CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Far above... far above... we don’t know where we’ll fall,” muttered the creature as he used a broken bit of blackened bone lo scratch a drawing onto the wall of his cavernous dwelling, his bare hack warmed by the small fire he’d built. “Far above... what once was great is rendered small.” The drawing consisted of a pair of small silhouettes, a man’s upper body separated from his lower body, each half apparently descending between two vertical lines that indicated a deep chute.
The creature sighed. “Nowhere to go but down.”
More than a decade had passed since the skirmish that had become known as the Battle of Naboo. The creature that had once been Darth Maul moved on his spiderlike droid legs through a tunnel on the planet Lotho Minor. He still didn’t know how long he’d been in the tunnel, or how or when he’d arrived on such a dismal world. He still remembered nothing about his life before, when he lived aboveground. All he had left were his anger and his hunger.
“Falling, falling, falling.” He looked at his other drawings of small figures on the wall. Some figures were being tortured, others killed. Many were fighting with burning sticks. Some sticks were blue. Some were red. The creature liked the red slicks.
No, not sticks. Sticks are wrong. Something else that cuts and bums like...
He heard something move in the upper levels, a slithering sound that he recognized as coming from the one who called himself Morley. Morley was a snakelike scavenger who should have kept his distance. Stupid Morley.
And then he heard footsteps. Someone was walking with Morley.
Someone very big. On two legs.
Lowering the bone he’d been using as a drawing stick, he kept to the shadows as he scurried up a wall, careful not to make a sound. Despite his damaged memories, he knew every crevice and foothold in the tunnels.
As he shifted his metal legs up toward the ceiling, he looked down and saw Motley’s shadowy form slink into the dark chamber. Near Morley, another dark form shifted, a hulking humanoid. A small point of light radiated and moved across the area of the big man’s chest.
Something glowing, something burns...
“He’s going to get you!” Morley cried.
The big man spun around and moved away from Morley. Motley shouted, “He’s going to eat you alive!”
The creature dinging to the ceiling did not know whether Morley was threatening him or encouraging him to make a feast of the big man. The creature didn’t care. He descended fast and pounced on Morley.
“No!” Morley screamed. “Not me! Please, not me!”
The creature squeezed Morley’s writhing body. He liked the sounds of Morley’s screams and desperate gasps for breath, but not as much as be enjoyed the loud snapping of bones as he broke Morley’s spine.
Now for the big man.
The creature spotted something glowing in the darkness, recognized it as the point of light he’d seen on the other intruder’s chest. He lurched forward on his metal legs and was about to spring when the man ignited a long red stick.
Not a stick.
A red blade made of pure energy. It was familiar...
Mine!
The creature knew he had once owned the weapon, or one very much like it. He glared at the intruder, saw that the point of light against his chest was a small amulet that hung from a chain around his neck. The man’s head was illuminated by the glowing red blade. His strong face was tattooed with jagged patterns, and horns extended from his skull.
A reflection?!
For unknown reasons, the creature thought of a boy floating outside a window.
Me? No! Not me!
Confused and outraged, the creature shrieked and launched himself at the intruder, slamming him against the wall. He grabbed tor the weapon’s handle but the intruder knocked him back. His six metal legs clattered as he tumbled across the floor, but he rolled up onto his tapered feet and lashed out again, punching and kicking. His fingers struck armor and powerful muscles. He barely noticed that the intruder was only trying to ward him off with the red blade, not strike him down.
He pried at the central grip, trying to yank the weapon from the intruder’s grasp. He did not assume that the weapon housed separate components for each blade, his shattered mind not even comprehending the incredible technology. He just knew that it was familiar and deadly, and that he wanted it.
The weapon snapped in two, leaving the intruder holding one red blade and the creature with the other. And then they were fighting, the two blades clashing in the darkness. Their fight carried them through the cave, but then the intruder grunted and fell back.
“You, Darth Maul,” the intruder said, “are who I’ve been searching for.”
Darth Maul?
“I thought you were dead. You are my kin.”
Memories flickered in the creature’s mind... in Maul’s mind. He growled, “No!”
“We are brothers.’
Maul shook his head, “You don’t know,” Maul snapped. “You don’t know anything!”
The intruder placed his hand over his chest. “I know I am your blood.”
Maul glared at the intruder. I don’t know you! He tried to read the stranger’s expression. Sorry for me? Disgusted? Maul’s blood began to boil. The stranger was nothing to him, not even a threat. Sneering, he cast aside the weapon and retreated into the cave.
He clambered over junk and shoved aside rotting carcasses, making his way back to the fire he’d built. It was still burning. He crouched on the filthy floor, stared at the drawings on the walls, and began chanting, “Never never never never never...”
The hulking stranger followed Maul to the fire. Looking around, the stranger said with dismay, “This is where you live?”
Without looking at the stranger, Maul nodded in response. He picked up a nearby bone and began gnawing on it.
The stranger noticed the weird and violent drawings that decorated the walls. “How long have you lived here?”
Maul nipped at the bone, his eyes rolling back and forth madly as he replied, “Years and years and years and years.”
“You are a powerful Sith,” the stranger said solemnly. “The whole galaxy shook before your power. Do you remember?”
The whole galaxy?! Maul leered. “Always remember, always remember.”
The stranger eyed the robotic apparatus beneath Maul’s rib cage and said, “Your legs?”
“That scum look it,” Maul said.
The stranger seemed pleased by Maul’s answer. “The Jedi... you remember.” Taking a cautious step toward Maul, the stranger said, “I’ve brought a gift for you.”
“For me?” Maul said with disbelief. “Food?”
“No. Something to regain your memory.” He removed the glowing talisman from his neck and handed it to Maul.
Maul clutched at the Talisman. Rocking back and forth on his robot legs, he began chanting.
The stranger leaned closer to Maul. “Brother, what are you saying?”
But Maul wasn’t listening. His focus was on the talisman, which glowed increasingly brighter in his hand. And then his mind was flooded by fragmented memories.
My childhood... my training... my Master!
In his mind, he saw a young man.
Scum!
The man was a Jedi.
Jedi scum! What's his name?
He knew the man’s name was Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Maul’s eyes went wide. And then he collapsed.
EPILOGUE
The hulking man claimed his name was Savage Opress. Like Maul, he was a Zabrak. According to Oppress, Talzin had transformed him into a monstrous warrior, endowed him with dark side powers, and given him the amulet and sent him in search of Maul. Maul had no recollection of the amulet, the talisman Talzin had brushed against his bloodied arm years earlier. He didn’t remember anyone named Talzin.
When Opress’s starship left the planet Lotho Minor, Maul was with him. Opress had plotted a course for Dathomir. He explained that they would find Talzin on Dathomi
r, that Talzin would help Maul. Maul didn’t know why Talzin would help him, but he did know that he needed help.
Because now he knew the identity of the person who had transformed him into a monster. He knew the man was a Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi. If Opress and Talzin could help Maul, they might help him find Kenobi. But Maul also knew he was in bad shape, that what he could really use was a new set of legs.
And then he would make Kenobi pay.
He looked at Opress, who was seated behind the controls of the starship that was carrying them to the hyperspace jump point that would take them to Dathomir. Maul was not certain that Opress was his ally, let alone his brother. But Maul was willing to take a chance.
Maybe he’s a reflection... maybe he’s the boy outside the window.
Maul could only imagine what the future held, or whether he could trust the man who was bringing him to Dathomir. He hoped Opress was indeed his friend.
Everyone else could burn.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul reveals many new details about Darth Maul’s life but also draws dialogue and situations from previously published books, including the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace by George Lucas; the movie novelization of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks; and most notably Star Wars: Episode I Journal - Darth Maul by Jude Watson, which provided a wealth of information about Maul’s childhood and training. I borrowed from Watson’s book liberally and with great respect. The story also incorporates details from the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode “Brothers,” scripted by Katie Lucas.
I’m extremely grateful to writer James Luceno, who generously gave me some great ideas so The Wrath of Darth Maul would mesh with his novel Darth Plagueis, and also provided an early draft of his short story “Restraint,” from which I also borrowed liberally; I encourage readers to read “Restraint” for a more expansive amount of Maul’s exploits on the planet Orsis. Thanks also to former Scholastic editor Annmarie Nye for enlisting me to written this book; to editor Frank Parisi and Lucas Books executive editor Jonathan Rinzler for their valued input, and to Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee for helping us Star Wars writers maintain continuity. Thanks to Greg Mitchell for reminding me about the Dusty Duck. And thinks to my daughter Violet for reading an advance version of this book’s early chapters and reassuring me I could make at least one person feel sorry for Darth Maul.
Star Wars - The Wrath of Darth Maul Page 15
