And with the help of the holobook, you'd succeed.'
Dooku shook his head. He put the holobook back on the shelf.
'It would be amazing,' Lorian said. 'You could find out Sith secrets.
If you really knew the dark side, you'd be a better Jedi Knight. Yoda says that we can't fight evil without understanding it.'
'Yoda never said that.'
'Well, it sounds like something he'd say,' Lorian protested. 'And it's true. Isn't that what Temple training is all about? All we do is study so we can be prepared. How can we prepare to meet evil if we don't understand it?'
That was the trouble with Lorian, Dooku thought. He had a way of putting things that made sense, even when he was asking you to break the rules.
He looked over at the holobook again. It was tempting. And Lorian had put his finger on Dooku's secret wish — to be the best Padawan ever.
He wanted to impress his new Master. Could the Sith Holocron be the key to his wish?
'We'll only take a quick look,' Lorian said. 'Just think, Dooku. The Jedi are the most powerful group in the galaxy. We could be the best of the best.'
'A true Jedi does not think in terms of power,' Dooku said disapprovingly. 'We are peacekeepers.'
'Peacekeepers need power, just like everybody else,' Lorian pointed out. 'If they don't have it, who will listen?'
Lorian was right, even though he wasn't expressing himself in what would be considered a true Jedi way. The Jedi did have power. Jedi did not use that word, but it fit. Lorian knew that, and he wasn't afraid to say it. Jedi were renowned throughout the galaxy. They weren't feared, but they were respected. They were asked by governments, by Senators, for their help. If that wasn't power, what was?
The best of the best. Wasn't that what he wanted?
'Thame is a great Knight,' Lorian continued. 'I'd think you'd want to be worthy of him. If I had a Master, I'd prepare as much as I could before we left the Temple. I wouldn't want to disappoint him.'
'I won't disappoint him if I do my best,' Dooku said. 'That is all I can do.'
Lorian threw himself back on Thame's sleep couch with a groan. 'Now you sound like Yoda.'
'Don't sit there!' Dooku hissed, but Lorian ignored him.
Lorian stared at the ceiling. `No one has chosen me.'
Dooku held his breath. Here it was, the big thing between them. He had been chosen by a Jedi Knight, and Lorian had not. Dooku had been one of the first to be chosen. Every day afterward, the two boys had waited for a Jedi Knight to choose Lorian. They knew that many had watched him, and some had considered him seriously. Yet each time, the Knight had chosen someone else. Neither Dooku nor Lorian knew why.
Dooku had always been ahead of Lorian in battle skills and Force connection, but Lorian was just as brilliant in his studies and commitment. It was unthinkable that Lorian would not be chosen eventually.
'It will happen,' Dooku said. 'Patience exists to be tested.'
Lorian flipped over on his side and gave Dooku a flat stare. 'Right.'
Dooku wished he could take back his words. They were so… correct.
They were something a Jedi Master might say, not a best friend. But the truth was that he didn't know what to say. The period of waiting was hard, but everything would turn out all right.
Lorian coiled his body into a ball and then shot off the bed. 'Okay, make a decision. Do we access the Sith Holocron or not?'
Dooku reached over to straighten the wrinkles Lorian had made on his new Master's bed. Thame was everything he'd hoped to get as a Master.
He couldn't jeopardize that. Not even for his best friend.
'Not,' he said. 'We'd get in serious trouble if we got caught.'
'You never worried about getting caught before,' Lorian said.
That's because I never had so much to lose. But Dooku couldn't say that. If he did, it would only point out that Lorian didn't have a Master.
Dooku felt Lorian's eyes on his back as he bent to smooth the coverlet at the end of Thame's sleep couch.
'If you could do it without the risk of getting caught, you would do it,' Lorian said. 'So the fact that it's wrong isn't really the reason you won't. Maybe you're not the true Jedi you think you are.'
He sauntered out the door. 'Just wanted you to know that I noticed.'
Chapter 2
Now that Dooku was through with his official Temple training, he was allowed to structure his days himself. Although he was expected to continue to study and devote himself to battle training and physical discipline, it was also expected that he would allot the time for activities he enjoyed. In the brief period between a Padawan's last official classes and becoming an apprentice, the Jedi Masters indulged their students and gave them freedom to roam.
