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“Give me your comlink,” he said. “I’ll see if I can get Uncle Luke or Aunt Mara.”

As the comlink chirped, Mara pressed into a doorway and turned her face toward the deepening shadow. Luke’s warm back pressed up against hers. For the moment, they’d eluded attention.

“Mara here,” she said softly.

“We’re on our way,” Jacen’s voice said, “but we can’t get to the Shadow. We’ll take something else and meet you down at Gateway. Are you all right?”

“Well.” Mara curled her fingers around the comlink. “We’ve been …” Screamed at, she recalled—taunted, vilified. She’d felt Luke’s anguish. These were people he wanted to help. “Busy,” was all she said. “If we make any public move, the rioters are likely to turn violent. We’re trying to get invisible again.”

“See you downside, then.”

Bburru’s daylights were fading. Mara could barely make out R2-D2’s domed top. Anakin stood sentinel over him, in a planter. They’d finally lost their last pursuer in this residential corridor.

Mara pocketed the comlink.

“Okay.” Luke held his deactivated lightsaber in his right hand. “Let’s see what Artoo can find us.”

The little droid had alerted them that their hostel room had been entered, snoops and homing devices planted in their belongings. Not a major concern, but a nuisance. This route was closer to the Shadow, anyway. They would just have to do without disguises.

A little farther up the avenue was another public terminal. Mara took the sentry post this time, while Luke covered R2-D2’s unauthorized breach. Only a few seconds later, he waved her down out of the musty bushes and strode off with R2-D2. She followed about four meters back, and she felt Anakin follow at a similar distance. A group of Duros passed on the corridor’s other side. She felt Luke using the Force to cloak their side in darkness.

R2-D2 had found a vacant apartment with an outside door, where they could lie low, grab a snack, and wait for Bburru to cool down a little more before heading on toward the Shadow.

As they paused in the entry, Anakin looked disappointed. “Go on ahead, then,” she told him. “Make sure it’s not being watched.”

Looking pleased, he grabbed a handful of concentrates and headed out.

Mara sank down in a narrow, built-in dining booth.

“Move,” Luke said gently, sitting down on the bench’s edge. “Please.”

She scooted aside and rested her head on his shoulder. She would not fall asleep. There wasn’t time.

“Feels strange, doesn’t it?” she asked.

Luke slipped his arm around her shoulder. “Something wrong?”

“No,” she said wryly. “It’s just disconcerting.”

“Oh. To stand back and let these young people take up the torch.”

Mara nodded. “We’ve still got so much to teach them. They’re not ready.”

Luke tightened his hand on her shoulder for an instant. “I wasn’t ready,” he said flatly. “At least you were well trained. I can’t believe the trust Obi-Wan must’ve had, when he let Vader … Father … strike him down, on the first Death Star.”

“Trust in you,” Mara said.

“And in the Force.” Luke rested his head against hers. “You’re right, this isn’t easy. But that’s why I’m not as worried about Jacen … as Jaina is.”

“As I am,” she admitted.

“The Force is strong in him. We want to show him the right path, and we’ll do our best to influence his choice, but in the end …”

“It’s his life.” She fought back a yawn. Stang, she was tired! “And Anakin’s, and Jaina’s. I hope you haven’t been trying to read their future.”

Luke shook his head. “I tried once, about a week ago. The future has always been in motion, but now it’s spinning so fast that everything contradicts everything else. And only one future will actually play out.”

“Uncanny, isn’t it?”

Luke nodded. “Mara, you’re exhausted. Would you let me refresh you? With the Force, I mean.”

“I knew what you meant.” Farmboy, she wanted to add, amused but touched. Always the innocent, even after almost seven years of marriage.

And even after that long, she still hated giving in, to him or anyone, but she’d taught the Solo kids that teamwork meant helping each other. The hardest part about giving in to Luke was taking