Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [204]
She sighed. “Yes. Yes: agreed.”
And all she could think as the little group dispersed to their own offices was Oh, Anakin—Anakin, I’m sorry …
I’m so sorry.
Anakin was glad the vast vaulted Temple hallway was deserted save for him and Obi-Wan; he didn’t have to keep his voice down.
“This is outrageous. How can they do this?”
“How can they not?” Obi-Wan countered. “It’s your friendship with the Chancellor—the same friendship that got you a seat at the Council—that makes it impossible to grant you Mastery. In the Council’s eyes, that would be the same as giving a vote to Palpatine himself!”
He waved this off. He didn’t have time for the Council’s political maneuvering—Padmé didn’t have time. “I didn’t ask for this. I don’t need this. So if I wasn’t friends with Palpatine I’d be a Master already, is that what you’re saying?”
Obi-Wan looked pained. “I don’t know.”
“I have the power of any five Masters. Any ten. You know it, and so do they.”
“Power alone is no credit to you—”
Anakin flung an arm back toward the Council Tower. “They’re the ones who call me the chosen one! Chosen for what? To be a dupe in some slimy political game?”
Obi-Wan winced as if he’d been stung. “Didn’t I warn you, Anakin? I told you of the … tension … between the Council and the Chancellor. I was very clear. Why didn’t you listen? You walked right into it!”
“Like that ray shield trap.” Anakin snorted. “Should I blame this on the dark side, too?”
“However it happened,” Obi-Wan said, “you are in a very … delicate situation.”
“What situation? Who cares about me? I’m no Master, I’m just a kid, right? Is that what it’s about? Is Master Windu turning everyone against me because until I came along, he was the youngest Jedi ever named to the Council?”
“No one cares about that—”
“Sure they don’t. Let me tell you something a smart old man said to me not so long ago: Age is no measure of wisdom. If it were, Yoda would be twenty times as wise as you are—”
“This has nothing to do with Master Yoda.”
“That’s right. It has to do with me. It has to do with them all being against me. They always have been—most of them didn’t even want me to be a Jedi. And if they’d won out, where would they be right now? Who would have done the things I’ve done? Who would have saved Naboo? Who would have saved Kamino? Who would have killed Dooku, and rescued the Chancellor? Who would have come for you and Alpha after Ventress—”
“Yes, Anakin, yes. Of course. No one questions your accomplishments. It’s your relationship to Palpatine that is the problem. And it is a very serious problem.”
“I’m too close to him? Maybe I am. Maybe I should alienate a man who’s been nothing but kind and generous to me ever since I first came to this planet! Maybe I should reject the only man who gives me the respect I deserve—”
“Anakin, stop. Listen to yourself. Your thoughts are of jealousy, and pride. These are dark thoughts, Anakin. Dangerous thoughts, in these dark times—you are focused on yourself when you need to focus on your service. Your outburst in the Council was an eloquent argument against granting you Mastery. How can you be a Jedi Master when you have not mastered yourself?”
Anakin passed his flesh hand over his eyes and drew a long, heavy breath. In a much lower, calmer, quieter tone, he said, “What do I have to do?”
Obi-Wan frowned. “I’m sorry?”
“They want something from me, don’t they? That’s what this is really about. That’s what it’s been about from the beginning. They won’t give me my rank until I give them what they want.”
“The Council does not operate that way, Anakin, and you know it.”
Once you’re a Master, as you deserve, how will they make you do their bidding?
“Yes, I know it. Sure I do,” Anakin said. Suddenly he was tired. So incredibly tired. It hurt to talk. It hurt even to stand here. He was sick of the whole business. Why couldn’t it just be over? “Tell me what they want.”
Obi-Wan’s eyes shifted, and the sick fatigue in Anakin’s guts turned darker. How bad did it have to be to make Obi-Wan unable to