Raynar smiled. He loved waterfalls. They reminded him of fountains like the ones used in the Alderaanian ceremony of waters. He and his mother and Uncle Tyko shared a love for that ceremony….
Raynar sat up straight. Uncle Tyko. There was something he could do for his uncle. With Tyko kidnapped, all the systems on Mechis III would be running unsupervised. He could go to the droid world and see that the manufacturing facilities there did not fall into disrepair while his uncle was absent.
Raynar’s excitement grew as the idea caught hold in his mind. When Lusa cantered up onto the soft riverbank, he jumped down from the boulder to share his news. Before he could approach, she stretched luxuriously and then shook herself dry, sending glistening droplets of water in every direction.
Raynar didn’t mind getting wet. He waited to make sure Lusa saw him and would not get spooked. She met his eyes tentatively, smiling. This time she did not recoil as he came closer.
Eyes bright, Raynar told Lusa of his new plan to go to Mechis III. “It’s the least I can do for my family.”
She looked surprised, supportive, and—Raynar hoped he sensed it correctly—slightly disappointed. “Will you be going alone?” she asked. “Do you have your own ship?”
The question brought Raynar up short. He had not thought of how he would actually get to the droid world. “Well, if I have to find my way there alone, I will,” he said firmly. He was surprised as he spoke the next words and realized they were true: “But I have some friends—I think they’ll volunteer to go with me.” And he was right.
12
After his discussion with Boba Fett, Zekk plunged into the search for Bornan Thul’s brother. According to Jaina’s recent hololetter, Tyko had been kidnapped by the assassin droid IG-88 during a battle in the lost city on Kuar.
Jaina sent Zekk news-filled messages to reassure him of her friendship. Someday he intended to respond, when he felt confident enough in his new life that he could rise above the dark things he had done to her and her friends when he was part of the Shadow Academy.
Zekk missed Jaina more than he could admit— even to himself—but he couldn’t face her until he redefined who he was. First, he had to make his name as a bounty hunter. At the moment, an important part of his quest was to find Tyko Thul.
By tapping into galactic information databases, Zekk compiled a dossier of background information on Raynar’s uncle. After the destruction of Alderaan, Bornan and Aryn Dro Thul had transformed their remaining family wealth into a profitable merchant fleet. Tyko, on the other hand, had invested his fortune in rebuilding the droid manufacturing facilities on Mechis III.
Next Zekk reviewed Jaina’s hololetters and quickly summed up the details. When his brother became a fugitive, Tyko had retreated briefly to the safety of the Bornaryn fleet, and then joined Jaina, Jacen, and their friends to search for clues on Kuar. In the ruins, the group ran afoul of IG-88 and his squad of assassin droids, and the other Thul had been abducted during the battle.
Zekk found it astonishing that IG-88 had so far made no ransom demands. The assassin droid seemed to be waiting for Bornan Thul to reappear from hiding and ask for his brother’s release. But Zekk alone knew that the wanted man had other plans. Zekk would have to find Tyko himself.
He searched through the Lightning Rod’s navigational files until he found a minor notation on the ancient world of Kuar—enough to help him plan his route. Kuar was a faint clue at best, but at the moment he had no better leads. The ship launched into hyperspace.
All civilization on the planet had turned to dust, leaving only skeletal cities poking out of craters and cliff sides. Archaeological evidence from long-ago expeditions suggested that this place had once served as a gladiatorial training ground for the fearsome Mandalorian warriors. Now, only ruined cities remained, like scars gradually fading with time.
It didn’t take his sensors long to locate residual traces of the young Jedi Knights’ encampment and the site of their fateful battle. At least now he had a place to start.
He set the Lightning Rod down on the crater rim where Jacen and Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie had begun exploring the ruins. Standing beside his ship, which ticked and hissed and clanked as it settled on its landing pads, he stared into the immense bowl-shaped crater. These ruins were older than even the Mandalorian conquests. Towering skyscrapers had fallen apart, leaving only girder superstructures that protruded from the floor of the crater and rose nearly to its rim.
The crater’s sheer walls were riddled with tunnels and catacombs, like worm-infested wood. He let his imagination wander. On the balcony seats below, spectators had once watched life-and-death struggles inside the arena.
Zekk surveyed the crater, pondering his next step. In order to search for any clues, he would need to find the exact site of the battle with the combat arachnids and the assassin droids.
He armed himself with two blasters, knowing that the catacombs might still be swarming with the ferocious spider-monsters. Zekk wanted to make his inspection and get out before he attracted the attention of the arachnids.
Keeping his weapons handy and his Jedi senses alert, Zekk followed ramps, crumbling stairs, and interlocked balconies down the crater wall. When he discovered scuffed footprints in the dust where his friends had walked, he did his best to retrace their steps. Perhaps in the aftermath of battle, some clue had been left unnoticed by one of IG-88’s droid henchmen.
It was a slim chance, though, and he didn’t hold out much hope.
Zekk followed the trail until he came upon recent blaster scars. Zekk reconstructed the details of the battle from what he saw. IG-88 and his cohorts had pulverized part of the crater wall to get into the catacombs. Under attack, Jacen and Jaina had fled downward, hauling Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Tyko Thul after them. They had rushed into the dark passageways, hoping to escape. But the assassin droids had found them anyway—and so had the combat arachnids.
Zekk sniffed the metallic tang in the air, the mustiness, the sharp odor of dust and long-dried blood. Yes, this was the place.
He listened intently for the tapping of jagged feet on stone, large bodies stirring, mandibles clacking … but the tunnels were filled with only the sifting of dust, the whispers of shadows.
He switched on a glowrod, keeping the light down low. Then he advanced deeper inside.
Within the chamber he saw numerous dark tunnels in the cliffside, probably the dank lairs of surviving combat arachnids. Zekk tried to keep his light from dancing inside the protective darkness of those passages. He was not afraid to fight, but he didn’t want to.
He thought he heard a sound. Pausing in midstep, he waited to hear it repeated. A trickle of sweat crept down his back. Silence, punctuated by his own pounding heartbeat and the roar of his own breathing. He continued his inspection, trying to maintain his concentration. He didn’t want to miss a thing.
On the ceiling and walls of the grotto Zekk saw pitted impact points where energy bolts had struck. The floor itself was stained, discolored, tacky with dried ichor from the slaughtered creatures.
Like discarded garbage, the torn and blasted remains of slain assassin droids were scattered everywhere. Durasteel arms, torsos, central processors, built-in weapons systems, and metallic skull-heads lay where they had fallen. Either the combat arachnids had no interest in the spare parts, or they had intentionally left the fallen enemies to show their scorn.
“Must have been a titanic battle,” Zekk muttered.
He picked up the twisted remnant of a tubular durasteel torso from one of the powerful assassin droids. Such merciless killing machines were illegal and kept under tight security even during Imperial days. He found it incredible to discover so many here, in one place.