Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [77]
“And who are you, my dear?” Hetton asked, his words sharp and clipped as they echoed thinly off the walls of the great room.
“My name is Rainah,” Zannah answered. “I am—I was—a friend of Kel’s.”
“Of course,” Hetton said with a knowing smirk. “Kelad’den had many female friends.”
“She’s the one who betrayed us to the Republic!” Cyndra said angrily, shaking the still-cuffed Zannah by her elbow as she spoke.
“I didn’t betray anyone,” Zannah protested, stalling for time as she tried to gauge Hetton’s power.
During the war between the Brotherhood of Darkness and the Army of Light, both sides had actively sought to recruit those with power into their ranks. But it would have been a simple enough matter for a family as obviously rich and powerful as Hetton’s to shield one of their own from both the Jedi and the Sith.
“You knew every detail of our plan,” Cyndra insisted. “Who else could it have been?”
“You and Paak seem to have survived somehow,” Zannah remarked, letting the unspoken accusation hang in the air as she continued her subtle probing of Hetton.
His power didn’t have the raw, untamed feel of one who had never been trained. Was it possible he’d once had a tutor or mentor? Had someone knowledgeable in the Force taught him the ways of the dark side, then abandoned him to follow Kaan? Or was there some other explanation?
“I am not a traitor!” the Chiss shouted angrily.
“Calm down, Cyndra,” Hetton said, sardonically amused at her outrage. “Chancellor Valorum had a Jedi Knight with him. Your mission was doomed to failure from the start.
“And even if you had succeeded,” he added, his voice dropping to a low and dangerous whisper, “you still would have brought the wrath of the Great Houses crashing down on us.
“What were you thinking?” he demanded with a sudden shout that made both Paak and Cyndra jump. Zannah could feel the air crackle as the small man called upon the Force, gathering the energies of the dark side. His power was undeniable, yet as she felt it building she was confident his abilities would be no match for hers.
“Hetton, wait!” Paak shouted, sensing the peril they were in. “We’ve got something for you.”
He held up Zannah’s lightsaber, waving it above his head so Hetton would be sure to see it. The effect was immediate and instantaneous; the building power of the dark side vanished as Hetton froze, his eyes riveted on the hilt. After a moment he seemed to regain his composure and sat back down, signaling for one of his guards to bring the treasure to him.
When it was placed in his hand he studied it carefully for a full minute before setting it reverently in his lap.
“Where did you find this?” he asked softly, though there was a dangerous undercurrent in his voice.
“On her,” Paak said. “She wouldn’t tell us how she got it.”
“Is that a fact?” Hetton muttered, suddenly staring at Zannah with renewed interest, running the fingers of one hand idly over the lightsaber’s handle. “I would be most interested to learn how she acquired this particular specimen.”
“Give me five minutes alone with her,” Cyndra said. “I’ll get her to talk.”
Zannah decided that the game had gone on long enough. It would have been a simple matter to snatch the lightsaber back to her shackled hands using the Force, but she had other weapons at her disposal …
“The Force manifests itself in many different ways,” Darth Bane told her. “Every individual has strengths and weaknesses—talents they excel at and others that are more difficult.”
The twelve-year-old Zannah nodded. Several months before, Bane had unlocked a new data bank of information in Freedon Nadd’s Holocron. Though he wouldn’t tell her what he had uncovered, he had added a new element to her training shortly after his discovery. Every two or three days he would put her through a series of rigorous tests and challenges designed to evaluate her command of different aspects of the Force.
Until today he had refused to discuss the results of his experiments with her, and Zannah was beginning to fear she had somehow failed him.
“Some possess raw elemental power; they