Luke, still smiling, reached over and gave her shoulder an understanding squeeze. “So am I. Your parents belonged together.”
“I love my father, you know,” Tenel Ka said, sobering, “and my mother.”
“And yet you’ve never told your friends who your real parents are,” Luke said. “Why?”
Tenel Ka squirmed uncomfortably in her crash restraints, which suddenly felt too confining. She had often mulled this problem over, and had come to the same decision again and again. “It is difficult to explain,” she said. “I am not ashamed of my parents, if that is what you think. I am proud that my mother is strong in the Force and that she, a warrior from Dathomir, now rules the entire Hapes Cluster. And I am proud of my father and what he managed to become, despite the way he was raised—despite the one who raised him.”
Luke nodded sagely. “Your grandmother?”
“Yes,” Tenel Ka gritted. “Of that part of my family, I am not proud. My grandmother is power-hungry. She manipulates. I am not sure she even knows how to love.” She felt a bleak bewilderment as she turned to look at Luke. “Yet my father is loving and wise. He is not like her.”
“No, he isn’t,” Luke said. “Long ago your father Isolder did something difficult and very brave. Realizing that your grandmother loved power so much she was willing to kill anyone who threatened her, he rejected her teaching. She is a strong, proud woman, but her lessons were poisonous. He chose instead to value and honor life wherever he found it. Your father’s difficult decision was the right one.”
Tenel Ka nodded. Her thoughts were bitter. “My lineage is tainted by generations of bloodthirsty, power-hungry tyrants. I am not proud that I was born to the royal family of Hapes,” she spat. “I do not wish my friends to know that I am heir to the throne, because I have done nothing to earn it, choose it, or deserve it.”
Luke’s face was thoughtful. “Jacen and Jaina would understand that. Their mother is one of the most powerful women in the galaxy.”
Tenel Ka shook her head violently. “Before I tell them, I must prove to myself that I am not like my ancestors. I choose to take pride only in what I accomplish, first through my own strength, and then through the Force—never through inherited political power. My parents are very proud that I have decided to become a Jedi.”
“I understand,” Luke said. “You’ve chosen a difficult path.” He smiled at her warmly. “It is a good start for a Jedi.”
10
The next day, Jaina’s joy at seeing her brother again was overshadowed by Tamith Kai’s presence and the fact that they were each being shepherded down the corridor by a pair of well-armed stormtroopers.
When Jacen broke away from his guards just long enough to give her a quick hug, she spoke her words in a whispered burst. “I’ve got a plan. I need your help.”
Rough, armored hands pulled the brother and sister apart. One of the armor-clad guards leveled his blaster pistol at the twins and motioned them to move on.
Jaina smiled in wry amusement. Even with Tamith Kai present, Brakiss still wasn’t certain of their cooperation. The stormtroopers were here to ensure that they caused no trouble.
A slight nod of Jacen’s head told Jaina that he understood her words. “Want to hear a joke?” he asked brightly, purposely changing the subject.
“Sure,” Jaina answered with feigned innocence.
Jacen cleared his throat. “How many stormtroopers does it take to change a glowpanel?”
Jaina cringed inwardly. Her brother certainly was brave—or perhaps foolhardy. Nonetheless, she took the bait. “I don’t know, how many stormtroopers does it take to change a glowpanel?”
One of the guards stepped ahead of Jaina and stopped at the door to a lecture room in which she could see dozens of people seated. She guessed they were probably the other Shadow Academy trainees. The guard with the blaster pistol gestured for them to enter.
“It takes two stormtroopers to change a glowpanel,” Jacen said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “One stormtrooper to change it, and the other one to shoot him and take credit for all the work.”
Jaina tried unsuccessfully to suppress a snort of laughter. Tamith Kai glared violet daggers at Jacen.
Jacen squirmed under her angry regard and muttered, “I can tell you’re from Dathomir. Your people aren’t exactly known for their sense of humor.”
As her two guards took her arms in a bruising grip, Jaina was forced to admit that her brother’s small act of bravado had released something inside her, had shown her that her mind—at least for now—was still free, that she still had choices.
She was dragged into the meeting room, where her guards shoved her into a sitting position at one end of a narrow, backless bench. Jacen’s guards seated him on the opposite side of the room—no doubt to punish him for his joke. Jaina was delighted to see that Lowie sat less than a meter away from her, with only one student between them. He roared a greeting at her and Jacen.
The other students were all human, clean-cut, and wearing dark uniforms. They seemed eager to learn, glad to be at the Shadow Academy, genuine Imperial youth. She had seen people like this before. She, Jacen, and Lowie might be the only ones resisting the training, she knew.
Jaina frowned when she saw that Em Teedee was still not at Lowie’s belt. That would make communication difficult. She wondered what her uncle Luke would do in such a situation. She sat up straight, cleared her mind, and sent a gentle thought probing in Lowie’s direction. She did not feel any pain from him. He was unharmed—of that she was certain—but she did sense tension, confusion, and simmering frustration. She tried to send him soothing thoughts. She wasn’t sure how much got through, but when Lowie briefly reached a furry hand around to touch her shoulder, she knew he understood.
Jaina wondered if she dared speak openly to her Wookiee friend. She would have to find out what the student next to her was like first. He was about her age, and a little taller. Like all the willing students, he wore a tight, sleek-fitting charcoal jumpsuit beneath a flowing robe of purest black. He had blond hair and moss-green eyes, and he glanced at her without any particular recognition or interest.
She sent her thought probe toward the young man, but caught nothing beyond elusive snatches that blared fleetingly in her mind, like disconnected notes from an orchestra tuning its instruments.
“Why are we here?” Jaina asked in a voice just above a whisper.
“Because we are here,” he replied, aloof and a bit defensive. “Because Master Brakiss wishes us to be here.” He looked at her with suspicion, as if she had proved herself mentally deficient. “Are we not all here to learn the ways of the Force from Master Brakiss?”
Before Jaina could reply, Brakiss himself strode into the chamber. The silence in the room was instant and complete. Not a cough or a syllable challenged his compelling presence. Brakiss let his piercing eyes rove across the faces of the gathered students. When his eyes met hers, Jaina felt an inexplicable chill creep down her spine.
Without preamble, he began to teach.
“The Force is an energy that surrounds all living things. It flows through us. It flows from us.”
As his voice streamed around the students, Jaina felt her mind begin to relax. This wasn’t so bad after all. All of it was true. The power in Brakiss’s voice urged action, demanded agreement. Jaina saw the heads of many of the students nodding. She nodded too.
Jaina could not remember the words as Brakiss led them smoothly, logically from one concept to another. All she remembered were the thoughts, the feelings, the lightness of it all.