was able to come to your aid."

"Wonderful."

"And she even gave them a description of the Sith sphere as a possible hostile. I think that stacks up to a scenario needing a plausible explanation."

Lumiya was right. Jacen needed a cover story, if only for Tenel Ka.

"This is going to tax even my creativity," Jacen said. "How widely known is this?"

"There are no secrets in the galaxy, Jacen, only varying sizes of distribution lists. The Bothans will have it, the Mandalorians will have it. . . and Alliance Intel will have it, and they don't love you at all these days."

"Well, if I weren't a Sith Lord fresh out of the box, I'd be borked."

"Don't joke. Never joke about this."

"I could say quite legitimately that I was visiting Tenel Ka as Chief of State because of the continuing embarrassment about my parents."

"And what about your wretched physical state?"

"Ah. I'm hastening the healing trance as much as I can."

"What about Mara's body?"

"I left it where it was."

"She didn't become discorporeal? She left her remains?"

"I think so. Does that surprise you?"

Lumiya seemed to consider something, breaking her intense gaze. "I always thought she'd become one with the Force somehow."

"Well, who knows. And here I am about to say they'll never trace the poison back to me, but does it matter? One day soon, they'll all have to know. "

"And by then it'll be too late for them to do anything to you."

Lumiya turned as if to walk away, and then seemed to change her mind. "My ship has been noted, Ben didn't see you on Kavan, and I'm almost certainly the prime suspect for Mara's death. This all enables me to do the last service I can for you."

"Which is . . . ?"

Lumiya's most unnerving state was when she was being gracious. It told Jacen that she knew something he didn't.

"To buy you time to consolidate your hold on the galaxy," she said.

"By making Luke believe it was all my doing."

"Don't you think you should be hiding from him?"

"No. You might say that's my destiny."

"That smacks of a death wish."

"My work and my life are done, Jacen. I'd really welcome a rest."

Death seemed a very routine commodity lately. Jacen wasn't comfortable with that. He had a sudden urge to embrace life. Deep in him, for all the boy inside that still expected a lightning bolt to mark his passage into Sith maturity, there was a feeling of optimism, green and fresh. It took him aback.

"By the way, Alema is still prowling," Lumiya said. "If you spot her, she'll probably be coveting the Sith ship to pursue her vendetta against your parents. I have no doubt you'll see her around."

Jacen wondered if Sith left wills; Lumiya certainly seemed to have thought

hers through. She studied him with her head on one side for a while, eyes disturbingly green and not unlike Mara's, and then she walked away into the icy fog.

He meditated for an hour or so to hasten the healing process, and then set off for Coruscant—via Hapes.

FOUNTAIN PALACE, HAPES

"Luke . . . Luke? Luke." Tenel Ka had to repeat his name three times before he could manage to lift his head to look at her. The elegant brocade sofa felt as if it were swallowing him whole, and maybe that would have been for the best.

There was an insulating gauze of numbness holding Luke together, and it took triple repetition to penetrate it—the first to stop him thinking that he hadn't even said good-bye to Mara and was asleep when she left; the second to stop him racking his brains for the last words he'd said to her, which he couldn't recall; and the third to stop him seeing in his mind's eye her scribbled note that he'd balled up and used to plug a hole in his cockpit console, and that he had now lovingly smoothed flat and would keep with him for the rest of his life.

Gone hunting for a few days. Don't be mad at me, farmboy . . .

"Luke, Jaina's here."

"Thank you, Tenel Ka . . ."As long as he stayed numb, Luke felt he would function. He would gather his thoughts, see that the rest of the family was coping, and then he'd act—when he knew what to do. "I can't thank you enough."

"Luke, I have all my guard deployed searching the cluster."

Jaina walked in briskly, face grim and eyes a little swollen. She dropped down on her knees and pressed herself into Luke's lap, cuddling him in silence. He hadn't really needed to call: they'd all felt it.

"Still no sign of Ben," Luke said, stroking Jaina's hair. "And I can't even guess where he is."

Jaina knelt back on her heels. "I can't feel him, either, Uncle Luke."

"He'll be okay, sweetheart. I'd know if . . ."

Luke didn't finish the sentence. He knew now exactly how Ben's death would feel to him in the Force. Ben wasn't dead.

Luke waited for a call back from Leia and Han. He knew Leia had sensed Mara's passing: after that moment when he'd felt the lightest of touches on his hair, and he turned his head, he'd had the sensation of meeting Leia's eyes.

She'd call. He'd keep calling anyway.

Tenel Ka's regal composure flickered for a moment. "Jacen was here earlier."

"What?" Jaina suddenly regained that edge in her voice. "What do you mean, here?"

"He paid a visit yesterday," Tenel Ka said. "I don't know where he is now, but—"

"Would Hapan Fleet Ops have logged his vessel's movements?" asked Jaina. "Any scrap of information might help."

Jacen must have felt the death like anyone else, and there was a good chance he'd actually been here while Mara was pursuing Lumiya in this very system. But he was "busy" on GAG business. Luke seethed in silence.

Tenel Ka nodded, all gracious calm again. "I'll have the captain get all the available information for you."

Tenel Ka strode out. Jaina's expression was murderous.

"Don't say it," said Luke.

"He's a total stranger," Jaina said. "There. I had to, or else I'll have an aneurysm trying to stifle the urge to punch him out when he finally bothers to show up."

Luke hugged Jaina, feeling dwarfed by the grand stateroom, and his comlink buzzed. It was Leia.

"Hey," she said. Leia didn't just touch him in the Force, she enveloped him. "We're coming back as fast as we can. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry."

It sounded as if Han had wrestled the link from her. "Kid, you just hang in there. Don't do a thing. Leave it all to us. Is Ben okay?"

"Missing again."

"He'll be fine. Don't you worry. We're coming."

There wasn't much else Han could say, and he never mentioned Jacen.

Luke put his comlink back in his pocket.

The silence felt like pressure building on his eardrums. His breathing seemed to fill the room. What was the last thing I said to her?

"You know pretty well the last thing Mara and I talked about?"

Jaina said suddenly. She was doing exactly what he was—replaying final conversations. Tears welled in her eyes. "Nothing important, like how much I loved her and what she'd done for me. Just how much energy I waste in stupid games with Zekk and Jag, like a dumb sulky teenager."

"Don't do this to yourself."

"Takes . . . this to make me grow up." Jaina didn't seem able to say the words: Mara's death. "Everything's changed now."

"I know. I know."