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“Lumiya’s real name.”

Luke nodded. “I didn’t make the connection at the time, because then it had been years since we’d heard anything about Lumiya.” A thought was growing within him, and alongside it a worry, a big one. “Let’s say Lumiya has a daughter. She names her Brisha, a self-tribute, and Brisha works with her. Brisha lures Jacen and Ben to an ambush. She and the mysterious Sith she claims is living in her basement—maybe he’s just a Dark Jedi she’s hired, maybe he’s Lumiya’s Sith apprentice—are going to kill Ben, an act of revenge for everything I’ve done to Lumiya. Or maybe to capture him, train him to be a Sith. Which is just as much revenge, and twice the evil.”

“I did a thing or two to her, as well.”

“Right. Revenge against both of us. But Nelani is there, too, and throws the odds off. The dark sider and Nelani are killed, Brisha is badly wounded, Ben gets a knock in the head and forgets what happened, and Jacen presumably never figures out that Brisha was one of the bad guys. Jacen and Ben leave…and weeks later, Brisha ‘succumbs to injuries.’”

“And her mother…” Mara winced. “Her mother would want revenge. Against Jacen. He’s racking up quite a body count against daughters of dangerous opponents of ours.”

Luke shook his head. “We don’t know that Jacen wounded Brisha. How could he have done so and then left the habitat without thinking of her as an enemy? Ben must have done it, during one of the periods of time his memory doesn’t cover. Which would make Ben the target.” His stomach began doing flip-flops. In addition to being a cocky teenager alone in a galaxy at war, Ben might now be the target of one of the galaxy’s deadliest killers—a woman who had fought Luke to a standstill mere weeks before.

“Your theory spooks me, farmboy. Because it answers a lot of the questions we’ve been asking. Why Lumiya would have infiltrated the Galactic Alliance Guard—to gather information about Jacen or Ben and prepare for revenge if she needed to take it. Why she would have been around for as long as we’ve known she has been but didn’t attack you until a few weeks ago—because that’s when she received the word about her daughter dying.” Her frown deepened. “And what if this is the reason for all Jacen’s bad decisions? What if Brisha or the Sith apprentice on that planetoid got to him, affected him—infected him in some way?”

“Then whatever’s afflicting him might be easily curable.”

Mara slammed her fists down on the tabletop and turned away from Luke. Far from being pleased by that possibility, she’d been angered by it, and even without the benefit of their Force-bond, Luke thought he knew why.

Because if Jacen were the victim of some Sith brainwashing technique, he wasn’t responsible for his recent actions. In which case Mara couldn’t forge and sharpen her emotions, her dedication, to oppose and eliminate him as a former Emperor’s Hand should be able to.

“We have to find out what happened on that asteroid,” Luke said. “And we have to confront Jacen face-to-face to do that. We can’t be in a position where all he has to do is press an OFF switch to shut us out.”

“I agree.” Mara’s voice was strained.

“I’ll make the arrangements.”

“Before you go…” A little pain crept into Mara’s voice. “Luke, who was Brisha’s father?”

Luke shrugged as he rose. “How would I know?” Then he caught the look on her face, a combination of suspicion and an eagerness to let any answer wipe that suspicion away, and he said, “No.”

“You’re sure.”

He offered her a reassuring grin. “Mara, we were involved emotionally, but not physically.”

“All right.” The suspicion eased from her expression, but through their Force-bond Luke could still feel a touch of disquiet from her.

As Luke hurried off to make flight arrangements to Corellia, he cursed Lumiya—for managing to introduce strife, however fleeting, into his life, this time without even trying.

CORELLIAN EXCLUSION ZONE ERRANT VENTURE

The universe was not cooperating, and Alema Rar was becoming impatient with it.

There was a Jedi—other than herself—aboard Errant Venture. She was sure of it.