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They reached the top by nightfall and took shelter in a small cavern just under the lip of the pit. It was a tight fit, but impossible to see unless you were hovering right in front of it. They sat shoulder to shoulder, breathing deeply and working the cramps from their muscles.

“You thought I was going to mess things up,” Tahiri said suddenly.

“What brought that up?”

“There hasn’t been time to talk about it until now.”

“Well, keep your voice down. It’s not exactly the brightest thing for us to be talking.”

“We’ll feel them in the Force long before they hear us.”

“Unless they have Yuuzhan Vong with ’em. You can’t feel them in the Force.”

“Really? Is that true?”

“Yeah.”

“So?”

“So what?”

Tahiri punched his shoulder lightly. “So you thought I was going to mess things up. Get us all caught.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, of course not. Wouldn’t want to upset baby Tahiri.”

“Tahiri, now you’re acting like a kid.”

“No, I’m not. I’m acting like someone whose best friend has completely forgotten she exists.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? When you left the academy with Mara, did you even bother to say good-bye? And since then, have you sent me a single message, or even reached out in the Force? And just a while ago, when we did our old falling dance—you didn’t like it. I almost had to catch myself!”

“You’re the one who resisted,” Anakin said. “We were falling like rocks, and you resisted me.”

“That was you, you big dumb gundark.”

“That’s crazy. You—” But the whole scene flashed suddenly though his mind again. Maybe it had been him. When he and Tahiri worked together it was sometimes hard to tell who was feeling what.

“See?” she said frostily.

Anakin was silent for a moment, and so, miraculously, was Tahiri.

“I did miss you,” Anakin finally said. “No one knows me the way—” He broke off.

“Right,” Tahiri said. “No one knows you like I do, and you don’t want anyone to. You want to keep all of that stuff in you, where no one can touch it. Chewbacca—even last time you were here you wouldn’t talk about him. Now you pretend you’re past it. And the thing at Centerpoint—”

“You’re right,” Anakin said. “I don’t want to talk about that. Not right now.”

Tahiri’s shoulders began to shake, just a little, and Anakin realized she was crying.

“Come on, Tahiri,” he said.

“What are we, Anakin? A year ago you were my best friend in the world.”

“We’re still best friends,” he assured her.

“Then the way you treat your other friends must really stink.”

“Yeah,” Anakin admitted. Almost without thinking, he reached for her hand. For a few seconds, she didn’t respond. Her fingers were cold and motionless in his, and he suddenly believed he had made some kind of mistake. Then she gripped back, and warmth rushed around him like a whirlwind. She nodded her head over onto his shoulder, still weeping, and silence folded around them again. But this time it was an easier silence. Not happy or even quite content, but easier.

After a while her breathing became regular, and Anakin realized she was asleep. By the faint orange light of the gas giant outside, he could make out traces of her features, so familiar and yet somehow different. It was as if, below the girl’s face he had always known, something else was pushing up, like mountains rising, driven by the internal heat of a planet. Something you couldn’t stop, even if you wanted to.

It made him want to hang on and run away at the same time, and in a mild epiphany he realized he had felt that way for some time.

As children they had been best friends. But neither of them was a child anymore, not exactly.

His arm had gone numb from her weight, but he couldn’t bring himself to shift, for fear of waking her.

Anakin woke Tahiri an hour before the orange planet set. The sun was not yet out.

“It’s time,” he said.

“Good,” Tahiri mumbled. “It’s getting cramped in here.” She shifted into a crouch. “Are the others still okay?”

“I haven’t heard or felt anything. Are you ready?”

“Ready as rockets, hero boy.”

Carefully they climbed from the pit and padded through the jungle. The