Jedi Quest 2: The Trail of the Jedi

Chapter Sixteen

Obi-Wan was disturbed. He felt queasy, almost dizzy. He searched through the snow, but he didn't know what he was looking for.

You don't know his power. It comes from the pyramid itself.

Obi-wan had felt cold ever since hearing those words. The pyramid was a shape revered by the Sith.

The queasy feeling grew stronger. He remembered it well. He had felt it in the presence of the Sith Holocron.. On that mission, he had been described by the Holocron's power. He had worried about Anakin's reaction to it. He did not want his Padwan to know what he suspected.

As if guided by his own unease, Obi-Wan reached down through the snow and put his hand on a small object. He pulled it out of the snow. It was a small black case.

He examined it, swallowing against the nausea that rose in his throat. There was no opening he could see, no seams. It simply appeared to be a cube.

He unsheathed his lightsaber and carefully cut a small seam in the cube. The case broke open. A small black pyramid was nestled in black shimmersilk. It blazed to life and he saw it was holoprojector.

Unspeakable scenes flashed out at him, so quickly he could not absorb them. Murder. Suffering. Destruction.

Obi-Wan shut the case. He wiped the sweat on his brow. No, his Padawan must not see this.

"Master?"

Anakin had left the ship. He stood uncertainly a few meters away. "Did you find something?"

"It's nothing." Obi-Wan tucked the case inside his cloak. "We can take it back to the Temple for examination. Come, Padawan."

But Anakin did not move. "I need to know what you found. Don't you think I can feel it, too?"

He saw the sweat on Anakin's forehead, saw the slight tremor in his knees.

He could dismiss him. He could say, You do not need to know.

Would Qui-Gon have told him? Perhaps not. His Master reveled things in his own time.

Anakin met his gaze boldly. He would not back down. Obi- Wan saw that clearly. He would not allow the moment to pass. He would grab on to it, extend it, bend it to his will. He would do anything to obtain what he wanted.

He is so different from me, Obi-Wan thought again, bemused.

If he is so different from you, why do you treat him as though he is a younger version of you? Why do you act as you think Qui-Gon would have acted with you as his Padawan?

The question startled him. What was especially surprising was that he did not hear Qui-Gon's voice asking the question. He heard his own.

Maybe it was time he stopped trying to be the Master Qui-Gon was. It was time to claim the role for himself.

"It is a Sith artifact.," he told Anakin.

His Padawan swallowed. "I thought so."

"The bounty hunter mentioned a pyramid before he died. He said the Granta Omega drew his power from it. If the Sith are involved, or a Sith cult, that would explain much. The ruthlessness and cunning of the attack. The use of bounty hunters. The specific target of Jedi."

"Do you think Granta Omega is a Sith?'

"No," Obi-Wan said, "If he were, we would have known it. I think he is an ordinary being with a gift for concealment on a very deep level. He could have dealings with a Sith, or a Sith cult. But he himself is not a Dark Lord. I think he wanted us to find this case. He wants us to know exactly how dangerous he is, and how far he is willing to go."

Obi-Wan gazed down the mountain and took in the lowering sky. Clouds rumbled, and snow suddenly began to fall, thick and fast.

"We have a new enemy, Padawan."