"What is it, Visser?"
"It's nothing. Be quiet."
Reizan 713 watched Visser One twitch and mumble in the front seat. "Are you sure?"
Visser One turned and gave him a trademark glare. "It's nothing. Shut that Hork-Bajir beak and keep it shut!" He then turned back and continued his periodic spasms.
Reizan sighed too softly to be heard by anyone but him and Shuyla and let himself sink into the dead black leather, still observing the Visser. His worry grew. Maybe someone poisoned the Kandrona rays-although Reizan was not sure of the exact science, he knew it was possible.
Then, what were the things he saw usually, and now even more of them, faint shadows like butterflies flapping restlessly around the limousine and the Visser?
Shuyla Marou was excited for some inane Hork-Bajir reason. The Andalite's doing it, I know he is, > she repeated, knowing that Reizan had long ago tuned out. He's going to break and then… >
No, > he cut her off, he will not. >
How would you know? >
I just do. >
Maybe it's the spirits. >
Reizan sighed again. No, it is not the dead. There is no such thing. >
How you know? > she demanded.
I just know! > he shouted.
So you really don't know, > she declared triumphantly.
You shut up or I will make you sorry you ever were! >
Shuyla was laughing in her designated corner of the brain. She knew Reizan. She knew him well enough to know he would do no such thing. He was too fainthearted. You wavering, nerveless ignoramus… he muttered to himself.
Shuyla continued. They are angry because he killed them. He killed a lot of them; they are out for him. Look, you even see them. Through me.>
The limousine pulled up and circled around to the garage. The door dilated for them, and it slipped inside. Two minutes later, Visser One had demorphed and fumed off to his private quarters, Reizan to guard duty.
Everything was fine.
***
Esplin Nine-Four-Double-Six
was troubled. He swept Alloran's stalk eyes here and there, growing even
more tense when only the usual things were seen, half in and half out of
the dark haunts of enigmatic shadows. He was not looking hard enough.
Alloran
was fearful, too, though he fervently denied it. The two of them stood
in the center of the room. The only visible thing moving was the stalk
eyes, twisting around and around.
There
is nothing, > Esplin muttered, to Alloran or himself, he could not tell.
There is nothing, there is nothing, there is nothing… >
He longed
to get out of the private quarters, to the tremendous sleeping chambers
of the Hork-Bajir-Controllers. They were all right there. Fifty to a chamber,
and fifty could easily take down and kill six Andalites. They generally
took care of each other.
Nevertheless,
how could he explain going there? I am very sorry, but I thought there
were Andalite bandits in my quarters, and I am frightened of them, so I
will stay here for the night. Even in his mind, it sounded pathetic.
Like a human child.
The Andalite
hearts pounded with the bloody cobalt rushing through them. They stood
there, watched the deathly quiet shadows of the hand-held Dracon beams
tacked on the wall and the intergalactic torture equipment. Alloran thought
of Jahar, death and Quantum viruses.
And Esplin
kept on muttering, There is nothing, there is nothing, no such thing
as spirits, Hork-Bajir and human nonsense, it's nothing, nothing, nothing…
>
***
Reizan yelled
and woke up.
He cast
a quick glance around the chamber. Nobody else awake that he could see.
He breathed relief and lay back down on the Ramonite slab. A sleepy, ticked-off
Hork-Bajir-Controller was something to be reckoned with.
Shuyla
was irritated, as well, until she noticed the details of the dream that
Reizan had let slip. Then she was jubilant. See I told you it was the
spirits. >
There
is no such thing, > Reizan protested weakly. He really was not in the mood
for arguing, especially with Shuyla.
When Estril
still was, it was different. The entire chamber would stay up half the
night playing games, many of them totally invented by Estril. They laughed
more then. Estril laughed most of all.
Estril
was dead, along with his host. They hardly ever laughed together now.
Reizan
stared at the ceiling and then the wall, memorizing the exact pattern of
the shadows in an effort to fall asleep. It did not work tonight, though.
Instead, he began to feel-a little bit afraid.
His dream
had been about Shuyla's imagined spirits. In his dream, they had been real.
They had chased him-him alone, as a Yeerk, not Shuyla. He had run down
a long hallway-he knew he could not run, without Shuyla, but in his dream
he had run. The spirits had always shrieked just behind him, never really
catching him, just to prolong the horror. Until the end, when he had collapsed,
sobbing in panicked terror, and then an ethereal hand twisted him around
and he woke himself with his own screaming.
"There's nothing,"
he told himself and Shuyla simultaneously, "nothing."
Satisfied,
he slept.
***
There
is no such thing as ghosts, > Esplin muttered again, no such thing.
>
Tell
that to the ghosts. >
Shut
up. >
Alloran
was right. They were there, and he knew it. They were there.
A delusion!
> he yelled. They are not real! Only those empty-headed Hork-Bajir
and humans would believe in them! >
Not
believing, despised Esplin, does not mean they are not there. >
Do
not call me that! >
It was
a doubtful point and he knew it. Again, Alloran was right, although Alloran
was not entirely happy about being right.
They
do not exist, > he mumbled again. They do not exist. >
Reizan
in the limousine was right. Something was the matter. Something was definitely
the matter. Esplin achieved the Andalite version of a gulp. He began to
shudder, Alloran's tail gently vibrating. Even if there were no ghosts,
he was becoming crazed, thinking about them.
Dead people.
If he had a twentieth of a promotion for each time he killed since he was
"born", he would be Emperor now. He stared around the room again.
They
are going to get revenge on you, Esplin. >
You,
too. > Esplin tried the last tack. How many Hork-Bajir did you wipe
out with the Quantum-One-Eighteen? I know there was a million at the least,
before. How much did you get with that thing? Ninety percent? >
Alloran
didn't care. You shut up, Esplin. You have no right to criticize me;
you have killed thousands more. >
That
is exaggeration, > he protested. Nevertheless, it very well could be true.
You
killer!
The words
seemed to shred at him from within. He cried out, slumped Alloran over.
They came, stronger and more hate-filled, dispersing from a thousand spirits.
You
killer! You killed me, you killed me, you jerk, and you killed me! You
haven't got any right to live when we're all dead, you traitor, you…
He yelled
again. The Andalite body fell into a semi-fetal position. Alloran said
we are gonna get you this time you fool yelled. At least he was
scared. The pain bloomed inside him like a lethal flower. He reeled for
the door, turned the stalk eyes around, and immediately regretted it.
He reached
it and he began to focus focus focus focus pound against it, forgetting
all about the keypad. All he had to do was enter the numbers. 6649. So
simple.
He screamed
again, battered with Andalite hooves. Trapped as you deserve to be Alloran
was in the Ramonite box during feeding times. Scream after pained scream
tore out from the thought-speak centers of Alloran's brain. Then he remembered
Edriss Five-Six-Two, his former superior it. He punched in the numbers
with shaking Andalite hands. The door slid open, and he ran.
***
Reizan was
awake. He heard the shouts.
It's
the spirits. >
We'll
see about that. >
He stumbled
for the door of the chamber. Something held him back. Shuyla was afraid,
and so was he. For a moment, he could neither go toward it nor back away.
It was the renewed succession of cries that brought him to reality.
Help
me, somebody please help! >
Reizan
moved toward the door. It obediently slid open, and he moved out to the
dim-lit, quiet as death main pool.
What he
saw, he would remember forever.
Visser
One was staggering toward him. Surrounding him were no it couldn't be
spirits, hundreds of them, clearer versions of the faint apparitions in
the limousine, seething and hissing in a pale blue mass.
Shuyla
let out a shriek of combined fear and delight.
HELP
ME! >
Reizan
numbly took another step.
It was
far, far too late.
Visser
One began to, ever so slowly, sink into the spirit cloud. Reizan began
to run forward, toward the monstrosity. He ran and ran, and finally was
there. Only a single Andalite tail broke from the ethereal mob and whipped
crazily.
What to
do now, he wondered.
HELLLLLLP!
>
Too late
really too late now.
The tail
vanished, leaving only blue mist. Reizan stared in disbelief.
Help…
> the echo of the cry lingered. Reizan shivered. He looked at the mist
and bet that if I rescued him he would reward me majorly course I would
probably be dead too laughed morbidly.
Reizan
gulped and bent Shuyla toward it. He began to disengage.
Shuyla
was of course happy to see him go. Of course.
***
Blind and
falling. Falling down, down, falling, down…
He felt
something gritty against him. Reizan then realized he was not in
the natural form of Yeerks.
He was,
for some reason, Hork-Bajir now.
Reizan
spent several minutes stunned and trying to make sense of it. He had detached
from Shuyla, so how…
It was
not Shuyla Marou. He knew that much.
It was
male.
He tested
it. Just like Jara Hamee before Shuyla. Of course, he'd only had Jara for
a little while, but still.
Where was
he? How could, in any universe, a Yeerk actually possess a Hork-Bajir body?
There was no other mind. No other voice.
Might as
well enjoy it.
Reizan
took several strides forward before he realized where he was-or rather,
where he was not. A thick fog enveloped him. He took a few experimental
whacks with the wrist blades and decided it was real.
HELP
ME! >
Reizan
jerked. What now?
Was this
the spirit world? What was he supposed to do?
He missed
Shuyla. She would know.
REIZAN
713 OF THE HETT SIMPLAT POOL, YOU WILL COME HERE AND HELP ME! > At least
he was intact enough to order him around.
Reizan
plunged into the mist, into the general direction of the cry.
He couldn't
see, but for some reason, he wasn't worried. As he walked he began seeing
patterns in the fog. There's a Gedd. There's a Taxxon. There's a human.
There's a Yeerk. There's an Andalite.
It was
when he was wondering if the patterns foretold his future or maybe something
else, that one of the patterns came out of the haze. He knew who it was.
He knew.
"Estril!"
"Don't
be afraid, Reizan."
Reizan
blinked. One thing he knew Estril was not, and that was a Hork-Bajir.
"I'll explain
later. When it is time. What are you doing here?"
"I…fell
in." It was, in a way, the truth.
"Come to
rescue Esplin 9466?"
Reizan
spoke truth. "…I don't know."
"If you
have, I suggest you go back. They aren't about to let him get away."
Reizan
did not have to ask who "him" was. "What should I-"
Another
pain-wracked thought-speak cry reached him. He flinched, then made up his
mind.
He ran
right past Estril, who made no attempt to catch him. He ran, Hork-Bajir
feet pounding against an invisible ground. Just like in his nightmare.
At least the spirits weren't chasing him. Yet.
He burst
through the fog, tearing full speed, always in the general direction of
those cries. He imagined that very clearly, planned it.
It was
only when he was all but there that he realized he had no idea what to
do next.
Ignore
Estril's warning and save Visser One? Choice A.
Leave the
spirits to do what they would? Choice B.
Choice
C, the sick one, the most appealing of them all, was to join the spirits
in whatever perverted game they played.
You
are crazy! he told himself. Torture your own visser? The Andalites
themselves would be repulsed!
Choice
A? He had to laugh. Reizan was smart enough to know that there would be
no reward. Visser One was not that kind of being.
No time
to kill him decide.
He was
there.
The spirits
were even more numerous than he imagined. There were hundreds on hundreds,
spilling over into thousands. Gedds, Mak, Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, humans were
all represented. For some reason, there were no actual Yeerks that he could
see.
They were
all in a circle, and in the center of that circle was Visser One.
He had
several bruises, but nothing looked too serious. He looked through the
swarm at Reizan. All four Andalite eyes widened slightly. Then he was screaming
again.
In
the name of the Kandrona, Reizan 713, help me! >
Reizan
took another step forward.
"Do not
take another step, Reizan Seven-One-Three of the Hett Simplat pool."
He petrified
on the spot.
Edriss
562, the late Visser One, stood before him. Only… it couldn't be. He had
never seen Edriss in this host before. Maybe the same thing happened to
her. Maybe, when she passed into here, she had a new body. That explained
why Estril had been Hork-Bajir, like him, and why there were no Yeerks
in their natural form in the throng of ghosts.
She seemed
to take his silence as an indication to continue. "I would not advise you
to attempt to rescue Esplin 9466. The others and I have waited long for
this. We will not be denied."
Reizan
found his voice. "I wasn't intending to try."
REIZAN
HELP ME NOW! >
"Ignore
him." Edriss smiled in the way of humans. "Please do not speak to him.
There is always the possibility that you will break the illusion."
"Illusion?"
"You see…"
The smile widened. "He thinks he is in the fugue. He thinks. We have actually
done very little to physically harm him."
"Besides
taking him here," Reizan dared to say.
To his
surprise, she laughed. "We finally gained enough united power to leave
the Yin World, this world, and shadow him. He knew, of course. He was afraid.
However, that was not enough to save him."
She laughed
again. For some reason, the noise hurt his ears. What irony. "So
we took him here. To give him what he deserves. Not just Yeerks, as you
can see. Many, many others."
***
Reizan gulped
so hard his throat hurt. "So what am I supposed to do, then?"
Edriss
smiled and grabbed him just below the elbow blade.
His mind
burst. He screamed as a mental knife entered his consciousness, no, it
wasn't a knife it was his just reward a complete toolbox, screw
remover, wrench, and all; it opened every crevice of his mind like he had
done with the Gedd and Jara Hamee and Shuyla Marou, only he'd looked at
their memories afterward and it hadn't HURT so much as this; and he howled
and seemed to be falling, falling, falling, tumbling into the darkness
of the Yin world.
"Reizan."
Her voice
was quiet but unwavering, and he held onto it. "W-what did you do?"
"You're
all right." All right? ALL RIGHT? How could he possibly be all right
after what she just did? "You have yin-yang eyes. You are all right.
Sevrin, Hahn, Iniss 174, everyone else, if you agree?"
The spirits
began to murmur. He did not hear enough to realize. He only heard Edriss.
"…all right.
It is settled then." She spoke to him again. "Reizan 713 of the Hett Simplat
pool, you are to go to the valley."
"Valley?
What valley?"
"We will
show you to there. You will be going with Alloran-Semitur-Corrass."
He blinked
and then remembered. "Not... him?"
"No. In
about one hundred years, maybe. Just maybe. Now watch."
Reizan
watched in fascination as a mist seeped from Alloran's ear. As it stopped
coming, Alloran-Alloran, not Esplin- blinked and looked at him.
I expect
I am coming with you. >
"I expect
so, too."
The mist
took shape on the ground of the Yin world, becoming a Yeerk. Just a plain
Yeerk. Nothing special.
Reizan
felt something ascend. He smiled at Esplin. "In a hundred years, maybe."
"Now we'll
take you to the valley."
Shuyla
could go there, too. She was already on her way. Jara, he was already there.
Reizan
713 and Alloran-Semitur-Corrass were going, too.