Sickened, Jacen imagined Lando’s friend reaching out for help and dropping, dropping…. “You couldn’t help him? You couldn’t catch him like you caught me?”
M’kim shook his head. Tears glistened in his eyes. “We were pretty high above Cloud City. I swooped down, but the winds were too strong. Thunder clouds were rising, and the sky was so dark that the man just vanished into the black clouds. We couldn’t find him.”
Jacen drew a deep breath. “So why didn’t you report this?”
“We don’t know who we can trust.” M’kim shook his head vigorously. “Do you know how easy it would be for someone to sabotage one of our harnesses or drug one of the thrantas before a show? We’ve already received warnings and threats—nothing specific … but enough to make us worried.” He drew a deep breath.
“Cloud City has a reputation as a clean place. If you gamble here, you know everything’s fair. But someone’s trying to change that. We do our sky rodeo, and our performances are well-attended. We’ve always been paid well; we risk our lives. But now”—he cleared his throat—“other factors are making life … uncomfortable.”
Jacen felt decidedly uneasy. “I need to get back to Cloud City,” he said. “I have to tell my friends.”
M’kim hung his head. “I know. We can go now. My people will be worried about me too, I suppose.” He placed his long fingers to his lips and blew a loud shrill whistle, startling Jacen. Instantly, the thranta flapped up above the edge of the island, hovered overhead, and bobbed about playfully.
“Climb up,” M’kim said as the thranta dipped one of its broad, sturdy wings. Jacen scrambled onto the smooth back. The thranta rider leapt into place, grasped the harness with one hand, and snapped it lightly to set the flying creature in motion.
As they flapped away from the algae island, Jacen looked down to watch the matted mass disappear in the mists below. The thranta swept its wings gracefully in broad powerful strokes that carried them higher and higher into the sky.
Thick clouds had gathered, knotted conglomerations of mist and gas, turning the sky dark. Jacen couldn’t tell in which direction Cloud City lay, but he hoped they would get back before the storm.
“Hey, how do you know where we’re going?” he said close to M’kim’s ear.
The thranta rider shrugged. “We know.”
The thranta flew onward and upward as a thunder-head nearly the size of an asteroid rose in front of them. The thranta circled around, keeping a good distance between them and the storm cloud. Lightning crackled inside the huge cloud like tiny explosions.
Jacen spotted several black shapes circling the outer surface of the great storm. M’kim seemed more uneasy now, and the thranta gave the thunderhead an even wider berth.
“Are those more thrantas?” Jacen said, pointing to the other large flying creatures that seemed drawn by the discharges from the storm.
“No. We have to stay clear,” M’kim said. “Those are velkers.”
Jacen watched with a mixture of dread and fascination. He’d heard of the sleek, fast-flying predators on Bespin that could swoop in and rip apart their prey with rows upon rows of jagged teeth.
“If those velkers see our thranta,” M’kim said, “we’re done for.”
“But why are they so close to the storm?” Jacen asked. “Isn’t it dangerous for them?”
“Velkers are always attracted by storms. I think the lightning discharges give them some kind of energy.” With a nervous chuckle, M’kim shrugged again. “All I know is that I don’t want to get close enough to one to find out.”
Though Jacen would have loved to see such a spectacular creature up close, he realized that would be foolish. He had already come too near to death for one day.
They climbed higher and swept past the thunder-head. The velkers didn’t notice them, and Jacen could sense M’kim relaxing. Jacen patted the side of the thranta. “Good work,” he whispered, though he had no idea if the creature could hear him.
Finally, he spotted the gleaming metropolis of Cloud City up ahead. Lights spangled the sides of its hemispherical dome. The thranta drove toward it, and Jacen drew a deep breath. He couldn’t remember ever seeing such a beautiful sight in his life.
He’d survived his ordeal—and he fervently hoped that Lowie and Tenel Ka had survived theirs as well.
16
Flanked by a stoic Lowbacca and a disturbed but aloof-looking Anja, Tenel Ka waited for the Lady Luck to cruise back into the docking port on Cloud City. Feeling her stomach muscles knot, she closed her burning eyes and tried to face down the fear inside.
The prospect of doing this, of telling Jaina Solo that her brother had been killed, was more frightening than any battle or other ordeal Tenel Ka’s Jedi training had put her through.
The warrior girl’s throat was tight. Though she and Lowie had almost died in the same assassination attempt, she still felt there must have been something more she could have done to keep her friend Jacen alive. She was a Jedi! But she had failed him.
Another more subtle failure haunted her as well. Tenel Ka had always believed that the connection between her and Jacen was so close, so strong, that she would be able to sense if any harm came to him. She should have felt it through the Force the instant he died—but she hadn’t. Instead, her emotions had betrayed her, taunted her with the hope that Jacen had survived somehow. She even imagined she’d heard his voice calling out to her in her mind. But she had been delirious at the time, in shock from loss of blood. The Cloud City medics had been able to heal the wounds on her arm, but not the ones in her soul. Fleeting thoughts tormented her even now, daring her to believe that Jacen was still alive.
Lowbacca fidgeted beside her, his dark lips drawn down in a frown. Em Teedee, silent for once, had dimmed his optical sensors in a gesture of respect. Anja’s pale face looked pinched and she avoided eye contact with the others. Tenel Ka could sense tendrils of pain and sorrow floating like a tangible mist all around them. It was so difficult to face this truth.
Jacen was gone.
Lando’s polished space yacht followed floor guidance lights as it landed on the platform. Tenel Ka’s cool gray eyes filled with tears and she took one step forward to face the ship. Lowbacca put a strong, hairy hand on Tenel Ka’s bare shoulder. Anja moved back to stand alone behind them. Em Teedee hung silent and unmoving on Lowie’s syren-fiber belt.
The Lady Luck settled in and landing clamps locked it down. Tenel Ka steeled herself for the fresh grief her news would bring. But just moments after the space yacht’s landing ramp descended, a door on the other side of the docking bay whooshed opened. Tenel Ka turned, unable to believe what she saw with her own granite-gray eyes.
Jacen himself entered the bay, looking bedraggled and dirty, but perfectly healthy. He grinned a weary, lopsided grin.
“Jacen Solo!” Tenel Ka cried. “Jacen, my friend!” She bounded toward him, moving even faster than the Wookiee’s long legs could carry him. When Tenel Ka fairly tackled Jacen, throwing her arm around him in a joyous embrace, he was nearly as astonished as the warrior girl.
He hugged her back, laughing. “Wow! That was almost worth falling for.”
Lowbacca swept both of them together into a massive Wookiee hug. Jacen spat ginger fur out of his mouth. “Okay, okay! I’m all right, you big walking carpet! At least I was fine until I got into this pileup here.”
“But how, Jacen, my friend? What happened? How are you alive? How did you get back here?” Tenel Ka asked in a rush.
Lowie roared his own barrage of questions, and Em Teedee added in a scolding tone, “Master Jacen, you gave us all such a fright. It was really terribly inconsiderate of you.”