"Interminably." He sighed resignedly as he resumed surveying the crowd with her.
"It is a fair price." The mane of the Ansionian trader had been painted with alternating silver and black chevrons that ran down his spine to disappear beneath his low-cut collar. Convex lavender-hued eyes studied his clients blankly, giving away nothing. "Nowhere else in Cuipernam, or on the Sorr-ul-Paan Plateau, will you find six such splendid steeds of such grace and quality! Not for thrice the price!"
"Be not overinsistent," Kyakhta told him, "lest your inces sant haranguing curdle the stomachs of my masters." Turning away from the broker, he lowered his voice as he and Bulgan conferenced with their new employers.
"He is right, Master Luminara. The price he asks is a fair one. Slightly high, perhaps, but the animals are in excellent condition."
"To ride such mounts!" Bulgan could hardly contain his anticipation.
"Give us a moment." Turning away, Luminara left the two Alwari to continue with the negotiations, although by now these were no more than a matter of trying to shave minuscule amounts off the broker's final offer. "What do you think, Obi-Wan?"
He surveyed the surrounding market, ever alert for signs of impending aggression. "I think we should rely on the native expertise of our new guides. After what your Padawan did for them, I believe they would cheat themselves before they would take advantage of her." A glance back showed the two Alwari still arguing agreeably with the seller. "Besides, I'm rather looking forward to riding one of the beasts. One of these days, I have a feeling I'll have no choice but to ride around in old skimmers and beat-up landspeeders." Looking up, he studied the clear blue sky.
Luminara eyed the Padawans. "There is still tension between Barriss and Anakin."
"Yes." Obi-Wan sighed. "I've noticed it, too. But they appear to be getting on better since her ordeal. A fine student, Barriss. The Force flows strongly within her."
"So it does, but not like it does in young Anakin. He is a wild river, your Padawan, full of repressed energy that needs channeling."
"He came unreasonably late to training, and was raised by his mother to a greater age than the usual apprentice."
Luminara looked again in the Padawans' direction. "He knew his mother? That is a bond Jedi apprentices do not normally bring with them. It presents all manner of potential com plications and difficulties."
"I know. For that reason alone I would have not accepted him, but he was taken up by my own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, whose dying wishes I vowed to respect. Among other matters that had to be dealt with subsequent to his passing, that meant dealing with and bringing along this unusually volatile youth."
"How has it gone?" she asked earnestly.
Obi-Wan stroked his beard absently. "He's often impetuous, which is worrying. Sometimes it carries over into impatience, which is dangerous. But he has gone through and survived a great deal, and he is an avid student of Jedi lore. There are subjects in which he excels, such as lightsaber combat. And he's a natural pilot. But he has little time for the intricacies of history or diplomacy, and politics positively make him ill. Yet he perseveres. A trait he gets, I believe, from his mother, whom Qui-Gon knew but briefly as a quiet yet strong-willed woman."
She nodded thoughtfully. "If anyone can turn such unwieldy raw material into a polished Jedi Knight, I suspect it is you, Obi-Wan. Many have the knowledge, but few the patience."
"You could do it, I think."
She regarded him straight on. Face to face, the two Jedi gazed into each other's eyes. Each saw something different but worthy there. Each saw something distinctive, even exceptional. When they finally looked away, it was simultaneously.
Turning, Obi-Wan moved to consult with the gently bickering Alwari. She watched him for a long, contemplative moment before turning back to resume her scrutiny of the crowd.
At Obi-Wan's urging, Kyakhta and Bulgan concluded their negotiations for the six animals. At the shoulder, the magnificent suubatars stood thrice the height of a human. They were six-legged, with long-splayed toes that seemed wholly out of place on a creature designed for running through open grasslands.
When Anakin pointed out this seeming evolutionary disparity to Kyakhta, the Alwari laughed.
"You'll see what they are for, Jedi Padawan!" Pulling back on the double set of reins, he effortlessly turned his own newly acquired mount.
The lightweight but thickly padded saddle was cinched be tween the front and middle shoulders. Between middle shoulders and rear haunches, a second swayback would accommodate a sizable pack of supplies. Having been negotiated for and priced, these were in the process of being loaded onto the complaisant animals by the merchant's busy underlings.
"Food, water, accessories: all has been acquired and ac counted for, Master Barriss." Bulgan had his own booted, long-toed feet thrust forward in stirrups that were slung on either side of the suubatar's neck, instead of hanging downward. The smooth arch of the saddle behind him cradled his crippled back. "Ahhhh-haja!" he exclaimed with evident pleasure. "To sit like this brings back many memories."
Following Kyakhta's instructions, Luminara straddled her own mount. Despite its height, she had no trouble doing so. First, because it was presently crouched down awaiting its rider, and second, because the body was lean and narrow. The reason for the saddle became immediately apparent. Without it, one would be seated directly atop the line of protruding vertebrae.
"Elup!" Kyakhta barked. Starting from the front, the suu- batar rose one set of legs at a time: front, middle, and finally rear. The reason for the high-arching leather curve at the back of the saddle was now clear. With no support behind her, the angle of ascent would have sent Luminara bouncing down the creature's spine all the way to the ground.
Though each boasted its own pattern of dark green stripes set against short soft fur, all six animals were the same underlying light bronze color. The combination would allow them, despite their size and visibility, to blend in well with their prairie land surroundings. Expecting the suubatars to be typical grazing herbivorous creatures, Luminara was surprised to learn that they were in fact omnivores, able to survive on a wide variety of foods. Their long, slim jaws were hinged at the bottom, allowing for an enormous if narrow gape that could swallow astonishingly large fruits or prey in a single gulp. The four front canines protruded above and below the jaws, giving their owners a fearsome appearance that belied their placid nature.
"Of course, these are domesticated individuals," Bulgan told her, divining her thoughts. "Wild suubatars have been known to attack and destroy entire caravans."
"That's reassuring." Bobbing from side to side atop his pa tient mount, Anakin was struggling to maintain his balance. Kyakhta noted the trouble he was having and came alongside.
"You're sitting up too straight, Master Anakin. Lean back into the viann, the saddle support. There, that's it. See how your legs now thrust naturally into the forward stirrups?"
"But I can't see as well in this position," the Padawan com plained, struggling to hang on to the double set of reins.
"I think we're high up enough to see anything of impor tance," Obi-Wan told him. He lay back in the saddle as one to the manner born. "Look on this as another unexpected episode in your education."