CHAPTER 10
Zak had no idea why he had passed out, or how much time had gone by since he did. All he knew when he awoke was that his arms and legs felt heavy, like he was waking from a deep sleep. The back of his head was sore-he felt like he’d been using a rock for a pillow. His eyes were closed, and it was very dark. He opened his eyes.
The darkness didn’t go away.
Zak blinked to make sure his eyes were really open. The darkness around him was complete. It was darker than a deep hole, darker than deep space itself.
“Where am I?” he said aloud.
A thousand whispering voices answered him at the same time. You are in the heart of our misery! You are at the center of our hatred!
Zak felt the wraiths moving all around him. When they brushed over his skin, it felt like a sudden gust of warm, musty air. Zak knew that the wraiths could tear him to shreds at any moment. He shuddered.
His hand touched something soft beside him. It was cloth. Groping about, he felt Tash’s hand. He found her shoulder and shook it gently. “Tash. Tash!”
Although she was less than an arm’s length away, he could not see her, but he heard her stir. “Zak?” she muttered drowsily. “Zak, where are we?” Then, her voice trembling, she said, “Oh, no. The wraiths.”
Zak nodded. “They’ve got us.”
Zak and Tash stood up together, holding hands. They felt stone beneath their feet, and knew that they were standing somewhere on Kiva. But everywhere they looked, they could see nothing but darkness.
“What do we do now?” Zak wondered.
“I don’t know,” Tash replied from the darkness. “We’ve lost Uncle Hoole. We’ve lost Deevee. Meex is gone. Eppon ran away. We’re-We’re alone again.”
Zak squeezed her hand. “Not while we’ve got each other.” His voice hardened. “Maybe we can fight our way out of here.”
“No, we shouldn’t fight them, Zak,” Tash said firmly. “Whatever these creatures are, they’re angry, they’re full of pain. Something terrible happened to them, and for some reason they blame us. We’ve got to make them understand that we don’t mean any harm.”
Zak felt a wraith pass close by, its shadowy form brushing the back of his neck with a hiss. He shivered. “I’ll try anything.”
Tash called out, “We haven’t done anything to you. We’re not your enemy!”
Murderers! Children of the murderer! a thousand voices replied. Listen to us! Once, a beautiful civilization thrived on Kiva. Now nothing is left but our tortured spirits.
“Maybe we can help,” Tash offered.
Her words caused a violent hiss to crisscross the darkness. When it stopped, the voices mocked, Help? Help? Years ago, strangers came to Kiva offering help. They promised to make us great and powerful. Instead, they destroyed us! All our people were wiped out! They disintegrated our bodies, leaving only our shadows.
“We’re sorry!” Zak yelled. “We know how terrible that must have been.”
You cannot know! the shadows wailed. Have you ever lost your whole world?
“Yes, we have!” Tash cried out. “The Empire destroyed our homeworld, Alderaan. We lost everything!”
Her words caused a strange reaction. The darkness seemed to swirl about itself, suddenly confused. The wraiths whispered among themselves. Finally, one voice spoke above the others.
But you came here with the murderer! You are the children of Mammon!
“No, we’re not!” Zak said. “We didn’t come here with any murderer. Who are you talking about?”
“They are talking,” replied another voice out of the darkness, “about me. “
The darkness parted like a curtain, and into the center of the black circle stepped a solitary figure with slumped shoulders and a tortured look on his face.
It was Uncle Hoole.
CHAPTER 11
The wraiths closed around Hoole, leaving him and the Arrandas in the dark.
Murderer! Killer! Revenge! Revenge! the voices chanted.
“Uncle Hoole?” Tash asked, reaching out to him. She found her uncle’s hand and held it. “What do they mean? What’s going on here?”
“It’s time you knew the truth about me.” Hoole’s voice drifted from the darkness. The strong, commanding tone Zak and Tash were used to was gone. In its place was a quiet whisper, telling them a sad story.
“Zak, you once pointed out that I had never told you and Tash my name. I was Hoole, and that was all you needed to know. The truth is that I abandoned my first name years ago. I tried to leave it buried in the past.”
There was a pause. “My first name is Mammon.”
The shadows hissed.