Hero's Trial: Agents of Chaos I Read Online Free PDF Page B

four-fingered hands. Willowy ears and twin antennae corkscrewed from an elongated, modestly disproportionate head, whose rear attenuated to a finely feathered ridge. The slightly concave face was slant-eyed, wide-mouthed, and delicately whiskered. A pair of reverse-articulated legs and splayed feet propelled the creature in agile leaps.
    Harrar took note of Elan’s hesitation. “Your familiar is also welcome to join us.”
    Elan glanced at the stranger standing nearby, then reached for her companion’s right hand. “Come, Vergere.” She climbed the stairs and sat, making room for Vergere, who settled in like a nesting avian. Then she looked at the priest. “Why have I been summoned, Eminence?”
    Harrar feigned disappointment and motioned to the nearest attendant. “Let us observe the sacrifice.”
    The attendant bowed and voiced a command to a pair of artfully concealed receiving villips, which instantly fashioned an optical field. A sweeping view of local spaceresolved in midair, filling the entire forward portion of the compartment and eclipsing bulkheads and furnishings alike. It was as if that portion of the faceted ship had been rendered clear as transparisteel and the cosmos ushered aboard.
    Obroa-skai’s primary was a roiling cauldron at the center of the villip-choir field. Hurtling toward the star was a battered Gallofree transport that had been captured during the battle, its ablative shields just beginning to blush with heat. Inside the pod-shaped vessel, some two thousand captives and droids, cleansed by sound, purified by incense, and stacked like split firewood, lived out the remainder of their lives.
    Harrar, his guests, and attendants fell silent and remained so as the rosiness the star had imparted to the nose of the transport began to spread aft, reddening alloy and liquefying superstructures. Parabolic dishes, sensor arrays, and shield generators melted like wax. The outer husk wrinkled and began to peel back from the frame. The hull blistered, buckled, and finally caved. The ship became a torch, a hyphen of flame, then vanished.
    Harrar raised his hands to shoulder height and held them palms outward. “In praise of the Creator, Yun-Yuuzhan, and in humble gratitude for his actions in our behalf, accept these lives unworthy of life. May we find continued support for the challenge you have set before us, of bringing your light to this dark realm and of ridding it of ignorance and evil. We open ourselves to you …”
    “May you find sustenance in our offerings,” the others in the hold murmured.
    “We lift up our hearts …”
    “That you might prosper.”
    “We give ourselves freely …”
    “Through you will we conquer.”
    Caught in the embrace of nuclear fire, the signal villip that had been tailing the transport was incinerated. As the visual field destabilized and faded, Harrar’s attendants gradually resumed their duties.
    “I will arrange for the images to be analyzed for portents,” the tactician promised.
    Harrar nodded. “See that the results are sent to Commander Tla. He may not place much stock in such things, but where omens are ignored and failure ensues, we have the makings of a convert.”
    The tactician bowed. “So be it.”
    Abruptly Harrar’s cushion rose from the command platform and carried him out over the steps. “We will now speak to the matter at hand,” he announced.
    Elan made her eyes alert with interest and squeezed Vergere’s hand.
    “Thus far our campaign has been blessed with easy victories,” the priest began. “Worlds crumble and populations fall at our feet. But while I’ve no doubt that we will someday rule these species, I fear we’ll encounter great difficulties in altering the way they think. Something other than superior weaponry will be required to accomplish that.”
    He gazed at Elan. “Our chief impediment is a group that calls itself the Jedi. Think of them as a kind of moral police force—small in number but very