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."The craft now turned and headed due south, flying between and through the tops of the unbroken deck of cloud.A seemingly endless scape of billows and whorls puffed and streamed beneath them.Anakin turned in his seat."Look," he said excitedly, and pointed to their right.They were veering southwest toward a jagged reddish black mountain that pushed up through the clouds, its sloping flanks almost bare of Sekotan growth and its leveled summit capped with snow.It looked like an old, weatherworn volcano."We will be at the Magister's home in three minutes," the pilot said."I hope you've had a nice nap."Anakin smiled at Obi-Wan."Well rested!" he said.They crouched low once more to exit the transport, and stood on a level field of crushed lava.A few meters away a flat stone pathway led to a magnificent, fortresslike palace of skewed blocks stacked around a squat central tower.Beyond the palace, four volcanic terraces spilled orange- tinted water over broad, multicolored falls.The air smelled of Zonama's depths-hydrogen sulfide-alternating with fresh breezes blowing from the south.Each of the blocks around the tower was over ten meters high and fifty meters wide, its walls lined with windows that gleamed like rainbows in the sunset light.The promontory supported only a few tendrils, barely as thick as an arm, nestled haphazardly between the rocks and around the mineral-spring terraces like lines of red and green thread."The Magister lives far from his subjects," Obi-Wan observed, rubbing his hands on the hem of his tunic, then holding them out palm up and dropping his chin.His eyes swept the horizon shrewdly."And he makes do with very few attendants." Looking at the torn wisps of clouds passing overhead, and the darker masses visible to the south, Obi- Wan estimated they were a thousand kilometers below the equator."Peculiar customs.They seem to prefer their clients be misinformed and kept off balance.""At least they haven't checked us for weapons," Anakin said."Oh, but they think they have," Obi-Wan said."You did that.without my knowing?" Anakin asked.Obi-Wan smiled."You surprise me all the time, Master," Anakin said with a touch of awe."But that's what an apprentice should expect from his teacher."Obi-Wan lifted one brow."We make a great team, don't we?" the boy said with a sud den grin.His face colored with the expectation of adventure."We do," Obi-Wan agreed."I'm glad you're here.I'm glad you're my master, Obi- Wan," Anakin said.He gave a small shiver, then he, also, rubbed his palms on his tunic, held them out, and looked around.Obi-Wan had learned years ago that Anakin could become both expressive and imitative whenever he felt excited or ill at ease.The boy looked up at the glowing pinwheel of plasma unwinding from the distant double-star system, obscured by rips and shreds of thin, high clouds.Zonama's own sun perched on the horizon, turning the sky above into a flaming tapestry easily the match of the astronomical spectacle beyond."It's out there now.It's closing in.""Do you see its shape more clearly?""It's a time of trial.For me.""Do you fear it?" Obi-Wan asked.Anakin shook his head but kept staring up at the red and orange sky."I fear my reaction.What if I'm not good enough?""I have trust in you.""What if the Magister turns us down?""That.seems a separate issue, don't you think?""Yeah." Anakin said, but persisted with boyish stubbornness, focused on what seemed to him, for the moment, the most crucial of their many problems."But what if the Magister doesn't want us to get a ship?""Then we'll learn something new," Obi-Wan said patiently.The title Magister implied someone of accomplishment, of dignity and bearing, and for all his searching the landscape, Obi-Wan received no signs of any impressive human personality.It was possible the Zonamans could conceal themselves.Jedi Masters could hide from detection, even at close range.Sometimes Obi-Wan could manage to conceal his presence from someone as perceptive as Mace Windu, but never with complete confidence [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]