Into the Void: Star Wars (Dawn of the Jedi) Read Online Free PDF

interests at heart,
     and only that. He’s as dangerous as … Well”—Dam-Powl smiled—“almost as dangerous as
     you.”
    She touched the corner of her mouth with one finger, a habit Lanoree knew well—the
     Master from Anil Kesh was thinking. “I hope your studies go well,” she said softly.
     “I hope you’re still learning. I’ve never seen such potential in anyone. Go well,
     Lanoree Brock. And may the Force go with you.”
    The message ended and the screen faded to black. The computer ejected the message
     pod, but Lanoree sat for a while in the cockpit, seat turned away from the windows
     and the amazing views beyond.
    “Kalimahr it is, then,” she said. Over four years spent mostly alone, the habit of
     talking to herself—or Ironholgs, which was almost the same—had grown. “But I don’t
     like the idea of a
partner
.” She liked her own company. Sometimes she spoke to the second, empty cockpit seat
     beside her, though it had never been occupied.
    She swiveled the pilot’s seat and looked to the stars. There was alreadymuch to absorb and muse upon, and she had the time it would take to reach Kalimahr
     to do so. All these secrets being entrusted to her should have made her feel honored.
     But instead she was unsettled. There was so much she still didn’t know.
    After running through standard checks to ensure that her Peacemaker was not being
     tracked or followed at a distance—being alone was more than habit—she turned to the
     flatscreen once again.
    “So let’s see what
all
the Masters wanted me to know.” She lifted a keyboard onto her lap, tapped in some
     commands, and started to view the information that had been loaded into the ship’s
     computer.
    Lanoree and Dal’s parents told them that the ritual of visiting each temple would
     be best done under their own steam as much as possible. Not for them the ease of a
     speeder or the comfort of a shire, one of the most common beasts of burden on Tython.
    Walking, their parents said, will bring them closer to Tython, which itself is incredibly
     rich in the Force. It will make them understand, experience, taste, and smell their
     surroundings instead of viewing them through a speeder’s windshield or from the high
     back of a shire. And sometimes it means there will be dangers to confront. Dreadful
     dangers.
    Forty days and twenty-four hundred kilometers from home, on the strange continent
     of Thyr, they reach the expansive Stark Forests that lead eventually to the Silent
     Desert. The trees of these forests store water in pendulous, leathery sacs, useful
     to travelers and constantly refilled as the skeletal branches suck what moisture they
     can from the air. It is here that their lives are threatened for the first time.
    Tythos shines down on them, the weather neither too hot nor too cold. The going through
     the forest is gentle, and they are following a shallow stream that meanders lazily
     toward the desert some kilometers ahead.
    “I’ll harvest ground apples for dinner,” Dal says.
    “I’ll catch a rumbat to cook,” Lanoree says.
    And then a flight of hook hawks swoops out of the high trees and attempts to hypnotize
     Dal and Lanoree with their sweet song. Carnivores, these birds hunt in packs, singing
     their prey to a somnolentstandstill and then tearing into eyeballs and throats with their wickedly hooked beaks
     and sharp talons. They hover in a rough circle around the brother and sister, wings
     beating a gentle rhythm, voice glands whistling and humming in practiced harmony.
     Their eyes are dark and intelligent. Their claws shine.
    Lanoree has heard about these creatures but has never seen them before. She is terrified.
     Never has she faced such danger, and the knowledge that their lives are at risk strikes
     a heavy blow. And yet a thrill rushes through her as she thinks,
This is what the Great Journey is all about!
“Quick,” she says, “down to the stream!”
    “What good will that do?” Dal asks. She