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TWENTY-SIX

Wedge Antilles pinched his face in a scowl. Unlike some other things about him, time had only made his glare more impressive. Jaina felt it brush her and shivered, though she knew she wasn’t its intended target. That would be Kyp, seated between her and Gavin at the roughly finished wooden table.

“General Antilles—” she began, but then the full weight of his anger did fall on her, stopping her cold.

“You should have told us he would be here, Lieutenant Solo,” Wedge said, his voice as soft and tense as the wire on Tionne’s lute. “It was less than honest, and far less than I expect of you.”

Beyond the rustic stone walls of the hilltop garden and its topiary canopy, the sun jeweled the Silver Sea with noontime light, and the fields that rolled up to the shore breathed of bristing blooms and balmgrass. A herd of stumpy, gracile-necked fecklen whirred and boomed their displeasure at a family of hopping squalls. The sky was blue, with no hint of vapor. After the cramped quarters of an X-wing, a ranch on Chandrila was the best meeting place Jaina could have imagined. More practically, it was also a place where it was easy to see one’s enemy coming and speak freely, with only minimal fear that unwanted ears might hear. That was especially true because the estate was owned by a trusted relative of Gavin Darklighter’s wife, Sera.

But that lovely world all but vanished for Jaina, replaced by Wedge’s eyes, those verdant polished spheres that had seen so much combat and tragedy, that had looked kindly on her as a child. Wedge, who had fought alongside her father and mother and her uncle Luke from the very beginning. To have him glare at her like this was … very difficult.

She felt a sudden, comforting presence, and for a minute accepted it, grasped for it even. She needed every reassurance she could get. Then she recognized it as Kyp’s touch. That was the last thing in the universe she needed right now, comforting or not.

Get back, Kyp.

She swallowed and addressed Wedge again. “General, I apologize, but I didn’t think you would meet with me if you knew Kyp was involved. Neither did Colonel Darklighter.”

Antilles now turned his ire toward Gavin. “You were in on this too, Gavin?”

“She could have hidden Durron’s connection from both of us, Wedge, simply by not bringing him along when she met with me. She didn’t. She was up front with me. I advised her to do things this way because I know you and—more to the point—I thought there was every possibility that my call to you was monitored. There are plenty of people who would love to make a present of Kyp Durron to the Yuuzhan Vong. You want to blame someone, blame me.”

General Antilles chewed at that, didn’t seem to like it, and swallowed it anyway. He glanced back up at Kyp. “Durron, I don’t like you,” he said. “The very best thing you are is a murderer. The very worst—”

“Wait a moment, General,” Kyp interrupted. “You know what I was going through back then. Han Solo and Master Skywalker forgave me and brought me back into the fold. I had hoped that you could, too.”

“You don’t deserve their forgiveness,” Wedge shot back. “Look how you’ve repaid them. Luke you denounce and deride, and as for Han, you’ve roped his daughter into a politically precarious position, if not something far worse.”

“General,” Kyp said quietly, “I’m sorry about Qwi Xux. I’ve told you that before. At the time I thought what I did was for the best. She had information in her head that could have brought the New Republic to its knees.”

“You leave her out of this,” Antilles warned. “You don’t even so much as speak her name, or I’ll blast you where you stand.”

“General,” Jaina said desperately, “please. Whatever you may think of Kyp, he’s discovered something important. Something that threatens us all.”

“Fine,” Antilles said, sitting back and brusquely waving his hand. “You have evidence of this danger? Let me see it. The sooner this is over with, the sooner I can find some clean air to breathe.”

The four of them watched in silence