"Jedi Apprentice 3: The Hidden Past" - читать интересную книгу автора (Уотсон Джуд)

Chapter 10

The corridor was wide and empty. There was nowhere to hide. Duenna put a finger to her lips. Then she scurried around the corner into the adjacent corridor.

Qui-Gon commanded them all with his sharp blue gaze to be still. He pondered their situation. Terra was only meters away. Obi-Wan's hand drifted to the hilt of his lightsaber, prepared for anything.

"No need to run me down, old woman." Terra's voice cracked like a whip. "Where have you been?"

"In the kitchens," Duenna said. Her voice was a murmur.

"In the kitchens. Eating again? Or avoiding me?" Look at me."

There was a pause. Guerra and Paxxi suddenly reached out and gripped each other's shoulders.

Terra's voice slowed to a purr. "What are you hiding from me, Duenna? Have you seen Paxxi and Guerra?"

Paxxi and Guerra squeezed each other hard.

"Not so. I have not," Duenna replied. Her voice was steady.

"Yet you are not surprised to hear they are on Phindar," Terra said.

"I am surprised," Duenna said. "I choose not to show it."

"Insolent!" Terra's voice now shimmered with anger. "Perhaps I should warn you, old woman. If you see Paxxi or Guerra, if you even talk to those traitors, I will personally see to it that you are renewed!"

Paxxi and Guerra looked at each other with stricken expressions.

"But not before you see the brothers die before your eyes," Terra hissed.

"No!" Duenna cried. "I beg you?"

"Beg if you wish," Terra said. "Obviously, there isn't a level you won't sink to. You do my bidding, clean my clothes, pick up my trash, why should you not beg me?"

"I would beg, if you would only hear me," Duenna said in a shaky voice. "If only you would hear what you were, what you could be again?"

"Enough! Hear me, Duenna. Any contact with them, they die. And your memory is gone forever, old woman. But don't worry? I will choose the most terrible planet I can to drop you on! Now come with me. I need my bath drawn."

Terra's forceful footsteps headed off. They heard Duenna's softer tread behind hers.

"Come," Guerra whispered. "We must go."

They slipped into the silver armor coats and mirrored visors. It was easy to mingle with the rest of the Syndicat guards as they left the building.

As soon as they reached the dark street, Guerra led them down a narrow alley. There, they removed the coats and visors. Guerra put them in a satchel her carried.

"Why does Terra suspect that Duenna will contact you?" Obi-Wan asked the Derida brothers. "Does she know that Duenna is a rebel sympathizer? Isn't it dangerous to use her?"

"No so," Guerra said softly. "Terra knows nothing for sure. She is afraid Duenna will contact us because she knows Duenna is our mother."

Obi-Wan shot a surprised look at Qui-Gon. "But why is she working for the Syndicat?"

Qui-Gon wanted to hear what the Phindian brothers had to say.

Guerra and Paxxi exchanged a rueful look. Paxxi nodded at Guerra. "The Jedi should know," he said.

"Yes, so," Guerra said sadly. "Duenna works for Terra because Terra is her daughter.'

"So Terra is?"

"Our sister," Paxxi said.

"She is not the sister we had," Guerra explained. "Not the one we knew. She was renewed when she was only eleven years old. The Syndicat raised her. She had no memory of the girl she used to be. She grew up here, in this place, with cruelty and power."

"With no love," Paxxi said gently.

"So that is why our mother sacrificed her life," Guerra said. "She thought even as a servant, she could give Terra love. Maybe bring back part of the girl she knew." Guerra shrugged. "Yet is was never so. Terra did not change. Duenna still remains. She will stay and watch over her daughter? no matter what she is. No matter what she has become."