PROLOGUE

They were inside.

They were waiting for her.

Revan slid along the walls of the cave, the sides of the rock artificially smooth. Someone had been here before her, someone with the tools or power to cut through the stone as though it were water and leave these smooth tunnels behind. She gripped her lightsaber tightly in her left hand, its faint yellow glow not strong enough to shadow the walls. She lightened her step with the Force and made no noise as she approached the cavern. She knew that the answers she sought awaited her there, that they would have the final piece of the puzzle.

She could hear the discordant wails of them inside. She stepped forward, ready to reveal herself—and the sound ceased. She paused midstep. Why had they stopped?

Another screech, just a short burst, then another pause. She didn't know the language, couldn't puzzle through the words like most others in the Galaxy. She could manage Shyriiwook, but not this. It was entirely alien. Another screech.

She realized suddenly that they knew she was here, that they were waiting for her. Revan tried to push down the sudden fear that gripped her throat. I am the destroyer of worlds, the slayer of Mandalore. I wield the Force like no other. She wanted to believe that she was not afraid of what was inside the cave. She couldn't be afraid—they were the key to the next step. She could not unite the Galaxy against the true threat if she didn't know what that threat was.

Revan took a breath and stepped into the cavern. Crystals hung from the ceiling and chimed softly. The room was dominated by a circular pool in the center of the cavern. At first she thought it was reflecting light, but she realized that it couldn't be—there was no light in the cave to reflect. It was putting out its own light somehow, throwing a bluish glow around the cave. The edges of the room were still dark, and Revan knew that was where the creatures were. They were hiding from her, but she could hear their noises as they spoke to each other.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice bouncing discordantly off the crystals above her. Her reflected voice sounded familiar. I sound like them, she realized.

A wail went up from around the room, the echo growing as each creature picked up the call. She put her hands to her ears, saber angled uselessly away from her body. What were they doing? The sound grew louder, and Revan started to understand it. Not the meaning so much as the intonation. They were afraid, the ones in this room. They were cut off from the main group, and they knew she would kill them.

"If you give me the information I want, I won't kill you," she called, but she could hear the suppressed terror in her voice. She couldn't take them all. She didn't know enough about them.

The hiss grew louder, panicked, and Revan realized that there was something odd about it. It sounded like many voices, but—

She stepped forward, shielding her eyes from the glare of the pool. Inside the glow, she could see the crystals placed around the outside of the cavern. The sound reflected off the crystals, making it seem like—

"There's only one of you here, isn't there?"

The hiss stopped.

Revan smiled coldly. There was nothing to fear here. She raised her blade and advanced on the shadow before her. "It looks like you can help me after all," she said. She reached out—

Case jerked awake with a gasp. She looked at her hand in the dark, surprised not to see her saber in it. She panted to catch her breath. Another dream. She'd been having them since the Star Forge, but they had increased in frequency in the last week. She had more than one a night now.

"Case, what is it?" a sleepy voice asked beside her. Case rolled over and saw Carth blinking concernedly at her. He reached out a hand for her hair, and she pulled away. He frowned. "Hey, are you okay?"

She shook her head to clear it. She was fine, she reminded herself. She was safe on Coruscant, with Carth, and nothing was near to hurt her. She could still hear the hissing of her terrified victim. Case forced a smile.

"Just a dream. Nothing to worry about."

Carth levered himself up on an elbow and pushed his sleep-rumpled hair off his forehead. "It sounded like more than just a dream, gorgeous. You've been having a lot of dreams lately. Are you and Bastila—"

Case shook her head. "No, they're not like that. And my bond with Bastila has been broken ever since she. . .was with Malak. It's just a dream. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure? Maybe we should—"

Case cut him off with a kiss. "Maybe we should stop talking about this," she whispered. She kissed him again.

He grinned. "Well, since we're awake—" He pulled her down to him.

Afterward, with Carth sleeping again beside her, Case tried to find peace in the darkness, but it was not there to find. All of the other dreams had been vague, just shadows of Darkness, of searching for something in the past. But this dream was different, sharper, almost like a memory. She remembered with a start that she had called herself Revan in the dream. She had found something in that cave, something she used against the Republic in the Jedi Civil War. Case closed her eyes, heard the cry of the creature again, and knew with terrible dread what it was. She realized now that she had always known.

The creature was a Sith. A true Sith.

And it was still out there. Waiting for her.