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“One thousand people are imprisoned in their homes, as per your command,” she said.

“Destruction?”

“None.” The word hung between them.

He allowed himself to smile, knowing that the expression chilled even his hardest followers. “Excellent. Loss of life?”

She clasped her hands behind her back, taming her silver cape and outlining her willowy form. “One million, six hundred and fifty-one thousand, three hundred and five, milord.”

“Exactly as planned,” he said.

“To a person. You’ll be investigating?”

“I always check,” he said, throwing her words back at her.

She smiled. The expression softened her face despite her attempts otherwise. “Permission to accompany you?”

For a moment, he hesitated. She had been with him from the beginning. This part of the plan had been as much hers as his. “Not yet,” he said. “I have need of you here.”

“I thought we would wait for Phase 2.”

“Oh, no,” he said, purposely gentling his tone. “The wheels are rolling. Better to maintain momentum than to lose advantage. Remember?”

“Vividly.” In the shaking of her voice, he heard the residue of each and every nightmare he had sent her, sometimes as many as five a night.

“Good,” he said, and with his leather-gloved fingers he stroked her face. “Very, very good.”

The chamberlain pulled open the door to the Senate Hall as the heralds announced Leia. All this pomp and circumstance had seemed unnecessary until Leia’s discussion with Mon Mothma. Now, after the strange event in the dressing chambers, Leia was glad for the ceremonial diversion. It gave her a moment to collect herself, to set aside the terror sent across space on a wave of frigid cold.

She entered, head held high, two guards at her side. The stepped-up security was obvious: guards at all the doors of the amphitheater, and defense droids scattered among the protocol droids stationed near the non-Basic-speaking senators. Representatives from all species and planets in the New Republic sat in their assigned seats, watching her expectantly. Mon Mothma had been right; Leia’s actions on this day would determine the course of the Senate in the future.

Reporters from dozens of worlds crowded the visitors’ balcony near the fragmented crystal segments in the ceiling. The segments caught and reflected sunlight in a rainbow effect, illuminating the center of the room. The Emperor had designed this little trick to strike awe in those observing him. Leia was glad for the sun and the rippling light. It would distract the new representatives, who had never seen it before.

She started down the stairs. The smell of bodies, human and alien, filled the Chamber, already too warm from the proximity of so many beings. Leia studiously looked ahead, noting, as she passed, M’yet Luure sitting beside his new colleague from Exodeen. Both Exodeenians had six arms, and six legs. They barely fit in the regulation chairs that Palpatine had built in the days when nonhumanoids were considered to be among the less important species. By looks, it was impossible to tell the former Imperial Exodeenian from his rebellious fellow senator. Indeed, she couldn’t tell any former Imperials by sight, only by reputation.

Like Meido, the first and only senator from the planet Adin. Adin had been an Imperial stronghold, and Leia still wasn’t certain if Meido’s election had been fair. She was quietly having some of her people investigate him. She had memories of his seamed face from her Rebel days, but she couldn’t place him.

Finally she reached the front of the Chamber. The chamberlain announced her as she took her place behind the spotlit podium. The senators applauded, or did the nearest equivalent. The Luyals pounded their tentacles on the desks. The eel-like Uteens had their droids applaud for them. She rested her hands on the podium’s wooden surface, careful to avoid the computer screen. She had no prepared speech, a fact that relieved her now.

The Senate Hall doors closed and the guards moved in front of them. The applause was loud and favorable. Leia smiled, nodding toward old friends