Dark Tide 1: Onslaught Read online

  “At the world they call Dantooine they did not recover their dead. These people have no sense of what is proper or honorable. That they removed this jeedai tells me something valuable.”

  Krag Val, his head still held low, glanced at Shedao Shai. “What does it tell you, Master?”

  “It tells me this jeedai is yet alive.” Shedao Shai plucked the plump ngdin from the floor and held it up. On its belly countless cilia glistened within bloodstained mucus. Shedao Shai leaned forward and bit deeply into the ngdin, tasting the blood, feeling the stings. He tore flesh from the creature and swallowed, paying no mind to the cool sensation of fluid running down over his chin.

  “This jeedai lives, and I will again taste his blood as he dies.”

  Also by Michael A. Stackpole

  WARRIOR: EN GARDE

  WARRIOR: RIPOSTE

  WARRIOR: COUPE

  LETHAL HERITAGE

  BLOOD LEGACY

  LOST DESTINY

  NATURAL SELECTION

  ASSUMPTION OF RISK

  BRED FOR WAR

  MALICIOUS INTENT

  GRAVE COVENANT

  PRINCE OF HAVOC

  DEMENTIA

  A GATHERING EVIL

  EVIL ASCENDING

  EVIL TRIUMPHANT

  ONCE A HERO

  TALION: REVENANT

  EYES OF SILVER

  A HERO BORN

  AN ENEMY REBORN

  WOLF AND RAVEN

  STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON

  STAR WARS: WEDGE’S GAMBLE

  STAR WARS: THE KRYTOS TRAP

  STAR WARS: THE BACTA WAR

  STAR WARS: ISARD’S REVENGE

  STAR WARS: I, JEDI

  Don’t miss the beginning of The New Jedi Order series, which begins with VECTOR PRIME,by R. A. Salvatore!

  They had been living on the very edge of disaster for so very long, fighting battles, literally, for decades, running from bounty hunters and assassins. Even the first time Han and Leia had met, on the Death Star, of all places, and in the gallows of the place, to boot! So many times, it seemed, one or more of them should have died.

  And yet, in a strange way, that close flirting with death had only made Han think them all the more invulnerable. They could dodge any blaster, or piggyback on the side of an asteroid, or climb out a garbage chute, or . . .

  But not anymore. Not now. The bubble of security was gone.

  To Han Solo, the galaxy suddenly seemed a more dangerous place by far . . .

  —from Vector Prime

  Now join veteran Star Wars author Michael A. Stackpole as he continues the adventure in the galaxy that Han Solo calls: a more dangerous place by far . . .

  A Del Rey® Book

  Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

  Copyright © 2000 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™.

  All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 99-091785

  eISBN: 978-0-345-46741-6

  v3.0