Unlike other young Jedi sidelined to the Agricultural Corps?those whose abilities have not proved up to snuff?Hestizo Trace possesses one extraordinary Force talent: a gift with plants. But suddenly her quiet existence among greenhouse and garden specimens is violently destroyed by the arrival of an emissary from Darth Scabrous, a Sith Lord with a fanatical dream poised to become nightmarish reality. For the rare black orchid that Hestizo has nurtured and bonded with is the final ingredient in an ancient Sith formula?crucial to the Dark Lord"s obsession, but with consequences far worse than fatal. Now, spawned by a heretofore unknown virus, the rotting, ravenous dead are rising, driven by a bloodthirsty hunger for all things living?and commanded by a Sith Master who lusts for power and the ultimate prize: immortality . . . no matter the cost.