Prince Jake said in thought-speak just as he completed his demorph.
Estrid exclaimed.
“I’ll discuss that with your commander,” Jake said calmly.
I explained.
Estrid looked as if she might laugh. To an Andalite the notion of an alien as a prince was humorous.
But she restrained herself.
“Likewise.”
Then Estrid put a hand on my arm and thought-spoke privately to me. My hearts fluttered at the touch.
For a moment, I was too stunned to answer. Such a breach of discipline! Perhaps females were allowed more latitude and thus felt free to take more liberties.
I did not know. But I could see no harm in protecting her from what might be a harsh punishment.
I promised.
We moved carefully through the dense trees until we reached the banks of the pond. Three Andalite warriors stood tense and watchful.
I said nothing. Arisths do not speak until spoken to.
Most arisths.
Estrid said.
I saw Commander Gonrod’s face tense at her forwardness. But he did not reprimand her. Arbat’s eyes smiled slyly.
Commander Gonrod demanded.
Gonrod snorted.
Prince Jake did not react to the insult. But he did react to Gonrod’s careless words. “Your rank is commander and you’re the highest ranking Andalite commander within light-years?” He looked at me, questioning.
I was almost too disappointed to respond. I did not abandon hope. But my optimism was sharply reduced. I could only confirm what Prince Jake suspected.
“I see.”
Aloth let out a crack of laughter. Highly insubordinate.
Gonrod looked only at me. He refused to acknowledge Prince Jake.
Commander Gonrod asked me.
“Not enough,” Prince Jake said bluntly.
Gonrod reluctantly addressed Prince Jake.
I began, but Prince Jake silenced me with a raised hand.
“We were on Leera. Let’s leave it at that. I don’t want to bring up anything embarrassing. No point. But you’ll understand if I say that I’m not prepared to discuss my forces with you. Not yet.”
Gonrod cried.
Aloth spoke. Mockingly.
Gonrod roared again.
I suggested diplomatically.
“Perhaps we should begin by finding out exactly what we can count on in terms of Andalite support,” Jake countered, staring fixedly at Gonrod.
Gonrod snorted again. Gonrod began to pace.
“I don’t take orders,” Prince Jake snapped. “I give them. And now, this meeting is over.” He turned and began to walk away.
Gonrod shouted.
I followed Prince Jake.
Gonrod shouted.
Arbat answered.
Aloth had apparently not noticed. Now he looked down in horror. A pit viper wound itself around his right foreleg. Cassie, of course. And a cobra reared up just between Arbat’s legs. Marco.
Estrid took a step forward and reached for her own shredder.
Fwapp!
I brought my tail blade to a quivering halt millimeters from her throat. Her eyes blazed in anger.
“Andalites are very fast,” Prince Jake said. “Those snakes are faster. One move from your boys and they will die.”
Gonrod said nothing. He seemed at a loss. It was shocking to see in an Andalite commander.
But Arbat was so calm as to seem almost bored.
Prince Jake seemed uncertain whether to continue addressing Gonrod or Arbat. “Now we stop playing games. You’re not the Andalite fleet. And I’m not going to snap a salute and say ‘yes, sir!’ We deal as equals. Which, to be honest, is generous of us under the circumstances.”
Arbat half-closed his eyes in a smile.
But Gonrod had recovered.
“No, sir. This is Earth. This is a human planet. We are not the Hork-Bajir. We know how you ‘rescued them.’ As long as you’re on Earth, you’ll get along with us. Am I clear on that?”
Fool. An embarrassment. Gonrod was behaving very badly. What was the point in this? I looked at Estrid. She refused to acknowledge me. But I could see the evidence on her face that she, too, was humiliated by this ludicrous display.
For his part, Aloth was a seemingly straightforward warrior. He was awaiting orders, his expression professionally blank. Whatever he thought of his commander, he concealed it.
Arbat was a different matter. Arbat’s contempt for Gonrod was scarcely camouflaged.
“Now,” Prince Jake said, “who are you? Why are you here?”
Gonrod nodded to Arbat and Aloth. They dropped their weapons.
Cassie and Marco withdrew. Not far, but a little, at least. Of course I knew that Rachel and Tobias were still to be accounted for.
I lowered my tail blade and Estrid lowered her shredder.
Arbat stepped forward and spoke. He was an older Andalite. Much of his blue fur was tanned.
Marco muttered.
“So Earth waits. Again,” Prince Jake said. “You’re not the fleet, so who are you?”
Arbat explained.
Aloth said.
I tried not
to stare at him. I had never met an assassin. I had not known any existed in the Andalite military. The notion of such a thing did not make me comfortable.
Arbat finished.
I automatically straightened my shoulders. Apex Level Intelligence is the highest level of advisory to the War Council. Not soldiers, precisely. They are military adjuncts. Strategists. They plotted. They planned.
And they knew everything.
Did Arbat know the truth about Elfangor? About me? Likely. Our eyes met, but I could read nothing in their ironic, self-possessed gaze.
Gonrod was a fool. Arbat was not.
“What about Estrid?” Prince Jake asked.
Gonrod looked slightly embarrassed.
Estrid’s four eyes stared at blank space. Blinked rapidly. A sign of embarrassment. I felt sorry for her.
“In other words, she’s a rookie?” Jake said.
Estrid lifted her head. she replied in a steely tone.
Fwapp!
I reeled as the force of her small, female tail blade caught the side of my neck, knocking me off balance.
While I struggled to keep my footing, a second blow caught me behind the back legs, causing my knees to buckle. My rear end fell to the ground and pinned my tail beneath me.
Fwapp!
A third blow sent my front end sprawling. I tried to break my fall with my hands. But Andalite arms are not as strong as human arms. I fell, my chin scraping the grass.
Estrid placed her front left hoof on my throat.
I conceded.
It was a classic and beautifully executed hald-wurra. Old Andalite for “victory in three swipes.”
She removed her hoof and reached down to assist me. I took her hand. Sprang to my feet. Pulled her arm behind her back and lifted my tail blade just in time to block her defensive swipe.
There was a loud clatter as our blades clashed. I released her arm and disengaged my tail. Sprang backward.
Aloth eagerly stepped forward to get a better view.
Arbat told him.
WHOOSH!
I pulled my head back. Her tail blade, turned to present the dull edge, missed my throat by centimeters.
“Ax?” Prince Jake’s voice was full of genuine alarm.
I said abruptly. I swung my tail hard. Not as hard as I could.
She drew back her head, just as I expected, allowing my tail to double back with even more momentum and speed. As it neared her head, I turned it so that the flat side caught her.
The blow caught her off guard. She tumbled to the ground. Rolled and sprang up nimbly again.
She was not going to be easily defeated. she said.
Fwapp! Fwapp!
She was right. I had never seen a tail move so fast. In the blink of an eye, she caught me with the exact same move. This time I fell and rolled. Sprang up. Not as nimbly.
Marco commented.
Estrid observed.
I was glad my fatigue had not shown.
She laughed.
CLANG!
She blocked my tail blade with hers. The impact of the blades rang out through the trees.
I began to fear I might actually lose. It would be unbearably humiliating in front of Andalite officers.
Tobias yelled from wherever he was hiding.
We sprang apart, both of us breathing hard. She lowered her head and raced straight at me. I leaped out of the way and she sideswiped me. I was knocked at an angle.
It took me a moment to recover. And to remember something I had been taught on the first day of my training.
Estrid bucked forward, preparing to pivot on her front legs and deliver another tail blow. I pivoted, too, turning out of the way.
She missed me. Overshot. The weight and momentum of her tail sent her tumbling forward. She rolled over her head and neck and landed on her back with a cry of pain.
Arbat ran forward.
She lay still for a moment. Then she began to laugh.
I replied.
If she had been a male, I would have begun to boast. But it seemed less than gracious to boast about beating a female. Even one who was very, very good.
Aloth chuckled happily. He had won his bet.
Prince Jake watched me with a frown. He shook his head slightly and rolled his eyes upward. It is a human expression with several interpretations. In this case I believe my prince thought I was behaving foolishly.
I would have helped Estrid, but Arbat was already pulling her to her feet.
she said to him.
he said proudly. He looked at me with new respect in his eyes.
I said.
Arbat gave me a speculative look.
“What did he do?” Prince Jake asked.
Arbat’s face betrayed no emotion.
I was not equally controlled. I jerked involuntarily.
Prince Jake’s eye narrowed. “So you’re here to …”
Arbat answered.
“Revenge is pointless and immoral,” Cassie insisted.
“Revenge is just another word for justice,” Rachel said, her face hardening.
“He’s talking about killing his own brother,” Cassie argued.
“He had a chance. Back at the newspaper,” Marco said.
“He wasn’t prepared,” Rachel argued.
“Visser Three doesn’t give a lot of second chances,” Marco said. “Maybe these guys are just blowing smoke. Maybe Arbat isn’t as bad as he thinks he is. Although Aloth looks like trouble.”
I watched a group of grackles pecking at some spilled seed. One appeared not to be hungry. Instead of strutting and circling, he stood to the side, staring about him with an unwinking eye.
I asked Cassie.
Cassie looked at the bird and frowned. “I can’t tell.”
The bird flapped its wings and flew up into the rafters. Walked vigorously along the hayloft, pecking at stray straws.
“Looks healthy to me,” Rachel said.
“Forget the birds,” Marco snapped. “We have some stuff to deal with here.”
He was right, of course. At least about the importance of the issue. I hoped he was not right about Arbat.
Arbat had revealed that Visser Three occupied his brother’s body. I understood why Arbat had hesitated when he had the chance to kill the visser. I understood. I sympathized.
And yet, I worried.
Any Andalite — and many humans — would rather die than continue to serve as host. But to perform the killing or not is an agonizing decision. As it should and must be.
Marco’s mother is a Controller.
Prince Jake’s brother, Tom, is also a human-Controller.
I did not tell Arbat that I, too, had been unable to kill Alloran. Not even when the former war prince had begged me for death as the slug that was Visser Three temporar
ily abandoned Alloran’s poisoned body.
I could not. To my unending shame, I could not bring myself to kill him. And just as Alloran had feared, the Yeerks had revived him. Visser Three had reinfested him.
So we had listened as Arbat explained Unit O’s mission.
The War Council had ordered Visser Three killed. Visser Three was a continuing embarrassment to our people. We had allowed him to keep an Andalite host and had been unable to stop him.
Visser Three was an enemy. We were at war. It made sense.
But why had Arbat been chosen for the mission? Surely it must have occurred to someone that organizing and ordering the death of his brother was a particularly difficult thing for him to do.
“War is one thing,” Cassie said now. “Murder is another. What do we gain by helping Arbat and Aloth assassinate the visser?”
I spoke.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Rachel said.
“It’s a terrible plan. Don’t help him, Ax,” Cassie begged. “Alloran is still alive. Where there’s life there’s hope.”
“Great cliché,” Marco sneered.
I said.
Tobias said quietly. He sat on a rail overhead.
“Well, it’s just cowardly,” Cassie insisted, putting her hands on her hips. “The easy way out. If you’re dead, you don’t have to fight for your freedom, do you?”
There was a long silence. No one said anything. I looked to Prince Jake, but he was sitting with his head in his hands.
“Jake?” Cassie said.
No answer.
Marco stood impatiently. “Are we all in denial or what? Why are we even arguing about this like it matters? I mean come on. We know what this is about. We’re sitting here fighting out the same disagreements, asking ourselves what we should do next. There is no next. It’s over. It’s so over, isn’t it? I mean, we fight because we think the Andalites are coming someday, someday. We’ve been carrying out a delaying action. Slowing the Yeerks down so it wouldn’t be too late by the time the big deal Andalites came along.”