Throughout the galaxy, it was believed that Jedi Knight Anakin
Skywalker-the Chosen One-had died on Coruscant during the siege of the
Jedi Temple. And, to some extent, that was true. Anakin was dead.
From the site of Anakin Skywalker's last stand-on the molten surface of
the planet Mustafar, where he sought to destroy his friend and former
master, Obi-Wan Kenobi-a fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the
most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi Order, he is now a disciple
of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right
hand of the galaxy's ruthless new Emperor. Seduced, deranged, and
destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker
is dead . . . and Darth Vader lives.
Word of the events that created him-the Jedi Council's failed mutiny
against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the self-crowned Emperor's
retaliatory command to exterminate the Jedi Order, and Anakin's massacre
of his comrades and Masters in the Jedi Temple-has yet to reach all
quarters. On the Outer Rim world of Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne
and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on a
Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide, red with Jedi blood, has
turned suddenly against them.
When the three narrowly elude execution-and become the desperate prey in
a hunt across space-it's neither clone soldiers, nor the newly deployed
stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the power-hungry Emperor himself
they must fear most. The deadliest threat rests in the hideously swift
and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vader-behind whose brooding mask
lies a shattered heart, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted mind
hell-bent on vengeance.
For the handful of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light
side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy somehow, someday
reclaimed. Yet more important still is the well-being of the twin
infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the children of Anakin and his doomed
bride, Padmé Amidala. Separated after Padmé's death, they must be made
safe at all costs, lest the hope they represent for the future be turned
to horror by the new Sith regime-and the unspeakable power of the dark
side.
