Star Wars_ Children of the Jedi - Barbara Hambly [177]
“You’re right.” Leia looked around her for a last time at Plett’s House, or the ruin that the Empire had left of it: broken walls, shattered arches, the metal slab replaced over the well. The echoes of its ancient peace filled her, covering the pain and ruin as the exuberance of the rift’s ubiquitous vines covered the scars of that ancient shelling. Somewhere she seemed to hear children’s voices again, singing that old song about the forgotten Queen and her magic birds.
Callista had given her a partial list of names, all she could remember, though she herself had only visited the place briefly and didn’t know most of the Jedi there. But it was a start. And she had something of those forgotten children, something of the old Jedi who had lived here, who had offered them refuge …
Movement flickered in the corner of her vision. A ghost? she thought. Or the echo of a memory? The shadows of two tiny children chased each other over the thick olive-tinted grass, and faded into a stray drift of fog.
Nichos? she wondered. Roganda? One running toward the light, the other toward the dark?
Someone whose name she did not yet know?
Or were they shadows from the future, not the children who had been there, but the children who were to come?
“Hey, kid!” yelled Han, and Leia poked him in the ribs.
“C’mon,” she said. “Luke deserves a break.”
It had been, for him, a long, long time.
The couple on the bench turned their heads.
“We’re blowin’ out of this jerkwater rock,” called out Han. “Can we drop you anyplace?”
They looked at each other, their faces reflecting a curious kinship, for a moment more like brother and sister than lovers: people who have known each other for lifetimes past. Then Callista said, “Yavin. If it’s on your way.”
Han grinned. “I think we can manage that.”
Luke and Callista crossed the grass to them hand in hand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BARBARA HAMBLY is the author of The Emancipator’s Wife, a finalist for the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. She is also the author of Fever Season, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and seven acclaimed historical novels.
Also by Barbara Hambly
THE EMANCIPATOR’S WIFE
A FREE MAN OF COLOR
FEVER SEASON
GRAVEYARD DUST
SOLD DOWN THE RIVER
DIE UPON A KISS
WET GRAVE
DAYS OF THE DEAD
DEAD WATER
And coming soon in hardcover from Bantam
HOME LAND
STAR WARS—The Expanded Universe
You saw the movies. You watched the cartoon series, or maybe played some of the video games. But did you know …
In The Empire Strikes Back, Princess Leia Organa said to Han Solo, “I love you.” Han said, “I know.” But did you know that they actually got married? And had three Jedi children: the twins, Jacen and Jaina, and a younger son, Anakin?
Luke Skywalker was trained as a Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But did you know that, years later, he went on to revive the Jedi Order and its commitment to defending the galaxy from evil and injustice?
Obi-Wan said to Luke, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” Did you know that over those millennia, legendary Jedi and infamous Sith Lords were adding their names to the annals of Republic history?
Yoda explained that the dreaded Sith tend to come in twos: “Always two, there are. No more, no less. A Master, and an apprentice.” But did you know that the Sith didn’t always exist in pairs? That at one time in the ancient Republic there were as many Sith as Jedi, until a Sith Lord named Darth Bane was the lone survivor of a great Sith war and created the “Rule of Two”?
All this and much, much more is brought to life in the many novels and comics of the Star