Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [105]
She had found it. She had found it! Zannah leapt to her feet, pumping a clenched fist in a quiet victory celebration, barely able to contain a fierce shout of triumph. And in her moment of elation, the spell concealing her true identity slipped.
Zannah quickly regained control, glancing to her left and right to see if anyone had noticed. Heart pounding, she slammed the personal datacard Master Barra had given her into the terminal to copy over the orbalisk article.
Behind her a voice said, “Rain? What are you doing here?”
Darovit wandered along the wide aisle of the Jedi Archives’ fourth hall, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of knowledge in the stacks.
He had briefly tried looking for information on the native flora and fauna of Ruusan, hoping to broaden his knowledge so he could better help those who came to him for aid. He was used to a simpler world, however, and found the technology of the Archives daunting. An analysis droid had explained how to use the search and retrieval systems to find information in the stacks, but his brisk tutorial had left Darovit even more confused than before.
Other scholars were there, and he could have approached one of them to ask for help. But as a man who valued his own privacy, he was loath to interrupt theirs. Ultimately, he had simply started to wander up and down the aisle, waiting for Johun to return.
Darovit was beginning to regret his decision to come to Coruscant. He had let himself get swept up in the moment by the Jedi Knight, the thoughts of stopping another war with the Sith appealing to the romantic ideals that had first led him to Ruusan as a teenager. But those were the dreams of a child; he was older and wiser now.
The Jedi moved through a world that was not his own. The concerns of an entire galaxy weighed upon their shoulders; their decisions affected trillions of lives. Darovit didn’t want that kind of responsibility. Surrounded by the grandeur and glory of the Archives, all he wanted was to return to his simple hut in the forest.
Unfortunately, that might no longer be an option. He was here now, and Johun seemed determined to have him speak before the Jedi Council.
To take his mind off his plight, he began to study the other scholars. They were all Jedi: Padawans and Masters, young and old, human and otherwise. He noticed an attractive young woman with long, dark hair staring intently at her viewscreen, chewing on her lip as she delved into some work of academia.
There was something familiar about her, though Darovit was sure he had never met her before. Over the past decade he hadn’t met anyone except those few individuals who sought him out in his hut, and the woman certainly didn’t look like she had come from the farms or villages of Ruusan.
He crept toward her, not wishing to interrupt her studies but trying to figure out if he knew her. For several minutes he watched her; she was obviously frustrated, unable to find what she was looking for in the datacards. Suddenly she leapt up, clenching her fist victoriously, and Darovit felt a familiar presence wash over him.
For the first ten years of his life, that presence had been at his side constantly. As children, they had shared a bond that went beyond being cousins—they were as close as brother and sister. And though the figure before him had black, not blond, hair, there was no doubt in Darovit’s mind who she was.
“Rain?” he called softly, so as not to startle her. “What are you doing here?”
The woman spun to face him, her eyes wide. She stared at him blankly, unable to recognize the man she had last seen as a boy ten years before. Then her eyes dropped to the stump of his right hand, and her jaw fell agape.
“Tomcat?”
He nodded, then added. “It’s Darovit now. But sometimes I think I still like Tomcat better.”
“You’re a Jedi now?” she said, confused by his presence in the Archives.
“No,” he answered quickly, unwilling to be mistaken for something he was not. “I stayed