CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Something had drawn his mind back to reality.

With a quick touch of the Force, Jacen enhanced his short-term memory and discovered that a woman had spoken his name. That was odd. What was a woman doing in his bedroom?

"Jacen?"

His eyes shot open, and he realized he wasn't in a bedroom after all. Just Jag's office. He was slumped in a chair with legs stretched out before him, arms crossed over his chest, and head flopped ungracefully over the back.

He cleared his throat. "Yes?"

Three thumps announced the arrival of Shawnkyr's blue face and bright red eyes across the smooth white tiles of the ceiling. She gazed down at him. "What are you doing in here?"

He pinched his own arm to keep himself from laughing at how silly she looked upside down. "I was… meditating." Liar, his conscience said. You were asleep. "Yes, meditating."

"I see," she said. "And did your meditations give you a solution to our problem?"

"Huh?" The Force had guided him to trust in her plan for rescuing the Shadow from Iliana's goons – and he would have felt something if anything bad had happened to his twin. He sat up in the chair as Shawnkyr walked around it to face him. "What problem?"

"I just received word from the Ordained Guardian," she replied. "A shuttle is on its way here."

"Uh oh."

"Precisely."

Jacen ran a hand over his face. The haze of tiredness had vanished; nervous sweat already was taking its place. "I don't suppose we can convince him to come back some other time?"

She shot him a scowl. "You don't think I already tried that?"

"You did? Really?"

She shrugged. It was an entirely human gesture, and she probably wasn't even aware she was doing it. "In the past I have taken far… bolder measures to cover for Jag."

"I can only imagine."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I do not think so."

"Jaina is my sister," he retorted with a wink. "I think perhaps I can."

She chuckled. "Very well, Jacen. We are even."

"And about to be evenly in deep trouble if we don't figure out something fast."

"Agreed." Shawnkyr gazed pensively toward the far wall. "So what do we tell him?"

"Tell whom?" inquired the deep male voice from the open doorway.

Jacen already was springing to his feet as he spun to face the new arrival. "Ambassador Chu'itha," he said, his brain scrambling to bring all the diplomacy lessons his mother had given him back to the fore, "what a pleasure to see you again."

"Ambassador, sir," Shawnkyr said, snapping to attention with a crisp bow.

"Please, please," the tall Chiss said. "These Vikovans are so thick on formalities, I am beginning to think they have given over power to the protocol droids."

The idea of Threepio having power over anything made Jacen shudder – until he shuddered even more when he realized Iliana knew Jag wasn't here…

"You met with the Vikovan leadership just now?" Shawnkyr asked. Her sidelong glance at Jacen revealed she was thinking the same thing.

"Leadership is being generous," Chu'itha replied, striding into the room to join them. "Functionaries. Underlings. Minor bureaucrats. It seems this Ilannia feels compelled to demonstrate the competence and enthusiasm of every single department and agency of her regime. Quite tiresome, as it happens."

Jacen breathed a sigh of relief. At least their cover wasn't already blown. "They must be very serious about an alliance with Csilla if they are making such efforts."

"So it would seem." Chu'itha paused in front of the framed Corellian landscape painting hanging on the wall. For a moment Jacen thought he was contemplating the work of art – until the ambassador ran his fingertips through his short white hair a few times and adjusted the cuffs of his dress jacket. "Sadly," he said with a mischievous grin, turning back to them, "I fear I will have to foist off the remaining inane meetings upon Ambassador Fel."

"He deserves it," Shawnkyr muttered.

As Chu'itha raised an eyebrow, Jacen said, "I'm sure he'll follow orders."

"Yes," the aged diplomat said. "That is something of a habit of his. And where is my loyal and dutiful subordinate?"

Jacen and Shawnkyr traded glances. "Jag is… unavailable," she offered.

"Unavailable?"

"Yes," Jacen added, nodding enthusiastically. "Unavailable."

"I see." Chu'itha sat down in the chair at Jag's desk; Jacen and Shawnkyr remained standing. "What kind of unavailable?"

Jacen blinked. "I'm sorry, sir?"

"What kind of unavailable?" the Chiss repeated. "Taking a nap unavailable? Hiding from superiors unavailable?" Chu'itha tipped his head toward the holocube of Jaina. "Don't disturb me if you know what's good for you unavailable?"

Fortunately Shawnkyr opened her mouth first. "Off on a secret mission he neglected to mention unavailable."

"Ah." Chu'itha rubbed his fingers over his chin, then looked right into Jacen's eyes. "So tell me, Jacen Solo, where is Jag really?"

"He ran off with my sister, I'm afraid."

The elderly ambassador laughed. "Good. It's about time."

Simultaneously Jacen and Shawnkyr exclaimed, "What?"

"I am delighted for him," Chu'itha said. "If we could all be so blessed to find such a truly matched partner to share our lives."

Dumbfounded, Jacen and Shawnkyr could only nod.

"That said," Chu'itha continued, "the situation here is developing rapidly. Ambassador and soon-to-be Lady Fel will have to cut short their little romantic excursion for now." He looked at Shawnkyr. "You can tell him I will repay him threefold for the inconvenience."

"I would," she replied. "But it is not that simple."

"Of course it is." Chu'itha spread his hands. "Those two are made for each other. I told them as much at the ball last night."

"Apparently," Shawnkyr said reluctantly, "Jag did not exactly hear it that way."

Chu'itha propped his elbows on the desk and let his head fall into his hands. "Why do I suddenly suspect," he mused aloud, "that I should be getting a bad feeling about this?"

"Not quite yet," Shawnkyr advised. "Wait until you hear the part about the red ale."

Jacen could only laugh, and started from the beginning.

"I still do not understand," Chu'itha said when he got to the part when Jag flew off in the Shadow with Jaina restrained in the hold, "how Jagged could have misunderstood so greatly what I told him."

Jacen frowned. "I'll be honest, Ambassador. I'm not sure I understand myself."

"I made it quite plain. The hyperspace route is the key. This location is all that matters. Vikova itself is insignificant aside from that. So is the regime of the moment. This Ilannia –"

"Iliana," Shawnkyr interjected.

"Yes, yes, of course. Iliana." Chu'itha shook his head. "Such an unmemorable name for such an unmemorable leader."

On a very memorable body, Jacen thought before he could stop himself, and immediately as the thought formed in his mind he almost could feel Jaina's Force-slap on the back of his head.

"Regardless," Chu'itha pressed on, "this Iliana is of no concern. Her only purpose is to sign the treaty – to give Csilla the foothold it needs in this system."

Jacen frowned again. "And if she won't?"

Chu'itha looked at Shawnkyr. "You didn't tell him?"

Jacen looked at her too. "Tell me what?"

She met the ambassador's gaze for a brief moment, then nodded. "If she will not sign the treaty," she said coolly, deliberately, "then we will find a Vikovan who will."

Jacen felt his insides flop over. "That's what you meant when you said by any means necessary."

"Of course it is," Chu'itha said, exasperated. "I never imagined Jagged would manage to create a personal romantic crisis out of this."

"None of us did," Shawnkyr pointed out.

"You're forgetting how persistent Iliana is," Jacen said. And how beautiful… This time he could've sworn the Force-slap was real. "And how devious. She played right into all of Jag's doubts and fears about Jaina, and exploited his loyalty to the Chiss."

"What she forgot," Chu'itha said, "is that for all his Chiss upbringing and tutelage, my dear Jagged is still full-blooded Corellian."

"Unfortunately," Shawnkyr muttered.

"And our Corellian friend has finally let his heart take over. An understandable act, to be sure." Chu'itha sat back in the chair. "Yet Jagged is too much a Chiss to forsake his duty for too long. His return is no doubt imminent – and part of the plan itself. Correct?"

Jacen looked at Shawnkyr, but she was studiously avoiding his gaze. "Well, actually…"

Chu'itha raised an eyebrow.

"You see," Jacen began, "there's been a bit of a –"

The shrill warble of Shawnkyr's comlink cut him off.

"Nuruodo," she said.

A male Chiss voice emanated from the small device.

"Tight beam transmission from Nirauan," Chu'itha translated for Jacen. "Two words: mission accomplished."