“I’m aware of the danger,” Thrawn said. “I would never want the weight of such memories and regrets. But I’m more prepared to see their deaths through my action than I am to put the entire Ascendancy at the same risk through my inaction.”

Ba’kif nodded. He’d thought Thrawn’s answer would be something like that. And unfortunately, he had to agree with him. “The ship will be ready by the time you’ve collected your fellow travelers and your supplies,” he said. “Your orders will be cut but sealed. No one will know about your mission but me.”

“Thank you, sir,” Thrawn said, standing up. “Thank you, too, for not adding the extra burden of a reminder that your career is also on the line.”

“You worry about your sky-walker and the Ascendancy,” Ba’kif growled. “I’ll worry about my career. Now get out of here. And may warrior’s fortune smile on your efforts.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Che’ri murmured, looking up from her questis and the picture she’d been drawing. She craned her neck toward General Ba’kif’s closed office door, halfway down the busy corridor, as if moving her head a couple of centimeters closer would magically give her the ability to see or hear through it.

“I don’t know,” Thalias said, resisting the impulse to remind the girl that she’d made that same half-question comment twice already, and that the answer wasn’t going to change until Thrawn came through the doorway.

But the topic of the unheard conversation wasn’t hard to guess. Thrawn’s vague question about whether she and Che’ri would be willing to go with him on a special mission would have been intriguing enough even if it hadn’t immediately been followed by this meeting with Ba’kif. But it had been followed by the meeting, and the only reasonable conclusion was that the two of them were discussing the details of that mission.

“They’re coming,” Che’ri said suddenly.

Thalias looked at the still-unopened door, feeling a touch of bittersweet memory. Back when she was Che’ri’s age, she’d been able to do that same trick, using Third Sight to know a couple of seconds in advance when something was about to happen. Most people—at least those who knew what sky-walkers were—took the whole thing in stride. But there’d been a few others who’d never gotten used to it. Freaking them out was half the fun of doing the trick.

The door opened, and Thrawn emerged. Ba’kif followed, but stopped in the doorway, and for a moment the two men held a final bit of inaudible conversation. Thrawn nodded at last and started down the corridor toward Thalias and Che’ri—

“Good afternoon, Caregiver Thalias.”