Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 02_ Omen - Christie Golden [14]
Cilghal lowered her head and closed her eyes. Yaqeel felt a lump in her throat. She thought of Master Corran and his wife, Mirax. Both of their children—how would they endure it?
Daala continued mercilessly. “It is becoming brutally clear that there is something going wrong with the Jedi. They are intelligent, trained warriors, with powers that most of us can barely comprehend. Their former leader, erstwhile Grand Master Luke Skywalker, failed in his duty to protect the public from one Jedi who sought to obtain power. As all of you know, he pleaded guilty to the charge of reckless endangerment of a population. For this crime, Luke Skywalker has been sentenced to exile for ten Coruscant years unless he can produce a convincing argument and evidence that he is able to properly control and manage his Order.
“Now we have not one, but two Jedi who appear to be having dangerous hallucinations that even the Jedi themselves cannot properly explain. Rest assured, we will investigate and explore all possible explanations for this baffling and unsettling development. In the meantime, the Jedi will continue to come under heavy scrutiny and remain under the watchful eye of the government. I will now accept a few questions.”
As Yaqeel had known he would, the reporter shouldered his way to the front, raising his hand. He was not alone—apparently the incident, brief and comparatively bloodless as it had been, had drawn the news-hounds like krakanas to chum-infested waters. Daala smiled a little at them. Her emerald eyes flickered over the crowd, and then she pointed at someone.
“Javis Tyrr,” she said. “Please ask your question.”
“Admiral,” the first reporter said, his voice smooth and cultured and perfectly paced and pitched—Yaqeel was really beginning to hate this guy—“do you honestly think it can possibly be coincidence that the two Jedi who have displayed such aberrant behavior are siblings?”
“There are many factors to take into account in our investigation, but certainly we will be looking into any genetic causes for this display of uncontrollable violence and paranoia. We will also consider the environment in which these two Jedi have been raised.”
“So would it be fair to say you think that because the Horn siblings are the children of a Corellian Jedi Master and the grandchildren of a well-known smuggler, these factors might have caused this mental condition?”
“Don’t go putting words into my mouth, Tyrr,” Daala admonished, but there was no real ire in her tone. “I simply said we would consider the environment in which they were raised, that’s all.”
“Do you think this is a hitherto unknown manifestation of simply being Jedi?” Tyrr plowed on, although Daala had turned away and was looking at another reporter with his hand imploringly raised.
By this point, Yaqeel’s hand had closed on her lightsaber, as had Barv’s, although he grunted with pain at the effort. A flippered hand touched her wrist, slightly moist, cool, and sending calm through the Force.
“Don’t,” said Cilghal in a quiet voice. “Don’t give them any more ammunition to use against us. I for one have heard enough, and I daresay that we’ll be seeing this particular speech played and replayed often enough on the HoloNet that we can pick up anything we’ve missed. Come. Let us get Bazel treated and we will talk.”
Yaqeel growled softly and nodded. Cilghal spoke wisdom, although it pained the Bothan to sit by and listen to such disgusting things being said about Valin and Jysella’s parentage.
“To think anyone would stoop that low,” she muttered, and turned to follow