Into the Void: Star Wars (Dawn of the Jedi) by Tim Lebbon Read Free Book Online Page B

me.”
    “Oh, don’t be so sure.” Lanoree took a drink and looked around Susco’s Tavern. With
     more than fifteen settled planets and moons and spread over sixteen billion kilometers,
     there were places like this all across the Tythan system. Places where people gathered
     to drink, eat, and talk, no matter what their color, species, creed, or breed. Where
     music played in the background—either a local tune or perhaps something more exotic
     from another continent or another world. Where travelers found common ground, and
     those who chose not to travel could hear outlandish tales of faraway places. And it
     was in these taverns that tongues could be loosened, news spread, and secrets overheard.
     Lanoree loved places like this, because often after a drink or two she could have
     been anywhere.
    The drink she was sipping now had been recommended by Tre—a local wine, made from
     deep-sea grapes and fortified with swing dust from some of the air mines at Kalimahr’s
     north pole. It was incredibly strong, but she used a gentle Force flow to make sure
     the potent drink did not impede her senses. She might enjoy such taverns, but she
     had been attacked in places like these. And she had also killed in them.
    “Master Dam-Powl vouches for you,” Lanoree said.
    Tre Sana’s eyes glimmered with humor. “Oh, I doubt that.”
    “Well, she says to watch you. And that I should kill you the first moment you display
     any hint of betrayal.” Lanoree looked around the tavern but probed for Tre’s reaction.
     Strange. She felt nothing. She turned back to him and said, “But Dam-Powl assures
     me you don’t have a traitorous bone in your body.”
    Tre raised his brows and his lekku, resting now over his shoulders, performed a gentle,
     almost sensuous touch along their tips.
    “Good,” Lanoree said, smiling. “Then let’s take a meal and at the same time share
     some information.”
    “The sea beef is very good here,” Tre said. He raised a hand and caught the attention
     of the barman. A wave and a click of his fingers, and the barman nodded back, grinning.
    Lanoree probed outward and touched the barman’s mind. She took a startled breath—she
     could never really prepare for experiencing another’s thoughts, as the first rush
     was always overwhelming—but she quickly filtered out the random, the violent, the
     sick and disgusting, and narrowed to what she sought.
Tre so cool so calm so red sitting there with her that Je’daii and he’d be lucky,
     she’d eat him alive
. She broke away and stared at Tre until he averted his yellow eyes. But she said
     nothing. She knew she was attractive, and if he
was
thinking of her that way, there was no real harm.
    “I’ll be very open with you,” Lanoree said, “very honest. That’s a good way to begin,
     for both of us. There’s something about you I can’t read, but I don’t need the Force
     to understand people. You’re haughty and superior. Maybe that’s just you, but right
     now I think it’s because you think you have me at a disadvantage. Perhaps because
     Dam-Powl has told you most, if not all, of what I know and why I’m here.”
    Tre blinked softly, his lekku touching in gentle acknowledgment.
    “And so, you know whom I seek. You’ll know that he’s my brother. I have rumors and
     stories told in taverns, secondhand information from sources I can’t verify and don’t
     trust. And the sum of all the information I have gives me virtually nothing to go
     on. I don’t even know what planet he’s on right now.”
    “You can’t”—he waved his fingers, raised his arms up and down—“
Force
his location?”
    Lanoree glared at Tre. His childish display did not warrant a response.
    “Master Dam-Powl sent me to you and said you might be able to help. I hope so. Because
     I don’t know how much more of this piss I can take.” Lanoree emptied her glass in
     one swallow.
    “And now I’ll be very open with you, too,” Tre said, suddenly