Hero's Trial: Agents of Chaos I Read Online Free PDF

prevailed. The vaulted ceilings of communal spaces were still supported by ornamental columns, but their surfaces were grazed, marred, and cheerless. The bioluminescent growths that provided oxygen and light didn’t thrive as they once had, and often flickered like gutteringcandles. Even the grotto-like spaces reserved for the elite had a forlorn aspect.
    “What do the seized documents have to say about the Jedi?” Harrar asked after a moment.
    “Curiously little, Eminence. One senses that data on the Jedi were either purposely withheld from the library or systematically purged.”
    Harrar set his drink down. “The distinction is significant. Which interpretation do you favor?”
    “The latter. Since the libraries are replete with philosophical documents of all variety, why disallow studies on the Jedi?”
    “Perhaps it is the Jedi who disallow such documentation,” Harrar suggested. “Perhaps they are more secretive than we realize.”
    “That would explain the lack of iconography attached to them, along with the fact that the Force does not appear to be the manifestation of a supreme being.”
    “And yet you have reason to believe that the records were purged.”
    “Even if proscribed by law, Eminence, it’s likely that a written or oral history would have been compiled—if not by a Jedi, then by someone outside the order, even someone who was opposed to it. A chronicle of Jedi deeds, biographies of prominent Jedi, that sort of thing.”
    “An order, you say.”
    Tactician Raff glanced at the unrevealed figure below, then nodded in affirmation. “The Jedi appear to have begun as an order devoted to the pursuit of philosophical and theological studies. It’s unclear whether they were the first to discover the energy source they call the Force, or whether they were simply the first to discover ways ofaccessing it. In either case they seem to have evolved gradually from cloistered meditators to public servants, and for thousands of generations they served as the guardians of justice throughout this galaxy.”
    Harrar steepled his six fingers and tapped them against his tattooed lips. “That would have required an army.”
    “Precisely, Eminence.”
    “But no army of Jedi has been dispatched against our warriors. Battle reports indicate encounters with a mere handful.” The priest smiled faintly in revelation. “Someone not only purged Obroa-skai’s libraries but the Jedi order itself.”
    “That is my belief.”
    “But who?”
    The tactician shrugged. “Advocates of the so-called dark side? Those whom the Jedi call Sith?”
    Harrar leaned back against the cushions that propped him. “Then we may have allies in the galaxy.”
    “If any Sith remain, we may indeed.”
    Resolute footsteps trespassed on Harrar’s reply. Their source was a young female of severe beauty, whose long, shimmering garment accentuated an already lean frame. A turban encased most of her raven hair, and iridescent insects shone from the borders of her robe. Long strides carried her boldly to the foot of the command platform, where she folded her arms under her breasts and inclined her head and shoulders in a deferential bow.
    “Welcome, Elan,” Harrar said pleasantly.
    Elan lifted her head, which was neither as sloped as the priest’s nor as asymmetrical as the tactician’s. Wide across the cheekbones, her face tapered to a cleft chin.Ice-blue, her eyes swam in a sea of lavender and maroon swirls, and her nose was wide and almost without a bridge.
    “Your pleasure, Eminence?”
    “For the moment, only that you join us.” In invitation, and absent even a hint of condescension, Harrar patted the cushion adjacent to his own. “You’ve arrived in time to witness the sacrifice.”
    Elan glanced over her shoulder.
    Accompanying her was a diminutive creature of motley countenance and a peculiar manner. Made piebald by an arrangement of short feathers, the trim torso supported two thin arms, each of which ended in graceful