Snowbound Legacy

Part One

"The candle in the window could be seen in the distance, a beacon of warmth and welcome to the weary travelers," Mama said, settling me into bed and pulling the thick blankets up around my chin, "and the group saw it and turned homeward, now certain that they had followed the right path. For some time, none spoke, but at last Kendall raised his voice above the scraping of snow on snow and said, 'My Company, we are at last returned home.'

"No one moved," Mama whispered, her voice describing the cold and wind and homesickness. "There were no shouts of elation. Kendall and his band were far too weary and joyous for mere words to express their relief.

"And then through the darkness of deepest night, in the hour just before the dawn, a child appeared in the entrance of the lit house, silhouetted in the warm yellow glow from the doorway. 'Who comes?' the boy asked. 'Who stands in the shadows?' Kendall, almost delirious from the cold and wet, nevertheless recognized the voice as belonging to his youngest son, Dylan. With an incoherent cry he raced toward the house, sweeping the boy up in his arms and holding him tightly, kissing the crown of his head as though he thought the child might disappear.

"The sounds of their reunion woke others in nearby houses, and light appeared in other doorways, summoning each of the men to a warm bed and the embrace of a loving family. They were all, at last, home.

Mama lowered her voice for what she knew to be my favorite part of the legend. "That is, all but one.

"The final traveler, the guide Kendall had met in the Golden Forests, was walking back out into the swirling snow, her long emerald robes catching the wind and twisting about her slender form. Kendall stepped out the door and called after her, 'Wait! Will you not rest a moment here among us?'

"She turned, her deep green eyes seeking and finding Kendall's golden ones. A slight smile graced her lips, but she shook her head. She held his gaze for an eternal moment, then broke the connection and tucked her head down, bringing her hood up over her rust-brown hair and glided away, disappearing into the gathering storm.

"That night, as snow and ice and screaming wind battered the little village, each of Kendall's party slept peacefully under comfortable heavy blankets. And the next morning, one arm wrapped around his wife, the other arm securing his son, Kendall looked out across glittering drifts of snow dyed pink and orange and red by the impending dawn and watched the sun rise." Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, as she always did after finishing one of her stories, Mama smiled contentedly. Her eyes opened again, and this time they glittered in the dim light of my single glowrod. With the conclusion of her bedtime story, Mama had once again become the playful and slightly mischievous woman my father and I loved so much.

"Now go to sleep, Eleni. I've told you enough stories for tonight, and we don't want to lose all power in the glowrod. We don't have any electricity tonight, and with this blizzard we don't know when we're going to be able to turn the lights on again. We want to try to conserve as much energy as possible." Mama bent to kiss me before standing and switching off the glowrod. In the darkness, I heard her move to the door, her excellent night vision easily picking out obstacles that might impede her progress. "Good night," she whispered from the door.

"Good night," I whispered back.

It was the last time I ever saw her alive.

"Miss Masika, it's almost time to go."

"Yeah, Miss Masika, if we don't leave now we'll miss the beginning of the Winter Festival."

I sighed, then looked down into the faces of twenty-three expectant nine-year-olds. "I'll let you go in a minute," I said. "And keep in mind that the Winter Festival is seven standard days long. Missing the first thirty seconds of it will hardly ruin the whole week." Still, I smiled, remembering myself at nine years of age, begging my teacher to let me out five minutes, just five minutes early so I could watch the glistening showers of snow that would be blown over the waiting children. I recalled how I would wrestle with my friends in the powdery white, soaking my clothing and ignoring the cold until I was almost too frozen to move. And then I would invite my friends to my house and Mama would make sweet hot chocolate and spicy cookies… I shook off the memories.

"Can anyone tell me why we celebrate the Winter Festival?" When Len, an impish girl in the front row, raised her hand, I added, "And it's not because you deserve candy and hot chocolate."

The children laughed, and Ayla piped up, "It's 'cause Kendall returned on the last day of Winter Festival. We celebrate 'cause he's our hero and we want to, um, honor him."

"Very good, Ayla. Would you like to add something to that, Nigel?"

"The people of Cilia sent Kendall out to destroy the Beast of the North that was threatening to come and kill us all."

"Well, Nigel, that might be exaggerating a bit, but there was a Beast of the North – does anyone know what that was—"

"It was a Dark One," said Genna. "And it was something we hadn't ever seen before. Someone with a lightsword—"

"—lightsaber."

"—who wanted to take Cilia and make everyone all its servants, because it was mean and didn't like freedom like we do. Kendall and the Company went to get it to go away, but it wouldn't, so they had to fight and some of them, like Odin and Noam, got killed and they're buried in the main cemetery."

I glanced at my chrono, noting that only a few minutes remained before the official close of the school day, and nodded at Genna's disjointed story. "Good job. I'll see you when you return after Winter Festival – stay safe and don't forget to light your candles so Kendall's ghost can find his way home." By the time I had finished my words, the room was empty.

Or nearly empty. A tall young man lounged against the door frame, one elbow against the control panel. Every five seconds, the door attempted to slide closed and he moved his elbow incrementally, nudging it back open. His black eyes smiled at me, though he affected an air of nonchalance. "Are you coming to the opening of the Festival?"

I shrugged. "I might. I have a lot of work to do."

Razi's face darkened faintly, and he pushed himself off the wall and entered the room, the door securing itself behind him. "You can't cut yourself off from everyone anymore, Eleni. I've been appointed to make you come out and pretend you're enjoying yourself."

"Appointed by whom? My father? Who couldn't stand to be around me because I reminded him of Mama? The man who left as soon as I was eighteen? Or maybe some of my relatives, who think I'm some sort of bad luck and send me polite greetings from a distance." Sighing, I began to gather my students' datapads. "I'm not interested in coming out with you and pretending to enjoy myself."

"Come on, Lane. I knew your mom, too, and I loved her like my own, but it's been almost ten years. Everyone misses you at the Festival."

With a sharp glance at him, I said, "I'm twenty-four years old. I have a right to choose where I want to spend my time. The Festival isn't one of those places – there isn't much for me to celebrate this time of year."

Razi frowned. "Then at least promise me that you'll come over to my place when you're done grading reports or doing whatever it is you teachers insist is so important. I just got a bottle of wine as a gift from my sister and I wanted to share it with someone. We can have dinner."

"Maybe," I said. "I'll comm you. Some of my friends have plans."

"Don't lie to me," said Razi. He'd always been able to identify when I was not telling him the truth, I remembered belatedly. "If you don't want to come to my apartment, I'll come to yours. But either way, you're not spending another Festival alone in the only home in town without a candle in each window."

"I'm not interested, Razi. I don't believe in Festivals celebrating things that didn't happen."

"We're not celebrating a legend, Lane, not really. We're celebrating what did happen, which was winter and warmth and homecoming. Besides," and here he winked with his best approximation of a roguish grin, "I have something extra special for you this year."

I had to smile. "The last time you told me you had an extra special gift, we ended up walking in circles out on the tundra when our speeder broke down, only to be rescued by a nomadic herdsman. You're lucky I didn't write you off as a lost cause right then."

His grin still in place, Razi moved closer. "I'm glad you didn't."

"Don't even think about it," I said, reading what he was about to do in his sparkling eyes.

"Think about what?"

"What if one of my nine-year-old students walks into the room? He'd be traumatized for life if he saw his teacher doing anything remotely un-teacherish."

"Then I'll have to be fast." True to his word, Razi bent and kissed me quickly, then looked up and feigned surprise as he glanced around the empty room. "No one walked in. Lane, I think that deserves a celebratory kiss, don't you?"

Attempting without success to keep my smile from my face, I said, "No, I don't. I really don't." He kissed me anyway, and I pushed him away with both my hands on his shoulders. I felt my face flush. "Razi, if the principal came in right now, I'd be looking for new work within the hour."

"Then this is a to-be-continued?"

"Maybe."

He raised one dark eyebrow. "Maybe?"

"I told you I'd comm you, Razi."

"If you don't, I'll comm you. And if you don't answer, I know where you live."

"So now you're stalking me?"

"Not quite, but I did say I had a present for you, didn't I?"

"That you did."

"And I haven't given it to you yet, have I?"

"No, you have not."

"And you wouldn't want to miss one of my thoughtful and endlessly clever gifts, would you?"

"Debatable."

"I'm hurt, Lane. Stricken to the core."

"Does that mean you're going to keel over and beg forgiveness?"

Razi suddenly became serious. "No one should ever have to beg forgiveness. Forgiveness should be freely given."

"You're not going to try to get me to talk to my father again, are you?" I hadn't spoken with the man for six years for a reason – he had done nothing to deserve my love or even my respect. After Mama's death from a heart attack the night before the opening of the Festival, my father had closed himself off from me. Nothing could salve the hurt of those first few days, when all I needed was someone to hold me and tell me I would live, and when my father instead took up residence in a local bar and drank himself into oblivion.

"He loves you, Lane. He'd like to see you again to tell you how sorry he is."

"That's all very romantic and idealistic," I spat, "but has he forgotten what he did to me? He barely tolerated me for ten years, then disappeared the week after I celebrated my eighteenth lifeday." Biting my lip, I turned away from Razi. Some memories were too painful to relive.

"Still, I wish you'd give him a chance."

Maybe it's jealousy, I thought. Maybe I'm just jealous that Razi knows him better than I do. I quashed the thought. "Too little, too late," I said, trying to convince myself that I was right. "I don't need him, and I don't want him. Especially not now."

Razi shrugged, the movement slow and indescribably weary. "I can't – I won't – force you to do anything, Eleni. I just wish you'd try. Your father's a good man."

"I've known good men. The principal of this school is a good man. You're a good man. Our legendary heroes, Kendall and Odin and Noam, they were all good men. They went on journeys occasionally, they spent time away from their wives and children, but only because they thought it necessary to protect their families." I swallowed hard. "That's why we put candles out for them, hoping they'll come home."

"I'm not going to have this argument again," he said, cutting the conversation short. "Just come by after you're done with work."

My smile was strained, but I nodded. "I'll be there in an hour or so. Do I have to dress up? Is there other company coming?"

"Not as such." Razi smirked. "But, of course, you could always dress up just because."

Grinning this time, I smacked his arm. "Get out of here."

He bowed, kissed me briefly, and exited. The remnants of a smile still on my lips, I sat down to my work.

Part Two

"It was snowing the night Kendall first heard of the Dark One of the North," Mama said as she mixed the dough for our winter flatbread. "A man had appeared in town, bloodied and bruised, begging for food and clothing and shelter that he might last the night and travel on the next day. Naturally, Kendall offered his own home to the man, asking nothing of his purpose or intention, for Kendall knew in his own way that the man did not mean harm.

"The next morning, the man made to leave at first light, but Kendall bid him stay an hour, to recount the story of what had happened, for he knew of no bands of robbers or other perils that could have reduced the man to the state in which he now found himself. Trembling in misery and fear, the man spoke quickly, glancing from side to side as he related his tale.

"'It was not a human,' he said. 'It was shaped like one, yes, with two arms and two legs and a head and torso, but it was wreathed in darkness as if it carried with it its own shadow. I stumbled upon it in a clearing where it had just killed a small animal – I know not what – and it turned to look at me with cruel red eyes as I had never before seen.' The man shuddered, his fingers tightening and his nails digging into the flesh at the base of his palms. 'And then it spoke.'"

Mama always changed her voice when she was the creature, grinding her words until they fell from her lips like pieces of crushed glass. "'It spoke,' the man repeated. 'It said, "Who passes here in these forests that belong to no man but me?" And so of course I did not stop to answer but instead fled through the trees, hearing always the creature one step behind me, though when I could run no more and fell on the ground and looked around to see the thing that must kill me it was not there.'

"Kendall heard these words with something close to dread. For some time he had felt the malevolence in the North of the Golden Forests, and had attempted to ignore it in the hopes that it would extinguish itself by burning all available fuel, as most fires did. Apparently, it had not diminished, but grown stronger. It was then that Kendall knew he must pursue the creature, see it gone or killed. 'Thank you, brother,' he said to the man who cowered in his home. 'I will think you neither weak nor a fool if you should choose to remain here in Cilia for some time.'" There was a break in the narrative as Mama bent to place the flatbread dough in the cooker, careful to keep her hands away from the hot shelves. Dusting her hands against her apron, she straightened again.

"But the man did not wish to remain, and so he fled into the brightening day, always looking about him as if he expected the creature of which he spoke to attack him at any minute. Musing on the new story, Kendall called a Meeting in the hopes that the others would refuse to let him go to eradicate the menace that lurked a mere few days' journey from Cilia. The Seers watched the future with careful eyes, however, and saw that he must fight this thing, aided by a Company the likes of which Cilia had never known." Mama paused for a moment to let the gravity of the decision sink in. "A Company the likes of which this world had never known.

"Kendall gathered the men of the village – the warriors, the healers, the speakers, the travelers, the mystics – and told them of the quest. Immediately twelve volunteered, among them the greatest and most powerful leaders of their time. Kendall was relieved that he would not have to choose among the remaining men, for he knew that some would have to remain and care for the women and children in the Company's absence.

"And so it was that Kendall and the Company gathered enough food to last a week, retrieved their lightsabers from the central town vault where they had been stored so many years before, and set off in search of the creature who stalked the Northern Golden Forests."

"But there were lightsabers left," I prompted. "There were hundreds of lightsabers left, because everyone in Cilia had made one."

"Yes," said Mama. "They disappeared. After Kendall's death many years later, someone went to look for the cache, but the building in which they had been stored was empty. No one knows what happened to the lightsabers, though many speculate that they were simply stolen and sold on another planet."

"Do you believe that?"

"I believe that they're waiting for just the right person – a descendent of Kendall, perhaps – to find them."

"Like me," I said, grinning and bouncing from one foot to the other in excitement. "I'm a descendent of Kendall, right, Mama?"

"Down to your golden eyes and dark hair and willingness to get into all sorts of trouble."

"Mama," I said, with the single-mindedness of the very young, "I'm going to find those lightsabers, and I'm going to put them all in the Galactic Museum, except for the best one, because that one I'm going to give to you."

"Thank you, Eleni." Mama smiled at me. "I'd treasure it forever." The expression of pride and contentment on her face quickly turned into one of horror as her eyes followed a wisp of smoke trailing out of one corner of the cooker. "Oh no! The flatbread!"

I had only concentrated on correcting homework for a half-hour before I caught myself staring out the window at the gentle drifts of snow, mind utterly blank. Wryly, I smiled at my own distractedness, knowing Razi to be the cause. It's funny how you can know someone for your entire life and suddenly you wake up one morning and it's different between you, I thought, remembering his first nervous advances, the first time he had ever asked me to dinner at his house. We'd known each other for almost fifteen years but he had still been edgy, fidgeting, not knowing what to say. Then he had brought out the food, confessing that his mother had made it for him, and I had laughed, breaking the tension. It had been easy between us again, but something had changed.

Now we were something more than friends. What exactly that meant, I wasn't quite sure, but I didn't question the relationship; instead, I let it grow and evolve with us. Lost in my own thoughts, I jumped when the buzz of my comlink jerked me back into the present. I extracted the device from one of my pockets and thumbed the receive button.

"Eleni speaking."

"I know you said you'd comm me, but I forgot to tell you something and I wanted to make sure I remembered before you came over." The voice, tinny and distorted, was nevertheless distinctly Razi's.

"What is it?" I stood from my desk, clipped the comlink onto my collar so I could speak without using my hands, and began to pack my students' datacards into my carrisack.

"Uh, I guess just…you should bring something for overnight. That's kind of part of your present."

"Oh?" I could imagine Razi blushing, furiously trying to reword his thoughts.

"Lane, it's not…"

"I know," I said, putting him out of his misery. "But it's always fun to make you squirm."

"Thanks," said Razi, his lack of thankfulness clear. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "I can't know for sure any more, because I don't live in the same house that she does, but I think my mom is listening to the conversation through my brother's frequency interrupter."

That was nothing new. I loved Razi's mother like, well, like I should have been able to love my own, but she could be a bit intrusive. Not unexpectedly, a tiny buzz of static echoed through the connection, signaling that someone had closed a link. Shaking my head, I grinned and continued to pack my bag. "I'll be over there in an hour. Is that all right?"

"It should be perfect. Wear something warm."

"Should that particular succession of sentences worry me?"

Razi had regained his composure. "Not at all. You should have utmost faith in my ability to organize a wonderful outing."

"I thought it was dinner at your place, not an outing."

"Slight change of plans."

I rolled my eyes, but did not pursue the line of questioning further. "All right. I'll see you then."

With a smile, I terminated the connection and pulled the comlink from my collar, stowing it in an outside pocket of my overcoat. I wrapped my scarf around my neck, pulled a hat securely over my ears, and slung my carrisack over one shoulder. "Lights off," I told the room. "Heat off until five standard hours before the children return." Since I had always felt vaguely odd ordering a room to do my bidding, I added, "And have a nice holiday." My face flushed suddenly – whether from the heat or the inherent absurdity of wishing a room a happy holiday, I do not know – and I hurried out, securing the door behind me.

Almost an hour later, I waded through the snow-covered areas that surrounded Razi's house, streets that did not service enough of the citizens of Cilia to merit a clearing. Nearly thirty centimeters of the powdery white flakes covered the duracrete I knew existed beneath, and the weather prediction screen at the front gate of my apartment building forecasted at least thirty more after midnight. I entertained a vague hope that Razi did not plan to take me somewhere in the middle of a blizzard.

"Hi," Razi said, opening the door even before I started up his walk. "I saw you coming from my window and I thought I should interrupt you before you made a trip all the way up to my apartment. Unless, of course, you want something to eat right now and can't wait until we get where we're going."

"Hi," I said. "Tell me we're not going somewhere rescue is impossible."

"Rescue won't be impossible." What had started as a twitch of lips germinated into a full-fledged smile. "Just improbable."

"I don't want to know. I really, truly, honestly, don't want to know."

"Good, because I'm not going to tell you." As we spoke, Razi began to walk toward the inadequately covered ground-level speeder deck that housed his ancient vehicle. "Here, let me shove that into the back for you," he said, reaching for my carrisack. "You can get in, and then we'll be on our way in a minute."

After he had closed the rear storage compartment, Razi climbed into the driver's seat and inserted his card, allowing the speeder several seconds to warm its engines before cautiously lifting it a meter from the ground and urging it forward. We rode together in silence for some time, Razi concentrating on coaxing the speeder over some particularly malevolent drifts. I watched the scenery, admiring the changes as we moved away from Cilia and through the scrub that marked the edge of the wooded area into the true Golden Forests. The quiet yellow color of the trees' bark caught what sunlight filtered through the branches, reflecting it and creating the golden glow after which the forests had been named. I could love it here without any trouble at all, I thought.

Before long, however, my admiration of the scenery turned to intense curiosity concerning our destination and I asked, "Where are we going?"

Razi only smiled. "You'll see in roughly thirty seconds."

As the sunlight began to fade, Razi set the speeder down in the tiny clearing that marked the end of the road. "We have to walk a little bit, but it's just beyond that stand of trees."

Growing steadily more interested, I opened my door and stepped into the snow. The light had diffused even more here, I noticed, but the snow still appeared to shine with a pale beige. I closed the door behind me, retrieved my carrisack from where Razi had set it atop the speeder, and shuffled toward the thin path that Razi had indicated.

Appearing at my side, Razi took my free hand and led me along the slight upward slope that led to another clearing. And nestled inside the clearing, amid the odd piles of snow that covered irregularities in the ground and fallen branches, stood a tiny cabin, made of the local wood. It appeared to shine softly, its bright green door and windows contrasting pleasantly to produce an effect that made it seem altogether natural that a cabin should suddenly appear in the heart of a wilderness.

"What do you think?" Razi asked, keeping his face directed toward the center of the clearing while watching me from the corner of his eyes.

"I – it's – it's…." I closed my mouth, then opened it to try again. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

He wrapped one arm around me and kissed my cheek, then said, "I'm glad you like it – I thought we'd stay here overnight and then spend tomorrow hiking through this part of the Forests."

Again finding myself at a loss for words, I managed to say, "I think I owe you an apology for suggesting that your gifts are less than perfect."

Razi flushed, continued on, "Or we could go hiking right now. School was let out early today – we still have almost two hours of sunlight."

"I'd love to, but let me drop my bag inside first. Why don't you come in for a minute and we'll put our things away before we take a walk."

Part Three

"The cold of the outdoors began to wear on Kendall and his men, but still they pushed on, still they forged ahead," Mama said as she placed a candle in the window and lit it. "Through the bitterness of midwinter they pressed, feet and hands frozen, faces raw and chafing in the cutting wind. Not one of them suggested that the Company turn back; not one suggested that the Dark One might be better left until springtime. Their supplies dwindling, they moved always North, through the Golden Forests.

"Kendall had chosen for his second Noam, a dear friend and hunter well-acquainted with the forests. But for all of Noam's experience in the woods, he had never traveled this far north – he did not know the way and was useful only in searching for easier trails through the trees. However small the task it was nevertheless essential and he performed with all of his strength and knowledge, but with a lingering sensation that he had somehow failed his leader.

"It was on the third day that Kendall and his Company met the Guide. She appeared from between two of the gilt trees and stood, unmoving, until Kendall noticed her. The deep green of her robe and hood blended seamlessly into the forest behind her; the tawny brown of her skin matched the color of the undergrowth. Her eyes, deep green like the shade beneath a tall tree, were what caught Kendall's attention, forced him to turn and seek to distinguish her from the rest of the forest.

"'Hold, men,' Kendall said, raising one hand to signal his party to halt. 'What is your business in the Forests at this time of year?" he asked the woman, who had by now stepped from the shelter of the trees and stood before him, unflinching, her eyes meeting his on equal ground.

"'I might ask what your business is, traveler,' she countered, her voice low and filled with the music of the wind as it winds its way through thick foliage. 'For these woods are, and shall evermore be, my home. Few venture through them.'

"Feeling strangely obliged to answer her unasked questions, Kendall said, 'My men and I wish to pass through on our journey to find the Dark One that lurks north of here. I am Kendall, of the Southern city of Cilia, and I did not know that anyone but the wild creatures called these lands home'

"'Ah,' said the woman, and she seemed to search his eyes for something he could not understand. 'If that is truly your design then I would help you and your companions, for I too have sensed the creature that waits for another unfortunate to venture into its grasp.' She took a silent step forward, her foot leaving the barest trace of a mark on the snow. 'I am Kamali, and I am a Guide. I know these forests well, and you will find it easier to follow me than to uncover your own paths. Though the trees do not endeavor to impede your progress, nor do they attempt to ease it.'"

Having lit a candle in every window on the first floor of our small house, Mama collected the remaining tapers and walked up the stairs. I followed closely behind her, unwilling to miss any part of the story. Mama smiled at my eagerness and continued, "Nodding, Kendall signaled his willingness to follow her lead, and she walked from him without another word. Kamali spoke rarely, and when she did it was simply to warn Kendall of a hidden danger or to answer in as few words as possible the questions he posed concerning her home. Thus another full day passed before she stopped, alert, in the center of a stand of trees and said, simply, 'It is near.'

"Kendall stepped to her side, but as always she moved away slightly, keeping distance between them. 'Where is it? Does it know we are here?'

"'Listen.'

"And so Kendall listened, and in the hush of late afternoon he heard the crunch of feet on snow, the crack of icy branches forced beyond their flexibility. With one hand resting on his unlit lightsaber, he called, 'Who comes this way?'

"There was no answer, but the sound became louder, and if Kendall had been a fanciful man he might have imagined a shadow to fall across the land. There was no shadow, however; the sun shone as brightly as it ever had when the creature appeared in the clearing, its red eyes burning and its long dark hair tangled and matted about its head. Kendall thought that it might once have been human, or near-human, but whatever its original shape, it had been so distorted and disfigured – perhaps by the very power that it used – that little resembling anything recognizable remained.

"The creature spoke," Mama said, her tone dropping to the chilling registers that characterized her villains' voices. "It said, 'Who are you to come here to these woods that belong to no man but me?'

"'The woods belong to no one,' said Kamali. 'Not to you, not to me. Not to Kendall.'

"'I would speak with you,' Kendall said, stepping forward, 'And ask you to leave this place. What you have done here is terrible, assuredly, but we have no real wish to fight you. If you should leave in peace, we would do nothing to detain you.'

"'And if I should not, Kendall the stranger?'

"'You may not continue to threaten the people of Cilia,' Kendall said, strong words despite the quickening of his heartbeat. 'We will see you gone, one way or another.'

"'These woods are mine, and I refuse to leave them.'

"'Then, creature, we must force you out.'

"With this, Kendall raised his lightsaber, igniting it so its shining blade reflected off the snow and lit the darkening forest. He did not turn to look, but knew that the other men of his party had activated their lightsabers as well; as one, they turned to face the creature.

"'You would threaten me?' the creature growled deep in its throat. 'You would attempt to take me from this land? Come if you wish, but do not expect victory to be yours.' It pulled something much like a lightsaber from its own belt and triggered it – a beam of hot red light sprang from the end and battled for supremacy with the lighter pastel colors of the others.

"'Whether you come all at once or whether your leader chooses to challenge me alone, I will not concede the fight.'

"Kendall took a long stride forward, inclined his head slightly. 'We have not seen violence in many years,' he said, 'and I am loath to fight now, but I cannot allow you here. I am Kendall of Cilia and regardless of your strength, you will not live to see morning.'

"Noam stepped beside his longtime friend. 'As he speaks, I stand with him.'

"Another man, Odin, took his place opposite his leader and cousin. 'As do I.'

"With what might have been a smile, the creature closed its eyes, raised its arms, and summoned the wind."

The candles had been put in place, and Mama looked up from her story as the bell at the front of the house rang unpleasantly. "I suppose I'll have to continue some other time – that'll be your Aunts Arlan and Reysa. Why don't you go and answer the door so they can come in and start invading my kitchen in preparation for the rest of the family?"

We shared a private smile – my mother never particularly liked her sisters-in-law, and I had never taken kindly to their inclination to pinch my cheeks and exclaim over my growth and maturity. Patting my hair into place, straightening my clothes, and forcing my face to assume a benign smile, I took the stairs down two at a time and opened the door.

The interior of the cabin was dark and slightly stuffy – it smelled vaguely of wood and ashes. Walking in, I set my bag on a low bench that stretched along much of one wall and surveyed what I could see of the three rooms. A living and dining room occupied two thirds of the cabin, and a bedroom and 'fresher each claimed part of the remaining space. Within the living room rested a sofa that looked as if it might convert into a bed at the manipulation of a control panel on one side, a table big enough to seat four with three chairs and a stool around it, and a bedraggled rectangle of carpet that seemed to have been attacked by a large animal with sharp claws. A small kitchen area with a single heating element and a cooker that appeared almost large enough for a single piece of toast completed the sense of close familiarity. Quaint was the word that first came to mind, and I turned to Razi with a tiny smile, saying, "Are you sure it's not too big?

"I'm sure," he said, dropping his bag beside mine and closing the door behind him. A manual mechanism locked the door in place, I noticed. "The lady who rents the place assured me that it would be quite satisfactory for two people."

"Was your mom listening to that conversation, too?" I asked. "Or does she only listen to the comm messages you exchange with me?"

Razi rolled his eyes at that. "Funny. No, she wasn't listening to that conversation."

Excited, I bounced on the balls of my feet. "Come on, I want to go explore before it gets dark. Did you bring a glowrod or anything so we don't have to stumble around blindly after the sun goes down?"

Producing two glowrods from an outside pocket of his bag, Razi held one out to me. "I," he said, "am always prepared for everything."

On my way out the door, I smacked him on the chest. "I am perfectly capable of stealing your speeder card and taking the speeder back to Cilia without you, mister 'I-am-always-prepared-for-everything.'"

He closed and locked the door behind us before replying, "You'd get about a kilometer before it broke down. That thing doesn't work for just anyone, you know."

I ignored him and stood in the center of the clearing, undecided as to which way to walk. Obviously, the way back to the speeder ended in a road, and I did not feel inclined to walk along a path already laid out by some other human. To my left, a tiny trail led into the woods, and to my right, a path twisted between two thick stands of trees. Which way?

"Let's try that one," said Razi, pointing to the right with a strange look on his face. "I want to go someplace new."

"Are you all right?" I asked him when he didn't move. "If you don't want to, we don't have to go on a hike tonight."

Distractedly, Razi said, "No, I'm fine. It's just…" he trailed off, then took my hand and tugged me toward the path he had indicated. I barely had time to pull my hat on over my ears before we had entered the forest and were walking quickly toward something that Razi evidently deemed important.

A moment later, I too caught a sense of urgency, as if the forest urged us on, implored us to move more quickly. Razi broke into a run, and I followed, matching his pace, feeling my breathing and heartbeat begin to accelerate. "Where are we going?" I managed to call over the cold rush of air passing around me. Perhaps Razi did not hear me, or perhaps he just chose not to answer, because he did not hesitate but continued at the same rapid pace.

We arrived in the clearing after what seemed like an eternity, panting, gasping furiously for oxygen. "What – was – that?" I tried, speaking between breaths. "What—"

—I apologize,— came a voice, low and peculiarly accented. —When I asked you to come, I did not realize that my summons would seem so imperative to you. I did not mean for you to feel compelled to rush.—

I looked up, searching for the speaker, but saw no one. "Razi?" I said, moving closer to him. "Did you just hear—"

—Yes, he did,— said the voice again, and this time I realized that I did not hear it at all, but that it sounded inside my head, as if someone had taken up residence inside my ear. —Both of you can hear me.—

"Who – what – why…" For the first time since I had known him, Razi was at a loss for words. "How are you doing that?" he queried finally.

—I do not truly exist. I am part of these forests, as the trees overhead or the moss underfoot. But unlike the trees and the moss, I was once something very different.—

A patch of shadow detached itself from the darkness between two trees and resolved into a tall slender woman, her long cape flowing gently in the breath of air that eddied through the underbrush. Her long red-brown hair fell in waves over her shoulders, and her piercing green eyes turned first to Razi, and then to me. I recognized her at once.

"You're Kamali," I said, realizing too late that I was pointing at her as if she were some sort of display. I lowered my hand. "But you were here hundreds of years ago."

—And this is why I no longer exist, at least not in my original form. But I was never precisely human from the start; perhaps this is why I have managed to cling to these woods for so long.— The woman shrugged and glided forward, her sandaled feet leaving no impression on the snow.

Razi had sidled up beside me and now stood partially in front of me, his posture clearly indicating that he wished the woman to stop where she was. "Kamali?" he said. "Who are you?"

—The young woman knows— said Kamali. —You should know too, heir of Noam. Have you not heard the stories?—

"What stories?"

—The stories of what lay in wait for Kendall and his Company once they reached the part of these woods that I call home. You truly have not heard?—

"I have not," said Razi, sounding more formal than usual. "But I have a feeling that I will. Still, why did you bring us here?"

—There is something that you must be shown,— said the woman, —for you are the descendents of Kendall and Noam, and you will know best what to do. For too long has this planet shut itself away from all others; for too long have we lived in ignorance of what truly happened here. You, the heirs of that legacy, must restore Cilia to what it once was.—

"Which was, exactly, what?" I asked. In the strange manner of dreams, the encounter had become so surreal as to grow increasingly believable.

—Come with me, and I will show you a part of your past, something that has been seen for no human for over three hundred years, since the last Jedi of Cilia died and was buried in the unchanging earth.—

For the first time since we had met the woman, Razi looked at me, catching my eye and shrugging helplessly. I reached for his hand and squeezed it, then turned to the woman. "Lead on."

Part Four

The wind howled about the men, driving all but Kendall and Noam to their knees," Mama said as she swept the snow from our front steps. "Kendall looked about for Kamali, but did not see her – she seemed to have disappeared into the trees which now groaned and shuddered against the onslaught. And then all his concentration he focused on the creature, which took advantage of the general distraction to attack, using its great corrupt strength to rend the branches from the trees about it and hurl them at the recoiling Company.

"Though each man in the Company held a lightsaber, so long had it been since they had used them that they did not know the proper techniques. In fear, for now they were truly fearful, they sliced at the projectiles aimed at them, deflecting the majority and suffering the pain of being struck by the rest. Above the roaring of the twisting wind, Noam cried, 'Kendall, we must attack or flee!' and Kendall, with his customary celerity, agreed. Together, they forced their way forward, inch by agonizing inch, fighting the creature and the storm it called to it.

"And then the creature raised its red blade, bringing it up at an angle before its face. 'Back!' he told Noam, but his friend did not hear or chose not to listen, and the red blade that appeared from one end of the creature's lightsaber hissed and sizzled against Noam's own weapon.

"With no choice left him, Kendall surged forward, now aware that Odin, having regained his footing, followed closely behind. Kendall swung his lightsaber in a great arc that swept toward the dueling pair, missing Noam by centimeters and driving directly at the creature's chest. The creature snarled and leapt back, avoiding the blade and breaking contact with Noam. As its concentration spread to concern thirteen men instead of two, the wind it had called began to lose force.

"Once more, the creature charged, diving at the last minute to roll under Noam's lightsaber and drive its own blade up toward Noam, who stepped aside and slashed quickly down, forcing the creature to complete its roll awkwardly and leap to its feet out of arm's reach.

"Enraged, the Dark One took up a defensive posture, its back to a tree, its legs spread shoulder width apart. 'Come forward, human,' it said, addressing Noam. 'Come forward and find that which you cannot defeat.'

"But Noam was no prideful fool, and he refused. He would have fought the creature alone had not so many lives and livelihoods depended on the Company's success. The lives did depend on him, though, and so he did not step forward. Instead, he said, 'I will not fight this battle to lose, creature. I am here to fight you and to win.'"

As always, a shiver ran along my spine when Mama spoke as Noam, the most understated and least militarily inclined of any of the Company. He had not been a soldier, but neither had he been one to accept defeat. "'My friend,' he said to Kendall, 'we must do this together.' Kendall looked deeply into his eyes, saw the sadness and determination behind Noam's composure, and nodded.

"'We must, and we will.' With a battle cry, Noam ran forward, bringing his lightsaber in a tight loop that threatened the Dark One's upper body. At once, the creature stepped away, but Odin had come from behind and blocked its escape. Frantic and angry now, the creature turned again, away from Odin, only to find that Kendall stood in its way. Each of the thirteen members of the Company had come and taken a place in a circle around the creature, and each of them held before him a blazing lightsaber.

"The Dark One spun this way and that, but the thirteen hemmed it in, surrounded it, forced it to submit. It raised its blade and began to swing wildly, roaring in outrage and frustration. The man danced away from its strikes, darting forward to try to land their own, but never succeeding. The fight, such as it might be called, could have progressed for hours similarly.

"But the creature focused its power on Kendall, attacking him until Kendall stumbled and lost his hold on his lightsaber. As Kendall dove away after his weapon, the fighting paused for one pivotal moment, and Noam could only watch as the Dark One raised his blade to strike. Noam raced forward to place himself between his friend and his enemy, and this was where he took his one fatal misstep. The snow concealed the simple stone that tripped him, twisted his ankle, caused him to fall awkwardly in the creature's path. His lightsaber, jarred from his hand upon impact, flew away in a short arc and landed in the snow a meter away, the ice short-circuiting the fragile wiring and shutting off the blade. In desperation, he scrambled away from the oncoming creature, but in his pain he was not quick enough."

I closed my eyes and imagined this part of the story, as I always did: the cries of the men fighting for their lives and the lives of those they loved, the scent of sweat and blood and fear, the horrible look in Kendall's eyes when he regained his lightsaber only to see his closest friend helpless in front of a creature that intended to kill him. "The Dark One's blade chopped down, once, and Noam was dead, his scarlet blood staining the trampled snow around him.

"Kendall's eyes hardened, and this time they held a profound anger that spurred his men onward, forced them to strike again and again at the creature. It pulled with fierce abandon at everything around it, summoning its power to destroy and to conquer. With its lightsaber, it slashed at the men, impossibly quick on its feet, impossibly powerful for one fighting against so many. Odin, tiring, failed to parry one wild thrust – he grunted and fell, his blade dropping from lifeless fingers as he crumpled to the ground.

"Kendall resolved then that the creature would not take more life and he advanced on it, his full concentration on the perpetual game of attack and parry, until at last one lucky stroke pierced the Dark One's heart. It lay on the ground, gasping for a last breath, and then, with a tiny smile, the barest twitch of lips, it died. For a moment, there was complete silence, and then came the sound of eleven lightsabers turning off, eleven men sighing, eleven deep breaths as each member of the Company realized that two of their number lay dead in the snow.

"Sinking to his knees, Kendall clipped his lightsaber to his belt and covered his face with his hands, willing the scene before him to retreat, willing himself to wake up in a warm bed beside his slumbering wife. A gentle hand on his shoulder bid him look up, and his gaze met that of Kamali. She smiled at him with a sad twist in her emerald eyes, and moved her hand from his arm. 'We must leave this place,' she said. 'Now is not the time to grieve.'

"And so the Company treated its wounded, and turned to the question of what to do with its dead. The ground was too cold for graves, so they built three pyres of the driest wood they could find. Kendall spoke the words of parting over the still forms of Noam and Odin, suppressing his tears. Then he gathered their lightsabers, and with a shaking hand he lit fires beneath each of the dead – the Dark One, Odin, and finally, Noam. He would not permit his men to watch the fires, and began to march south again, the smells and sounds of home fresh in his aching memory.

"Almost three kilometers away, he stole a glance back at where he had left two of his Company, the guilt and pain he felt inexpressibly profound. Three columns of smoke rose above the pristine forest, twirling in the breezes from the north. He remained as he was for a moment, halfway through a step that would bring him that much closer to Cilia, and sent a prayer skyward, wishing well for the souls of his fallen comrades. Then he turned south to continue the long journey home.

"The Company walked for two days in almost complete silence, broken only by Kendall's questioning of Kamali. He asked what the creature was, and how it had arrived in the North. She had few answers to offer, though, and replied simply that she thought it to be one of the people that had disappeared from Cilia when Cilia broke away from the rest of the Galaxy.

"'But there are no others on Cilia,' Kendall insisted, and she did not pursue the point.

"On the third day, their food exhausted, their water diminishing, their morale waning with every step, one of the Company cried, 'Look!' and pointed at a flickering spot of light that appeared near the horizon.

"The candle in the window could be seen in the distance, a beacon of warmth and welcome to the weary travelers, and the group saw it and turned homeward, now certain that they had followed the right path." Mama looked up as Father returned from work, smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "And you know the rest, don't you, Eleni?"

"Didn't they ever find out what the Dark One was?" I asked.

"Not to my knowledge. Perhaps it was indeed one of the men who had deserted Cilia when our planet turned away from the evil of the Galaxy; perhaps it was something that came from outside the planet's confines. But it's not here now, and it won't be coming back."

"I'm glad," I said boldly. "Because if it ever came back it would have to fight me."

"That's nice, dear," Mama said with a slightly teasing smile. "Why don't you come inside and I'll make you some hot chocolate?"

—You know nothing of your heritage,— said Kamali as she led us through the forests. —And that is as it was planned, for the legacy of this little lonely town is not a happy one.—

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I know that I'm descended from Kendall, and that Razi's a descendent of Noam – that is, I know that now – so I don't see what I'm missing here."

—You will. I am taking you to what you are missing, so that you may decide for yourselves whether it should continue to remain as it is, lost in the Golden Forests. Some may say that I am wise, for I know the ways of the woods, but in the matters of men I have little experience.—

We continued for several moments in silence, careful to avoid stepping on the rocks and branches covered by the deceptive white snow. "Where do you suppose we're going?" I said quietly. "Do you know where we are?"

"Not the faintest idea," he replied. "But if we get out of this alive, remind me never to take you anywhere ever again. We always end up in impossibly absurd situations."

Despite my nervousness, I smiled. "How do I know it's not you who's the bad luck? You were with me on both occasions."

Razi shrugged. "I don't know. But one thing's for sure: something weird always happens, and you're always there."

"And how do I know that you don't get into these kinds of situations when I'm not around to witness them?"

"Uh…perhaps because you can take my word for it that I rarely walk around behind ghosts or specters or whatever we're following?"

"Well, whatever we're doing, it's – oh, my."

We had entered a clearing deep in the woods, a clearing in which no snow covered the ground. The grass grew deep and green as if spring had just arrived; a flower bloomed at the center of the area; and placed at even intervals throughout the meadow were square stone blocks covered with elegant script. Atop each block rested a crystal, each one a different color, each one resplendent in the evening light.

"What are they?" Razi asked, his voice soft and filled with awe. He stood on the edge of the clearing, as if afraid to step into it. "What is this?"

—This is the graveyard of the Jedi of Cilia. For a hundred years, the people of Cilia took their leaders here and placed the crystals from their lightsabers atop their tombstones. But they were trying to withdraw from their way of life, trying to become something they were not, or perhaps trying to reject some part of what they were.—

"Jedi?" It was my turn to question the Guide.

—Jedi,— she confirmed. —Users of the Force that binds all life. Or, in the lore of Cilia, users only of lightsabers that magically disappeared. I do not deny that magic exists, but it never manifests itself so boldly.—

"Then what did happen to them?" I tried to stay within the comfortable bounds of the stories I knew, the history I had been taught. "The lightsabers, I mean."

—In a sense, they never existed.— When I raised an eyebrow, Kamali continued, —Let me explain. In the days of Kendall and Noam the Old Republic flourished. Or at least I was told it did – as I said before, I know little of human interaction. This great link between different peoples from different planets throughout the Galaxy fostered young people with the ability to touch the Force, taught them how to heal and also how to kill. But several of these Jedi, as they were called, did not wish to participate in the politics of governing a Galaxy. They disagreed with the Order, and they refused to fight others. The Jedi Council ordered them to a farming colony, but they refused to go, instead coming to this unnamed and uninhabited planet.

—Yes, I see the disbelief in your eyes. Unnamed? Uninhabited? It is, as you know, not particularly hospitable for humans – the temperature is too variable, and the seasons too abrupt – but the Jedi settled here and called their settlement Cilia for reasons now lost to time and forgetfulness. One theory states that the first town leader's name was Cilia; another states that the word means 'harmony' in a now-lost language. But I digress.

—They settled here intending to sever all bonds with the rest of the Galaxy. The planet was rich enough in metals and minerals to support the community, and the soil was rich and fertile. But some of the members opposed this complete isolation. They argued with the leaders of Cilia, and threatened to take over the communications systems. For this, they were banished to the North. Though Cilia never heard from them again, these Jedi survived, and their community flourished. Cilia flourished as well, eventually splitting into three interdependent areas.

—There was one man, though, just one, who had come following a woman he loved but who did not love him. Durjaya, for that was his name, was determined to win her. When she married another, he finally accepted his loss and asked the leaders of Cilia for permission to leave. They denied his request, and told him that he might remain in the town or build himself a home outside the city limits. In anger, he left the city intending to find the settlers that had traveled North. He did not find them. They had hidden themselves well. Durjaya was very strong in the Force, and this last defeat troubled him endlessly. Finally, he summoned a storm that nearly destroyed Cilia and fled into the forest where he built himself a new lightsaber. The people of Cilia knew nothing of his actions except that he had disappeared and never returned, and that the storm had occurred quite unexpectedly, and they made nothing of either isolated event.

—As the days and weeks and months passed and no one came for him, Durjaya spent his time learning to live against nature and plotting his return. He delved deeply into the seductive and powerful Dark Side of the Force until it consumed him, made him into something at once less and more than human. In the grand scheme of the Galaxy he was unimportant, but within the tiny community that is this planet, it was life-changing in many ways. His fate was that which so many of the Jedi feared.—

I nodded and noticed Razi nodding with me. "That makes sense. The legends are true for the most part, but they don't give enough information to piece together the whole truth. But what about the lightsabers?"

Kamali smiled. —When I said that Cilia sought to remove itself from the rest of the Galaxy, I am afraid I did not speak strongly enough. The members of the community here abandoned all Jedi philosophy, and did not pass it down to their children. When the last original Jedi died, memory of what had come to pass outside this world was lost to all but one family.

—Your mother, Eleni, was the last to know of the origins of Cilia, and even they never had any knowledge of this graveyard.—

"And she was supposed to pass it on to Lane, weren't she?" Razi said, his voice making it clear that he finally understood Kamali's point.

"But the lightsabers," I said, wanting to fill that part of the legend, the part that I had always wanted most to believe. "Everyone's manipulated the truth until it fit their needs, but there were lightsabers – you said so yourself."

—They are no longer,— said Kamali. —Look around you. Do you see the crystals?—

"Yes," I breathed, and suddenly I knew the answer. From the look on Razi's face, he did too.

"Each one of those crystals, each one was part of a lightsaber, wasn't it? The original Jedi are buried here, and their lightsaber focusing crystals are part of their memorials. Since the knowledge of how to be a Jedi wasn't passed down, they didn't make any new ones, they just destroyed the old." He stared at the stones in the clearing with a new light in his eyes, reached out to touch one, and then drew his hand back before he made contact, as if the rock might burn his fingers.

Smiling again, Kamali inclined her head. —Yes. And do not be afraid to touch, young one. The dead will not object to your curiosity.—

"But why now?" queried Razi. "Why us? What are you trying to show us, other than our past?"

—What I am trying to show you,— Kamali said, —is your future. There are hundreds of thousands of planets in this Galaxy, trillions upon trillions of sentient beings, all waiting for you, for your people, for your knowledge. They will welcome you if you should choose to contact them.—

"We've lived like this for hundreds of years," Razi said with a frown. "Why change now?"

Kamali shrugged. On her, the gesture seemed eloquent and graceful. —I do not concern myself with the matters of sentience in the Galaxy, but I do watch groups rise and fall as if through an eye trained to see through petty differences. The time now is right. The evil of before is gone, replaced by a chaotic but benevolent government.— A tiny grin flickered across her lips. —But I have time to wait, should you decide not to tell your people of what I have revealed to you. The choice is yours: reunite with the rest of the Galaxy, or remain isolated, utterly removed and utterly alone.—

"That's not much of a choice—" I began, but Kamali was gone. Nothing remained that marked her presence; not so much as a blade of grass had buckled under her weightless feet.

"Lane, was that…uh, real?"

I reached for him as my legs threatened to collapse from beneath me. "It seemed like it to me. But she never told us why she picked us, or why she picked now." I could feel tears stinging the back of my eyes and decided to sit, pulling Razi down with me. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back, the warmth and friction of his hands relaxing me into a state where I could think more rationally. "We don't have any choice in the matter, do we?"

"No," he said. "We have to at least present the matter to the town leaders. It's not like we can just ignore the whole thing. We've been given something special, Lane. It's an honor, really."

"Honors have a strange way of turning around and becoming troublesome."

"Which is why they are always given to us. We're already in trouble half the time; why not continue?"

"Speak for yourself," I said, but inside my heart was pounding at the new prospects. A Galaxy full of diversity, a community of Jedi that we had never met, a lifestyle we had never encountered.

"Come back to the cabin," said Razi, and we can discuss it somewhere my legs aren't going to fall asleep."

Laughing, I pulled him to his feet. "I'll race you."

Epilogue:

One Year Later

I sat nervously in the spaceport, my hands clasped tightly in front of me and my lip sore from where I had bitten it in my anxiety. I justified my apprehension to myself by telling myself that I had plenty to dread. I had just been appointed as ambassador from Cilia to the Galactic Senate, and felt little qualified to take the position; I was about to leave my planet for only the second time; and my father stood in front of me, having appeared from nowhere to bid me farewell.

"I'm sorry to show up like this, but I heard about your appointment and wanted to wish you good luck. I – I'm, Eleni, I'm proud of you." He shrugged and looked away, clearly uncomfortable. "I can't say I'm sorry – wait, that's not what I mean. I am sorry, it's just that saying it means nothing."

My heart ached for him, for me, for the time we had spent apart. "Don't," I said, rising to hug him. "Don't, Dad."

He pulled back from me, smiling. "You look like your mother. And you act like her, too. You have the same candor." He winked. "You'll make a great politician."

Laughing aloud, I smacked at his arm. "Don't even suggest it! I'm doing this until someone can come to replace me, no longer. I'll miss it here too much to spend much time away."

An evil glimmer came into Dad's eye. "You mean you'll miss that boy of yours too much to spend much time away."

"Oh, Razi? Miss him? Never." Razi, who sat several meters away perusing a datapad and waiting his turn to say goodbye, looked up blankly. "We're saying all sorts of horrible things about you," I called to him. "I'm telling Dad all of your secrets."

"That's nice, Lane," he replied, returning to his datapad.

I smiled at Dad and he pulled me into one last embrace, kissing my forehead. "I'll miss you, Eleni."

"I'll miss you too, Dad. But I'm going to be back sooner than you know."

"I'm sure you will. I'd better leave you to Razi now – he looks like he's about to become impatient with me."

"Bye, Dad."

"Goodbye, Eleni." He stepped back, waved jauntily, and walked toward Razi's seat. Whispering something that I couldn't catch but that elicited a fierce blush from Razi, he found an unoccupied chair twenty meters away and dropped into it.

Razi approached. "Good luck, Lane."

"Thanks," I said, feeling strangely uneasy. Now that I understood more of the Force that affected me, I tended to understand more clearly what other people felt. Razi's thoughts were no exception. "You're nervous."

"So are you," he countered, a half-smile on his face.

"But you know why I'm nervous. Why are you nervous? Afraid I'm going to find someone good-looking and forget all about you?"

"No chance. I'm the best-looking guy in the Galaxy."

"And most modest."

"That too." The cocky grin on his face stole away. "Lane," he said, "I came here meaning to tell you something and now I can't figure out how to say it without sounding like an idiot."

"Give it a shot anyway."

"We've known each other for, well, forever, and I think you know that I've always liked you, first as a friend and then as something more than a friend. I mean, as a friend and something else, too. I mean, you know what I mean." He looked down, scuffed one shoe against the floor.

"I love you," I said.

"Hey!" His head shot up. "That's really not fair. I spend a week practicing the speech that's supposed to lead up to that and you just come straight out and say it?" More softly, he added, "Me, too."

"What, you love yourself too?"

"Exactly. But I love you as well. And since the direct approach seems to work more effectively, here goes." He took a deep breath. "Marry me."

My mouth dropped open. "What?"

"Marry me."

"Marry you. Me, marry you."

"You're having some trouble with your grammar, but yes. You, marry me."

I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, forcing him to look me in the eye. "I'd love to."

Razi kissed me, deeply, obviously not caring whether my father could see him, and I returned the kiss with every bit of love I possessed, every bit of pain I felt at leaving. When we broke apart a moment later, Razi held up a ring. "This had better fit," he said. "I had to guess."

It turned out that he had guessed one size too big, but the ring fit perfectly on my first finger and I slipped it on. "I'll see you again soon. Take care of Cilia for me, will you?"

"I will."

"And keep an eye on Dad."

"I'll do that."

"I don't know what else to say."

"Then don't say anything else. Just get on that transport and fly away to Coruscant and be a politician."

I smiled up at him. "Remember to light a candle for me, to guide Kendall home."

He smiled back, his expression wistful. "I would never forget. Now go out there and make a place in the Galaxy for a little backward planet with no concept of how anything works."

And so I did.

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