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With a hesitant smile, Jacen looked up at her again. "Yeah... You're pretty good with a lightsaber. Of course, you're pretty good at a lot of things."

This was a fact, she thought in wonderment. She was indeed good with a lightsaber. Still. And s was also still a good swimmer, fighter, runner. But she had stopped believing in herself, stopped using every portion of her body and mind to their fullest ability. These things were an integral part of the person Tenel Ka had always prided herself in being-and that was what she had been missing since the accident.

"Thank you, my friend," she said. "I had begun to forget who I was."

He dazzled her with one of his famous lopsided grins. "Hey, if it was as dangerous to be me as it is to be you, I might try to forget who I was, too."

"There, that ought to do it." Jaina's voice was loud and clear as she climbed out of the wavespeeder.

Lowbacca growled and gesticulated.

"Yep," Jaina agreed. "Sabotage, no doubt about it." With her usual directness, Jaina looked at Tenel Ka and asked, "Any possibility your grandmother could be behind this?"

Jacen gulped. The thought had not occurred to him. "Your grandmother? She wouldn't try-!"

Tenel Ka considered the question seriously. "No," she said at last. "Had that been my grandmother's intention, she would have... disposed of me long before you arrived." Lowbacca gave an interrogative growl, and Tenel Ka continued. "Do not misunderstand me. I believe her capable of murder-but I also sense that her intention is to keep me from danger, to protect me, whether I become a queen or a Jedi."

Lowbacca growled a reply, and Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca points out-and quite rightly, I might add-that with Ta'a Chume traveling back and forth between here and the Fountain Palace, as she did today, she can hardly be counted on to provide protection."

"Well, she did leave some guards on duty," Jaina said.

"And Ambassador Yfra," Jacen added, rolling his eyes. "Oh boy."

Jaina bit her lower lip. "Yfra's the one who suggested we go out in the wavespeeder, you know."

Lowbacca barked a comment. "Not to mention the fact that she claims to have programmed the wavespeeder herself," Em Teedee supplied. "Oh, my!"

Tenel Ka, who had never trusted Ambassador Yfra, made no comment as her friends voiced their suspicions. In the distance she could hear the sound of the large Hapan Water Dragon approaching.

"Perhaps it would be safest for the moment to trust no one," she suggested.

Jaina and Lowbacca agreed.

"And maybe we'd better stay as far away from Ambassador Yfra as possible, " Jacen added.

Just then, the royal yacht floated into the grotto on a wafer-thin cushion of air. Tenel Ka's grandmother stood at the helm. Ta'a Chume brought the Hapan Water Dragon to a complete stop near one of the stone piers and climbed out onto the dock while her guards secured the craft.

Stepping forward to greet her grandmother, Tenel Ka tried to sense any harmful intentions the matfiarch might have. The only emotions she picked up, however, were weariness, frustration, and a sense of grim determination.

"We had one of the bomb conspirators in our grasp today," her grandmother said in a tired voice, "but before I managed to question her, she was poisoned." Ta'a Chume shook her head. "She was under guard the entire time. I don't see how an assassin was able to get to her so quickly."

"You appear to require rest, Grandmother," Tenel Ka said, trying not to seem unduly concerned at the former queen's haggard appearance. "Perhaps you should not conduct this investigation yourself."

Ta'a Chume's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "For decades I ruled the entire Hapes Cluster by myself."

The woman sighed and seemed to relent. "But perhaps you are right. I will send Ambassador Yfra back to the mainland to continue the search."

Tenel Ka bit her tongue to keep from voicing her suspicions that Yfra might sabotage the investigation rather than help it. But at least such an assignment would get the possibly murderous ambassador away from the Reef