Children of the Jedi: Star Wars Legends [Paperback]

InChildren of the Jedi,  Barbara Hambly introduces a new character: Callista, a  brave Jedi warrior of long ago who gave her life  to foil one of the Empire's darkest plans, a plot  to destroy a stronghold that was sanctuary for the  wives and children of the Jedi knights. Suddenly,  the dreadnought is rearming itself, intent on  destruction. Only Luke Skywalker can feel its evil  presence as well as the mysterious influence of  that powerful woman who should have died decades ago.Barbara Hambly is the author of Patriot Hearts and The Emancipator’s Wife, a finalist for the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. She is also the author of Fever Season, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and the acclaimed historical Benjamin January series, including the novels A Free Man of Color and Sold Down the River. She lives in California.Chapter 1
 
Poisoned rain speared from an acid sky. The hunter scuttled, stumbled a dozen yards before throwing himself under shelter again. A building, he thought—hoped—though for a second’s blinding terror the curved shape lifted, writhing, into a toothed maw of terror from which darkness flowed out like the vomited stench of rotting bones. Serpents—tentacles—twisting arms reached down for him with what he would have sworn were tiny cobalt-blue hands … but the burning rain was searing holes in his flesh, so he closed his eyes and flung himself among them. Then for a clear moment his mind registered that they were blue-flowered vines.
 
Though the stink of his own flesh charring still choked his nostrils and the fire scorched his hands, when he looked down at them his hands were whole, untouched. Realities shuffled in his mind lilĂ#