Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [71]
She accompanied herself on a unique instrument that had two resonating boxes mounted on a shaft. Strings ran over the boxes, allowing her to pluck or strum them. The arrangement almost made the instrument sound like two separate instruments, and her skill with it brought it close to being orchestral. Most of her ballads, like the new one, the ballad of Nomi Sunrider, had a stately lyrical theme running beneath them. Occasionally Tionne would also break into a slightly more raucous tune that usually got me to hum along.
Nomi Sunrider’s ballad came from the era of Exar Kun and the Sith War. She was a woman whose husband had been slain, so she took his place in a Jedi training cadre. She went on to become an acclaimed Jedi who played a key role in the Sith War. Singing about her might have been considered sacrilege in the Great Temple of Yavin 4, but I didn’t think anyone would protest the fact after four thousand years.
I was wrong.
Halfway through the song, Kyp got up from the floor, his face contorted with disgust. “I wish you wouldn’t perpetuate that ridiculous story. Nomi Sunrider was a victim. She fought in the Sith War without ever knowing what the battles were about. She listened blindly to her Jedi Masters, who were afraid because Exar Kun had discovered a way for the Jedi to expand their power.”
Tionne set her instrument down, surprised and a little hurt. She asked Kyp why he hadn’t helped her reconstruct that legend if he had special information like that. Luke asked him where he’d learned what he’d just said, but that question had already answered itself in my gut: Exar Kun. I’d been there with Tionne as we listened to Bodo Baas talk about the Sith War. Kyp’s take on it was decidedly pro-Exar Kun and, as nearly as we had been able to discover, there were no minority opinions on the subject available from the Holocron.
I came out of my reverie as Kyp’s blazing gaze brushed past my own. “… they wouldn’t all have been slaughtered. The Jedi would never have fallen, and we wouldn’t be here, taught by someone who doesn’t know any more than we do.”
Luke again asked Kyp where he had learned his history. The young man hesitated for a moment, then mumbled something about having used the Holocron. I shot Tionne a glance and she frowned. Between the lessons we’d all learned from it and the work she was doing with it, unless Kyp was an insomniac, he really didn’t have time to study it.
Before I could call him on that lie, Master Skywalker’s R2 unit rolled into the room and whistled at him. I caught a bit of the code for “incoming,” and stretched out with my senses. Even before Luke announced to us that we had a visitor, I caught a sense of a powerful Force presence descending toward the moon. By the time we left the Great Temple, a Z-95 Headhunter was setting down on the landing grid.
The pilot emerged wearing a silvery, form-fitting flightsuit. She removed her helmet and shook out red-gold hair. Even in the twilight, I noticed the green of her eyes—lighter and more striking than mine. She looked quite beautiful, though the smile she gave Master Skywalker seemed to rest uncomfortably on her lips.
“Mara Jade,” Luke greeted her.
I missed her reply as the uneasiness I felt over Kyp suddenly became compounded. Iella had told me about this Mara Jade. She had been groomed by the Emperor to be an agent who was adept in use of the Force. Her very existence had been unknown to all but a handful of Imperials, and she would have remained hidden save for her role in defeating Grand Admiral Thrawn. Details on that were all very sketchy, but I’d been left with the impression that she was very competent, very lethal and not that positively