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Jaina paced on the weathered ground.

"But what was it? And why did they come to this planet? Is Kuar just an out-of-the-way meeting placemor was there some connection to the ancient Mandalorians?"

Jacen rubbed his hands together and grinned eagerly. "Hey, I think we should explore those ruins some more. There's plenty of places we haven't looked into. Who knows what clues we might still find?"

Lowie growled, his fur ruffling. Em Teedee translated. "Yes indeed--and who knows what vicious creatures we might find?"

Jacen bobbed his head, still grinning.

"Yeah, just think?

Holding on to the thick rusted chains, careful to avoid the broken staircases and treacherous ramps, the young Jedi Knights made their way down the cliff wall into the stadium. Out in the hazy distance, clouds of dust hung like brown soup in the air.

The bowl-shaped crater had once been the home of towering buildings, a crowded and sheltered city. Later, the Mandalorians had turned the entire crater into a fighting arena. Now, though, the forgotten metropolis lay abandoned and decaying, filled with thousands upon thousands of years of unrecorded history.

The companions worked their way along open galleries gouged into the cliff. Tenel Ka pointed out that the Mandalorians had allowed spectators to watch violent gladiatorial combats from such galleries.

But it looked as if no spectator had sat in these stands for half the age of the galaxy, and the Mandalorian warriors who had once made their homes here had long since moved on in their endless nomadic conquests.

In the shadowed interiors of alcoves and stadium rooms, Jacen marveled at the immense outgrowths of shelf fungus, colored pale pink and lavender and peach; some mushrooms formed circular platforms, while others rose up in conical spikes like stalagmites. Centipedelike insects burrowed through the foamy flesh of the fungus, making miniature warrens.

Jaina studied the scuffed dust around their feet. "Looks like something moved through here not long ago."

Jacen perked up. "Do you think it might have been Raynar's father--or whoever he was meeting here?"

"This is difficult to determine. The prints are blurred," Tenel Ka said, bending down.

"The tracks could be human... or some other creature. We must be cautious."

"You're always cautious, Tenel Ka," Jacen said. "It's one of the things I like about you."

"There's certainly a great deal to be said for being cautious, Master Jacen Em Teedee intoned.

Jaina turned her glowrod toward an arched opening to a passage that led deeper into the cliffside. "This looks like a main tunnel," she said. Her light splashed on a fallen pillar and rooms filled with crumbling rock from collapsed ceilings and walls.

The scuffed tracks led deeper into the tunnel, and Jacen scratched his tousled brown hair, trying to imagine why Bornan Thul would have gone inside this chamber.

Had some precious artifact been hidden here, away from prying eyes? What was he after, and why would it spell doom for all humans if he was caught with it?

Inside the passage, shadows clung to them like a blanket soaked in oil.

They pushed onward, clustering close to Jaina's glowrod. "Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee said, "would you be so kind as to reposition me?

I'm afraid my optical sensors are picking up nothing more than the rock wall of the tunnel. From this angle I can't even add to the level of illumination in here."

Lowbacca sniffed the sluggish, stale air, growled low in his throat, and reached down to move Em Teedee to a better position on his syren-fiber belt.

"I will provide us with more light as well," Tenel Ka said. She removed her lightsaber and gripped its intricately carved bone-white handle. She pushed the power stud, and her brilliant turquoise energy beam flashed out like a javelin made of light, dazzling them all.

Just then the monster struck.

The creature charged toward them, a huge battering ram of spined legs, jointed footpads, an armored body core, and fangs... many