Vision of the future

flying off madly across the chamber in all directions.

They didn't get very far. As suddenly as the insects had appeared there was a flurry of snapping tongues, and a moment later the chamber again settled down into silence. Behind Luke, Artoo gurgled nervously. 'Interesting,' Mara commented. 'That moss layer must be thicker than it looks.' She eyed Luke. 'I hope you're not going to suggest we beat the walls and try to sneak across while the feeding frenzy is going on.'

'You're half right,' Luke said, igniting his lightsaber and again stepping into the chamber. Easing the glowing blade tip into the moss, he carefully cut a meter-wide square of the material out of the general expanse. He closed down the weapon and returned it to his belt, got a good grip on the edges, and pulled.

With an oddly discomfiting tearing sound, a fifteen-centimeter-thick patch came away. Luke caught it across his forearms, trying to hold it more or less together, wincing at the sight of a hundred suddenly disturbed grubs scurrying across the surface or burrowing back into the moss.

'Lovely,' Mara said, coming to his side. 'And now it's feeding time?'

'That's the plan,' Luke said, easing over toward the next hole in line and lobbing the patch in front of it. The tongue snapped out, and in a flurry of moss dust the patch vanished.

'Let's see if it worked,' Mara said, stepping past Luke and stretching her lightsaber blade in front of the hole.

Nothing happened. 'Looks good,' she decided. 'Better get the droid past while he's still chewing.'

'Right,' Luke said, turning and getting a Force grip on Artoo. 'Child Of Winds, Qom Jha—let's go.'

A minute later they were all on the far side of the lair. 'Well, I'm impressed,' Mara declared, easing out of her guard stance to join them.

'And it didn't require us to kill,' Luke pointed out, igniting his lightsaber and stepping over toward the next predator lair.

'Except a bunch of insects,' Mara said. 'You have a problem with insects, by the way?' He thought he'd been hiding it better than that. 'They remind me of those droch things, that's all. No problem.'

'Ah,' Mara said, closing down her lightsaber and stepping around behind Luke. 'Tell you what: you cut, and I'll peel. Okay?'

* * *

Two hours later, they finally stopped for the night.

'At least, I think it's night,' Luke said, frowning at his chrono. 'I just realized I never got around to changing this thing to local time.'

'It's night,' Mara assured him, leaning thankfully back against her chosen rock and closing her eyes. Later, she knew, she would pay for this with numerous aches and pains from the dampness and sharp edges. But at the moment it felt immensely good. 'Night is defined as time for all good little boys and girls to go to sleep. Therefore, it is definitely night.'

'I suppose so,' Luke said.

Mara opened her eyes and peered across at him. There had been a flicker of something in his emotions just then. 'No?' she asked.

He shook his head. 'No, you're right,' he conceded, a bit reluctantly. 'We need to sleep.' Instead of what? Mara stretched out with the Force, trying to read deeper into his mind. But the way was blocked, with nothing she could detect except a barrier of uncertainty tinged with—

She frowned. Embarrassment? Was that really what she was getting?

It was. And for the great Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to even have such an emotion was definitely evidence of progress.

And given that, the last thing she wanted to do was make it easy for him. When he was finally willing to crack his shell far enough to ask her about her relationship with Lando, she would tell him. Not before.

And maybe by that time he would be able to hear the other, more troubling things she had to say to him.

Maybe.

CHAPTER