There would be a reckoning for this down the line, Thurfian promised himself. But for now, that would have to wait. Yiv had a sky-walker, and it was abundantly clear that the Aristocra would turn the Chaos upside down if necessary to get her back.

Still, if they were lucky—if they were very lucky—Thrawn might finally have outsmarted himself. In which case, Thurfian would happily and with full sincerity join into the Mitth family’s eulogy for its fallen hero.

“I think the thing I’ll miss most about Thrawn,” Yiv commented casually from his bridge command chair, “is the way he always seemed able to read his opponent and plan accordingly. It forced one to keep alert and to learn to anticipate in turn.”

Thalias kept silent, focusing instead on the task of not scratching her arms despite the itchy feel of the shapeless robes the Nikardun had given her and Che’ri to wear. She suspected they were prisoner suits, and that they were deliberately designed to be uncomfortable, but she would be damned if she would give Yiv the satisfaction.

“This canister, for instance,” Yiv continued, pulling out the small, flat canister that had been concealed inside Thalias’s belt buckle. “Hard to tell without opening it, but deep-spectral analysis suggests it’s some kind of soporific. Possibly a lethal one?”

“It’s not lethal,” Thalias said. “It’s a sleepwalking drug called tava. It’s the drug my master used on the crew of the Vak fighter when he commandeered it.”

“And you just happened to have another batch with you?”

“He likes to have backup plans,” she said. “I think he put the canister in my belt so he would have extra if he needed it.”

“You didn’t know it was there?”

Thalias hunched her shoulders. “No. But would it have mattered if I did? As long as we remain family hostages, our master owns us. Heart, soul, and life. He can do what he wishes with all three.”

“I would call that barbarous,” Yiv said, the strange tendrils on his shoulders waving a little harder than usual, “if that wasn’t basically the same arrangement I demand of my own conquered peoples. Perhaps he and I are even more alike than I thought. Did he tell you what the message was that he had you deliver?”

Thalias shook her head. “No.”

“It was quite interesting,” Yiv said, setting the tava canister on the arm of his chair and pulling out the envelope Thalias had given the Vak soldier at the landing platform. “He’s offering an alliance with the Chiss Ascendancy in return for permission to come to Primea and challenge me.” He gave a snort and set the envelope beside the canister. “Also excruciatingly naïve. Does he really think the Vaks could make a decision like that without studying every aspect and every nuance?”

“My master is very good at reading cultures,” Thalias said.