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The booby trap didn't kill the woman who had triggered it, but instead blasted the roots from the huge tree and shoved it back toward them.

Its sprawling branches crashed through the adjoining trees as it tumbled.

"Look out!" Jacen cried.

Lowie roared and slashed at the oncoming branches with his lightsaber.

The other villagers scattered, screaming. One ran straight between two microfilament-laced trees and died an instant, bloody death. Another villager stepped on a small explosive, which blew him into the air before he fell dead and broken atop the thick-trunked tree as it crashed in among where they had all been standing only moments before.

The villagers wailed. Jacen felt a sharp pain in his heart. "We almost made it through," he said.

"We're all going to die," one of the villagers said.

"No you're not," Jaina snapped. "We just have to keep moving."

Raising her chin high, she walked bravely forward, accompanied by her brother and friends. The villagers followed, relieved to stand in the sunlight again, where they could look up at the sky after so many hours in the murky shadows. But now, free of the forest at last, they gazed at the steep pathways chiseled into the gray granite sides of the mountain, and they appeared on the verge of despair again.

"Come on. It's up this road," Jacen said. He could see the cave openings-numerous mining tunnels and the large, smooth-edged mouth where Jacen figured the mining village must be located. "My father and Ynos have already been in there, making arrangements for us. I'm sure they'll have food and water and a safe place for us all to rest."

"Or they'll just use blasters to gun us down as we walk toward them," one farmer said.

"And maybe a comet will crash down right now and wipe out the mountain village," Jaina said, impatient. "You can worry all you want, but I'd like to get where I can rest."

They started up the steep switchbacked pathway. Since it was a road used by the miners themselves, Jacen didn't expect to find any pitfalls planted there.

Though the clear sunlight baked down, the air grew thin and cooler.

Overhead, wispy white clouds did little to cool off the day. The rugged mountainside provided no shade, but Jacen and his companions led the others on a slow, steady march. He could sense people watching him from above, thought he saw faces peering out from the honeycombed mine shafts in the rock face.

Now that they had accepted their destination, the villagers plodded along without complaint, without any comment whatsoever. Jacen could tell they were at the end of their rope. They had little to live for, and little hope that anything would get better soon.

Finally, panting and sweating, Jacen and his sister arrived at the top edge of the cliff city. Wearily, with a heavy arm, he gestured down to the group that had straggled out along the steep path. "Come on. It's cool, and there's shade up here."

The city seemed quiet, though he could see people in doorways, watching them suspiciously. But he could think only about getting inside and resting. The farmers trudged in, standing in the cool rock grotto, where burn marks on the floor showed that many spacecraft had come and gone.

Jacen's heart surged when he saw the Millennium Falcon, landed off to one side with a rippling rock wall arcing overhead. "See? We'.z all safe now," he said as Tenel Ka and Lowbacca brought up the rear.

"Oh, my. This is much better," Em Teedee quipped.

Then, when all the villagers stood inside the cave, the miners marched out in a well-coordinated group. Others poured out of the mining tunnels below and came up from the rear, encircling them. Jacen saw no sign of his father or Anja, nor did he see any welcoming expression on the miners' faces. Each one of them bore a weapon of some sort.

"As enemies of the mining community," one man spoke up, "we will hold you as prisoners for crimes you have committed against our people."

Zekk found himself imprisoned in the same stone-walled room with Han and Anakin Solo. The miners provided them with some sparse comforts-food