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Something nagged Luke about the timing, though. Before he had built his retreat in the Manari Mountains, but after Callista, he had taught a wide range of promising students, including Brakiss. Brakiss had left during that time. Luke had thought that perhaps Brakiss was tied to Almania, but he could find nothing to link them. There was nothing in Brakiss’s mother’s stories to link them, either. And the Empire had not had a presence on Almania, so Brakiss could not have gone there during his Imperial service.

Or could he?

Brakiss was, after all, a spy.

Did Brakiss have something to do with the change in the Je’har? Brakiss had warned that Luke was walking into a trap, and Brakiss was part of that trap. But was the warning part of it? Luke had not felt that level of deception in Brakiss.

Only fear.

Leave the fighting to those who are ruthless.

They’ll win anyway.

They hadn’t in the past. In the past, Luke had been able to defeat them. From Vader to Palpatine, from Thrawn to Daala, from Waru to Nil Spaar, Luke and his friends had dealt with the ruthless and defeated them. Yoda had taught him that there was great strength in the Force, strength that came from compassion, not from hatred. In that hatred alone, the ruthless weakened themselves.

“They won’t win,” Luke whispered to Brakiss, wishing he had thought to say this in the droid factory. “I can guarantee it.”

Although Luke didn’t know quite yet what he was facing. He only had the remembered pain of the blast, the fear that had risen in Coruscant, and throughout the New Republic.

As he got closer to Almania, he felt a distinct chill. He checked the temperature in the X-wing. It was normal. The chill emanated from his stomach, and wound itself around his heart. It was nothing like the chill that had blasted him when all those people died.

And yet it was.

The chill settled into his back and shoulders. He was nearing Pydyr. He opened a channel, expecting to be challenged for being so close to such a private planet.

But his comm picked up nothing.

No scrambled signals.

No local broadcasts.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

And he should have gotten something.

He scanned the planet below. The buildings remained, and he got several life-form readings. But only about ten.

Ten on the entire moon.

When there should have been thousands.

Millions.

The chill gripped his heart. The cries had come from here. From Pydyr.

He would have to investigate. Almania could wait a day.

Then he felt the tendrils of a presence. It felt familiar, but too far away to be clear. And it felt almost as if it were being filtered through a dense atmosphere. He had felt it before.

On Telti.

Just before he saw Brakiss.

But this wasn’t Brakiss. That much he knew. This was someone else. Someone equally familiar.

And more powerful. Much more powerful to be felt from so far away.

The feeling had a malevolence in it, though, that was unfamiliar. Except around Emperor Palpatine. Luke had felt it then.

But this wasn’t Palpatine. This was someone else. Someone Luke had known …

He punched the coordinates for Pydyr into the navicomputer, and the X-wing swung around, veering off its normal course and heading toward Pydyr. The answers would be there.

The feeling grew stronger, both familiar and unfamiliar. The dark side was strong near Almania. Almost as if the entire planet were awash in it. Luke’s mouth was dry. Perhaps he should go back to Coruscant and get help. Leia, Han, anyone. Going into this alone would be very destructive and difficult.

But he could handle Pydyr. With only ten life-forms on the planet, he wasn’t about to run into all of them at once. He would see what happened on Pydyr, and make his decision from there.

The X-wing broke into the atmosphere. This side of Pydyr was awash in light. Buildings stood below him, with expansive avenues between them. Avenues wide enough to land an X-wing in.

Empty avenues.

An odd shuddery feeling ran up his back. He took control away from the navicomputer and