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Luke’s surprised laugh was a loud noise in the confined space. “Not in this bucket. The navigator won’t take microjump parameters. And even if it would, chances are the resonances would shake her to pieces. There’s an entry shock wave in hyperspace, and when you microjump you have to let it catch you just when it’s at its strongest. We’d arrive at Teyr as a bright smudge in the sky.”

“Oh,” she said. “But we could have jumped all the way in if we’d planned to back at the last waypoint.”

“Right. If we were willing to answer all the questions and deal with the extra attention. I hate the crawl as much as you do, but, trust me, this is better.”

Akanah sighed. “I’ll try to sleep, then. It’s the easy way to make the time pass.”

“Good luck,” he said, and started to turn back to the console.

Then he realized it had almost happened again—the conversation he had started for a specific purpose had wandered away and disappeared before he could get to his question.

“Akanah?”

“Yes?”

“Before you fall asleep—there’s something I’ve been wondering about.”

“What is it?”

“Back at Ialtra—was there a date in that message you found?”

“A date? No.”

“Could you tell how long it had been there? Maybe scribing fades with time, or something like that—”

“No—not if it’s done well. I can’t tell you when the message was left—except that I’m sure it was left before the Fallanassi left Lucazec. Why?”

“I’m wondering how two Imperial agents could hide for so long in a place where everyone knows everyone else and nothing changes very quickly,” Luke said. “I’m wondering why they would.”

“Why—because they still want us—want the White Current as a weapon.”

“But why would they think anyone would be coming back there? Why would they be expecting you?”

She was quiet for a time. “I’ve been asking questions for a long time, trying to find the circle,” she said. “I haven’t always been as careful as I should have been, either in what I asked or who I asked.”

“Who did you tell that you were planning to go to Lucazec?”

“Only you,” she said. “But I tried sending messages to the circle, to Wialu. I talked to the customs and immigration office on Lucazec. I applied for every starliner job posted on Carratos, hoping to get a working passage. I checked open ticket prices constantly, every time new rates were posted.”

“So people started to know who you were, and something about what you were interested in.”

“More than that,” she said. “I made rather a pest of myself. I hung around the spaceport dives when a ship came in, hoping the crews might know something. I found ways of getting passenger lists. I talked to everyone I could who might know anything.” Her smile was full of regret. “It wasn’t until later that I thought to be more discreet.”

“The people you’d been left with—”

“I didn’t get any help from them,” she said. “They forbade me to speak to them about the circle, and punished me for looking on my own.”

“They must have been afraid for you—maybe for themselves, too. They were supposed to hide you, weren’t they? And you refused to stay hidden.”

“It’s easier to understand than it is to forgive,” she said. “They kept me from being where I belonged. I can’t forgive that until I find the circle again. If I never do, I don’t think I can ever forgive her.”

“Her?”

“Talsava,” she said. “My guardian on Carratos. But if I start talking about her now, I’ll never get to sleep.”

“All right,” he said. “Sorry.”

“You didn’t know,” said Akanah. “I’ll tell you about it, sometime.”

“When you’re ready.”

He thought that had ended the conversation. He heard Akanah changing position and pictured her lying on her side, her head on her folded arms. He was surprised when she spoke his name.

“What?”

“What do you think the chances are that someone will be looking for us on Teyr?”

“Greater than zero,” Luke said. “But we’ll be careful. Go to sleep, now.”

She did not argue or answer, and Luke lapsed into silence as well, wondering why he felt as though none of his questions had been answered, and the most