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Han could tell from Kyp’s rigid posture and his set jaw that the young man was terrified at having to face his Jedi Master. Han felt cold, not wanting to be trapped between two people he counted among his dearest friends.

Leia took the children off to one side, watching the encounter warily. Concern furrowed her brow as she flicked her gaze from her brother to Kyp and back again.

Luke walked toward his student slowly, as if gliding over the ground. “I knew you would come back, Kyp.”

Han watched him, and it seemed that Luke had no anger in his bearing, no fury or need for vengeance.

“Exar Kun is destroyed?” Kyp asked hoarsely, but he knew the answer already.

“Exar Kun will have no influence on your future training, Kyp. The question is, what will you do with your abilities?”

Kyp blinked his eyes in shock. “You—you would let me continue my training?”

Luke’s expression softened further. “I had to witness the death of my first teacher. I also had to confront Darth Vader, my own father. I have done other difficult tasks.

“I did not plan these things, but each time I passed through the fire of an ordeal such as those, I emerged a more powerful Jedi. You, Kyp, have been thrown into the flames. I must determine whether you have been consumed—or tempered into a great Jedi. Can you forsake the dark side?”

“I …” Kyp stumbled over his words. “I will try.”

“No!” Luke shouted with the first glimmering of anger that Han had heard in his voice. “There is no try. You must believe you will do it, or you will fail.”

The jungle fell silent. Kyp hung his head, and his nostrils flared as he took a deep breath. The young man’s dark eyes glittered as he looked back up into Luke’s face.

“I want to be a Jedi,” he said.

24

Lando Calrissian felt as if the million-credit reward was burning a hole in his account. He needed to invest it soon.

It was a new feeling for him to have such a large sum of money and nothing practical to do with it. He had won control of Bespin’s Tibanna gas mines in a sabacc game, and he had served for years as Baron Administrator of Cloud City. He had run metal-mining operations on the superhot planet Nkllon, and now with his huge reward from the blob races on Umgul, Lando saw no reason why he could not make a successful operation out of the spice mines of Kessel.

“I really appreciate your taking me, Han,” Lando said. He reached over to slap his friend’s shoulder in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. He knew that Han was not terribly pleased to leave Leia and his children again so soon, even if only for a day to drop him off at Kessel. He suspected, too, that Han was also worried about Chewbacca and the Maw occupation force, who had sent no word since advancing into the black hole cluster. Since the Maw lay near Kessel, Han probably hoped to learn some news.

“It’ll be worth it, if only to keep you from begging for rides all the time,” Han said, looking in the opposite direction. He glanced out the front viewport. “I still think you’re crazy to want to go to Kessel—even crazier to want to stay there.”

Ahead, the small planet orbited near its faint sun. The misshapen lump of Kessel had too little gravity to hold its own atmosphere, and so the gases streamed into space like a tenuous mane flowing out from its barren rocky outline. A large moon, on which the alien prison lord Moruth Doole had stationed his garrison of pirates, climbed over the limb of Kessel, emerging from the wispy corona of escaping air.

“Last time I came here with Chewie,” Han said, shaking his head, “we got shot down. I promised myself I’d never come back—and now it’s only been a couple of months, and here I am again.”

“That’s just because you’re a good friend, Han. I really appreciate it. Mara Jade wouldn’t want me to be late.”

Han smirked. “If she remembers to show up, you mean.”

Lando laced his fingers behind his neck, staring at the rising moon as the Falcon arrowed in to a close orbit. “She’ll be there,” Lando said. “I’ll bet she’s been counting down the