Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 13_ Trouble on Cloud City - Kevin J. Anderson [2]
Finally Anja looked away and shrugged one shoulder. "You said yourself this was a lesson in control. I knew Jacen wouldn't take advantage of the opening."
Jacen's mouth fell open in astonishment. But before he could speak, he saw Master Luke Skywalker emerge from the base of the Great Temple and gesture for him to come over.
"I have to go talk to Uncle Luke," he said warily. "Can you two keep working for a few minutes without me?" He offered his lightsaber to Zekk and gave a tentative grin. "Without killing each other, I mean?"
"I can manage that," Zekk said.
"Anja," Jacen warned, "just remember that you can't afford to make mistakes like that one against a real enemy. He won't give you a second chance."
She smiled her imperturbable smile. "Don't be so sure."
Jacen shook his head. Running a hand through his disheveled brown curls, he trotted off to where the Jedi Master stood in the shadow of the rebuilt pyramid.
"How's the training going?" Luke Skywalker asked, his eyes on Anja and Zekk as they began to spar again. Anja's acid-yellow blade swept out in a wild and furious attack, but Zekk parried her blows easily.
"She, urn... has her own way of doing things," Jacen said.
"Kinda stubborn, you know?"
"So I've noticed," Luke said. "I've spent several training sessions with her myself and-in spite of the talents you see in her-I haven't been able to sense any Jedi potential at all. She doesn't seem to make any connection with the Force."
"Hey, that doesn't mean it's not there," Jacen said. "Give her some time.
She's had a tough life. Maybe it's just hidden somehow."
Luke pursed his lips. "Perhaps. But if it weren't for the fact that your father asked me to keep her here at the academy as a special favor, I'm not sure I'd allow her to stay. She has a deep shadow inside her."
"Well, thanks for giving her a chance," Jacen said. "I'm sure you won't be disappointed."
For the third time that morning, Tenel Ka replaced a cyberfuze on the Rock Dragon that did not need replacing. Beside her, Jaina hunched over the navigational console of the Hapan passenger cruiser, biting her lower lip. She used Em Teedee to run an unnecessary calibration check, while Lowbacca conditioned the already-clean outer hull with lubricants.
The three of them had felt inexplicably downcast, Tenel Ka thought, since the previous afternoon when Jacen and Zekk had chosen not to accompany them to the jungle. Today, the warrior girl had risen at first light from an unsatisfactory sleep and performed the most rigorous calisthenic routine she had ever devised for herself. She had hoped to purge any lingering resentment from her mind... but it hadn't worked.
After that, she had scaled the outside of the huge Massassi pyramid, single-armed, wearing her briefest lizard-hide and using only her grappling hook and fibercord to assist her. This exertion had proved stimulating enough-and distracting enough-that she decided to go for a ten-kilometer run as well.
Jaina, having just finished a long Jedi meditation, had trotted up to join her. Although Jaina was fresh, she was not as strong a runner as Tenel Ka, and the warrior girl enjoyed the feeling that she could outdistance her friend at any time-although she chose not to.
As the two friends swung back toward the Great Temple on the last kilometer of their run, a third young woman joined them. Anja, looking rested and relaxed, had clearly not been out doing calisthenics this morning. But that did not make the situation any less irritating when the tanned older girl broke into a sprint and raced ahead of Tenel Ka and Jaina back to the Great Temple.
It didn't help matters, either, when Tenel Ka noticed Jacen watching Anja with amused approval from his vantage point at the base of the Great Temple. She knew she shouldn't have allowed the situation to disturb her, but she had retreated immediately,