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Vergere sat back on her reverse-articulated legs, and her long ears pricked up. “Do you think they survived?”

Elan ran her hand over her lower chest and smiled maliciously. “I can feel them ripening, Vergere. They whisper to me. They await the four breaths that will liberate them. I can feel their eagerness.”

“Theirs or yours?”

Elan turned from the mirror to regard her familiar. “For loosing their deadly toxin, my reward will be great. Word may well reach the ear of Supreme Overlord Shimrra.”

“Without question,” Vergere assured. “Although it will be the members of your domain who profit.”

Elan continued to regard her. “You have so little faith that Harrar will be able to retrieve us after I have dispensed with the Jedi?”

Misgiving narrowed Vergere’s slanted eyes and ruffled the short feathers at the back of her neck. “I trust that Harrar will do all in his power to find you. But our movements won’t be easily monitored from this point on. Not after the assassin’s attack. Showolter will jump us about until we’re so deeply entrenched in New Republic space that even Nom Anor won’t be able to reach us.”

His injuries notwithstanding, the ever attentive Major Showolter had been careful not to identify the world to which they had been moved, though by all appearances it was even more remote and primitive than the last. On arriving, Elan had had the briefest view of impenetrable forests of peculiar trees. From snatches of overheard conversation it was clear that the planet boasted at least one small city, but also clear that Elan, Vergere, and the Intelligence operatives were far removed from it.

Elan stroked Vergere’s downy back. “If my duties demand that I die, then so be it, my pet. My domain will prosper. My father will be escalated to the rank of mosthigh priest.”

“And the determined Harrar will prosper.”

“That is not our concern.”

Vergere folded her arms and bowed her elongated head. “I will remain by your side, mistress.”

Gingerly, Elan examined the raw bruises the assassin’s powerful fingers had left on her neck. “I know the one Harrar sent,” she said after a moment. “He apprenticed under the Shai.”

Vergere pressed her hands to her eyes and applied some of her tears to Elan’s abraded flesh. “The same sect that spawned Commander Shedao Domain Shai.”

“The very same. Those of Domain Shai delight in inflicting pain for pain’s own sake—to themselves or to others unfortunate enough to stray into their reach. To the Shai, there is no higher calling than torment, the ‘embrace of pain.’ Pain is the beginning and the end.” Elan sighed relievedly. “Your tears refresh, my pet.”

Vergere continued to minister to her. “Harrar’s aim was to convince our captors of your importance, and in that he chose wisely. Better the New Republic thinks the Yuuzhan Vong intractable than reasonable.”

Elan nodded, without comment.

Though Vergere might have been born of the Yuuzhan Vong’s masterful talent for genetic manipulation, the exotic creature had in fact been transported to the main fleet two generations earlier by one of the first teams to reconnoiter the galaxy that had produced the Jedi. The scouting party had returned dozens of specimens to the worldships, including humans, Verpine, Talz, and others. After extensive experiments, some had expired and others had been sacrificed, but a few had been awarded as pets to children of select elite, such as Elan, youngest daughter of an adviser to Supreme Overlord Shimrra. Vergere’s uniqueness was thought by some to be sacred. Through the long years of negotiating the intergalactic void, through the long years of Elan’s rigorous training in the deception sect, Vergere had been her constant companion, confidante, friend, even tutor.

“Does it cheer you to be back among your own kind?” Elan asked carefully.

“Hardly my own kind, mistress.”

“Among your home species, then?”

Vergere’s large eyes smiled. “We Fosh were never at home among them. We were too few in number. Humankind had filled all the