Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [72]
Despite that, she pulled from a pouch at her side a Jedi cloak. Luke smiled as he turned and presented her to us. “This is Mara Jade. She has come here to learn the ways of the Jedi.”
Everyone applauded her—even Kyp, though he remained sullen. Luke apparently noticed that as easily as I did because he waved me over. “Keiran, will you please see to Mara’s billeting? I have something to which I want to attend, if you don’t mind, Mara.”
She gave him a quick nod, then turned and regarded me up and down. “Have we met before?”
I knew we had not, but I still found something disturbingly familiar about her. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Odd, I usually don’t forget a face.”
“And I think I would remember you.” I waved her toward the Great Temple. “We have a variety of rooms ready. Master Skywalker’s chambers are on the third level. Likewise some of the students. Most visitors are housed on the second level.”
I felt tendrils of the Force snake out from her and probe the fringes of my mind. “But that’s not where you live.”
I concentrated for a nanosecond and shut her out of my mind. “No. I was attracted to the old pilot billets on the ground floor.”
Mara Jade smiled and I found it all too predatory for me. “Then I’ll look there first for a place to stay. If you don’t mind.”
“Mine is not to mind, but to obey the wishes of my Master.”
She clapped her hands mockingly. “Oh, very good. Spoken like an obsequious Imperial courtier.”
I gave her a quick smile as we entered the Great Temple. “Glad to make you feel at home.”
That remark brought her head up. “The Empire’s dead.”
“But not all loyalties to it.”
She stopped in the middle of the hangar floor and I noticed her spacesuit had shifted to darker, flatter colors to blend in with the surroundings. “You said we’d not met, but you clearly have a problem with me. Shall we settle it now?” The narrowed stare she gave me was pure fire and won a smile from me.
I was just about to rise to her challenge and let her have a catalog of hideous things the Empire had done, beginning with the death of the Jedi Knights and working on up to Gantoris’ murder, when sense kicked back in. Here I was, standing in the middle of the place from which a desperate strike at the Empire had been launched. It had succeeded. I had been part of subsequent attacks against the Empire, attacks that brought it to its knees and took away its capital world: Coruscant. I had helped destroy the Empire that had been her home, and there was no reason why she shouldn’t long for things from her past as much as I did.
I drew in a deep breath, held it, then slowly exhaled it. “Please, forgive my being rude. It is very easy, when things are not going as planned, to trace the fault back to the Empire. You are not the Empire. To accuse you of loyalties or sympathies is unfair and probably stupid. Not the first time I’ve been either, but I try not to do both with people I’ve just met.”
I extended my hand to her. “I am Corran Horn.” My true name almost caught in my throat, but offering it to her came as a sign of trust. Luke clearly trusted her and my gut told me I should do the same.
Mara Jade shook my hand and looked me over again. “I’ve heard of you. I apologize for the probe. I knew you were familiar, but the name ‘Keiran’ didn’t fit. I didn’t know why. Since I sensed no deception from Luke—Master Skywalker—I wondered if he knew you were here under a lie.”
“He suggested it.” I smiled. “In many ways I think he thinks of me as Keiran Halcyon. Seems Keiran Halcyon was an ancestor of mine and a Jedi of some note in the Corellian system.”
“I see.”
The smile on her face slowly died and I sensed her closing toward me. I didn’t know why and was fairly certain I could have tried to probe her for eons without getting so much as a sign of life from her. Part of me wanted to once again become very suspicious, but I kept that side of myself at bay. I had decided to trust her, so I trusted her. That might have seemed stupid, but it felt very right.
“Master Skywalker felt I should attend the academy under this