The Golden Padawan Page 7

  Master Nago Dree had come to Coruscant on a most fascinating mission. A slightly eccentric but well liked and respected Jedi Master, Nago was currently working on an unusual project that had gained the Council’s attention: psychic communication with beasts native to Tatooine, called dewbacks. He had raised a herd on Tatooine with which his experiments had been quite successful. Master Nago had brought two of his dewbacks to Coruscant to show the Council his successes and discuss how they could be employed by the Jedi. During his stay on the planet, he needed an assistant to help care for the beasts. The assistant was as much a guard as well, for the two dewbacks were of course very valuable to the Council.

  I assumed it was the guarding aspect of the assignment which had brought it to me, since I had no experience whatsoever with animal husbandry and had never been to Tatooine. I had read about dewbacks but was unprepared for their size—or the number of teeth they possessed.

  “They’re omnivores,” said Master Nago as he opened the gate to the dewbacks’ pen, which had been set up in a little used part of the Temple grounds. “Here Yzzel, come meet Aeli.”

  The two huge lizards, broad in the shoulders and with sharply clawed feet, were quite menacing in body. However, their blunt heads and bright, lively eyes made them almost look friendly. The female dewback, smaller and more green than her mate, Bo, rose to her feet and came to us.

  “She likes her nose scratched,” said Nago. “Believe me, she won’t bite you.”

  I put my hand on the smooth scales of Yzzel’s broad nose. Her small eye turned to me and seemed to be examining me carefully.

  “She’s a little wary,” said the Master. “Bo will be quicker to like you.”

  The brown male dewback had also risen to his feet and was standing behind his mate, shifting from side to side with what struck me comically as impatience.

  “Yes, yes, Bo,” said Nago to Bo, “come on over here.”

  Bo nosed his way in and Yzzel yielded to him. He opened his mouth a little at my touch and almost seemed to be smiling.

  I liked him.

  “All right,” said Master Nago, to whom I wasn’t sure. Then, “Aeli, I thought it would be best if you learned to ride Yzzel first, she’s not quite so…exuberant…but Bo won’t hear of it. If you keep telling him to slow down, he will. He’s very obedient, that’s not the problem. He just gets excited. And for a dewback he’s very fast.” Nago chuckled.

  “I don’t mind speed,” I said.

  “Good, we’ll do a riding lesson tomorrow. But right now I want to show you why it’s important for you to help me protect these two friends of mine. Help me with these baskets.”

  We stacked up a pile of baskets in the middle of the pen.

  “Now,” said Master Nago, “Imagine that you were out innocently riding Bo, and you were ambushed by Tusken Raiders.”

  “All right,” I agreed, smiling.

  “Here’s your Raider, he’s got his gaderffii held to your heart, and you’re helpless. But behind the villain stands your trusty dewback. I’ll stand here next to Bo so you can watch us both, Aeli. You want to stop the Raider without his even knowing what hit him?”

  My eyes cast back and forth between them. Nago stood stock still, not even blinking, when suddenly Bo extended his neck and swung his huge head into the baskets, sending them flying.

  I jumped. “Amazing!” I said. “You told him to do that, didn’t you?”

  “That I did. He can do it with his tail, too. He can hear me from miles off and come find me in minutes. He can growl menacingly…”

  Nago paused, silent, and then Bo let out a low growl that was quite alarming even to me.

  “I think you get the idea,” said Master Nago. “But tell me, Aeli, do you have much experience with telepathy?”

  Not until recently, I thought, but replied instead, “A little, Master.”

  “Bo and Yzzel are bred and trained for it. A dewback has a very simple mind, no ability to block thoughts really, anyone with Jedi training should be able to connect with a dewback like these two, if they try. See what you can do. Here, I’ll speak out loud what I’m saying to Bo, so you can follow. You just don’t block him, you’ll hear him clearly enough. Bo? Say Aeli’s name, Bo.”

  Ae…li…

  “Oh!” I gasped.

  Lick Aeli?

  “Yes, Bo, lick Aeli.”

  I withdrew a little, expecting that huge tongue to come at me, but Bo only looked at me with his closest eye and that expression so like a smile.

  Master Nago was quick to explain: “He’s not literally going to lick you, not that he doesn’t want to—he’s trained not to do that to humans, it’s a bit overwhelming. It’s just the dewback act of bonding. He was asking me if he should bond with you.”

  “Oh…” I found this very endearing, and patted Bo’s nose. I thought to him, Lick Bo? He cast his eye at Nago, as if to indicate I should get the Master’s permission if I wanted to bond in return. Nago nodded firmly in Bo’s direction and he looked back at me again.

  Yes, Aeli, small human.

  Yzzel accepted me contentedly, but it was Bo’s enthusiastic affection which finally brought me out of my pining for my lost friend Brenan. Even Yzzel seemed to find Bo’s devotion to me amusing, and Master Nago certainly delighted over it. In the following days I spent all my spare time with the three, feeding the dewbacks, cleaning their pen, doing telepathy exercises and training with them. Mostly my task was helping them adapt to the urban environment on Coruscant, which included daily exercise in the Roughlands, the only natural preserve on the planet large enough to serve the purpose. Bo was an enthusiastic steed all right, but he seemed to have great respect for my “smallness” and was sensitive to what I could handle.

  Master Nago told me fascinating stories of his work with the dewback herd on Tatooine: raising the babies, learning more and more about dewback society, seeking out the most telepathically aware among them and training them. Nago had a dream of employing these dewbacks in Jedi service all over the galaxy. His audience with the Council was the next step in making that a reality.

  “I never anticipated this life for myself,” said Master Nago, as we settled down under a tree in the Roughlands, letting the dewbacks graze after an invigorating ride. “I did a fair amount of fighting as a Knight, a lot of enforcement, even a little espionage. Raising animals? Not this one. City life for me, not farming.”

  I plucked at the bed of moss between the tree roots. “So how did this remarkable twist of fate come about, Master?” I asked him.

  “I was doing desert patrol on Tatooine. Pretty boring, in fact. No one for company but your dewback, but that fortunate fact changed everything. My usual mount was Bo’s sire, called Frakt. One afternoon I was so bored that I tried talking to Frakt. After all, legends say the Tusken Raiders are telepathically linked to their banthas. Well, Frakt heard me. In fact, he had been hearing me for some time, and picked up the meaning of basic commands immediately. Far more impressive than anything that’s been said about banthas. Quite an amazing animal, Bo’s very like him.”

  “You’ve mentioned Frakt before…”

  “Yes, he’s alpha male of my herd,” replied Nago. “He’s sired fifteen…an astounding feat, since until this breakthrough, no one was able to breed dewbacks in captivity. So, to continue: one day I had to break up a tavern fight, it was really quite a brawl, there were maybe 50 people in the place and they were all throwing punches. One fellow who was more crazy than drunk pulled out a blaster. I managed to talk him outside, but he wouldn’t surrender the weapon. It occurred to me to enlist Frakt’s help. I called him over telepathically, and he did basically what you saw Bo do to the baskets your first day. I realized then that what had been not much but a friendship to stave off boredom could become a great boon to the Republic.”

  “It’s a wonderful idea,” I said enthusiastically.

  Master Nago looked at me pensively. “It’s funny,” he said, “how the path your life takes can wander into territo
ries you never imagined visiting. How about you, Aeli, how do you picture your future?”

  Just then Bo wandered over and settled down next to me with a thud, his immense head resting so the tip of his nose was against my knee. I laughed and patted him; he gave a happy sigh and closed his eyes. “I’m not sure,” I said. “Of course I have the same daydreams all Jedi trainees do: great battles to the death to save the Republic, being the best at the lightsaber and striking fear into the hearts of your enemies.” I laughed.

  “In your case, I have no doubt it could be true,” said Nago earnestly.

  I had never been sure whether he knew anything much about me, but apparently he did. I gave him a quizzical look.

  “I’ve spoken to Mace Windu about you,” he explained. “He tells me you are truly amazing with a saber.”

  “I have been blessed with excellent training,” I replied.

  “It’s a skill that will serve you well in any pursuit,” said Nago.

  He wants to keep you.

  This from Bo, drowsing at my side. Of course Nago would have heard it as well, so I looked from Bo to the Master, trying to discern the truth.

  “Bo is quick to draw conclusions,” said Nago, reddening slightly. “What I would like is for you to join me in returning the dewbacks to Tatooine. I have asked permission of Master Windu; it would serve as a short internship for you. I think you would benefit greatly from seeing the whole herd, and if things go well tomorrow at the Council demonstration…well, there will be much work to be done. I will want to move the whole herd to a permanent ranch set up here in the Roughlands, and that will require a lot of preparation.”

  Travel to Tatooine! Now that had some appeal to one such as myself who loved the few pockets of nature on my own planet and longed to visit a less urban world. And as for meeting the rest of Bo and Yzzel’s clan, that was a truly exciting prospect.

  “You can see dewbacks everywhere on Tatooine,” said Master Nago in a tempting tone.

  “What did Master Windu say?”

  “He is hesitant…with things as they are currently, the Council is very protective of its young Jedi. But there has been no trouble yet on Tatooine, and of course it’s not like we can stop all our work because of these threats. And I need someone who is an excellent fighter. So far I’ve kept my work secret, but it won’t be anymore, and there are plenty of unsavory types on Tatooine, people eager to get their hands on Bo and his kin.”

  Bo was not quite sleeping. His mind was not sophisticated enough to translate what Nago had said into a message of danger, but he did hear enough to know that the discussion was about me going to Tatooine. He lifted his head slightly and I felt him push my knee with his nose. Come Aeli, see my brothers. It was a plaintive little plea and my heart melted. “I would very much like to go,” I told Master Nago.

  * * *

  Only one thing disturbed me, and that was that I would be traveling even further away from Brenan. But there was nothing binding me to stay on Coruscant, I didn’t even know when he would return. It was foolish to make decisions based upon their impact on that relationship, when I didn’t even know what that relationship was. He had already been gone for ten weeks and it was quite difficult to remember the feeling of being in his presence.

  I wondered what was happening to him, if Master Teg was finding a way to augment his psychic skills, and most of all, if the mystery of our connection was somehow being solved. It had been awhile since I had allowed myself to contemplate these concerns, and when I did, they filled me with an agitated passion I hadn’t felt in weeks. To my rational mind this was backsliding, but I found it hard to quell.

  I decided some serious meditation was in order, so I asked Master Nago to let me stay behind in the Roughlands with Bo for the night. I had my saber and Bo to protect me, and Nago deemed it would be a good exercise for me to be on my own with the dewback overnight. So after we ate the supper we had packed, the Master and Yzzel took the last transport back to the city and left Bo and I to our solitude.

  Having napped in the afternoon, Bo was in a mood for an evening ride. I was certain we were in the vicinity of my childhood adventure with Calnor, so I set out to locate the rock formation. We found it just as dusk settled and the first stars appeared. I dismounted and set up a little camp for us, and instructed Bo to rest so I could meditate.

  There was much to contemplate, feeling as I was at a crossroads in my life. It seemed wise to go to Tatooine, to investigate further this possible road, but I felt a strange pull in the contrary direction that I couldn’t shake. I quieted myself and opened to the Force, hoping for some guidance. But my concentration wasn’t completely pure; my thoughts of Brenan had reawakened in me a desire to find him somehow, and mostly that was what I sought through the Force. If only I could just know that he was well and safe, that would be enough. But there was nothing.

  I fell asleep quite early, listening to the sound of Bo breathing near me. I slept, and when it was the dead of night, I dreamt.

  In the dream I felt warmth, and my nose filled with a familiar scent. It was Brenan. I opened my eyes and he was lying with me, my head was cradled on his arm. I was concerned being so close to him, it wasn’t fitting—but I was so glad to see him that the worry fled in a moment.

  “Brenan!” I cried.

  He looked long and hard at me, his eyes searching deep. “Aeli,” he said warmly, “our minds have touched so many times…but there are other kinds of closeness I want to know with you.”

  His words cut me to the quick. I drew away in alarm, but his hand reached for my face. His fingers brushed the hair back from my cheek. A calming feeling came over me with the touch, and I submitted to it at once. It was like sinking into a bath. How could I fear him? He always wanted the best for me. I gazed into his face and it was so good to look upon him again. I couldn’t quite remember what he had said that had frightened me so, so I let it go. My own hand floated up to touch him, his golden hair was unbound so I stroked it and almost gasped at the softness. He leaned closer and I relished the increased warmth I could feel from his body.

  “I missed you so much,” I told him.

  “Hush, I’m here now,” he replied. He held my head steady. Suddenly another little lash of fear rose up in me…what did he mean to do? But then his eyelids began to close and mine did likewise, I was caught up in his will like a fly in a spider web. I felt his mouth on mine and the caress was so sweet I didn’t want him to stop, I sunk my fingers in his hair and held to him. His grip on me tightened; in my mind’s eye I could see us, my breasts pressed into his broad chest, those strong arms enfolding me. His delicious fragrance filled my head, flowed in my blood. And his kiss…the softness of his nose, the roughness of his chin, his lips so firm and tender and lovely—Brenan’s kiss, the taste of his desire for me. Heat kindled my body and spread, a flash fire which met no resistance in me anywhere…

  …anywhere except the corner that was a Jedi.

  This could not happen, he was my Master and I wouldn’t allow it, there could be nothing that made me anything but his Padawan.

  I heard his voice then, felt his breath in my ear, tender and fervent, “Let me be your lover instead, give me your body instead…”

  How I wished to, for he was so overwhelmingly exciting. I could feel the aggression that fueled his lightsaber in battle, the blood lust he called upon when duty required him to fight to the death. I could feel the power of his authority, the overpowering sway I had tasted that day in the training room. I knew he could take me whether I wished it or not…I knew he could make me wish it. All these things swept over me like a tidal wave, a massive dark power that could not be resisted…

  Suddenly something very strong was shaking me loose from the ecstasy of Brenan’s embrace. I hung on, but it was stronger than I was. I felt Brenan fading, leaving me aching in the hunger his flesh had quickened in me, and I reached for him, I almost grasped him…but then my whole body was crushed in a heavy, rough weight that forced the dream away.r />
  It was Bo’s tongue. Stop dreaming, Aeli. Talk to Bo.

  For a moment I was actually angry at the dewback for what he had done. Then I came to myself.

  “Oh Bo,” I said, reaching for his head to stop the licking. “Thank you, Bo.”

  It had been the Dark Side. I was certain of it. I could not deny that I felt physical desire for Brenan from time to time—he was a man, I was a woman, and I loved him. But it had never been like this. The man in the dream had looked like Brenan, and so reminded me of him. But it was not his soul at all. The intensity of the feeling…it had not been a normal dream either.

  And then I thought of Mace Windu’s warning.

  Perhaps I really did feel these things for Brenan, perhaps I underestimated my own weakness. If the Dark Side could use this against me…then it was all the more reason why I had to keep my distance. If there really was lust for him in my soul, it was the perfect tool…and I could be the next to disappear!

  No, I would go to Tatooine. Bo had sensed the danger and helped me, I would go to his family and pursue my future.

  How ironic that once again in the dream I had called Brenan Auri-Owan my Master! I wouldn’t let the Dark Side use my own desires against me.

  I wanted to return to the Temple immediately, but there was of course no transport till the morning and no other way to get Bo back. Then I realized I was as safe there with the dewback by my side as I was going to be anywhere. He had proven that. So I curled up against the curve of his muscular neck, before long the dampness his tongue had left in my clothes dried, and at last I went back to sleep.

  * * *

  And so it happened that I left Coruscant long-term for the first time in my memory, to travel with Master Nago Dree to Tatooine. My Masters declared my official Temple training to be complete, and while this was to be an internship rather than a true apprenticeship, my final conference with Mace Windu left me with the distinct impression that I was eligible to be chosen a Padawan at any time.

  The journey aboard the transport was a joyful one, for the Council had been very impressed with our two dewbacks, and there were even several Jedi who wished to acquire psychically-trained dewbacks as soon as possible. Bo and Yzzel had done so well on Coruscant that Master Nago had determined his best course was indeed to move the entire herd to that planet, where they would be substantially safer than on Tatooine. He had kept his work secret up till now, but there was no doubt word of the value of the animals would spread rapidly. According to Nago, the beasts would be prey for theft or kidnapping by any of the several nefarious races of the area: the Jawas, the Hutts and the Tusken Raiders. So our focus was going to be to prepare the dewbacks for transport as soon as their new ranch was completed in the Roughlands, a project that was expected to take no more than a couple of months.