io9 reveals the cover and an excerpt from E.K. Johnston’s Star Wars: Queen’s Hope, the follow up to Queen’s Peril and Queen’s Shadow. The Clone Wars are still raging, Anakin is off fighting, and Padmé decides to go on a secret mission.
For one of the very few times in her life, Padmé Amidala had no idea what to do. She kept secrets all the time, but this one was different. Usually, the girls she shared her secrets with also helped her keep them. They weren’t just her confidants, they made her web of secrets hold together. And this time, she was alone.
A faint whirring from the corner of the room reminded her that this was not entirely true. There were other beings who would keep this secret with her, though not very many. The only problem was that none of them could help her right now. At least, she was pretty sure. It never hurt to ask.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about dress making?” she asked the little blue R2 unit.
He turned his dome back and forth, mimicking a humanoid shaking their head, and beeped perhaps more sorrowfully than the situation really called for. Padmé thanked him anyway. There was no reason to be rude.
She returned to the contemplation of the fabric in her lap. There wasn’t enough for a whole new dress, but she hadn’t been expecting that. The cloth had been in her family for several generations, each person being given a piece of it to incorporate into their wedding clothes. Even her sister, who had chosen not to marry, had used her portion to make clothes for her daughters, showing that she welcomed new additions to the family.
It hurt, a little bit, to be doing this alone. Anakin didn’t understand, but she couldn’t really expect him to. He understood family, of course, and wanting to maintain a tradition. It was clothing he was a bit less familiar with. She appreciated that his compassion led him to give her time and space to work on a solution, though. They were in a bit of a hurry.
R2-D2 chirruped again, and when he had her attention, he projected a holographic image between them. It was familiar art, one of the windows from Theed Palace that had been replaced after the Battle of Naboo. This one featured her, when she was Queen, surrounded by orange-cloaked handmaidens. The droid’s suggestion was clear.
“I can’t, Artoo,” Padmé told him. It caused her nearly physical pain to say it. “What we’re doing has to be a secret. I can’t bring them into this.”
The projection changed to a HoloNet image taken during the victory celebrations ten years ago. The Queen stood in white next to the Gungan leader Boss Nass, surrounded by members of her court. R2-D2 zoomed in on one handmaiden in particular and beeped encouragingly.
“I don’t know, Artoo,” Padmé said. “It doesn’t seem fair to ask for help and not give any details.”
The droid made a sound that somehow managed to replicate a shrug, and the image disappeared.
Read the extract in full here. The stunning cover features artwork by Tara Phillips. Preorder Queen’s Hope from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with a release date set for November 2nd, 2021.
