Star Wars_ Darth Bane 03_ Dynasty of Evil - Drew Karpyshyn [117]
“She’ll probably show up with an army at her heels,” the Iktotchi warned.
Bane shook his head.
“She knows she must face me alone.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The Sith used to be as plentiful as the Jedi. Unlike the Jedi, however, those who served sought to tear their leaders down. Their ambition was natural; this is the way of the dark side. It is what drives us, gives us strength. Yet it can also destroy us if not properly controlled.
“Under the old ways, a powerful leader would be brought down by the combined strength of many lesser Sith working together. It was inevitable, a cycle that repeated over and over. And each time, the Order as a whole grew weaker.
“The strongest were killed, and the weak tore the Sith apart with their petty wars of succession. Meanwhile, the Jedi remained united, confident in the knowledge their enemies were too busy fighting one another to ever defeat them.”
“You discovered a way to break this cycle,” Cognus chimed in.
“Now everything we do is guided by the Rule of Two,” Bane explained. “One Master, one apprentice. This assures that the Master will only fall to a worthy successor.
“Zannah knows that if she is to rule in my place, she must prove she is more powerful by defeating me herself.”
Cognus nodded. “I understand, Master. I will not interfere when she arrives.”
As if on cue, the sound of a shuttle’s engines roared through the camp. The two of them rose to their feet and stepped out into the desert heat just as Zannah’s ship touched down.
She emerged a few seconds later. As Bane had predicted, she was alone.
He marched forward to meet her, Cognus hanging back near the entrance to the hut. He stopped in the center of the camp. Zannah took her stand halfway between the shuttles and where Bane now stood, eyeing the Iktotchi in the background suspiciously.
“She will not interfere,” Bane assured her.
“Who is she?”
“A new apprentice.”
“She has sworn allegiance to you?”
“She is loyal to the Sith,” Bane explained.
“I want to learn the ways of the dark side,” Cognus called out to Zannah. “I want to serve under a true Sith Master. If you defeat Bane, I will swear my loyalty to you.”
Zannah tilted her head to the side, studying the Iktotchi carefully before nodding her agreement to the offer.
“Who lies in the graves?” she asked, turning her attention back to Bane.
“Caleb’s daughter and her bodyguard,” he replied. “She was the one who imprisoned me. She fled here when the Stone Prison was destroyed.”
He felt no need to explain in any further detail. Zannah didn’t need to know who Lucia was, or her connection to Bane.
“I wondered why you chose this place to meet,” Zannah muttered. “I thought it might have some symbolic meaning for you.”
Bane shook his head.
“The last time we were here you were too weak to even stand,” his apprentice reminded him. “You were helpless, and you thought I had betrayed you to the Jedi.
“You said you would rather die than be a prisoner for the rest of your life. You wanted me to take your life. But I refused.”
“You knew I still had things to teach you,” Bane recalled. “You swore you would not kill me until you had learned all my secrets.”
“That day is here,” Zannah informed him, igniting the twin blades of her lightsaber.
Bane drew out his own weapon in response, the shimmering blade rising up from the curved hilt with a low hum.
The two combatants dropped into fighting stances and began to circle slowly.
“I have surpassed you, Bane,” Zannah warned him. “Now I am the Master.”
“Then prove it.”
He lunged toward her, and the battle began.
26
Zannah expected Bane to come at her aggressively, but even so she was caught off guard by the ferociousness of his attack.
He opened with a series of two-handed overhead chops, using his great height to bring his blade hacking down at her from above. She easily blocked each blow, but the momentum of the crushing impact caused her to stagger back,