Though immersed in frigid shadows, his body burned with fever. He didn’t know where he was. Drenched with perspiration, Zekk longed for a cool breeze, or at least the comfort of darkness.
But the darkness held no real comfort, no peace. He knew that now. He had been so easily fooled.
A red beam, bright as a laser, stabbed his eyes, illuminating a dream jungle around him. No path led through the tangle of undergrowth. No way out…. 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 along? 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 in 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 life, 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. Tamith Kai’s image blurred like a faulty hologram and dissolved.
A searing 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 tumbling 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 feel the dampness of cool moisture against his skin, and a shaft of bright sunlight lay across his face. He opened his eyes—and found himself in a strange room with thick, ancient-looking stone walls. The sunlight poured through a deep window slit in one wall. But where was the trickling sound coming from?
“Water,” he said in a hoarse croak.
Hey, you re awake, a familiar-sounding voice exclaimed. The grinning face of Jacen Solo appeared beside Zekk. “Did you ask for water? I’ve got some right here.” He pressed a cup to Zekk’s lips, and Zekk swallowed gratefully.
“Jaina put in the wall-fountain while you were unconscious,” Jacen explained. “This room didn’t have running water, and she thought you might need it.”
“Unconscious?” Zekk tried to push himself up to a sitting position. “How long?”
“Whoa there,” Jacen said, propping a cushion behind Zekk and pushing the young man back onto it. “Better not rush things, or you might have another relapse.”
Zekk found his head swimming and subsided onto the cushion. “Another relapse? Jacen, where have I been?”
“You gave us all a pretty big scare, you know,” Jacen said. “We thought you were just fine after a day or two in the bacta tank on GemDiver Station, but when we got back here to Yavin 4, you collapsed. You’ve been in a coma for days now. Uncle Luke says there are some injuries a bacta tank just can’t heal.” Jacen’s brows drew together over his brandy-brown eyes, and he ran a hand through his tousled curls. “Blaster bolts, for a while there we weren’t sure you were going to make it.”
The words brought an image flashing through Zekk’s mind from the Shadow Academy’s final battle with the Jedi academy: the Lightning Rod trailing smoke and flames. “Peckhum?” he asked.
“Right over there.” Jacen pointed to a corner of the room, where the old spacer sat dozing in a chair, grizzled chin propped on one fist. “Hasn’t left your side since the day you collapsed. Want me to wake him up?”
Zekk shook his head, a motion that made his temples throb. It was enough to know that his old friend was still alive and well. “Let him sleep,” he rasped, then took another drink of cool, delicious water.
“I think you’re really going to like it here at the Jedi academy, Zekk,” Jacen said. “Uncle Luke says you can stay and train with us, if you want to. We’ve all taken turns tending you: Jaina, Lowie—even Tenel Ka. Of course, she’s not quite sure she trusts you yet, but I think she’ll come around. I’ve been bringing my stump lizard along with me when I watch you. He and his mate found their way back to me after the explosion—I think they hid down in the hangar bay—so they must have good luck. Hey, I can’t wait to tell everybody that you’re awake and feeling better. D’you think you could eat if I brought you some food?”
Zekk nodded uncertainly.
“Great, I’ll go get you something,” Jacen said. “And that reminds me of a joke. I’ll tell it to you when I get back. Can you watch my stump lizard for me for a few minutes while I’m gone? Everything’s going to be just fine now, Zekk. You’ll see.” With that Jacen dashed out the door, leaving Zekk to stare after him wondering.
But he wasn’t at all convinced that everything would be “just fine.” Ever again.