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But even the Exultation seemed to have lost its power over her, for the moment. Leaning forward, Bria opened her mouth, drinking in the wind of their passage. She wanted to wave her arms and whoop aloud, but she resisted, not wanting to chance unbalancing the mosgoth.

“Won’t it tire her out, carrying double?” she shouted back at Han.

His voice came almost in her ear. She could feel the warmth of his breath. “She’s used to carrying male Togorians. You and me together don’t weigh as much as Muuurgh—or even some of the smaller males. Kaydiss is fine.”

Half an hour later, the broad river they’d been following widened, until it branched into a large delta. Han turned the mosgoth north, and then, within a few more minutes, Bria saw the curling white breakers breaking over silvery-gold sand.

She turned to give Han an excited smile. “The beach!”

“I promised myself that someday we’d go to a real beach,” he said. “One where we could swim, and not worry about getting eaten.”

He was guiding the mosgoth lower and lower now, and finally, she came to a halt on the sand. Han slipped on her wing hobble, then left her to forage for herself in the nearby salt marsh. He returned, carrying the blanket and their lunch.

“Swim first,” he asked, “or food first?”

Bria looked at the white surf and felt the tug of the water. Her family owned a beach house on Corellia, and she’d loved to swim ever since she’d been old enough to walk. “Swim,” she said.

Glad that she’d worn a one-piece singlet beneath her shirt and trousers, Bria pulled off her outer clothes and raced into the water. Han, having stripped down to his shorts, followed her.

She soon found that, to her surprise, he couldn’t swim.

“Never got the chance to learn,” he admitted, a little embarrassed. “I was always working, and when I wasn’t actually working, I was swoop racing or something. I told you, the beach on Ylesia was the first time I’d ever seen a lot of water all together.”

“Well,” said Bria firmly, “today you’re going to learn. You’re young and strong and you’ve got good balance and reflexes. You’ll be fine.”

Han proved an apt pupil. Bria was amazed at how hard he concentrated, how precisely he followed her instructions on how to move his arms, his legs, when to breathe, etc. She commented on it at one point. Han smiled sardonically. “Pilots learn to follow instructions,” he said. “Or they wind up dead pilots.”

Before they came out of the water to eat, he was paddling around fearlessly in the surf and had begun to be able to coordinate his breathing with his arm strokes and leg kicks.

“You’re a very good pupil,” Bria praised as they sat together on the blanket, gazing out to sea.

“Thanks,” he said. “You’re a good teacher.”

They shared food from the provisions he’d brought, and then they walked hand in hand along the beach. At one point a tiny lizard flew overhead, winking in shades of green and gold. Bria put out a hand and held very, very still, and the tiny thing lighted on her fingers and clung there, its wings waving gently in the breeze. Han grinned at her. “You look … beautiful …” he said.

“I feel as though I own the world,” she replied, half joking. “This day … I’ll remember it always, Han.”

“You own this beach,” he said, smiling down at her. “I give it to you. It’s yours, for today.”

The lizard took wing, still quite unafraid, and flew away.

As they strolled through the breakers, Han told her more about his determination to get into the Imperial Academy. “People look up to an Imperial officer,” he said. “Nobody’s ever looked up to me for anything, before, but if I can get in, that’s all going to change. I’ll be able to turn my life around, Bria. I’ll never have to steal or smuggle or cheat anyone again.”

Bria’s eyes filled with tears at the earnestness in his voice. She reached up and caressed his cheek gently. “My heart breaks for you, sometimes,” she whispered. “You’ve known such cruelty, such betrayal …”

He touched her cheek in return, his brown eyes intent.