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The priestess raised her left arm again. Another red garrote creature rolled down to her wrist.

Something else grabbed Leia from behind and flung her to the ground. Something heavy and sharp fell across her legs at the knees, blinding her with a double explosion of pain. She bit her tongue.

They struck again. And again …

A scream echoed down the stairwell. Jacen flung himself out his compartment’s door.

Two alien warriors stood in the passage, one outside the office door where that scream had come from, one closer.

Jacen leapt up three stairs at the closer warrior. The armor itself could be killed, he reminded himself. The vulnerable point was under the warrior’s arms.

But at the end of that arm, a black amphistaff coiled like a hook, narrowing its inner edge to bladelike hardness.

The Yuuzhan Vong attacked, taking advantage of his elevation. Jacen couldn’t anticipate the warrior’s strategy. He could only watch shoulder twitches, subtle shifts of feet. The other’s first swing drove Jacen back down into a crouch. He sprang up quickly, stepping past his enemy with his lightsaber at shoulder height. Using his body as a fulcrum, he slashed for the armor’s weak spot.

The warrior dodged as the door guard pounded downstairs. Off the bandolier on his chest whizzed three silvery creatures.

Jacen backswung, pushing his pommel toward the warrior’s chin. The Yuuzhan Vong swung his amphistaff down, aiming for Jacen’s neck. Jacen ducked aside and skewered the first thud bug with his glimmering, ice-green blade. The leering warrior spun on one foot, driving his amphistaff toward Jacen’s midsection.

Jacen leapt aside, planting a kick as the amphistaff swept past. The warrior lost his balance and flew over the banister.

Jacen stood gasping for one second, then swung at the thud bugs, dimly aware that the other guard had vanished into Leia’s quarters.

The second bug came at his chest. Now he missed the flow of the Force. He backstepped and swung, feeling half-blind. Somehow, he connected anyway. The bug skittered to the ground.

Its partner buzzed toward his head. He ducked, but not quite in time. He felt fire on his scalp as the creature slashed past, slitting his cap. He brought up his lightsaber, trying to stab it.

Without the Force, he just wasn’t fast enough. He caught it on the backswing.

Ignoring his scalp wound, he dashed the rest of the way to the office. Panting, he burst in.

His mother lay sprawled on the floor. From her knees almost to her feet, her SELCORE-blue uniform was darkening rapidly with blood. She pushed up on her forearms, opened her eyes, then furrowed her forehead.

“Go,” she groaned. “Get away!”

To his horror, three sluglike creatures rolled back and forth alongside her legs, cleaning up the visible red flow.

Beyond her stood the biggest Yuuzhan Vong he’d ever seen, and a small one all in black. Three musicians, covered with tattoos, and a midsize one—with his mother’s lightsaber tucked into his belt—stood aside.

“You!” the middle-sized Yuuzhan Vong exclaimed. “The craven one! I thought you remained on Bburru.”

Jacen gaped. The Yuuzhan Vong knew the Duros had detained him? CorDuro hadn’t just sold out. It was collaborating!

Holding his lightsaber at the ready, Jacen stepped around Leia and said, “Let her go.” A fully trained Jedi could’ve controlled blood flow to her own wounded extremities, letting enough through to oxygenate her nerves and muscles, but not enough to bleed to death. Obviously, Leia couldn’t.

But Jacen could barely stand, he was so dizzy. The room spun and tilted around him.

“Craven still,” the warmaster exulted. “You stand there looking, instead of trying to strike us down. Look, then. Look well.”

The warmaster reached toward the small, black-robed individual and said something Jacen didn’t understand. Her eyebrows lowered fiercely. She uncoiled something red from her left wrist and gave it to the warmaster.

He dangled it between two claws. “Ambassador Organa Solo, straighten your spine and compose your face. Meet destiny with