"No," said Luke softly. "You're right."
He turned, and followed his sister and Han, the droids and Chewbacca and
Liegeus, to the shuttle. At least he'd have a reason to get up in the
morning, he thought wryly--now, and for quite some time to come.
He would be back to this world, he knew to bring back the Guardians, when
those who went offworld to form the droch-killing apparatus returned. To
bring back the remains of the synth-droids and Needles, for the Guardians to
try to rehabilitate and realign after their enslavement.
To learn what he could of the Force, as the tsils understood it and of this
strange civilization of timeless minds.
But he would always wonder.
He stopped at the bottom of the ramp, for one last look at the cool-glaring
sun, the twilight stars, the wind-scoured sea bottoms, and waste-lands of
colored glass, the towering crystal tsils.
She has her own way, Liegeus had said. And he was right. Where she had to go
now, Luke thought, he could not follow.
The only way in or out of the gun station tower was over the walls.
A Theran was grappelling easily down on a line, dark crimson coat and gray
veils striking a familiar chord the fighter who had thrown the grenades,
thought Luke, during that first battle he had seen. When the gawky, graceful
figure reached the ground and walked toward Umolly Darm's freighter, he saw
the lightsaber swinging at the heavy leather belt, the long tail of
malt-brown hair as she pulled loose her veils, and his heart leapt against
his ribs.
She turned, at the other side of the landing ground, at the base of the
freighter's ramp. She had always known if he was looking at her, even as he
had known when her eyes were on him.
For a long moment they stood in stillness. She at the threshold of her long
He raised his hand to her, Farewell.
Her shoulders relaxed, and he could feel the tension leave her, the fear
that he would cross that open ground to tear anew all those toofresh wounds
by taking her in his arms.
The time was past, for that.
In her stillness he read her thought Please understand.
I understand.
She raised her hand to him, and he could feel her smile.
The antigravs on the shuttle were so smooth that there was no need to strap
in for liftoff, though once the vessel got moving Luke knew he'd be better
to be sitting down. He hurried his steps, to catch up with Liegeus as they
made their way to the forward lounge. The philosopher was right, he knew.
Trust your instinct, Obi-Wan had said, and curiously enough, once Liegeus
had spoken of loving and freedom, he could no longer deny what his instinct
had been telling him.
There was a time to embrace, and there was a time to release.
Time was long.
He was at Liegeus's heels when they stepped into the forward lounge, and the
woman seated near the mist and glory of the viewport rose from her chair.
"Your Excellency," said the red-haired woman to Leia, who had preceded them
in.
But she said no more. She only stood transfixed, color draining from her
face and with it draining the harshness of its lines, the terrible stern
bitterness that seemed as much a part of her as the skull beneath the skin.
It seemed to Luke that there was another face looking out from those bitter
emerald eyes. A girl's face, almost unrecognizable. A fierce dreamer's face,
scarred by the ecstatic knives of her dreams.
He was staring, as if at a ghost, only no ghost could have brought that leap
of amazed joy to any man's face. "Daala?"
They crossed to each other, stopped inches apart, as if, after a lifetime of
diverging roads, at the crossroad they feared to touch once more. It was
Daala who reached out first and took his hand.
"Have you . . ." His voice hesitated. "Have you had a good road, all these
years?"
"A long one," she said, the girl's voice, the proud dreamer's, audible still
beneath the damage of battle and years. And it seemed to Luke that he saw
death leave her eyes, and long-forgotten life stir there again.
"Cruel, in places. You?"
"A long one."
She put up her hand, touched his unshaven face.
"I've missed you, Liegeus," she said softly. "I've missed This will sound
foolish, but I've missed having someone to talk to."
Liegeus's fingers brushed her cheek, wonderingly exploring the footprints of
the years, then gathered up the copper weight of her hair.
She had always been the stronger of the two, Luke thought, watching them
together. And knowing this, he had released her into her strength.
Their lips met, tasting first, both afraid, then drinking deep, as if they
could never again have enough. Her arms went around him, in
congruous in the military severity of her uniform; he crushed her to him,
medals, blaster, and all.
Nobody in the lounge existed anymore. It was as if Leia, and Han and Chewie,
and the droids, and Luke had all been wiped from existence, and with them
the past twenty years.
No one in the lounge was the slightest bit surprised when Daala and Liegeus
the shuttle. "I guess you'll have that conference some other time," remarked
Han, drawing Leia down beside him on the black leather of the couch.
Leia sighed and laid her head against his shoulder, weary beyond words . "I
guess we will." His arms were around her, strong and rock hard under the
rough linen of his shirt. He smelled of salt sweat and burned insulation;
his chin was sandpaper against her temple and his breath living warmth on
her skin. She wanted more than anything simply to remain there, and drift
into sleep.
From the viewport, Luke watched the thin yellow track of Umolly Darm's
freighter as it lifted from the planet, streaked through the atmosphere and
away.
She's all right, he thought. It was like watching a hunt bird when after its
years of servitude, its owner frees it to return to the woods. She is well,
and strong. She'll find her way one day to the Force, to the light. He felt
weightless, at peace, and strangely free.
The blue air thinned to darkness and stars. The shapes of the fleet became
visible, silvery pendants in the blackness--the world that he had sought
since the age of eighteen, when he had looked into the Tatooine skies.
She had released him, he thought, to travel his road, wherever that road was
going, to whatever end that journey would have.
He heard a soft step behind him, knew it was Leia before her hands touched
his shoulders. Her voice was worried. "Are you all right?"
"Yes," said Luke softly. "I'm all right."
ayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share</div>