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.. With detached curiosity, Zekk noticed that the bright red glow sprang from a hilt clutched in his own hand. Had he been holding a lightsaber all alonle Perhaps he could use his scarlet blade to carve a way out of this nightmare.

Moving numbly, Zekk stepped forward, raising the weapon that burned as brightly as his fever. Cool drafts of hope sang through his veins like the hum of his pulsating lightsaber.

But before Zekk could slice through the foliage in front of him, a slender tree transformed itself into an ominous figure-a woman with violet eyes and a spine-shouldered cape. Tangled vines became flowing hair as black as the garment she wore, and Tamith Kai's wine-dark lips twisted in a sneer.

"Poor young fool," she said. The Nightsister's deep, rich voice mocked him. "Did you really think you could leave us, abandon our teachings?

It was your own choice to come to the dark side in the first place."

Zekk threw his shoulders back. He would not fear Tamith Kai. She could be defeated.

She had been defeated. The Nightsister had been killed in the attack on the Jedi academy when her battle platform had crashed m flames into the wide river near the Massassi temples.

"It was my choice, yes. But now I choose to go," Zekk said, stepping forward to make a path.

The Nightsister's laugh was harsh. "Fool!

Your choices are much more limited than you believe."

She had no hold over him, Zekk reminded himself. He had not liked or admired her in Ille, and now that the Nightsister was dead, how could she hold him back? He swung the bright blade in a wide arc toward the trees.

Tanuth Kals image blurred like a faulty hologram and dissolved.

Asearing wave of darkness washed across Zekk's vision. After it swept past, a new and more terrifying image stood before Zekk: Brakiss, the Master of the Shadow Academy.

His mentor.

Stern eyes gazed out from a serene, sculpture-perfect face in its frame of pale hair. Silvery robes rippled as Brakiss spread his arms. "How can you leave now, Zekk?

After all I've taught you? You are my darkest knight." A subtly powerful tone colored the evil Jedi Master's words, a tone of disappointment... of betrayal.

Zekk took a step backward. Feverish heat flared inside him, threatening to consume him. Rivers of perspiration ran down his forehead, his neck.

Zekk shook his head, sending a rain of hot droplets flying out from his long, dark hair. 'I'm sorry, Master Brakiss, but you were wrong. The dark side couldn't save you, or the Second Imperium-or me."

"Don't throw it all away, Zekk. Consider how much you still could learn from the dark side,' Brakiss said, his voice compelling, urgent.

The scorching heat inside Zekk became so intense that waves radiated from him, shimmering in the air and blurring Brakiss's face. "No," Zekk whispered, feeling the furnace blast of his own breath. In the distance, a trickling sound tortured him with the promise of cooling relief. if only the rain could get through the dense tangle of branches to refresh him.

"If you truly think I am wrong, Zekk, then strike me down," Brakiss said.

His voice was cool, silky. "Isn't that what the light side would want you to do... to prove your loyalty, your commitment?"

Zekk wavered. Could it be true? Was that his only way out?

No, that way led to the dark side. There must be another way.

Suddenly, locking his lightsaber in the ON position, Zekk hurled the scarlet blade upward with all the strength in his feverish body.

The blade spun as it sailed higher and higher, slicing through leaves and branches on its way. The image of Brakiss disappeared in the shower of leaves, bark, and twigs that fluttered down around Zekk.

Still the lightsaber spun higher, all the way up until it pierced the canopy of the dark jungle. The outside rain came pouring down. Zekk had just enough time to feel the patter of cool droplets on his burning skin before a tumblin branch struck his head and a corona of brightness burst behind his emerald-green eyes....

Zekk woke to the sound of trickling water. Was it still the dream rain?

He could