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Leia felt a little taken aback by the girl’s words. For Tenel Ka to enter a conversation now, hours after she had accepted the negotiators’ invitation to come to Klatooine—an invitation and an acceptance that had not been announced—could be more than coincidence. Allana was Force-sensitive.

“Tell me about your dream.”

“She was smiling at me. She was wearing robes like everyone here wears. She was out there on the sand and I was running to her. Then there was a man made of fire, bright burning fire. He grabbed her from behind and she started burning.” Tears began to roll down Allana’s cheeks. “She was just looking at me real sad and she was burning up. And it wasn’t a dream. It was different.”

Leia used a corner of the sheet to mop up the tears. “Maybe it was more than a dream. But that doesn’t make it the truth, doesn’t make it the future. It could be leftover pain from when your mommy lost her arm. That would have been like burning.”

“I felt it through the Force?”

Leia nodded.

“But why would the Force do that to me?”

Leia smiled. “One of the horrible things about life is that you hardly ever know something like that right now. Later on, you figure it out.”

“Is she coming here?”

Leia paused before answering. “I wasn’t going to tell you. It was going to be a surprise. But yes.”

For once, news of this sort didn’t seem to make Allana happy. She didn’t smile. “The man on fire wants to kill her.”

“If there is such a man, we’ll stop him. Or your mother will. She’s very, very good at that sort of thing.”

“Uh-huh.” Allana didn’t seem convinced.

“You feeling better?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You want some water or milk?”

“Uh-uh.”

Leia hugged her. “You go back to sleep, then. Everything will be fine.”

“Uh-huh.”

Once out in the lounge, Leia dropped into a seat beside Han and let out a long sigh. “We may have some new trouble.”

“Can I shoot it?”

“Please do.”

HWEG SHUL, NAM CHORIOS

KANDRA ASKED IT A DIFFERENT WAY, JUST TO BE SURE THAT SHE HADN’T misunderstood, that there would be no ambiguity. “So you’re certain neither Grand Master Skywalker nor either of his companions could have stabbed you?”

On the other side of the old, elaborately carved Ithorian wood desk, Mayor Snaplaunce nodded. “I was watching them take off when I felt the vibroblade enter my back. Official city telemetry followed the shuttle on its flight path until its movements became erratic. My assailant was someone here in Hweg Shul at the time, and was neither a Skywalker nor the young Khai woman.”

“You seem to have recovered fully.”

“I was saved by ignorance. My assailant drove his blade in where human kidneys would have been. With Ithorians, those exact spots are occupied by back muscle. So the wounds, while potentially dangerous because of blood loss, were not immediately fatal.”

“So if the Skywalker party is clear of those charges—charges that many of the Oldtimers seem to persist in leveling against them—why do they remain the subjects of an arrest warrant?”

Snaplaunce gave her a stern look, which was mildly disconcerting coming from a hammer-headed Ithorian. “There is still much we must know in our investigation of the murder of Dr. Wei, and the members of the Skywalker party remain persons of interest. There is the question of the very damaging storms now growing in number on Nam Chorios’s surface—”

“Such as the one this morning.”

“Yes. Storms that were last attested to when Grand Master Skywalker, operating under the name Owen Lars, first came to Nam Chorios thirty years ago. There’s also the slight but measurable rise across the planet in theft of speeders, which corresponds closely with the rise in planetary visitors. There are mysteries at work here. As a former officer of the peace, I’m uncomfortable with mysteries. So that warrant will remain in effect until we have answers sufficient to clear it.”

“Thank you.” Kandra glanced at Beurth, signaling the end of the official interview. The recording light on his holocam went dark, and he lowered the apparatus from his shoulder.

Kandra stood.