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Growling, Han snatched the comlink from Leia’s other hand and broke away from her toward the water. After three long strides, he reached back and hurled the comlink out to sea with all the strength he could muster. It made a small white splash out beyond where the Thodian swimmer had been. A moment later, a sleek dark shape broke the surface near the splash, then slipped below again.

“Han!” Leia’s tone carried both puzzlement and rebuke.

He turned back toward her. “I had to do it. It was trying to kill you.”

“What?”

“Look at us. We’re on vacation, for the first time in who can remember,” Han said, slowly returning to her. “We’re walking on a beautiful beach, hand in hand, with no kids climbing all over us—and we’re talking about politics.”

She sighed. “You’re right. It’s worse than I realized.”

“Trust me. The New Republic won’t fall if the President’s out of touch for a day, or three. And they’re not going to get that mess all cleaned up while we’re gone—you’ll get your share of mop and bucket time.”

“Oh, that’s comforting.”

Han stopped and turned her toward him. “Leia, you’ve given them enough of you. Can’t you give yourself—us—these few days? If this isn’t where you want to be, or what you want to be doing with this time, tell me, and we’ll do something about it. And if I have to take you farther from the castle to break the spell the Wizard of Duty laid on you—”

“Illafian Point is fine,” she said. “It’s beautiful here. And I doubt you could find a place that was any less like Imperial City.”

“Then stop worrying already. Try to enjoy yourself. That’s why you’re here.”

She started walking again and pulled him along with her. “I’ll try. But you’re going to have to be patient with me,” she said. “I’m kind of new to this ‘having fun’ business.”

“Oh?”

“Oh,” she said. “Being a princess of the royal family of Alderaan was a pretty serious matter, all things considered. Bail Organa’s idea of recreation was to take some subject you know nothing about and try to become an expert in it.”

“You must have taken family vacations at drill school.”

“Close. We’d go visit friends of my father, or have them as guests at the palace, and Bail would always be saying ‘Leia, this is my old friend Farblemumble. There isn’t anything he doesn’t know about noodlefishing, and he’s offered to teach you nineteen ways to make a trap net out of an old sweater—’ ”

Han was grinning broadly. “So that’s why my clothes keep disappearing.”

She poked him with a finger. “And then I skipped right over the part where I was supposed to be young and carefree—I was seventeen when I came here as a senator.” She sighed weightily. “Oh, my stars—”

“What?”

“I just realized that I’ve been on Coruscant as long as I lived on Alderaan. A little longer, even.” She shook her head. “Oh, I wish I hadn’t realized that. I don’t even like Coruscant that much, and now I’ve spent half my life there.”

“Really—that much? Ever been to the Ice Crypts? Walked the mazes in the Trophill Garden in East Minor? Heard a performance in the Kallarak Amphitheater?”

“No,” she said, and looked puzzled.

“I thought not. You don’t know Coruscant, Leia. What you know is Imperial City. And mostly the inside of rooms, at that.”

“You’re right,” she admitted. “I told you I wasn’t strong on this ‘fun’ business.—Did I ever tell you my first impression of Imperial City?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I wrote my father that it looked like a colony of squibs had moved into the Queen’s collection of braaken glass.” Leia laughed quietly and slipped an arm around Han’s waist. “Bail thought the braaken glass was hideous. He understood.”

As they continued in an intimate silence, Leia cast her gaze about her at the sea, the beach, and the sky. “This is nice, Han,” she said, as Anakin looked up from his sand sculptures and came running toward them. “Thank you. I don’t feel quite so much like one of the squibs out here.”

Chapter 11

“Admiral!” The nurse-medic saluted smartly. “Can I help