Into the Void: Star Wars (Dawn of the Jedi) Read Free

can,” Lanoree said. “ ‘I am the mystery of darkness,
     in balance with chaos and harmony.’ ” She smiled as she quoted from the Je’daii oath,
     and some of the Masters smiled back. Some of them. The three she did not know remained
     expressionless, and she probed gently, knowing that she risked punishment yet unable
     to break her old habit. She always liked knowing who she wastalking to. And as they had not introduced themselves, she thought it only fair.
    They closed themselves to her, and one, a Wookiee, growled deep in his throat.
    “You have served the Je’daii and Tython well during your years as Ranger,” Lha-Mi
     said. “And sitting before us now, you must surely believe that we mean you no ill.
     I understand that this meeting might seem strange and that being faced with us might
     seem … daunting. Intimidating, perhaps? But there is no need to invade another’s privacy,
     Lanoree, especially a Master’s. No need at all.”
    “Apologies, Master Lha-Mi,” Lanoree said, wincing inwardly.
You might have been out in the wilds
, she berated herself,
but be mindful of the Je’daii formality
.
    The Wookiee laughed.
    “I am Xiang,” one of the strangers, a female of the Sith species, said. “Your father
     taught me, and now I teach under him at Bodhi Temple. A wise man. And good at magic
     tricks.”
    For an instant Lanoree felt a flood of emotion that surprised her. She remembered
     her father’s tricks from when she and Dal were children—how he would pull objects
     out of thin air, turn one thing into another. Back then, she’d believed he was using
     mastery of the Force, but he had told her that there were some things not even the
     Force could do.
Tricks
, he’d said.
I’m merely fooling your senses, not touching them with my own
.
    “And how is he?” Lanoree asked.
    “He’s fine,” Xiang said, her red skin creasing with a smile. “He and your mother send
     their best wishes. They’d hoped you could visit them, but given the circumstances,
     they understand why that would be difficult.”
    “Circumstances?”
    Xiang glanced sidelong at Lha-Mi and then back at Lanoree. When she spoke again, it
     was not to answer her query. “We have a mission for you. It’s … delicate. And extremely
     important.”
    Lanoree sensed a shift in the room’s atmosphere. For a few moments they sat in almost
     complete silence—Temple Master Lha-Mi, five other Je’daii Masters, and her. Air-conditioning
     hummed, andthrough the chair she could feel the deeper, more insistent vibration of the Peacemaker’s
     power sources. Her own breath was loud. Her heart beat the moments by. The Force flowed
     through and around her, and she felt history pivoting on this moment—her own history
     and story, and that of the Je’daii civilization as well.
    Something staggering was going to happen.
    “Why do you choose me?” she asked softly. “There are many other Rangers, all across
     the system. Some much closer than me. It’s taken me nineteen days to reach here from
     Obri.”
    “Two reasons,” Xiang said. “First, you’re particularly suited to the investigations
     required. Your time on Kalimahr brokering the Hang Layden deal displayed your sensitivity
     in dealing with inhabitants on the settled worlds. Your actions on Nox saved many
     lives. And your defusing of the Wookiee land wars on Ska Gora probably prevented a
     civil war.”
    “It was hardly a defusing,” Lanoree said.
    “The deaths were unfortunate,” Lha-Mi said, “but they prevented countless more.”
    Lanoree thought of the giant apex trees aflame, countless burning leaves drifting
     in the vicious winds that sometimes stirred the jungles there, the sound of millennia-old
     tree trunks splitting and rupturing in the intense firestorm, and the screams of dying
     Wookiees. And she thought of her finger on the triggers of her laser cannons, raised
     and yet more than ready to fire again.
It was me or them
, she thought whenever