Master & Apprentice [Star Wars] by Claudia Gray

Author:Claudia Gray [Gray, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

The slicer dart. The crab droid.

Someone wanted to kill Fanry. Someone wanted to ruin the future of the entire planet of Pijal. And this someone also wanted to make damn good and sure to hurt Averross at the same time.

Halin Azucca must figure I don’t care about Pijal or Fanry, Averross brooded as he stalked along the castle grounds at dawn, his old boots already crusted with mud. Or if she does give me enough credit to care, she’s so angry it doesn’t matter. She wants to make this personal, Force knows why.

Well, if Azucca wanted a grudge match, she could have one. He grabbed his communicator and called, “Deren!” The man was undoubtedly already up. “We need to review procedures.”

“At your service, Lord Regent,” Deren said—not via comm, but only a few meters away, and now walking straight toward Averross. The man’s timing was uncanny—exactly as it should be, for a captain of the guard. But then why wasn’t he applying some of that foresight to Fanry’s attackers?

Averross bit back his irritation. “You could’ve told me you were coming out here to search.”

“Forgive me, Lord Regent. I believed you would expect me to do so.” Deren bowed his head. “I did inform Master Jinn, so that he and his apprentice could return to their investigations on the moon. But I should’ve let you know regardless, if only so you wouldn’t feel the need to search the grounds yourself.”

“Both of us doing the same job isn’t necessarily helping Fanry,” Averross said, “unless one of us is doing his job wrong.”

Deren drew himself upright, as firmly stiff and correct as ever, but Averross could see the pain in his eyes. “If you feel that I should not be in Her Serene Highness’s service any longer—”

“C’mon, that’s not what I meant.” With a sigh, Averross put away his comm unit. “You’re the one person on this whole planet that I can be sure doesn’t want Fanry dead, and I only trust you because, by now, if you wanted to kill Fanry, you could’ve done it twenty times over.”

“Her life is more sacred to me than my own,” Deren said solemnly, the way someone might swear an oath. His expression and bearing remained as rigid as though he were carved from a blackbark tree. Did the guy ever wear casual robes, swimming suits, even pajamas? Averross had lived in the same castle as Deren for eight years now and never once seen the guy out of uniform. Never seen that uniform be anything less than pristinely correct. Never heard Deren call him anything but Lord Regent.

Most people who’d lived and worked together in such close quarters would’ve become friends by this point…that, or bitter enemies. Deren remained at a remove.

No, not Deren, Averross thought. Me. I’m the one at a remove. Every single human in the palace besides Fanry has made sure of that.

Just like it was back at the Temple. Just like always.

(Dooku had told Rael, many times, that his isolation was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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