Mara Jade electrobinoculars

She switched on her special electrobinoculars and focused again on the palace. The wall that encircled most of the Empire's palaces had here been truncated into an arc, running from one edge of the mound cutout to the other. The mound itself took the place of the rest of the wall. The grounds enclosed by the mound and wall were more oval than circular, with the main open areas to the right and left of the palace. Mara couldn't see much of either area from her current vantage point, but from the Emperor's data she knew there were formal gardens on one side and an outdoor theater and small fragrance jungle on the other.

The mound itself rose a good fifty meters above the palace, and in fact the tip of the crest overhung the rear third of the building. Normally, that would suggest the possibility of a rappelling incursion. In this case, though, it was such an obvious approach that Ferrouz or his predecessors had taken special care to close it off. At least half of the unobtrusive wall-mounted lasers were aimed up and inward, their swivels blocked to keep them from firing down into the compound itself but more than capable of picking off someone dropping spider-like from a rappelling line.