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"What have you to offer us?" Vonnda Ra looked mildly interested, but not impressed. "Many come wishing to join us, but they are weak. Women seek us out because their powers are small or they have no status in their clans. Men come here because they have never had power, and our teachings offer them freedom-but they usually have even less to offer. What do you have?"

Vonnda Ra's hand reached out and pointed to the lizard skull filled with burning oil. "Can you do this?" The lamp floated straight upward toward the peak of the tent, casting an ever-wider but dimmer circle of light, and then settled slowly back down onto the platform beside Vonnda Ra.

Tenel Ka nodded. "I have had some training." Deciding against using any theatrical gestures or words, she half-closed her eyes in concentration and grasped the lamp with her mind. She had never enjoyed showing off her skill with the Force, using it only when absolutely necessary, but this performance was not for herself. She would probably never see Jacen and Jaina and Lowbacca again if she could not show these Night-sisters her true potential.

She drew in a deep breath, let it out again. Without a sound the lamp glided off the platform and high into the air over their heads. Tenel Ka thought about the flame, feeding it with her mind and making it brighter, brighter, until its warm radiance reached even to the darkest corners of the pavilion. Then she sent the lamp sailing around the outer edges of the tent; it made the complete circle so quickly that she heard Vonnda Ra gasp with amazement. Through her half-closed eyes Tenel Ka watched the dark-haired woman sit up, one hand outstretched, palm up, as if to ask a question.

Tenel Ka brought the lamp in closer for another circle, and then another, smaller and closer to the central tent post, until at last it spun around the center pole in a dizzy downward spiral, still glowing brightly-all in a matter of a few seconds. Last, Tenel Ka brought the spinning lamp lightly to rest in Vonnda Ra's outstretched hand.

The Nightsister gave a gleeful chuckle. "You are welcome here, Sister,"

she said. "What is your name?"

Tenel Ka threw her head back. "My name-our names-no longer have any meaning for us. We discarded them when we left our clan."

"Come here," Vonnda Ra ordered. When Tenel Ka did as she was told, the Nightsister stood and took the young girl's chin in her fingers and looked deep into her eyes. "Yes," she said with a satisfied nod. "You have much anger in you. Are you willing to go elsewhere to learn? To a place of instruction among the stars?"

Tenel Ka's heart leaped. Perhaps this was where Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca had been taken. "Wherever your finest teachers are, that is where I wish to go," she replied.

"But you must leave your slave behind. We will have little use for him,"

Vonnda Ra said.

"No!"

Vonnda Ra sighed. "What if I were to tell you that men rarely have any talent, and that we have never trained one this old? He would only distract you from what you must learn. There is little hope of teaching him. If you knew all this, then what would you say?"

"Then I would say ... ," Tenel Ka replied, leveling her best cool gray stare at Vonnda Ra, "that you are a fool."

Vonnda Ra's eyes went wide with surprise, but Tenel Ka did not stop.

"This man has watched and learned the ways of the Force since before I was born. Not many-not many who still live-have seen his power. But I have seen it."

Vonnda Ra abruptly turned her skeptical gaze toward Luke. "If you can lift this," she said, pointing to her lizard-skull lamp, "and bring as much light to this tent as she did"-she nodded toward Tenel Ka-"then you shall accompany her."

The Nightsister looked at Luke and then back down at the lamp. When it did not move, a small contemptuous smile flickered at the corners of her mouth. Then something large and dark floated between them and blocked her view. The flame from the oil lamp brightened, and the massive rancor-head chair grinned at her, its lifeless