[Jedi Apprentice] - 14 by The Ties That Bind (Jude Watson)

Author:The Ties That Bind (Jude Watson) [Bind, The Ties That]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-10T13:35:41+00:00

CHAPTER 10

He sensed other presences in the room. At least three, he thought.

“Why are you on Apsolon?” a male voice asked.

“A stopover,” Qui-Gon replied. “We are traveling, and I was here six years ago. I had some curiosity as to how this world fared.”

“Who sent for you?” another voice barked. “No one.”

“Why were you present at a secret meeting of Workers?” a third shrill voice asked.

“We were not present at the meeting. We were observing it. Surely your own people could tell you that.”

“Just answer the questions. Who is your contact in the Workers?”

“No one.”

“You were seen with lrini. How did she contact you initially?” She did not contact us. We went for a tour.”

On and on the questions came. Qui-Gon answered them briefly. Tahl did not speak again. No doubt she had spoken first to let him know that she was in the room. Somehow she had infiltrated the inner circle of the Absolutes. She had done it in a short amount of time, and she had done it well. Qui-Gon admired her skill, but then, he always had. He felt almost liquid with relief that he had found her. A growing desperation had haunted him, and he had had to push thoughts of his vision aside.

When he released her, her body could not stay upright. She seemed to fold into his arms like drifting silk. Odd, because he had always counted on her strength. Now he felt the softness of her hair, her skin, the lightness of her bones. He felt how she could melt against him and become part of him. Tears sprang to his eyes at the way one of her hands curled weakly around his neck.

He wrenched his mind back to the present. He realized that the three men were arguing.

“Killing them would send a message,” one said.

“Two messages. One to the Workers, one to Roan. It will show them we have power. But do we risk tipping our hand?”

“Perhaps if we threaten to kill them and then do so, it would be better.”

The three continued to argue. Qui-Gon did not worry. The absence of Tahl’s voice told him something important: She had done more than infiltrate the inner circle. She had gained power.

Again, Qui-Gon marveled at her fearlessness. Yet it only increased his own fears for her safety. His belief in his vision strengthened. Now he saw it as a vision that could happen, if she stayed on this dangerous course.

“T, you have said nothing,” one of the men said at last.

“We will let them go,” Tahl said. Immediately the others erupted in shouts. “

“Why?

“Just let them go?”

“This makes no sense!”

But the three quieted so abruptly Qui-Gon knew that Tahl had made some kind of gesture. That was the kind of power she had.

“Again you all fail to factor in the one thing that we lack in our struggle,” Tahl said. “Popular support. We cannot achieve power without it. I know you don’t like to hear this. But the people of Apsolon are used to thinking they have a voice in government now.

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