Or even if something else, as yet unseen and unvoiced, arose to take its place.

No one was surprised when Luminara was the first of the anxious searchers to find Barriss and her new allies. They met in the middle of a secondary marketplace. The two Alwari looked on with interest as Master and Padawan embraced unashamedly. Intent on the day-to-day grind of business, everyone else, shoppers and merchants alike, ignored them.

"And who might these two stalwart-looking locals be?" Lumi nara eyed the Alwari with interest. Kyakhta felt Jedi eyes burning into his own. For no reason at all, he began to shuffle his feet.

"My kidnappers, Master." At the look on Luminara's face, Barriss had to laugh. "Don't gauge them too harshly. Both suffered from cerebral infirmities. In return for my curing them, they helped me escape."

"A temporary escape, I'm obliged to remind you, Barriss," Bulgan said. Straining to see over the heads of vendors and customers alike, he was scanning the multitude for signs of imminent assault. "Even as you enjoy this happy moment, I'd wager my last good credit that Bossban Soergg is sending a host of cutthroats in pursuit of us all."

"Then we must hasten to leave." Pulling a comlink from her belt, Luminara addressed it briefly, listened to a reply, spoke again, and replaced it. "Obi-Wan and Anakin are hurrying to join us." She pointed. "We'll gather by the fountain on the far side of this square." Putting an arm around her Padawan's shoulders, she guided Barriss in that direction.

"I'm glad you've had a chance in the field to use your skill in the healing arts. In the future, I wish you would try to find practice subjects other than kidnappers. I should be upset with you for letting your guard down so badly, but I'm too happy to see you safe and returned to us to be angry."

They had to wait only a short while on the steps of the lorqual fountain before a swirl of robes in the crowd marked Obi-Wan's arrival. Anakin was not far behind him. Both greeted Barriss in the traditional Jedi fashion: ceremonial, yet affectionate.

Bulgan observed the proceedings in silence. Only when the formalities had been concluded did he venture to inquire, while swatting away a hovering green-winged pekz, "What are you going to do now?"

Luminara turned to him. "We have secured an agreement with the Unity of Community to make peace with the nomads, if the Al-wari will consent to share a percentage of their traditional lands with the city folk. In return, the city folk will agree to provide the Alwari with all manner of advanced goods and services, and will not try to intrude on or otherwise alter the time-honored Alwari way of life. Each will respect the other and the Senate will stay, insofar as it is possible for bureaucrats to do so, out of Ansionian affairs. In return, An-sion will remain within the Republic, which will ensure its economic and political independence from the Commerce Guild. Among others." Her tone darkened. "Ansion will not become another Naboo."

Kyakhta scratched at the bare skin of his neck, careful not to irritate the explosive still buried there. "Sounds complicated to me."

"So it is," Obi-Wan admitted. "More complicated than should be necessary. But that's the way of things these days."

"Do you think the Alwari will accede to such a proposal?" Barriss was watching her friends and the crowd simultaneously.

The two nomads exchanged a look. "It depends on how it is put to them," Kyakhta finally decided. "If you can get the most prominent of the overclans, the Borokii, to agree, the others will follow their lead and fall into line. Among the Alwari, it has always been so."

Luminara nodded thoughtfully. "Then we must get their representatives to come to Cuipernam so we can talk with them in person."

Bulgan started to laugh, stopped when he saw that the Jedi was serious. "No chieftain of the Borokii will come within a hundred huus of Cuipernam, or any other city of the Unity. They don't trust the city folk, or their representatives. I speak now as a Tasbir of the Southern Hatagai. Albeit," he added painfully, "one who is presently clanless."

Leaning toward Obi-Wan, Luminara whispered something that soon had the other Jedi smiling and nodding. She turned back to Barriss's new friends. "If you are clanless," she said sternly, "it means you have nowhere to go. No responsibilities, no place to call home."

"Haja, that is all too true," Kyakhta exclaimed mournfully. "One who is clanless is as rootless as the blowing irgkul bush."

"Then," she continued, winking at Barriss, "you're free to work for us, to lead us to the Borokii."

"Ou, I suppose we…" Kyakhta paused, blinked, and stared back at the Jedi. As he did so, his mouth parted slightly, the thin lips moving farther and farther apart, showing more and more whiteness of tooth. "You mean-you would take on two such clanless ones as Bulgan and myself as your guides? Even after what we did to your Padawan?"

"That's in the past," Luminara told him. "And besides, Bar riss says it wasn't really your fault, and that you're cured. I accept her conclusion on that."

"Guides for Jedi! Us!" Bulgan could hardly believe the change in their fortunes that had taken place in a single day- from working for a slime-tracker like Bossban Soergg to escorts for Jedi Knights.

The ever-wary Anakin leaned close to Obi-Wan. "Master, do you think it wise to place our trust and requirements in such as these?"

Obi-Wan pursed his lips. "I sense no danger in these two."

"Neither did Barriss," Anakin pointed out sagaciously, "until they abducted her."

"That was before she performed her healing. I think we shall be well looked after by this grateful pair. And they offer us an advantage we could not have hoped to obtain from the city folk: being Alwari themselves, they should find the right path and make the eventual necessary introductions as well or better than any others we could hire here in Cuipernam."

Anakin mulled this over. "Are in the final analysis all relationships between sentients ultimately reduced to politics of one kind or another, Master Obi-Wan?"

"It is thought so by many. Hence my continual attempts to hammer into you the basic principles of skillful diplomacy. Who knows? One day they might serve you in personal as well as professional relationships."

That thought was sufficient to quiet the Padawan, and to set him on an entirely unrelated line of thinking. Meanwhile, the two older Jedi discussed details with their new guides as together they strode from the crowded square.

"The first thing," Luminara declared, "is to have these wicked devices removed from beneath your respective scalps."

"I know a healer who can do it in minutes, and will not be afraid to, now that they have been deactivated." Kyakhta flashed bright, sharp teeth at Barriss. "He is a fine craftsman, but he would never even have thought of treating us-before. To do so would have meant incurring the wrath of Bossban Soergg."