You’ve already lost and you’re continuing down that losing path. Haven’t the last four thousand years taught you anything?”
“I know more than you could ever hope to learn in four thousand years or forty thousand years.”
“That may be, but I know the one thing you don’t.” I rose from my bed and pointed a finger at him. “You’re never going to win. You destroy those who oppose you, and what does that leave you?”
“The faithful.”
“From among whom arises a rival. You have a schism.”
“And I destroy the heretics.”
“Yes, you do.” I nodded carefully. “And again and again that cycle repeats itself and you let it go on because you’ve forgotten the most fundamental truth of reality: Life creates the Force. When Kyp destroyed Carida, he diminished your power. When you destroyed Gantoris, you diminished your power. You’re a predator over-grazing your prey, but you can’t stop because the dark side fills you with this aching hunger that will never be satisfied.”
“Ha!” Exar Kun’s laughter slashed at me, but sounded just a bit too shrill. “You cannot speak of the dark side until you have experienced it. Join me and learn that you are wrong.”
“I don’t think so. A Two-Onebee droid doesn’t need to contract a disease to diagnose and treat it.” I folded my arms across my chest and laughed at him. “I’m not fodder for your fantasies, go away.”
Exar Kun lifted his head. “I came to you, now, inviting you to join me. I would have given you much. When next you come to me, and you will, I shall not be so generous.”
As he spoke the image of Mirax began to fade, but it did so in a most horrible way. I watched her lying there, aging years for every passing second. Her dark hair became grey and brittle, then fell out in clumps. Her flesh became ashen, her eyes sunken. Her body puddled out through the seams of her clothing, then they split, letting me see bare bones. A gust of wind came up, scattering them, spinning her skull around like a child’s toy. Finally it came to rest, gap-toothed, staring at me with empty sockets.
I blinked the image away and found myself alone again. I sat back down on my bed and discovered I was trembling. It surprised me, so I made myself laugh. I had to push at first, but it came more easily. The warm sound filled my small room and I swore I could hear the echoes of laughter that Biggs, Wedge and Porkins had shared in here. They had laughed because they knew they had the secret of destroying the Death Star.
I laughed along with them. Exar Kun had come to me to entice me to join him. What he didn’t know, what fueled my laughter even more, was that in doing so, he gave me the secret of destroying him.
I hoped for a moment alone with Leia Organa Solo to tell her what I’d discovered about Exar Kun, but between her caring for her children and the unexpected arrival of a B-wing fighter, I had no chance to speak with her. I wanted to talk to her alone because I was operating on the assumption that the dark man might have gotten to others of the students. She’d not been on Yavin long enough to fall under his sway, and I had no doubt that she’d be able to resist him. Letting everyone know that I had a way to hurt Kun was a good way to let him know that, too, and that would rob us of our weapon.
The pilot of the B-wing turned out to be a Mon Calamari