87 "Ax, keep an eye out in all directions," I said. He was the only one of us who could look backward as easily as forward.
"Yeah, let us know if you see any Howlers so we can have a few seconds to cry before they get us," Marco said darkly.
Through the maze of false forest, we shuffled along with Iskoort in various permutations, none of whom seemed to be having an especially good time.
My brain was buzzing. Going a mile a minute, but going nowhere. Like a car with the pedal all the way down but up on blocks, wheels spinning but staying still.
What was I missing? Something. Something. Some way to defeat the Howlers. Had to be some way. The Ellimist didn't send us into this battle to lose.
Did he?
I tried calling to him with my mind. I wondered if he was listening. Probably. But he and Crayak had their rules. The rules of engagement, as the military guys say.
What were the rules? Might as well have that ant look up at the chess grandmaster and demand an explanation for why he'd moved a particular pawn.
Why the Iskoort? Why did they have to be saved? Why had we known we were going after
88 the Howlers, but the Howlers hadn't seemed to know they were going after us till we met on the stairs?
Why didn't the Howlers go after the Iskoort? That was easy: the rules of engagement. If they beat us, they could annihilate the Iskoort. Not until.
The one person we figured could fight and win against the Howlers was Erek. Only Erek had the power. And only Erek was unable to fight. He could put himself between us and the Howlers. He could give us information, but not directly help us.
The Howlers had never lost a battle. That's what the Howler memories and Erek had said. Never.
What did it all mean? I pressed my hands hard against my head, like I wanted to squeeze the answer out of my brain.
«We are there,» Guide announced.
I looked up, startled to realize I'd been walking along the whole time. I felt a surge of guilt. I'd been so preoccupied, I hadn't been on guard.
We were standing outside a building shaped like a pyramid, maybe ten stories high in Earth terms. It was white, the gleaming, artificial white of plastic, and featured a wide, arched door outlined in rows of neon, like a rainbow. Something that must have been music was blaring.
89 "Yeah, this'll be a good place to hide," Marco said sardonically. "No one would ever notice this."
"Where are we, Guide?"
«We have reached the temple of the Servant Guild. They will take you in. I have paid for it. They will care for you until I return.»
"What do you mean, return?" Rachel snapped. "Where are you going?"
«l must feed. You see, we Iskoort are not precisely what we seem at first. The body you see is of our symbiote. We are a symbiotic species - a large outer body, the Isk, and the inner self, the much smaller portion, called the Yoort.»
«A symbiote?» Ax demanded, speaking for the first time. «Do you mean that you are parasites?»
«Long ago, yes,» Guide acknowledged. «But what began as a parasitic relationship has become a truly symbiotic one. We function as a single creature. The two parts, halves, only separate every three days, when the Yoort must feed by swimming in the Yoort pool and absorbing -»
Ax's tail was at the Iskoort's throat before he could form the next word.
«Yeerks. They're all Yeerks!»
90
The Servant Guild was just what it sounded like. Slavishly obedient, fawning, groveling Iskoort, fanatically obsessed with obeying your every order, catering to your every whim.
It took a long time for us to convey that all we wanted was a room. A room with none of them in it. They weren't happy about it, but in the end they obeyed.
The room was as gaudy as the exterior of the Servant Guild Temple. The walls were so glaringly white they seemed to make your eyeballs vibrate. What wasn't white was neon, or something like neon, in bold primary colors swirled here and there, up walls and across ceilings and inset in
91 the floor. But the colored light did not seem to touch the whiteness.
"Must be the Iskoort idea of interior decorating," Rachel said. "Like a hospital bathroom decorated by kids with those light wand things."
Guide stood in the middle of the room. Ax had drawn his tail blade back, but Guide was not under any illusions: That tail would snap in a split second if we heard the wrong answers.
"You'd better talk, and talk fast," I told Guide.
He was whining continuously from his diaphragm. «What do you want from me?»
Marco said, "We're a bazillion miles from home, clear across the galaxy, and all of a sudden we find out you Iskoort are Yeerks. Excuse us for being suspicious."
«We are not Yeerks. We are Iskoort.»
«Yoort, Yeerk, that's pretty close,» Tobias said, flaring his wings angrily. «And you both live off Kandrona rays.»
«Yes, we feed on Kandrona rays. But we are Iskoort, not these Yeerks you despise.»
Rachel glared at the cringing Iskoort. "I knew there was something I didn't like about these creeps. If they're not trying to buy something from you, they're trying to kick your butt or kiss your feet. Yeerks!" She turned to me, expression hard.
92 "That's it. We tell the Ellimist to find someone else to play his games with. We're not helping save a bunch of Yeerks. The Howlers can have them."
I was inclined to agree. It was the easy way out, anyway. We weren't going to die to help Yeerks.
Cassie moved between Guide and Ax. "Guide, tell me something. What do you know about the history of your people? Going way back to the beginning?"
Guide looked bewildered, but Cassie was staying between him and the Andalite's tail, so he knew she was his best hope.
«We ... we Iskoort... I mean, back many, many generations, the Yoort were parasites, as you said. They infested other species. But that was long ago. Since we formed our symbiotes, the combination of Isk and Yoort, we have been as we are now.»
Rachel snorted. "They conquered these Isk things and now it's like okay, we're best buddies. Big deal."
Marco nodded agreement. "Some stranger shows up on Earth a thousand years after the Yeerks conquer Earth, the Yeerks will be saying, 'Hey, us and the humans are symbiotes.'"
I looked at Cassie. Rachel and Marco were right. Cassie nodded, accepting the fact.
93 But Guide said, «No, no. I have not made myself clear. The Isk were not conquered by the Yoort. They were created.»
"Say what?"
«Parasitism is a limiting choice. The Yoort moved violently to conquer other species and infest them, but this was not profitable, not in the long haul. So the Yoort used biological engineering techniques to design and create a species specifically to be a symbiote.»
«Who cares how you did it?» Tobias argued. «So you build the Isk and then enslave them.»
«No, no,» Guide pleaded, whining away through his diaphragm. «The Isk were true symbiotes. The Isk cannot live without the Yoort. And to ensure that this symbiosis would be real, the Yoort, too, were modified. Now Yoort cannot live without Isk and Isk cannot live without Yoort. They are one creature with two parts.»
Dead silence. No one said a thing. The reality of it was sinking slowly into our suspicious brains.
"Oh, my God," Cassie said at last. "Of course. It's the way. The only way. Parasite becomes symbiote. No more infestation. They create the next step in their own evolution and become true symbiotes."
"No more war," Erek said quietly. "No more
94 need to conquer new species, to infest and enslave."
"The Yeerks don't know about this," Cassie said. "Even the Yeerks who want peace cannot imagine a way out, a way to end the cycle of conquest."
«These Yoort could be related to the Yeerks,» Ax said. «They may be the same species, somehow separated long ago, perhaps carried from the Yeerk home world by some forgotten race.»
«lf the Yeerks knew ... if the Iskoort ever made contact with the Yeerks . .
.» Tobias said.
This was why Crayak had to destroy the Iskoort. And why the Ellimist couldn't allow it. Someday, maybe far in the future, Iskoort would meet Yeerk. And the Yeerks would see that there was another way.
I smiled. The first time in a long time. The ant had just figured out part of the chess game.
95
A smell like oil and mothballs and . . .
"It's poison!" Rachel said. "Like bug poison."
«Howlers!» Tobias yelled.
What to do? The Howlers were pumping poison into the building. They had learned fast. Too fast. Insect morphs were no longer available.
"Guide! Windows?"
«Yes, there are windows concealed. I can open them by -»
"Not yet. We go airborne," I told everyone. "Stay calm. Morph to bird. Guide, when I say, open the windows. Not before. The Howlers won't come in till they're sure they've spread enough poison."
I tried to sound confident. I hoped I was right.
96 The stench of poison was growing stronger by the second, but I was already on my way to morphing a peregrine falcon.
Why bug poison? Why not nerve gas? Why not some odorless, invisible gas that would kill us before we knew what hit us?
Too easy? Not enough fear factor for the Howlers? Or was no deadly gas one of the rules of engagement?
We were melting, all but Erek and Guide. Morphing. Flesh oozing and shifting like mud sliding down a hill. Flesh turned gray. Arms and legs broke out in feather patterns. Faces crumpled, then extruded hard beaks. Toes became talons.
«Guide, how high up are we?»
«Perhaps five times your own height.»
«0kay. Erek, we don't know if any Howler is sitting outside that window. Maybe yes, maybe no. Can you jump through it, push whoever's there out of the way?»
Erek looked sick. "No, Jake. I can hear the Howlers. I know they're out there. If I go through that window I might harm -"
«Wouldn't want that,» Marco sneered. «We wouldn't want -»
«Shut up, Marco,» I rapped. My mind was racing. Some answer. There had to be. We needed a distraction, otherwise, the instant we appeared,
97 the Howlers would . . . «Erek! Can you project a hologram through another window? A hologram of us?»
"Absolutely. There would be no harm to the Howlers, and it might save you. That would be well within my parameters."
«Guide, open a window on the far side of the room, count to three, and open this one over here. Guide, Erek? We hook up two levels down, near the stairs. Everyone ready?»
«Two levels down?» Guide said, looking startled.
Just then a pair of Servant Iskoort came bustling into the room. «Is there a problem? Are those guests clinging to the outside of the building disturbing your rest?»
«Make it fast,» Tobias said, ignoring the intrusion. «Birds don't tolerate poison much better than bugs do.»
«Point taken. On three. One, two, NOW!»
The far window slid open. Instantly a flight of six birds flew toward it. Dracon beams burned and flechette guns rattled.
«Yes, let us open the windows,» one of the Servant Iskoort offered.
«Perhaps a delightful meal?»
The near window opened and I spread my wings and flapped with all my panicky strength.
The hologram broke down after extending a
98 couple of dozen feet from the window. But by then all seven Howlers were firing like idiots on the wrong side of the building.
We blew out of the window, flapping like mad, desperate for every foot of distance. But we were not far when the first Dracon beam singed Rachel's eagle wing.
«Down, down, down!» I yelled.
We dove. Down into the maze of trees and bushes and flowers. We were a weird squadron. A bald eagle, a pair of ospreys, a northern harrier, a red-tailed hawk, and a peregrine falcon.
We blazed along the lane, inches above the heads of walking Iskoort. They'd feel our wind and look up as we passed.
B-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-t-t!
A line of flechettes tore a tree apart inches ahead of me.
I turned left and saw the Howler. He was racing after us, knocking Iskoort down like they were so many bowling pins.
We turned a sharp left, banking around a line of fuzzy orange trees. A Howler burst from the vegetation ahead of us! He had torn through the planters to cut us off.
«Pull up!» Tobias yelled.
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEEW!
Cassie's right wing was gone, a burning rag falling to the ground! Cassie tumbled, out of control,
99 falling like a stone. She hit the ground amidst a gaggle of Warmaker Iskoort.
I dived after her.
A Howler jumped from an overhanging tree. He aimed his beam weapon even as he plummeted toward Cassie's still, crumpled form.
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
He fired, missed! Landed. I was on him, talons forward. I raked bloody lines across his head. He twisted his turntable body and aimed at me.
I carried through, lost momentum, and slammed into one of the Warmaker Iskoort. The Iskoort stared blankly at me. I was in his arms. Helpless.
The Howler grinned and took careful aim. Right at me. No chance to escape. Point-blank range. Inches away. I could see every detail of the weapon that would end my life.
Then ... the Dracon beam wavered. It rose. I saw the Howler's face, furious, enraged. But he did not fire.
I flapped my wings. The Warmaker Iskoort reacted by shoving me away angrily, and then he and his fellows attacked the Howler.
It should have been over in an instant. The Warmaker Iskoort were not exactly formidable. The Howler should have laid them out in five seconds. Instead, the Howler shielded himself from
100 attack, pushing back the thrusting, butting heads, and ran.
Rules of engagement!
«They can't kill the lskoort!» I yelled to the others. «Use the Iskoort for cover!» Then, «Cassie! Cassie, if you can hear me, demorph! Demorph!»
But I could already see her flesh growing from the missing, burned scar where her wing had been. «Yeah, yeah, I know,» she said, sounding stunned.
«Ax! Behind you!»
«Here comes another one!»
The others were running for their lives. I had to get to them. «Cassie. Are you okay?»
«I'll . . . you know ... uh ... demorph,» she said, dazed, lost.
«Cassie, demorph! And stay close to the lskoort!»
«Yeah. Yeah.»
«l can't leave you like this!»
«No. Yes. Go. You have to -»
A Howler was bounding toward me, his dead blue eyes focused on me. If I stayed, I'd lead him to Cassie. If I left ... I couldn't leave her! She was too dazed, losing too much blood, sinking too fast to finish demorphing.
No choice, Jake, I told myself harshly. You can't help. You can only hurt.
101 I flapped away, feeling like my heart was being ripped from my body. I gained enough altitude to get above the trees, where I saw a bizarre battle underway.
Have to help the others, I told myself. That's your duty. Help them. You can't help Cassie anymore.
The Howlers were leaping from tree to tree, like monkeys on steroids. They were simply leaping across the walkways, vine to bush to branch, like people crossing a stream by jumping from rock to rock.
I saw three birds in the air. One missing besides Cassie. The edge of the platform, the void, was only a mile away.
«0kay,» I said. «I've had enough of this. They want to chase someone? Let's see just how fast they are.»
102
The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth. Faster than the cheetah or gazelle. Faster than the fastest dolphin or shark. Faster than any bird. In a dive it can break two hundred miles an hour.
I flapped, up, up, up, burning energy like I didn't care, and I didn't. I wouldn't be needing energy for later. There wasn't going to be a later. Cassie down. Rachel down. I felt sick inside.
But I was going to take a Ho
wler with me.
I flew hard and fast and caught a little help from a headwind that I rode like a skateboarder going up the side of a pipe.
Then I took careful aim, judged the distance, and dived.
103 I didn't reach two hundred miles an hour, but I was breaking a hundred by the time I slashed the top of a Howler who was ripping after Tobias.
The Howler grabbed his head, howling a more emotional and less dangerous howl than the one he was named for. He fired wildly at me, but I was out of there.
I kept most of my momentum and banked right, flapping hard, then raked a Howler who had just dropped Marco with a burst of flechettes.
«Marco!» I cried. «Demorph! Demorph!»
I couldn't tell if he was still alive. But I could see his assailant. He got a face full of razor-sharp talon. I aimed for his eyes.
The Howlers had never been beaten. I wondered how they liked what I was doing to them.
I got my answer immediately. Three of them converged, racing toward me, flinging themselves forward in mad, heedless pursuit of the little creature who had dared to hurt them.
Not too fast, Jake, I told myself. I flew, but not at full speed. Rather, I used my speed to dodge and weave and frustrate the Howlers who fired everything they had at me.
Close enough, I thought. Now, down! I dropped below tree-level, down to the walkway. But here the walkway was almost devoid of Iskoort.
104 I stuck to the path, fighting exhaustion, flapping, turning, flapping, turning. And the Howlers were after me. They ripped through the hedges, blew trees apart with flechettes, burned flowers and bushes out of their path.
I was going up and down a circuitous path. They were cutting straight through. In seconds they would cut me off. I couldn't outrun them when I had to travel ten feet for every one foot of theirs.
But I had to stay down. Had to stay on the path. Had to hope I was right about direction and distance. Had to hope the Howlers' arrogance, the cockiness of the never-defeated, would help me.
Turn, turn, turn!
Around I came. A Howler burst through the hedge just in front of me! Trapped!
Was I right? Was I there?