Star Wars_ Darth Bane 01_ Path of Destruction - Drew Karpyshyn [124]
“Githany,” he said, rising to greet her once she had crossed the distance between them. “I was hoping Lord Kaan would send you.”
“He didn’t send me,” she replied. “I asked to come.”
Bane’s heart began to beat a little quicker. He was glad to see her; her presence awakened a hunger inside him he had almost forgotten existed. Yet he was troubled, too. If anyone could see through his ruse, it was her.
“Did you see the message?” he asked, studying her carefully to gauge her reaction.
“I thought you were over this, Bane. Self-pity and regret are for the weak.”
Relieved, he bowed his head to continue his charade. “You’re right,” he mumbled.
She stepped in closer to him. “You can’t fool me, Bane,” she whispered, and his muscles tensed in anticipation of what she would do next. “I think you’re here for something else.”
He held his ground as she leaned in slowly, poised to react at the first hint of threat or danger. He let his guard down only when she brushed her lips softly against his.
Instinctively his hands came up and seized her shoulders, pulling her in closer, pressing her lips and body hard up against his own as he drank her in. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and neck, returning his insistence with her own urgency.
Her heat enveloped them. The kiss seemed to last for all eternity; her scent wrapped around their entwined flesh until he felt he was drowning in it. When she at last broke away he could see the fierce eagerness in her eyes and still taste the sweet fire of her lips. He could taste something else, too.
Poison!
Bedazzled by her kiss, it took him a second to realize what had happened. Whether Githany believed him or not hadn’t mattered. She’d asked Kaan to let her come here so she could kill him. For a brief second he was worried … until he recognized the faint tricopper taste of rock worrt venom.
He laughed, gasping slightly for air. “Magnificent,” he breathed. Secrecy. Guile. Betrayal. Githany may have been corrupted by the Brotherhood’s influence, but she still understood what made the dark side strong. Was it possible she could be his one true apprentice, despite her allegiance to the Brotherhood?
She smiled coyly at his compliment. “Through passion we gain strength.”
Bane could feel the poison working its way through his system. The effects were subtle. Had his growing strength in the dark side not made his senses hyperaware, he probably wouldn’t even have noticed its presence for several hours. Yet once again, Githany had underestimated him.
Rock worrt venom was powerful enough to kill a bantha, but there were far more rare—and lethal—toxins she could have chosen. The dark side flowed through him, thick as the blood in his veins. He was Darth Bane now, a true Dark Lord. He had nothing to fear from her poison.
The fact that she had thought he wouldn’t detect it on her lips—the fact that she thought it would even harm him—meant that she must have believed his performance. She suspected he had fallen away from the dark side again; she thought he was weak. He was glad: it made her decision to side with Kaan more forgivable. Maybe there was still hope for her after all. But he had to be sure.
“I’m sorry for abandoning you,” he said softly. “I was blinded by dreams of past glory. Naga Sadow, Exar Kun, Darth Revan—I lusted after the power of the great Dark Lords of the past.”
“We all crave power,” she replied. “That is the nature of the dark side. But there is power in the Brotherhood. Kaan is on the verge of succeeding where all those before him have failed. We are winning on Ruusan, Bane.”
Bane shook his head, disappointed. How could she still be so blind? “Kaan may be winning on Ruusan, but his followers are losing everywhere else. His great Sith army has crumbled without its leaders. The Republic has driven them back and reclaimed