Conquest: Edge of Victory I Read Online Free PDF Page B

the time.”
    “Anakin is a pragmatic lad.”
    “That’s the problem,” Luke sighed. “He grew uparound Jedi. Using the Force is like breathing for him, and for Anakin there is nothing very mystical about it. It’s a tool he can do things with.”
    “Jacen on the other hand—”
    “Jacen is older, but he grew up like Anakin. It’s two different reactions to the same situation. What they have in common is that neither of them thinks I really have it right. And what’s worse, I think at least one of them is correct. I’ve seen—” He broke off.
    “What?” Mara gently urged.
    “I don’t know. I’ve seen a future. Several futures. However this ends with the Yuuzhan Vong, it won’t be me that ends it, or Kyp, or any of the older Jedi. It will be someone new.”
    “Anakin?”
    “I don’t know. I’m afraid to even talk about it. Every word spreads, puts ripples in the Force for every person who hears it, changes things. I’m starting to know how Yoda and Ben felt. Watching, trying to guide, hoping I’m not wrong, that I’m seeing clearly, that there is such a thing as wisdom and that I’m not just fooling myself.”
    She laughed softly and kissed his cheek. “You worry too much.”
    “Sometimes I don’t think I worry enough.”
    “Worry?” Mara said softly. She took his hand and placed it against her belly. “You want worry? Listen.”
    Once more she enfolded him in the Force, and once more they merged toward one another and the third life in the room, the one growing inside of Mara. Tentatively, hesitantly, Luke reached in to touch his son.
    The heart was beating, a simple beautiful rhythm, and around it drifted something like a melody, an awareness both alien and familiar, sensations like taste and smell and sight but not like them at all, a universe with no light but with all of the warmth and security in the world.
    “Amazing,” he murmured. “That you can give him that. That you can be that for him.”
    “It’s humbling,” she said. “It’s worrisome. What if I make a mistake? What if my sickness comes back? And worst of all—” She paused, and he waited, knowing she would get to it in time. “It’s easy, in a way. To protect him now, all I have to do is protect myself, and I’ve been doing that my whole life. Right now, my life is his life. But after he’s born, it will never be like that again. That’s the part that worries me.”
    Luke wrapped his arm around her and hugged. “You’ll do fine,” he said. “I promise you.”
    “You can’t promise that, any more than you can hold the young Jedi inside of you or keep them safe. It’s the same. It’s the same fear, Luke.”
    “Of course,” he replied. “Of course it is.”
    They sat and watched the skies of Coruscant, and spoke no more until someone came to their door.
    “Speak and they will come,” Luke murmured. “It’s the Solo children.”
    “I can send them away.”
    “No. They need to talk to me.” He raised his voice. “Come on in.”
    He stood and brightened the lights. Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen entered.
    “Sorry we left the meeting,” Jaina said.
    “I knew what you were doing, and I thank you for trying. Kyp—Kyp must walk his own path for a while. But that’s not why you came, is it?”
    “No,” Jacen said. “We’re worried about the Jedi academy.”
    “Right,” Anakin joined in. “It occurred to me that if I were Peace Brigade, and wanted to catch a bunch of Jedi all at once—”
    “You’d go to Yavin Four. Good thinking.”
    Anakin’s face fell visibly. “You already thought of it.”
    Luke nodded. “Don’t feel bad. It was only a few days ago that we had enough reports to spot the trend and realize just how seriously the warmaster’s promise hasbeen taken. Trying to deal with all the local fires, trying to find government support to put a
stop
to this or at least slow it down, I didn’t realize that there are no longer enough mature Jedi in the system to maintain the illusion we