The father clutched the corpse to his breast, his tortured laments echoing across the empty battlefield. 'Why? Why did you have to kill them?'
Bane feasted on his anguish, gorging himself, feeling the dark side growing stronger in him. The symptoms of the poison receded enough so that he could raise his arm without the muscles trembling. The lightsaber sprang to his hand.
The father cowered before him. 'Why did you make me watch? Why did you?'
One quick swipe of the lightsaber cut him off, sending the father to the same tragic fate as his sons.
Chapter 26
Lord Hoth tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The creaking of his cot joined the whining buzz of the bloodsucking insect swarms that followed his army wherever they made camp. The noise was compounded by the whirring hum of small-winged night birds swooping in to feast on the insects that feasted on his soldiers. The result was a shrill, maddening cacophony that hovered on the edges of hearing.
But it wasn't the noises that were keeping him awake, or the unrelenting heat that left him with a constant sheen of sweat on his brow, even at night. It wasn't the military strategies and battle plans constantly running through his mind. It wasn't any one of these things, but rather the sum of all of them together, and the fact that there seemed to be no end in sight to this blasted, cursed war. Minor annoyances that had been tolerable during the first months on Ruusan had been magnified by frustration and futility into unbearable torments.
With an angry growl he cast aside the thin blanket he slept under, tossing it into the far corner of his tent. He swung his legs over the side and sat up on the edge of the cot, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head clasped between his hands.
For two standard years he had waged his campaign against the Brotherhood of Darkness here on Ruusan. In the beginning many Jedi had rallied to his side. And many Jedi had died, too many. Under Lord Hoth's command they had sacrificed themselves, offering up their own lives for the sake of a greater cause. Yet now, after six major battles, not to mention countless skirmishes, raids, minor clashes, and indecisive engagements, nothing had been decided. The blood of thousands stained his hands, yet he was no closer to his goal.
Frustration was beginning to give way to despair. Morale was the lowest it had ever been. Many of the soldiers grumbled that Farfalla was right: the general had let Ruusan become his mad obsession and was leading them to their doom.
Hoth no longer even had the strength to argue with them. Sometimes he felt as if he had forgotten the reasons he had come here in the first place. Once there may have been virtue in this war, but such nobility had long since been stripped away. Now he fought for revenge in the name of those Jedi who had fallen. He fought out of hatred of the dark side and what it stood for. He fought out of pride and a refusal to admit defeat. But most of all, he fought simply because he no longer knew anything else.
Yet if he gave up now, would it make any difference? If he ordered his troops to retreat, to evacuate the planet in Farfalla's ships, would anything change? If he stepped aside and left the burden of battling the Sith, here on Ruusan or elsewhere in the galaxy, to another, would he finally find peace? Or would he simply be betraying all those who had believed in him?
To disband the Army of Light now, while the Brotherhood of Darkness still existed, dishonored the memory of all those who had perished in the conflict. To press on meant many more would surely die, and he himself might be lost to the light forever.
He lay back down and closed his eyes again. But sleep would not come. 'When all the options are wrong,' he muttered to himself in the darkness, what does it matter which one I choose?'
'When the way before you is not clear,' an ethereal voice answered, 'let your actions be guided by the wisdom of the Force.'
Hoth snapped his head up to peer through the darkness of the tent. A figure was just barely visible in the shadows, standing on the other side.
'Pernicar!' he exclaimed, then suddenly asked, 'Is this real? Or am I actually sound asleep in my cot, and all this nothing but a dream?'
'A dream is only another kind of reality,' Pernicar said with an amused shake of his head. He crossed the tent slowly, moving closer. As he approached, Hoth realized he could actually see through him.
The apparition settled itself on the cot. The springs didn't creak; it was as if he had no weight or substance at all.
This had to be a dream, Hoth realized. But he didn't want to wake. Instead he clung desperately to the chance to see his old friend again, even if it was just an illusion conjured up by his own mind. 'I've missed you,' he said. 'Your counsel, your wisdom. I need them now more than ever.'
'You were not so eager to listen to me when I was alive,' the Pernicar of his dream replied, striking at the most secret guilt and regrets buried deep in Hoth's subconscious. 'There was much you could have learned from me.'
A funny thought struck the general. 'Was I your Padawan all this time, Master Pernicar? So young and foolish that I didn't even know you were trying to instruct me in the ways of the Force?'
Pernicar laughed lightly. 'No, General. Neither one of us is young, though we both have had more than our share of foolish moments.'
Hoth nodded somberly. For a moment he said nothing, just enjoying Pernicar's presence once again, even if he was only here in spirit. Then, knowing there must be some purpose to this elaborate charade his subconscious had created for him, he asked, 'Why have you come?'
'The Army of Light is an instrument of good and justice,' Pernicar told him. 'You fear you may have lost your way, but look to the Force and you will know what you must do to find it again.'
'You make it sound so simple,' Hoth said with a slight shake of his head. 'Have I really fallen so far that I cannot even remember the most basic teachings of our order?'
'There is no shame in falling,' Pernicar said, standing up. 'There is only shame if you refuse to rise once
