Chapter 11

Saturday morning we slept late. Actually, Cassie slept and I just laid awake in bed until she got up. I knew she had to be really tired from the night before. I didn't think it would be good for me to be prowling about while she was asleep, so I stayed in bed.

"I think the guys are anxious to meet again," I said to Cassie once she was fully awake.

"Why?"

"Because they're all here." I walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains, searching the yard for a sign of anyone.

In the big tree next to the house, I heard Jake's voice say in my head. I was wondering when you guys would finally get up. There was playful reproach in his voice.

I looked at the tree, but I couldn't see anything though the leaves. I pointed to the barn and held up both my hands, hoping he would understand my message.

Ten minutes? he asked.

I gave him a thumbs up and saw a large bird fly out of the tree and toward the barn. I assumed he told the others because none of them spoke to me.

"What's up?" asked Cassie, having noticed my silence and hand motions. Apparently Jake hadn't extended the thought-speak to her for some reason.

"We're meeting in the barn in ten minutes. That won't be any problem, will it?"

"My dad might be out there," she said, "But if he is, the others will just come back and we can pick somewhere else."

"Cool," I said, closing the curtains so we could change out of our pajamas.

"You feel like breakfast?" she asked me.

I glanced at the clock and laughed.

"You mean lunch?"

It turned out that Cassie's mom had gone into work and her dad left a note saying he had gone to a neighboring city to check out a deer someone had found on the side of the road. We just made some sandwiches real quick, grabbed a tin of cookies and went out to the barn.

Everyone was already waiting for us, and no one was in morph. Tobias had posted himself as sentinel up in the rafters. All the humans looked glad to see the food.

"I knew you two had to be angels," said Marco as he stuffed the sandwich in his mouth.

I only laughed, blushed slightly and then quietly continued to eat my sandwich. I was really
hungry too.

"As much as I hate to say it," said Jake after a few minutes, "We really need to talk about this new Yeerk pool thing."

Yes, said Ax. This is a great challenge. We cannot let them build another large, fully-functional pool.

Once again, it was up to me to step up and be contrary.

"Uh guys?" I started. "I hate to bring this up, but you've got something a little more pressing than
that to worry about."

"What could be more pressing than a new Yeerk pool?" Jake asked. He still didn't quite trust me. I didn't point out that he had gotten the information about the pool through me.

"Like the fact that you will be pretty much useless against the Yeerks if you don't fix your morphing powers soon," I said as calmly as I could.

"Eliza's right," said Cassie. I could tell that she hated to sound like she was disagreeing with Jake.

"OK," said Marco, rubbing his hands together. "We all know that Eliza's not a Yeerk. I mean, we talked to an Andalite last night. So let's just whip out the blue box, initiate her and then kick some Yeerk butt."

I was flattered that Marco had accepted me so quickly.

It is true that a Yeerk would not have contacted the Andalite home world, especially allowing me to do it. I also believe that Ruthshadi-Abmeli-Sadul would know if her own daughter had been infected.

There was a moment of silence while everyone mulled this over in their heads.

"She can't replace Rachel," said Jake, so quietly that it was barely audible.

That shocked me a little, but what Cassie said shocked me even more.

"Is that what this is about?" she said, her voice louder than normal. "Do you think somehow that by picking a new person we're trying to forget about Rachel?"

Tears started streaming down her face, but she didn't stop talking.

"I cared about Rachel just as much as you did, Jake. And the one thing that I'm certain of is that she wouldn't want her death to stop us from fighting."

She would want us to fight harder, interjected Tobias. And if she knew that meant finding another person to join us, she would be glad to know we had someone with as many talents as Eliza to do it.

"Fine," said Jake. "But we wait the three days out just in case. We can do it Monday after school."

He seemed to think that would imply the end of the meeting, and he stood up to leave.

"Stop," I said without looking up. Jake slowly turned around and they all looked at me.

"If Jake doesn't trust me, then I'm not doing it." I looked directly into his eyes. "The balance in the Stothomil is delicate. It's not worth risking a mistake."

Everyone turned toward Jake expectantly, but he just shook his head as if it were all too much for him.

"I need some time alone," he said and walked out the door.

There was uncomfortable silence in the room for a while. No one could figure out anything to say after what had just happened.

"I think he'll come around," said Marco after a few minutes. He looked at me. "I wouldn't take it personally. He knows that we need you and that you aren't doing all this to hurt us. He just hasn't realized it yet."

I nodded, but I wasn't so sure he was right. Jake had seemed very angry with me.

Cassie must have noticed my doubtful expression because she felt the need to explain.

"He thinks it's his fault," she said quietly. "Rachel and Jake were partnered up to attack this one group of Hork-Bajir Controllers. They were going to go in, find a hiding place and morph to something stronger than birds.

"When Jake came out in his tiger morph and didn't see Rachel, he just assumed she had found something else that needed taking care of. Rachel was very impulsive," Cassie explained. "He tried calling out to her in thought-speak, but when she didn't answer he just assumed she was out of range.

"Tobias was flying lookout overhead and spotted her crumpled on the ground. Apparently the Yeerks had just assumed she was already dead." She paused to take a deep breath. "Jake still hasn't forgiven himself for not checking on her. He has it in his head that if only he had found her sooner ..." Cassie couldn't continue.

"He takes too much responsibility on himself," said Marco. "Sometimes I'm afraid he'll crack under the pressure, but this is the closest he's come to it."

I sat silently, listening to them relate the history, but as I did, I tried to stretch my mind out to Jake. I knew that I probably wasn't well-attuned enough with him yet, but I tried anyway. After a few minutes, I found that I could barely feel him, distantly.

There was anger there, but mostly there was just sadness.

If this Stothomil thing is as delicate as you say, then I think we all need some time to think this over, said Tobias. You guys go on. I'll take watch for today.

They gladly took him up on this offer. Cassie was still really upset, and I think Marco was itching to go after Jake. Ax was probably tired after having spent most of the night watching Cassie's house.