• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Copy,” Lando said. “There are a couple of things you should know. First, the Horn kids are on their way back to the Temple.”

Luke’s brow rose. “Daala released them?”

“Not exactly,” Lando replied. “Han and Leia gave her a little help. Second, Kenth Hamner is dead.”

The last news struck Ben like a stun bolt, but Luke merely closed his eyes and nodded. “I sensed something like that.”

“I don’t want to go into it over the comm.”

“That’s fine,” Luke said. “I’ll find out later. Can I assume that we’re using the Errant Venture as a StealthX mother ship because … Daala isn’t cooperating?”

“You could say that,” Lando replied. “In fact, you could shout it.”

Luke cringed. “I see.” The immense blue disk of the planet Almania began to creep across the canopy as Vestara swung the Shadow after Ship, and he said, “We’ve got ten seconds, Lando. I’ll contact the Temple again as soon as possible. Anything else?”

“One bit of good news,” Lando said. “It looks like Wynn Dorvan may be considering early retirement.”

“Retirement?” Ben and Luke asked the question simultaneously.

“That’s right,” Lando said. “He made the final table, and he’s the hands-down favorite to win the first Tendrando Arms Celebrity Sabacc Charity Challenge.”

LEIA FOUND HER ALONE IN THE APEX OF THE TEMPLE, STANDING LIKE A statue as she looked out over a Coruscant already twinkling in the evening gloom. The Barabel held her hands clasped tightly behind her back, as though she feared what they might do if she allowed them to hang free. Her shoulders were rising and falling in time to breathing so heavy and steady that it was audible on the far side of the cupola. Wary of intruding on a Master’s meditations—even if she had been ordered to report—Leia stopped just inside the entrance and waited for a summons that was only heartbeats in coming.

“Let there be no ceremony between us, Jedi Solo.” Though Saba continued to gaze out the viewport as she spoke, her voice seemed to rise from Leia’s shoulder. “We have been friendz too long, this one and you.”

“Yes, we have,” Leia said, crossing to the Barabel’s side. “But part of being friends is knowing when one shouldn’t intrude.”

“That is so?” Saba turned to face her, and Leia saw that the Barabel’s narrow eyes were rimmed in red. “There are times when humanz do not cherish the companionship of close ones?”

“Sometimes,” Leia said, watching Saba’s face carefully. “Such as when we’re crying. Sometimes we want to be alone then.”

Saba showed the tips of her fangs, creating what seemed to be a sad grin. “You think Barabelz cry, Jedi Solo?”

“Maybe not,” Leia said, not quite sure whether she had offended Saba or amused her. “But I can feel it in the Force when you have a heavy heart.”

Saba let her chin drop. “Yes, today this one has a heart like a stone.” Her chin remained against her chest, but she lifted her eyes to look at Leia. “You have heard about Grand Master Hamner?”

Leia nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry that had to happen,” she said. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Then whose fault was it, Jedi Solo?” Saba asked, cocking her head. “It was this one who chose to let him fall.”

“And Kenth is the one who forced you to make that choice,” Leia reminded her. “If you hadn’t, Luke and Ben would be prisoners of the Sith right now—or worse. And the Jedi would have no way to find Abeloth. You made the right choice.”

Saba shrugged and looked out the transparisteel again. “Master Skywalker would have found a better choice.”

“Luke wasn’t there, Master,” Leia said. “No one will ever know what he would have done differently. Perhaps he wouldn’t have tried as hard as you did to save Kenth’s life.”

“He wouldn’t have had to, Jedi Solo. That is the difference.” She unclasped her hands and laid one across Leia’s back, an unusual gesture of intimacy for a Barabel. “Grand Master Hamner will require a funeral, like Mara had?”

“Yes, I suppose he will,” Leia said.

“This one does not understand such thingz,” she said. “You will help her organize it?”

“I think that would be