"Matthew Woodring Stover - Clone Wars - Shatterpoint" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stover Matthew Woodring)

He could not unmake what he had made.

There were no second chances.
Her voice echoed inside him: Nothing is more dangerous than a Jedi who's finally sane, but he said only-
'She is a master of Vaapad." In the silence that followed, he studied the folds and wrinkles of his
interlaced fingers, focusing his attention into his visual field to hold at bay dark dream-ghosts of Depa's
blade flashing toward Jedi necks.

'Vaapad?" Palpatine repeated, eventually. Perhaps he'd grown tired of waiting for someone to explain.
"Isn't that some kind of animal?" 'A predator of Sarapin," Yoda supplied gravely. "Also the nickname it
is, given by students, for the seventh form of lightsaber combat." 'Hmp. I've always heard there are only
six." 'Six there were, for generations of Jedi. The seventh. is not well known. A powerful form it is.
Deadliest of all. But dangerous it is-to its master, as well as its opponent. Few have studied. One student
alone to mastery has risen." 'But if she's the only master-and this style is so deadly-what makes you
think-" 'She's not the only master, sir." He lifted his head to meet Palpatine's frown. "She is my only
student to become a master." 'Yo┬оr only student." Palpatine echoed.

'I didn't study Vaapad." Mace let his hands fall to his sides. "I created it." Palpatine's brows drew
together thoughtfully. "Yes, I seem to recall now: a reference in your report on the treason of Master
Sora Bulq. Didn't you train him as well? Didn't he also claim to be a master of this Vaapad of yours?"
'Sora Bulq was not my student." 'Your. associate, then?" 'And he did not master Vaapad," Mace said
grimly. "Vaapad mastered him." 'Ah-ah, I see." 'With respect, sir, I don't think you do." 'I see enough to
worry me, just a bit." The warmth of Palpatine's smile robbed insult from his words. "The relationship of
Master and Padawan is intense, you said; and I well believe it.

When you faced Dooku on Geonosis." 'I prefer," Mace said softly, "not to talk about Geonosis,
Chancellor." 'Depa Billaba was your Padawan. And she is still perhaps your closest friend, is she not? If
she must be slain, are you so certain you can strike her down?" Mace looked at the floor, at Yoda, at the
agent, and in the end he had to meet Palpatine's eyes once more. It was not merely Palpatine of Naboo
who had asked; this question had come from the Supreme Chancellor. His office demanded an answer.

'May the Force grant, sir," Mace said slowly, "that I will not have to find out." PART ONE THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL T

hrough the curved transparisteel, Haruun Kal was a wall of mountain-punched clouds beside him. It
looked close enough to touch. The shuttle's orbit spiraled slowly toward the surface: soon enough he
would be able to touch it in truth.

The insystem shuttle was only a twenty-seater, and even so it was three-quarters empty. The shuttle line
had bought it used from a tour company; the tubelike passenger fuselage was entirely transparisteel, its
exterior scarred and fogged with microbody pits, its interior bare except for strips of gray no-skid laid
along the aisles.

Mace Windu was the lone human. His shipmates were two Kubaz who fluted excitedly about the culinary
possibilities of pinch beetles and buzzworms, and a mismatched couple who seemed to be some kind of
itinerant comedy act, a Kitonak and a Pho Ph'eahian whose canned banter made Mace wish for
earplugs. Or hard vacuum. Or plain old-fashioned deafness. They must have been far down on their luck,
to be taking a tourist shuttle into Pelek Baw; Haruun Kal's capital city is a place lounge acts go to die.
Passenger liners on the Gevarno Loop only stopped there at all because they had to drop into realspace