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Ta’a Chume stiffened. “I would caution you to keep a civil tongue, Archon. Or have you perhaps sipped too freely of the drink we provided?”

Thane nodded in a bow. “Your pardon, Most Revered Ereneda,” he said, using the title reserved for Hapan queen mothers, past or present. “Your generosity has certainly undone me.”

Leia reached out with her feelings. Thane wasn’t drunk; he was merely acting drunk. “I am not a Jedi, Archon,” she told him. “As to my infamy—it is certainly your prerogative to think what you will.”

He swung to her. “Spoken like a Jedi: calmly, in full possession. A statement weaker minds might be inclined to embrace as the full truth.”

“Careful, Archon,” Ta’a Chume seethed under her breath. “I’m certain you don’t wish to cause a scene.”

Leia folded her arms across her chest. “A scene is precisely his wish, Ta’a Chume. Why deny him his fun?”

Thane vouchsafed a thin smile. “I happened to be on Coruscant when you went before the senate to deliver the same speech you made us sit through tonight. How it must have vexed your Jedi nature to be ignored.”

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me the first time, Archon—”

“If he has a problem with the Jedi, he can address his concerns to me.”

Tenel Ka was suddenly standing alongside Leia, her hand resting lightly on the rancor-tooth-inlaid grip of her lightsaber. Querulous and stubborn by nature, Tenel Ka had always been quick to take on a fight, and just now her gray eyes were boring into Thane’s.

But the archon stood his ground, smiling nastily. “Why, it’s the Dathomiri who rejects her Hapan heritage, yet deigned to save the royal family from the machinations of Ambassador Yfra.” His gaze moved up and down the reception line. “Isn’t this the happy group.”

A crowd had begun to form around Thane, and conversations throughout the vast room began to subside. Out of the corner of her eye Leia saw Prince Isolder making a direct line for the center of the commotion.

“We have only the ambassador’s word that the Yuuzhan Vong can’t be dealt with,” Thane was telling everyone within earshot. “And if what she says about forming a united front is true, why is the New Republic divided about where to deploy its fleets and to which systems it should render aid?” He turned through a circle as he spoke. “Is this what we want for the Consortium—a factioned leadership? As archon of Vergill I say we remain neutral until such time as the invaders make certain their plans for the Consortium, either by word or force of arms.”

He gestured toward Leia. “She comes to us, asking a favor and bringing only the gift of a warning. Why not the gift of the quick-recharge turbolaser technology the New Republic has withheld for so many years?”

“That’ll be enough, Thane,” Isolder said angrily. “This isn’t the time or place for a political debate. If you can’t abide by the rules of decorum—”

“You’ll toss me out of your palace?” Thane cut him off. “You’d sooner host the descendants of those Jedi who killed your ancestors than someone who dares speak the truth in your presence?”

“Enough,” Isolder snapped.

But Thane was far from finished; he played to the crowd once more. “He prefers the company of a daughter who has denounced her Hapan heritage …”

Tenel Ka took a forward step, only to be blocked by her father.

“… and a speaker of half-truths like Ambassador Solo—”

Demonstrating uncanny speed and precision, Isolder backhanded Thane across the face, knocking him into the crowd and drawing blood from his lower lip. Instantly Isolder’s longtime friend and former bodyguard Captain Astarta was at his side, flinging a thick braid of red hair over her shoulder and positioning her hands to parry or strike, as need be.

Two of Thane’s supporters had rushed to take him by the arms and stand him on his feet, but now he threw them aside, wiped his hand across his mouth, and snorted a laugh at Isolder.

“The spurned suitor to the rescue.”

Leia’s heart sank. She could feel Isolder battling to control his rage. As angry as she was at him for allowing himself to be provoked, she couldn’t help but dread Thane