Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [84]
The guards made no move to attack her, however, and a second later she relaxed once more and looked questioningly at Hetton.
“As I told you before, I have recruited a number of individuals with unique and specialized talents to my side,” he explained. “Included among them are eight former students of the Sith Academy on Umbara.”
Through Bane, Zannah knew those students sent to Umbara were trained in stealth and assassination, learning to use the Force to mask their presence from all manner of detection. That was why she had been unable to sense them in the room.
“Should you accept me as your apprentice, my guards will swear fealty to you as well,” Hetton told her. “You will have a squad of eight unstoppable, undetectable killers at your command.”
Zannah was silent for several minutes, thinking about everything he had said.
“We cannot risk the Jedi learning of our existence,” she warned at last. “If you become my apprentice, you must leave all this behind.”
“I could not stay here much longer anyway,” Hetton reminded her. “It won’t be long before the Great Houses discover I am the founder of the Anti-Republic Liberation Front. They will seize my assets and condemn me for a traitor.
“I have already begun the process of transferring my library onto datacards in preparation for my flight.”
In her mind Zannah weighed all she knew of Darth Bane’s strength and power against Hetton and his eight Shadow Assassins, trying to determine which side had the upper hand. In the end she couldn’t accurately predict who would survive such an encounter, but she decided she wanted to find out.
“How soon can you and your assassins be ready?”
“We can leave within the hour.”
“And after Bane is dead we will go to Tython?”
“If that is your wish, Master,” Hetton said with a bow.
15
Night had fallen over Ambria, but Bane was not interested in sleep. Instead he was sitting cross-legged in what remained of their camp, waiting for Zannah to return with supplies so they could rebuild. As he waited, he meditated on his most recent failure with the Holocron.
The dilemma offered no easy solution. If he pushed himself too hard, his body would betray him, causing him to make mistakes during the precise adjustments of the Holocron’s matrix. If he went slowly, conserving his strength, he would be unable to finish before the cognitive network began to degrade. The two factors worked at cross purposes, and Bane had racked his mind to find a way to balance the requirements of both time and effort.
His most recent attempt had pushed his power to its limits, bringing him to the edge of complete exhaustion. Yet even if he hadn’t made the critical error that caused the matrix to collapse, he doubted he would have been able to complete the final adjustments in time.
The more he contemplated the process, the more frustrated he became. He had failed on both sides of the spectrum, unable to finish in the allotted time and lacking the necessary strength to complete his task without error.
Was it possible there was some other essential element in the process that he was missing? Was there one more secret waiting to be unlocked that would finally allow him to create a Holocron so he could pass his wisdom and knowledge on to his successors? Or was the failure in him? Did he simply lack power? Was his command of the dark side somehow less than that of the ancient Sith Lords like Freedon Nadd?
It was an uncomfortable line of speculation, but it was one Bane forced himself to consider. He had read the histories of the great Sith Lords; many were filled with feats almost too incredible to be believed. Yet even if these accounts were true, even if some of his predecessors had had the ability to use the dark side to destroy