“Yes,” he said, meaning it for the first time in months. Stellan, Indeera … even Loden … had all been right. Bell was ready to take the next step, ready to stand on his own two feet, not as a Padawan, but as a Jedi Knight. And Loden would be there when it happened, closer than ever.

“May the Force be with you, Senza,” he told the woman.

“And also with you,” she replied, her face creasing into a frown. “Sorry. Is that the right thing to say?”

He smiled at her warmly. “It’s perfect.”

The Pantoran hesitated for a second before an urgent bark called her away. Bell imagined Ember finding a safe path up to the deck, leading the others out into the light.

Above him, the metal creaked, water starting to pour through the gaps. Bell knew what he had to do, but wasn’t scared. Why should he be? Like Ember, he had a job to do.

Bell let go.

CHAPTER FORTY

The skies above Valo

Slow down.

There were no words, but every Jedi in Indeera’s drift followed the instruction to the letter, easing back on their throttles at the exact same time, decelerating at precisely the same rate. They were working as one. No one Jedi had issued the command, not even Porter, who was still perched on the back of her Vector. They had just known what to do and when to do it.

Indeera had heard there were a pair of Kotabi on Starlight, twins from Sagamore who shared such a strong bond that they almost operated as if they had one mind split across two bodies. Indeera had never met them, but imagined that this must be what it was like. One mind. Multiple bodies. A perfect union.

A perfect union that was about to perform the impossible, but, hey, wasn’t that what being a Jedi was all about?

Ahead of them, people were still falling. Indeera counted three bodies … no … four. She felt Engle reach out for them as calmly as if he were practicing levitation in a training gallery, his mind at peace for the first time in years.

No, it was more than that. They were all reaching out, keeping one another centered. They felt the fear of those who were falling, saw them as if suspended in time. There was a human male, a blunt-faced Thodian, and a fur-covered Sneevel. And then there was the fourth: a Nihil raider who had crashed into the island, surviving only to fall to his death when his comrades in arms had opened fire on the final platform. Poetic justice? Maybe, but his was still a life. Who were they to say who lived or died.