Dancer's Luck

the long version

DAEMEN -- a forgotten place at the very edge of the galaxy, a dying planet where people lived by luck alone. This was the number-one stop for Rheba, the Senyas fire dancer, and Kirtn, her Bre'n mentor, as they sought to fulfill their promise to return a whole shipload of ex-slaves to the widely scattered worlds they called home. Twice Rheba and Kirtn had achieved the impossible -- first surviving their own home system's fiery doom, then escaping the lair of the evil Loo-chim, bringing with them the odd assortment of beings who were now their shipmates. Having blasted free of the Loo-chim, Rheba and Kirtn assumed the worst was over. Then they landed on Daemen....