"Jaina-Solo!"

Jaina stepped forward, and Luke could feel her cool presence in the Force, the precise way her footsteps matched the drumbeat that still thudded up from the orchestra pit. She wore her military uniform-Cal Omas had asked her to, in order to show her commitment to the New Republic.

Kyp and Kenth Hamner, the two pilots, robed her.

Luke put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her dark eyes, and a chill suddenly seized him, flooding his nerves with cold fire.

"I name you the Sword of the Jedi," he said. "You are like tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen. Always you shall be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends. Yours is a restless life, and never shall you know peace, though you shall be blessed for the peace that you bring to others. Take comfort in the fact that, though you stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow that you cast."

Luke fell silent, and for a long horrified moment he stared into Jaina's wide-eyed face.

He hadn't meant to say that. He hadn't meant to say anything like it. Yet the words had poured forth from him like the ringing sound of a giant bell, a bell that was being tolled, not by Luke, but by someone else.

He sensed the other Jedi staring at him. Had he actually spoken loudly enough for them to hear?

Luke's hands trembled as he drew the cowl over Jaina's head. When he returned to the podium he had to fumble for the microphone switch.

"Draw your lightsabers," he said, "for the first time as Jedi Knights!"

The click-swoosh of nine igniting lightsabers hissed through the air. He turned to the newly minted Jedi Knights and drew his own lightsaber, as the Jedi members of the council drew theirs.

"We salute you for the first time as colleagues," he said, and he and the council members performed a ritual salute with their lightsabers.

"Face front," he said, turning toward the audience, "and recite with me the Jedi Code."

''There is no emotion; there is peace," they all said. "There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no pa.s.sion; there is serenity.

There is no death; there is the Force."

As they chanted the words, the lone trumpet rose again, the three rising notes calling them to their destiny. Illuminated by their lightsabers, the Jedi Knights stood erect and silent in the darkness.

The trumpet rose again to its last, high note and died. As its echo faded, the lights died away.

The audience burst into applause. But when the lights came up again, the stage was empty.

Chapter 21.

Technically speaking," Jacen said, "I'm still on vacation."

"For how long?" Zekk asked.

"For as long as Master Skywalker tells me I'm on vacation."

Zekk shrugged. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

"I plan to. I just feel a little . . . odd, seeing the rest of you shipping out to Kashyyyk while I'm getting bronzed out on the reef."

"You've earned your leave," Zekk said. "You earned your leave in ways I don't even want to think about. Don't worry about it."

Jacen, Zekk, and the other newly made Jedi Knights were at the reception thrown in their honor by Cal Omas. The room was huge and marble-lined and featured a pair of tinkling fountains ornamented by frolicking bronze fish. The freshly minted Jedi Knights still wore their Jedi robes, and lightsabers, and carried drinks in their hands. Older Jedi and politicians and military' stood about and made polite conversation.

Zekk looked around the gathering. "This is really strange," he said. "What are all these people doing here?"

Jacen smiled. "I was the son of the Chief of State," he said. "For me, this is an ordinary night at home."

Zekk shook his head. "Diplomacy wasn't something the Shadow Academy cared much about."

"I guess not."

Han loomed up at Jacen's shoulder, a broad grin spread across his face. He put an arm around Jacen's shoulders. "Now let me tell you about my graduation night. . ." he began.

"It was lovely," Leia said. "I had tears in my eyes."

"The ceremony was mostly Cal's work," Luke said. "He's got a flair for dramatics that I didn't know existed."

"My children," Leia sighed. "All grown up. And the Jedi have them now."

Luke looked at her. "Does that bother you?"

"A little. Sometimes I wish they'd grown up to be something other than Jedi. Something safe. But-" She sighed again. "-that's not going to happen in our family, is it?"

Luke tried to picture Ben grown up, sitting at a desk cluttered with actuarial tables. "I guess not."

Leia looked at him narrowly. "What happened when you talked to Jaina? I could feel it in the Force, but I don't know what it was I felt."

Luke hesitated. "I'd rather not say. It's for Jaina to tell you."

"Hm." Leia looked at him suspiciously, then decided not to pursue it. She gave a sidelong glance toward Lando Calrissian, who stood nearby chatting with Triebakk. She leaned close to Luke and lowered her voice.

"How did Lando and Talon Karrde get Cal elected?" she asked. "Do you know?"

"I don't. But we can make a highly educated guess."

Leia bit her lip. "I hate to just ask. But we should know. We're going to have to try to protect Cal when it all comes out."

"You think it'll become public knowledge?"

"I know it will." Her eyes hardened. "Right now we've got smugglers controlling a swing vote in the Senate. That's not a good thing, and the New Republic is going to pay for it."

Luke looked at Lando appraisingly. "We should have a talk with Captain Calrissian."

Leia nodded. "Yes. And soon."

Jacen patiently listened to his father's reminiscences until Han was approached by Kenth Hamner, who wanted to find out about what fighter pilots were already calling the "Solo Slingshot," the dive toward a dovin basal that could be used to loop a combat craft in an unexpected direction to take the enemy by surprise. While Han was describing his encounter with the Yuuzhan Vong battle group, Jacen-who had already heard the story-slipped away to find his sister.

Jaina stood with her back against one of the room's side columns, a plate of food held out in front of her like a shield. She gave Jacen a dark look as he approached.

"If this is about what Uncle Luke said, I don't want to talk about it."

"Then let's not." He took a fruit-filled pastry from her plate. "I thought we should congratulate each other."

She gave a skeptical tilt to her head. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations, sis." Jacen popped the pastry into his mouth. The filling oozed onto his tongue as he bit down. It tasted like the product of an extractive industry specializing in fossilized hydrocarbons, and he coughed.

Jaina grinned as she pounded him on the back. "Vile, aren't they? I think the caterer must be a Vratix."

"He's in the pay of the Yuuzhan Vong," Jacen coughed. "He's trying to poison all the Jedi along with the high command." He took a swig of Gizer ale to wash the foul-tasting pastry down. "That's better." He looked at her again. The inadvertent comedy had broken the tension between them. "Can we do this congratulations thing again?" he asked. "I have a feeling we wrong-footed it the first time."

She smiled. "Sure. My fault." She put the tray on a nearby table, then embraced him and kissed his cheek. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations." He held Jaina against him for a moment, feeling in the Force the twin bond that united them, and then stepped back.

"You've always been my best friend, you know."

"And you've been mine." She looked over his shoulder at someone in the crowd. "I see Danni Quee is here. Have you talked to her yet tonight?"

"Not yet."

She gave a little smile. "Are you and Danni seeing each other?"

He blinked in surprise. "No, not that way. Or anyway, I don't think so."

Jaina laughed. "You don't think so. Don't you think you'd know?"

"We don't see each other that way. I don't think. I mean, she's five years older than I am."

"Dad's older than Mom. What does that matter?"

"And Danni's so accomplished. She's brilliant. She's got all these science degrees. I don't see why she'd be interested in me-all I know how to do is be a Jedi."

Jaina found this hilarious. She tried to strangle her laughter, but all that did was turn her red and send tears popping from her eyes.

" 'She's so accomplished!' 'I'm just a Jedi!' " Laughter choked the words. "And from Jacen Solo-!"

Jacen tried to gather the shreds of his dignity. "I don't see what's so funny."

She patted him on the shoulder and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"That's fine, brother. I'm hardly the one to advise anybody on romance."

Suddenly Jacen was very interested. "Oh yes? And what docs that mean?"

She looked at him in the dawning knowledge that she'd just made a mistake. "It means what it means," she said.

" Who does it mean?" Jacen asked.

She looked away, then sighed. "Jagged Fel," she said.

Jacen was astonished. "You must be joking. That stuck-up fighter pilot?"

Jaina scowled. "You don't know anything about him. He's not re ally like that."

"If you say so." There was a moment of silence. Jacen thought it might be an apt time to move off this topic. "What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked. "I don't know how much of this planet you've seen, but we could go-"

She shook her head. "I'm shipping out with the rest. Back to Kashyyyk."

He looked at her in surprise. "Why arc you leaving now?"

Her defiant look was back. "I was on a special mission from Kre'fey. It's over. I'm bringing his Jedi back, and I'm going back with them."

"You're on a two-week furlough. I've seen the datapads. They're on the table in the room we're sharing."

Jaina sighed. "I've learned some new tactics since I've been here-one of them Dad's slingshot maneuver. We've got a bunch of new Jedi to integrate into the command system. I'm needed back on Kashyyyk, drilling all this new material into the fleet."

"Every moment you're here, the Yuuzhan Vong are getting stronger,"

Jacen half quoted.

"That's right. Besides," she added, "you heard Uncle Luke.

I'm the Sword of the Jedi. I'm always hi the front rank. Peace is not my job."

Jacen tried to navigate through the thorns he sensed springing up around his sister. "The Yuuzhan Vong may be getting stronger while you're here. But if you don't get some time to relax, I don't see you getting stronger at all."

"It's not just me. I've got eleven other pilots in my squadron to look after, and half of them are rookies, and if I don't beat them to pieces in training, the Vong arc going to blow them to pieces in combat."

She shook her head, then looked at him. "It's all right, you know," she said. "I've accepted my own death."

Jacen looked at her in surprise and horror. "You haven't-" he stammered. "You haven't felt your death in the Force?"

"No." Her eyes were strangely without animation, as if these were words she'd spoken a thousand times before. "But I can count. I can count the enemy, and I can count the number of friends who have been killed, and I can count the number of battles before we can hope to end the war and the number of shots that are going to be fired in my direction in those battles. I don't have to do anything wrong to be killed. I don't have to make a mistake. All that I need to do is be there long enough, and it'll happen." She looked at him, and with a half-smile reached out to touch his shoulder. "But it's all right. It's what I've sworn to do.

All that will happen is that I'll join the Force, and I'm part of the Force already, so with luck I'll hardly even notice the change."

"All life is precious," Jacen urged. "All life is unique. You shouldn't just throw yours away."

"Anni Capstan was precious and unique," Jaina said. "So was Ulaha Kore. So was Anakin. Uniqueness isn't a protection." She looked at him.

"And I'm not throwing anything away. I'm just looking at the odds, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe that I'm an exception when so many of our friends aren't." She looked at him. '''There is no death, there is the force. Didn't we all just say that? I'm not just saying it, I'm living it."

"Don't cut us off from you," Jacen said. "We need you, too."