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Then her unwilling gaze shifted to the center of the circle, and all other considerations dissipated.

They had brought Anakin here, and placed him on a high, flat stone. A ring of torches surrounded him, a bright border separating him from those who bore witness to his passage.

The shadows stirred, and Tahiri stepped into the circle of light. “Anakin saved my life,” she said simply. “The Yuuzhan Vong locked my body in a cage and tried to do the same thing with my mind. Anakin came to Yavin Four, alone, and brought me out.”

She fell silent as she gazed into the torchlight. A yearning expression crossed her scarred face, as if the impulse to follow Anakin one more time was too strong to ignore. Leia stepped forward and rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder. Jaina couldn’t see her mother’s face clearly, but something in it seemed to pull Tahiri back. The girl’s shoulders rose and fell in a profound sigh, and she yielded her place to another.

“Anakin Solo saved my life,” a soft, tentative voice repeated. A young refugee boy stepped into the firelight, and Jaina’s heart simply shattered.

He was a near-exact image of her brother at that age—tousled light brown hair, ice-blue eyes, even the dent in the center of his chin.

“I never met Anakin,” the boy said. “People tell me I look like him. I don’t know why the lady on Coruscant wanted me to look like this. She promised that my mother and sisters would be safe if I let them change my face. I don’t know why,” he repeated. “All I know is that looking like Anakin saved me. Maybe it saved my family, too.”

“Viqi Shesh,” Kyp murmured, naming the devious senator Jaina had distrusted for quite some time. “Han told me about it.”

Jaina silently added another name to the list of scores as yet unsettled. Her eyes widened as her father stepped into the firelight.

“Anakin saved my life,” he said softly. “Mine, and a shipload of people I would have let burn into starfood. He made the hard decision at Sernpidal, the right decision. I hope he knows that.”

Jaina’s jaw dropped as Kyp Durron moved into the light. “I knew Anakin mostly through reputation, but I suspect that someday I will be able to stand before a solemn assembly and tell how this young Jedi changed—even saved—my life. The deeds of heroes send ripples spreading through the Force. Anakin’s life continues to flow outward, touching and guiding those who have yet to hear his name. Most of us here use the Force—this young man embodied it.”

Others came forward, but Jaina didn’t hear their words. She’d always known that Anakin was different, special. It seemed odd that Kyp Durron would be the one to find the words that eluded her.

At last the voices fell silent, the torches burned low. The rising moons converged, then began to sink along their separate paths toward the jagged forest horizon. Luke picked up one of the torches and moved forward.

This was the moment Jaina had dreaded most. Anakin was gone, and she understood that what was left was little more than an empty shell. But she had fought so viciously to win him away from the Yuuzhan Vong, and for what? To stand by and watch him destroyed now? It didn’t seem right. Nothing about Anakin’s death did.

Luke Skywalker approached the stone bier and lowered the torch. The flame spread, limning Anakin’s body in golden light.

The fire dissipated into thousands of dancing motes. These rose slowly into the sky, shimmering against the darkness like newborn stars. As they slipped away into the night, it seemed to Jaina that the stars shone a little brighter.

Tears filled her eyes as she gazed at the empty bier. A glimmer of insight flickered on the far edges of her perception—a glimpse, perhaps, of what Anakin might have known, might have become. Jaina blinked away the tears and slammed shields around her emotions.

Zekk came toward them. Jaina tensed. If just one person put his arms around her, she would shatter like overheated glass.

Kyp eased forward, subtly placing himself in the young Jedi’s path. Zekk’s gaze slid from her to the Jedi Master, and his dark brows drew together