will go with you. Perhaps we will die together.'
Leia nodded, her heart aching. 'Perhaps we will.' But she wouldn't. The maitrakh and Khabarakh might die, and probably Chewbacca beside them. But not her. The Lady Vader they would take alive, and save as a gift for their lord the Grand Admiral.
Who would smile, and speak politely, and take her children away from her.
She looked out at the fields, wishing Han were here. And wondered if he would ever know what had happened to her.
'Come,' the maitrakh said. 'Let us return to the house. There are many things about Nystao which you must yet learn.'
'I'm glad you finally called,' Winter's voice came over the Lady Luck's speaker, distorted slightly by a not quite attuned scrambler package.
'I was starting to worry.'
'We're okay-we just had to run silent awhile,' Han assured her. 'You got trouble back there?'
'No more than when you left,' she said. 'The Imperials are still hitting our shipping out there, and no one's figured out what to do about it. Fey'lya's trying to persuade the Council that he could do a better job of defense than Ackbar's people, but so far Mon Mothma hasn't taken him up on the offer. I get the feeling that some of the Council members are starting to have second thoughts about his motivations for all of this.'
'Good,' Han growled. 'Maybe they'll tell him to shut up and put Ackbar back in command.'
'Unfortunately, Fey'lya's still got too much support to ignore completely,' Winter said. 'Particularly among the military.'
'Yeah.' Han braced himself. 'I don't suppose you ve heard from Leia.'
'Not yet,' Winter said; and Han could hear the underlying tension in her voice. She was worried, too. 'But I did hear from Luke. That's why I wanted to get in touch with you, in fact.'
'Is he in trouble?'
'I don't know-the message didn't say. He wants you to rendezvous with him on New Cov.'
'New Cov?' Han frowned down at the cloudspeckled planet turning beneath them. 'Why?'
'The message didn't say. Just that he'd meet you at the, quote, money-changing center, unquote.
'The-?' Han shifted his frown to Lando. 'What's that supposed to mean?'
'He's talking about the Mishra tapcafe in Ilic where he and I met while you were following Breil'lya,' Lando said. 'Private joke-I'll fill you in later.'
'So that means there's no question Luke sent the message?' Winter asked.
'Wait a minute,' Han put in as Lando started to answer. 'Didn't you talk to him personally?'
'No, the message came in printed,' Winter said. 'Not on any scrambler, either.'
'He doesn't have a scrambler on his X-wing, does he?' Lando asked.
'No, but he could get a message coded at any New Republic diplomatic post,' Han said slowly. 'Is this private joke something only you two would know about?'
'Us two, plus maybe a hundred bystanders,' Lando conceded. 'You think it's a trap?'
'Could be. Okay, Winter, thanks. We'll be checking in more often from now on.
'All right. Be careful.'
'You bet.'
He signed off and looked at Lando. 'It's your ship, pal. You want to go down and take a look, or give it a miss and go check out this swimming casino of yours?'
