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With what they had learned from the thranta rider and Figrin D'an, and everything Lowie had pulled from Cloud City computer archives, they had a fair idea of just how far-reaching the plans of Czethros were.

He had influence on many types of gambling, smuggling, and strongarm operations.

Jaina suspected, though, that they had only begun to uncover the depths of the insidious schemes of Black Sun. They had sent out an alert, and New Republic forces planned to apprehend Czethros immediately-but Jaina knew that the supposedly respectable businessman from Ord Mantell must have spies and information sources everywhere,, - ,nd realized that Czethros might already be gone... one step ahead of them.

As morning sunlight spilled across the lower cloud banks, painting them with a golden glow, Jaina heard a loud musical fanfare from the outwardly directed speakers mounted on the scaffolding and on launching platforms.

"It's starting!" Jacen said, scooting closer to Tenel Ka.

"I look forward to the performance with great enthusiasm," Tenel Ka said in a neutral voice. The barest hint of a smile quirked one corner of her mouth.

With silent, flapping wings, a swarm of thrantas burst out, streaked away from Cloud City, and circled in the clouds. The skirling music rose and fell in a hauntingly beautiful melody. The thrantas looped about, dancing a sky ballet in time to the notes. The tattoos and body paintings on the cloud riders were so bright, they dazzled like rainbows as the thrantas whirled through the air.

Two of the performers unfurled a brilliant fluttering ribbon, tossing it from one rider to another, hurling the fabric ever higher to weave a colorful pattern like a cat's cradle in the sky. All the thrantas continued to fly in perfect formation, the cloud riders holding on to their corners of the long ribbon.

Then a second troupe of thrantas launched themselves from their docks on Cloud City, flitting ahead of and around the colorful ribbon structure in the sky. They swarmed through openings and loops in the fabric-mesh, flying so close that their wing tips almost, almost touched the fluttering banner. But Jaina saw no mistakes, no slipups.

Then, at an unspoken signal, the cloud riders exchanged positions, shifting the pattern of the woven ribbon, reshaping it like a bright laserlight design in the sky.

Jacen stood up, hooting, applauding, and yelling at the top of his lungs.

The second squadron of cloud riders broke free and darted back toward Cloud City. Jaina watched in amazement as one of them stripped out of formation and buzzed past the hover-scaffolding where they all sat. A thin young rider waved a broad hand and grinned from the back of his thranta.

"That's M'kim!" Jacen shouted, waving.

Directly in front of them, the barefooted rider did a backward somersault in the air and landed effortlessly on the flying creature's back. The thranta streaked off to rejoin the rest of the performing group.

"It looks like they're letting him be an official part of the troupe at last," Jacen said. "He's finished his training."

Tenel Ka nodded, a contented look on her serious face. "Training must end eventually, and then the real work begins."

"That doesn't mean you can't always learn something new," Zekk added.

Lando, still watching the sky rodeo, turned back to the young Jedi Knights. "Speaking of which, it's about time I got you all back to Yavin 4."

With the oppressive sounds and smells of the jungle moon around her once again, Anja did not know what she was going to do. She sat alone on a high stone ledge of the Jedi academy's Great Temple. The chipped, weathered stone, covered with moss, felt cold and uncomfortable. But she didn't care.

Anja stared out above the tangled forest to where the orange pastel ball of the gas giant planet Yavin dominated the sky. She felt trapped on this humid, overgrown moon-helpless. She hated to feel helpless.

No one knew her secret, though she wasn't sure how much it mattered now.

She