side.'
'If you follow me,' Zannah promised, 'you will become more powerful than you ever imagined.'
Zannah could sense Set Harth's reluctance to become her apprentice. He lacked the burning hatred of the Jedi and what they represented; he had little interest in embracing the greater destiny of the Sith. But it was also obvious that he was tempted by her promises of individual power.
Set cared only for himself. He would accept her offer only because he saw it as a means to an end, a way to make himself stronger. Zannah knew this, and she was prepared to accept it. She would have preferred to find an apprentice eager to learn the Sith philosophies Bane had imbued in her, but in the lack of a better option she was willing to work with what she had.
She understood the risks, but nothing of importance had ever been accomplished without risk. Over the first few years of his training, she would keep a close eye on Set. She would be wary of treachery and deceit as little by little she exposed him to the greater truths Bane had taught her. She would use his lust for personal power as the bait to draw him deeper and deeper into the ways of the Sith.
In time Set would come to accept the teachings and philosophies as she had done. As his understanding of the dark side evolved, he would gain the vision to see beyond his own petty wants and desires. He would recognize their need to destroy the Jedi and he would embrace the ultimate destiny of the Sith.
And if he did not, then she would destroy him and find another to serve her.
All this was running through her mind as she watched the silver-haired Jedi rubbing his chin, contemplating the prospect of becoming her apprentice.
'I accept,' he said at last. 'And I am honored you have chosen me.'
'No, you're not,' she said. 'But someday you will be.'
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
We should have force pikes for this job,' Captain Jedder grumbled. 'They've got twice the juice of these kriffing stun rifles.'
'Force pikes can kill if you're not careful,' the Huntress reminded him, though she was only half paying attention to the conversation. 'The princess wants him taken alive. Besides, you'd never get close enough to use them.'
They were inside the mansion of Sepp Omek, though the Huntress doubted that was the man's real name. Not that it mattered. She hadn't needed a name to track him here to the estate on Ciutric IV. The Sith Lord had covered his tracks well, hiding his true identity behind layers of middle-beings and go-betweens and making it virtually impossible for anyone to connect him to the events on Ambria through normal methods. But all his careful preparations couldn't guard against the Iktotchi's unique powers. Guided by the images in her dreams and her infallible instincts the Huntress had found her quarry, as she always did.
'How long till he gets here?' Captain Jedder wanted to know.
'Soon,' she replied. 'Tell your team to get into position.'
Her visions had shown her the house would be empty when they arrived, just as they had shown her that the owner would be returning this very same night.
'Can you be more specific?' Jedder asked. 'Twenty minutes? An hour? Two?'
'It doesn't work that way,' she muttered absently, her eyes picking out locations for them to set their trap.
She had already scouted out the estate in detail, committing every room to memory as she had gone through and disabled every alarm and anti-intruder system on the grounds. She had even managed to slice her way past the security panel on the small building at the rear of the grounds. At first she had thought it might be some kind of arsenal or weapons bunker, but once she managed to open the door she realized it was a library. Instead of datapads or holodisks, however, the shelves had groaned under the weight of ancient leather-bound books and scrolls of yellowed parchment.
There was something else inside the building that had given her pause, however. Resting on a pedestal near the back of the library was a small, four-sided crystal pyramid. The Huntress had no need to steal from her victims; she had ignored the priceless works of art and other valuables scattered around the mansion. But there was something oddly compelling about this piece. Unsure what it could be, she had somehow felt drawn to it, and she'd slipped it into one of the pockets beneath her robe before continuing her investigation of the grounds.
Once she was done she had signaled for Jedder and the others that it was safe to come in and begin their preparations.
'Something wrong?' the captain asked.
'No,' she replied, annoyed at herself for getting distracted. 'Just looking for places to set your team up.'
This job was unlike any the Huntress had ever taken before. It wasn't simply the mercenaries she was working with, or the fact she was supposed to take her victim alive. Ever since she had visited the small camp on Ambria, the tall, bald man and the blond woman had haunted her dreams. Some of what she had seen had helped lead her here to Ciutric, but there were other images, too: bewildering, troubling visions that she was unable to decipher.
She had been witness to dozens of battles between the pair. She had watched the man kill the woman, yet she had also seen the woman kill the man. She understood these were visions of the future, each a possible reality that might or might not come to pass. Usually when she caught glimpses of the future, however, there was purpose or meaning behind them. The visions would help direct and guide her actions. Yet this seemingly random collage of images did nothing but confuse her, and so she had done her best to ignore them and focus on the job she had been hired for.
The princess had offered her twenty well-trained mercenaries for the job, and she had been as good as her word: twelve men and eight women, all with prior military experience, had accompanied the Huntress to the world.
She had also sent along Captain Jedder, a senior member of the Doan Royal Guard. The Doan noble houses had a long history of supplementing their numbers with hired soldiers for particularly dangerous missions, and Jedder had handpicked this particular team from crews he had worked with in the past.
Technically, the mercs answered to Jedder, though he, in turn, answered to the Huntress. That was fine by her. Mercenaries had been known to cut and run if things went bad on a job, but if they had worked with the captain in the past they were more likely to stick with the battle plan right to the end.
The front entrance to the mansion was open and spacious. The door opened onto a large foyer, which flowed into an oversized sitting room furnished with two couches and a large glass table. A spiral staircase led off to one side, curling up to a balcony that overlooked the sitting room.
'We should try to take him here, when he first comes in,' she said. 'He'll sense that something is wrong right away, so we need to hit him fast.'
'Set up a pair of sonic detonators on either side of the door,' Jedder said into his radio. Instantly two of the soldiers ran over to comply with his orders.
'I fought against the Sith, you know,' Jedder told her as the Huntress turned slowly in place, scoping out the rest of the room. 'Twenty years ago. During the war. I was barely more than a kid.'
'That's probably why the princess sent you along,' the Iktotchi replied absently.
'I'm surprised she didn't send Lucia with us,' Jedder noted. 'She fought for the Sith during the war. Probably knows their tactics better than anyone.'
She cares for Lucia, the Huntress thought. She knows how dangerous this mission will be. She's not expendable like the rest of us.
Out loud she told him, 'Position two of your team with the stun rifles up on that balcony at the top of the stairs. That should give them a clear shot down here into the foyer.'
'I wish we had carbonite guns,' Jedder lamented. 'Freeze him solid.'
