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“I’ve made a lot of hard decisions recently based on what I thought was right, Lando. Decisions that weren’t what I wanted,” she said quietly. “I’m the Sword of the Jedi. I stand, supposedly, for justice. If the Hutts really did keep their end of the bargain, then my answer is yes. I can look the Elders in the eye and say that.”

“I really don’t want to do this.”

“Then don’t. Take the Rockhound and join Luke in the Maw. Hopefully, I will be there soon. I’ll be one of their offworlders, and they can find someone else. Really, it’s okay.” And he could tell by looking at her that it was. She was making the decision for herself, and letting him make the right one for him.

“You are far too much like your mother sometimes, you know that?” he muttered. “You damn diplomats.” He heaved a sigh and waved at Ornate, who unmuted the hologram.

“All right, Darima. You got yourselves two offworlders.”

KLATOOINE

AS THEY FLEW OVER THE PLANET’S SURFACE IN THE SMALL SKIFF, LANDO and Jaina could see that Mun and Chancellor Kedari had not exaggerated. If anything, they had downplayed the violence. Vessels, both on the ground and in the air, surrounded the capital city. Tiny figures of armed guards milled around, and Jaina shuddered involuntarily.

Lando caught the gesture. “You okay?”

“It’s exactly like what the Mandos are doing to the Temple right now. And it was by sheer dumb luck that I wasn’t trapped there as well. I’d left less than a half hour beforehand.”

“Heh. Maybe ol’ Darima was right. Maybe we have been sent by the Ancestors.”

“I wish the Ancestors would send someone to kick Daala’s …” Jaina sighed and shifted in the passenger seat.

“You’re just antsy because you’re not piloting.”

“That, too. I can’t believe we’re going to be listening to Hutts and Sith, and ending up actually siding with one.”

“Well, let me put it this way—I have known some Hutts who were decent beings. But we’ve gotta do our best to be impartial.”

“We could blast both of them. That’d be nice and evenhanded,” Jaina said, giving him a little smile.

“Don’t tempt me. We’re almost to the Fountain, and the palace is right next to it. You should take a look. It’s quite the beautiful object.”

Jaina had averted her eyes after seeing Treema, but now did as Lando suggested. And her eyes widened.

“Uh, Lando? You should take a look.”

A colorful oath escaped him as he did so. Below them was the Fountain of the Ancients, or the Hutt Ancients, depending on who one talked to. And Jaina had to admit, it was beautiful. What was not beautiful was the throng that had clustered around it. They were clamoring to get in, the Klatooinians, to be close to the sacred natural phenomenon that had been so much a part of their culture and history at this time of crisis. Except there were too many, shoving, pushing, an enormous crowd of beings surging forward.

“There must be thousands of them,” Jaina said, correcting herself almost immediately. “Tens of thousands.”

“Hundreds of thousands in a few hours,” Lando said. “Klatooine may have a planetwide lockdown, and I bet that includes major communications channels, but beings have a way of finding things out.”

They were silent as they were vectored in to a large landing area of the palace. Chancellor Kedari was there, along with several attendants. In person, Jaina found him much less imposing. He was shorter than she had expected, he leaned heavily on a beautifully crafted staff, and his body language was that of someone who was very close to being beaten down. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t imagine what sacrilege done to something that had been part of her very identity—that of everyone on this world—would have done to her. She was having a difficult enough time handling a broken engagement.

“You are very welcome here, both of you,” Darima said. “Ordinarily I would extend more ceremony to this meeting, but I think you have seen by now that time is of the essence. We must restore order as soon as possible, and to that end, we must have a decision. Please