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But we have to put some distance between us will converge there. Jacen and Tenel Ka can take care of themselves."

"Of course." Raynar forced a smile. "They're Jedi Knights, aren't they?"

"They know where to meet us in the mountainsgif we can get out there, that is."

They ran uphill, away from the fading dust of the explosion. Neither Jaina nor Raynar had a map of the catacombs, nor did they have Tenel Ka's instinctive sense of direction. But if they continued uphill, they decided, sooner or later they would break out to the surface.

"I think I see light ahead," Raynar said after what seemed like hours.

"Natural light."

As if in response, alarmed shouts and nervous blaster fire rang out from behind, though the guards could not possibly have seen them. Yet.

Jaina and Raynar sprinted ahead toward the light.

"It's a passage to the outside!" Raynar said.

"We made it."

"But I'm not so sure we want to go there," Jaina replied. "We've gone a couple of kilometers laterallygwe may not come out in the narrow temperate zone.

"

But they hurried along anyway until they reached the opening. A blast of heat struck Jaina's face. She looked out upon the fiery day side of Ryloth, with its unrelenting, pounding sun and scalding-hot rocks.

"I've got a bad feeling this isn't where we wanted to be," she said.

Flaming light seared a desolate landscape incapable of supporting life in anything but the deepest shadows. Farther in the distance, cracks and rivers of running lava broke up the landscape.

Blackened outcroppings slumped like rotted teeth, eroded by temperatures near the melting point.

Behind them, though, the shouting of Diversity Alliance guards seemed to be coming closer.

Jaina looked out at the hellish landscape, wondering what use the Twieks could possibly have had for this opening. Did they send criminals out into the heat to die under the burning sun?

"C'mon, Raynar, we don't have much choice," she said. "Maybe if we keep to the shadows..."

Picking their way carefully through the rocky debris, they left the cool tunnels behind and were soon swallowed up by the heat.

Jacen and Tenel Ka stood at the end of the passageway. They had run for kilometers, escaped numerous groups of guards, fled from every approaching noise. Tenel Ka said they had gone through the core of the mountains--and now they stared out a large opening across a glacial landscape with frozen mountains, ice floes, and a night sky so clear and cold the stars looked like chips of ice floating in a black lake.

"We won't survive out there for long," Jacen said with an involuntary shiver. "But we can't survive long in here with those guards and Nolaa Tarkona st'all after us."

"She will not hesitate to kill us this time," Tenel Ka said. Her lizardskin armor gleamed in the dim light, but it offered little protection from the cold winds outside.

Jacen stood next to his friend. He and Tenel Ka were both trained in the Force. They weren't completely helpless.

"We have ur wits, our lightsabers, our Jedi skills," Jacen said. %Ve shouldn't need anything else to keep ourselves alive." He smiled bravely.

They had to find their way back to the temperate zone somehow and meet up with Lowie.

Tenel Ka nodded. "I agree, Jacen, my friend."

LUSA WADED INTO the sparkling green pool at the base of the waterfall.

Spreading her arms, she closed her eyes and let the droplets of cool spray caress her face.

There was a strange tingling sensation along the back of her neck. She had always been sensitive to the Force and, though she'd never had much training, she was sure Jaina and Raynar had described this as a sense of impending danger. Raynar, the twins, and Tenel Ka had been gone for nearly six days now. She knew something was wrong... but what could she do about it?

Lusa waded deeper into the pool, and when the frothing water rose above her flanks, she swam straight toward the pounding waterfall. She had promised Raynar that she would try not to worry for at least three days, and she had resisted the urge to wallow in thoughts