Jake sat in a black, smooth, weak-looking chair, holding his head
in his hands. He was shaking. Shaking badly.
Cassie came and sat next to him in a similar chair. Without a word,
she hugged him and held him while his shaking slowly lessened.
"Cassie did not hate," a detached, little-girl's voice said simply.
The peaceful, healing scene melted away, replaced by a huge,
metallic vehicle far underwater. Six creatures were swimming
away from it. Dolphins.
The vehicle exploded. Blinding light consumed everything,
including the dolphins. Water erupted and rippled away at
lightning speed. Even the landbeyond the water was affected by the
blast, trembling as if it was hit by anearthquake.
Ax fixed it so it'll be a dud, Tobias's disembodied voice
explained. Just asthe deadly waves hit the sea shelf and began to
grow, Lecrian's dream eyes grewdim, as if he was going blind, until
darkness consumed him, too.
Someone or something is using me, and I don't like it very
much. Tobias saidangerly in the total darkness.
The darkness remained absolute, but Lecrian could no longer hear
the trembling earth.Instead, he heard the sound of dripping water,
so faint that any other noicewould make it impossible to hear.
Then he couldn't hear it anymore. Someone was walking, and that
someone carried a light of some sort, because Lecrian could see a
light coming from the samedirection as the sound.
As the light drew closer, Lecrian could see that he was inside the
stone walls of a dungeon. The room was empty, and there were cell
doors all around. One of thedoors had a light behind it, and it was
growing brighter.
Without thinking, Lecrian walked to and looked into one of the
cells.
Aximili stood there. He looked haggard and tired, despairing. He
was surrounded by a force field, preventing him from using
aninsect morph to escape. Aximili heard the man coming, and
suddenly he wasn'thaggard anymore. In sheer, angry defiance and
frustration, Aximili's tailflashed, slicing atthe globe.
Lecrian heard the door open, but he couldn't turn his dream head to
see who it was. Instead, he began to float like a ghost into Aximili's
cell. No longerrestrained by the need for light, Lecrian saw the
crack.
There was a crack in the globe. It was small, nearly invisible, but it
was there.
But the cell was too dark. Even with the light approaching, the cell
would be too dark for Aximili to see it, especially now that he has
given up hope ofescaping on his own.
~~~
Everyone was on the move the next day. The dragons flew, each
one carrying many of the soldiers of Hivena on their backs. The
Animorphs, too, flew, but in bird morph. They only stopped to
land, demorph, and remorph again.
As night approached, Levakh came into view. Jake, Rachel, Cassie
and Marco saw it way before anyone else did.
My word! Cassie exclaimed.
The lush, vast Forest Sea that served as a natural boundary between
Levakh and the neighboring kingdoms came to an abrupt end.
Beyond it, the flat plain wasblack, as if it was burnt, even though it
wasn't. All light was absorbed by the
blackness of the land. Even the setting sun could not color that
land. The castle itself was a huge, lightless, spiring monolith,
scraping the sky.
As they flew closer, and before the sun could set, the four of them
gave their report.
Talk about overkill, Marco exclaimed. What could he possibly
use all thoserejects for? To teach him the "monster mash?"
"What is it?" King Themis asked loudly, trying to be heard over the
fast moving air. He knew that the Animorphs had excelent hearing
in their bird forms, but he didn't want to test just how good their
hearing was, especiaslly when he had ahard time hearing himself.
He rode the golden Dragon King at the head of the army with the
Animorphs, but neither of them could make out outline of the
castle, much less anything else.
He has a whole army! Rachel reported. Thunder lizards,
phoenixes, pegasuses,giants --
They might be giants, Marco interjected.
--vampires... Cassie, what are those called?
Perytons, gallu, manticores, bug bears...the list goes on. Cassie
finished just as the sun crossed the line between mostly over the
horizon to mostly underthe horizon.
Anyway, Jake said, there's a lot there.
"How many?" the Dragon King said, clearly heard over the wind.
I don't know. Anyone good at estimating?
Thousands of monsters, Rachel answered without hesitation,
and a few more thousand regular guys.
Marco looked at her in wonder. At least it looked like it should
have been wonder, being an osprey's face. What? Now Shopping
Queen Xena can count at a glance? I'm impressed.
Themis wasn't happy.
"Rurga! How in the world did he get that much power?!" he yelled
angerly.
Huh? What do you mean? Jake asked, shocked at the outburst.
"He's a summoner!" he stated lividly, still making sure that he is
heard. "That is all he is. He doesn't have very many sources of
magic. Certainly not fromhimself or from the land. He simply
doesn't have the power to summon such anarmy, much less control
it."
I don't understand, Cassie said. What was that about getting
magic from magicfrom the land?
Themis slowly calmed down. "There are many forms of magic," he
explained. He looked at his sons flying behind him. "Some magic
in part of us. It is limitedin that no more is learned, but it never
leaves you because it comes directlyfrom within. Your self is the
source of the magic. My magic is diverse andadaptable, but I can't
just call it up from anywhere. My magic mostly comes frommy
home, though I still do have a little bit that comes from me.
Summoners,though," he said as his face hardened, "get their magic
from others."
He looked back at the dark land. "He couldn't summon an army
that large. Not unless he's either tapping into a very powerful,
godlike being, or from a sourcethat doesn't run out of magic." He
sighed, this time calming down all the wayback to normal.
Themis? We need to rest, Jake said in private thought-speech.
We've been flying all day with no breaks. The others are trying to
not complain, but I knowthat they are out on their feet. You know,
dead tired.
Themis nodded. "I was thinking of the same thing about my men,"
he said to himself.
Soon, camp was set. A good dinner was cooked by the patient
chefs, gaurds were set, shifts were decided, the dragons flew
tirelessly overhead, looking forthrie own food, and the Animorphs
and the princes and king got ready to rest.
As the camp was settling down, Rachel sat next to a fire, alone.
She was thinking hard, looking for some answers and not finding
any.
"Hi, Rachel," Cassie greeted her as she came up to her. She saw the
frustrated, almost haunted look on Rachel's face. "Would you like
some company?"
Rachel grunted. "Sure."
Cassie sat down, looking at Rachel that sideways look that Rachel
was so familiar with. Rachel sighed, deciding to just give Cassie
the answers intead ofwait for her to figure out what was bothering
her.
"Why Tobias?" she asked, not really directing the question to her
best friend. "Why did David shoot him?"
"Maybe because it was because he thought he killed him before,
and he wanted to get him this time. You know, a grudge against the
one who got away."
"But Tobias was ~human.~ Didn't David himself say that he
wouldn't kill a human? Just animals?"
Cassie hasitated. "He's not human anymore. He believes that no
human laws bind him, now. An animal can't murder. At least that
would be his excuse.
Rachel looked away and was quiet for a while. Cassie knew what
she was thinking.
"But he hates me more. Much more than Tobias. Why didn't he
shoot me, instead?"
Cassie hugged her friend. For a while, she didn't answer. When she
did, soft and strained, feeling Rachel's pain.
"What could hurt you more," she said, "than seeing Tobias die?"
For a long while, neither girl said anything. They just listened to
the fire pop and to the blowing wind.
"He'll be alright," Rachel firmly said. "I know he will be."
"Yeah. He will," Cassie confirmed. "He will recover soon. He
always has."
Not too far away, something hovered unseen in the air. It was a
larah, an invisible, ghost-like being.
The larah scowled, turned, and floated away.
Bird-boy's not going to get away from me again, David vowed,
as he silently flew back towards Hivena.
* * * * *
The sun was just thinking of waking up. Nothing moved except a
small, black creature named Jake.
Jake crawled through the black land surrounding the castle of
Levakh. He was a pure black, scrawny thing that stood two feet tall
at best, with skeletal,spindly limbs with sharp joints, clawed hands
and feet, and small, sharp,shark-like teeth. He was a goblin, one of
the nastier members of the faeriefamily.
Jake crept closer to the sleeping castle and army, invisible against
the blackness of the land. He had to crane his thin neck to see the
tops of thetowers. Basilisks, a kind of large lizard, draped
themselves over the walls.They were joined by harpies, griffins,
phoenixes, pegasuses, and several otherflying creatures that Jake
did not recognize. At the base of the castle walls, amoat of oily
water swirled restlessly, in spite of the unmoving air. Outside of
the moat, hundreds of monsters laid asleep. Hundreds of giants of
all kinds,spinxes, scorpion-tailed manticores, giant bull men,
wingless lizards of allsizes, cats of all kinds, even the rare peryton,
a winged, man-eating deer. Onlythe vampires were up and around,
but even they were heading back to their coffins as the sun's deadly
rays slowly brightened. The drawbridge was down, butonly so a
couple of cyclopes could lay on it. Looking past them, Jake could
see moremonsters, but also the human half of the army. With his
goblin eyes, he couldsee that some of the soldiers' weapons were
glowing with the aura of magic.
How in the world are we going to get Ax out of there? he
mused.
Something virtually invisible floated up behind him.
Boo! it said.
Ahhhhh! Jake yelled. He spun around and hissed at the larah
hovering behind him. It was tall, with light brown hair and totally
white eyes. It looked like a human ghost, except for the fact that it
had teeth. Very, very sharp teeth.
Larahs look almost identical to ghosts. Ghosts, though eerie, are
basically harmless. Larahs are not.
And Jake didn't like larahs. Not in the least. He really did not want
to mess with one right then, and the goblin mind wholeheartedly
agreed.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! the deadly larah laughed, its menacing
presense melting away as it held its sides in a feeble
attempt to control its laughter.
Jake recognized the voice.
Marco?!
Of course it's me, he answered, finally getting a hold on himself.
Who elsewould it be?
Jake shuttered, still trying to control his panic. You almost gave
me a heart attack! Please. Don't do that again. You know what
happened last time.
Marco remembered and winced. Sorry, man.
Jake finally calmed down. Okay, okay. What are you doing up?
Well, Marco began, it all started with the sudden silence.
What? Jake asked, confused.
You stopped snoring, Marco explained. The sudden silence
woke me up. Knowingjust how un-bright you are, I had to come
looking for you. And what are youdoing here, may I ask.
Jake looked over his shoulder at the castle. Checking things out. I
was hoping to find a way in, but I can't even get close. The soldiers
have magical weapons.I think Themis would like to know that.
No he won't. He'll hate the news. And you better get out of here,
fearless leader. Marco nodded to his left. Some cousins of the
ghost are scouting thearea.
Larahs?
Some are, but I didn't recognize the rest. So, get out of here
already, Jake. I'll cover you.
Jake nodded, looked one last time at the impenetrable fortress, and
scampered away just as the sun barely started to peek over the
horizon.
* * * * *
An hour later...
"Okay, guys," Jake began as he bent down to pick up a couple of
black twigs.
"Now all we need to do is decide who's going to go."
"Rachel will! Rachel will!" Marco cried excitedly but before she
could volunteer.
"Oh, shut up, Marco," Rachel grumbled good-naturely.
Earlier, Jake and Marco woke Rachel and Cassie up. They and the
rest of the army had a quick breakfast, then got ready for the battle.
Marco was right: Themiswasn't happy with the news about the
magical weapons, but he was gratefulnonetheless. Finally, the four
of them put their heads together and came to anagreement: Ax
needed special attention if he was to be rescued, but Themis
wouldneed help, too. Two Animorphs find a way into the castle,
the other two stay out
and fight.
"Hey, I was only trying to make life easier for you," Marco
defended himself.
"You failed miserably," Rachel grumbled again.
Jake snapped the twigs in two, making sure that one half of each
twig was smaller than the other half. He turned his back to them,
gripped them in such away that no one could tell which ones were
shortest, then turned back around.
"Shorter ones go. Long stay."
Rachel reached for a twig first. Long.
"Awwww, poor Xena," Marco said, reaching for his twig.
"Short," Rachel commented. "How accurate."
Then Cassie. Short.
"Looks like you're stuck with me, Cassie," Marco chimed, tossing
the broken twig behind him. Jake just looked tired.
Crimber, dressed in light leather armor, ran up to them. "Jake, we
are about to start. You ready?"
Jake nodded. The others nodded with him.
As they followed Crimber to his father, Marco muttered, "Whoa. I
just now realized just how insane our idea is."
* * * * *
One hour before dawn...
Rachel approached the golden Dragon King. She admired him, his
sheer power, grace, and intelligence, but she had a specific
question in mind.
"Hey, Dragon King!" she called. He turned his huge, beautiful head
to look at her with pure red eyes. "Is it alright if I morph that black
dragon? I'd ask him myself, but he doesn't appear to be here at the
moment."
The Dragon King grinned. His smile was full of polished, long,
sword-like teeth. "Of course," he answered easily.
Rachel grinned in return, then walked back to where Lecrian was
talking to her friends.
* * * * *
At dawn...
The sun just barely peeked over the horizon. The air was crisp and
chill, and a thin mist spread over the black lands of Levakh.
All of the earthbound monstrous army of Zilos silently stood at
attention, with the human half standing behind them with weapons
ready. They filled the the black plainssurrounding the castle.
Inside, more soldiers and a few of the smaller monstersguarded the
home of the summoner, who stood atop the highest tower,
hisfaithful, black pegasus standing nearby. The air above the castle
was filledwith all of the flying creatures at his command.
Advancing on Zilos and his army was King Themis, the Dragon
King, and their armies. Themis's human but strong, skilled and
forever loyal army spread acrossthe land and chanted their battle
song. Themis himself marched at their head, along with his sons
and a werewolf namedJake. Above them, the Dragon King and his
army of multicolored, multi-powered
dragons flew, and Rachel flew with them.
Jake loped alongside Herlim, alert. He didn't like the odds.
Maybe it's for the best, Jake mused.
"And what's for the best?" Herlim asked strainfully. He was
focussing on all of the blades of the army, making the edges of
them glow red-hot. Crimber washelping him, aiming Herlim's
energy with unerring accuracy.
How it's just me and Rachel out here and Marco and Cassie going
in. He sighedsadly, grateful that neither Cassie nor Marco would
be under direct attack, andthat Rachel was with him.
With a blood-curdling cry, the battle began.
Surging with the tide of humanity behind him, Jake sprinted
forward, teeth bared and claws gleaming. He leaped upon a cyclops
and scampered up its body withlightning speed until he reached the
head. With his clawed hand, he slashed at
the single eye, blinding it just as it swiped at him. It screamed in
pain and rage, but it was out of any real fight.
The army easily sidestepped its blundering feet and surged past it,
attacking more immediately dangerous monsters. Lecrian and his
brothers stayed with theirfather, who focused on a spell. Muttering
under his breath, Themis unleashed hisspell, and suddenly a grey
cloud formed overhead. In the sky above, dragons blewfire, ice,
lightening, light, sickness, and many other forms of the
breathattack upon the other flying creatures, while other dragons
dived at the giants.Rachel herself took down two fire giants,
ignoring their fire weapons andbeating them to the ground.
Unnoticed in the chaos, a beam of light flashed from the forest
bordering the black plains. The light ray shot over through the
battle and through a window of the castle, stopping at the first
door. The light came to an abrupt stop.
The light was Cassie, in a humanoid form with four arms, but also
glowed so brightly it hurt to look at her. In her hands, she helhd
tightly onto a man.
The man became intangible like a ghost. He grinned at Cassie with
shark-like teeth, then slipped through the door as if it wasn't even
there.
Cassie opened the door and followed Marco, trying to keep her
shining down. The door led to a stone hallway, with two stairways
on either side, both leadingdown.
Lecrian said 'dungeon,' right? Marco asked as he seeped through
the floor.
Yes, but...hey, wait for me, Marco, Cassie said, flashing over to
the one ofthe stairs.
Marco easily slipped through the stone floors, falling but with a
great deal of control.
He was flying! And without having to use wings, either, so it was
all effortless.
He looked to the side, where there was a flash of light. Cassie was
still trying to find a way to the dungeon, only she couldn't just fall
through the floors.Shewas searching every door, looking for ways
down, and so far she was keeping up with him.
Marco descended many floors, always with Cassie flashing by not
far behind.
He felt nervous the farther he descended, so he felt he need to relief
his stress.
Hey, Cassie. Having trouble?
No, she replied. I'm keeping up.
He passed through one more floor to find himself surrounded by
darkness. What is that glowing thing you morphed into? It looks
like a glow worm, only withlegs and too many arms.
It's called star-child she answered as she opened one last door
and flew down the stairs. Her glowing body lit the stairway leading
to the dungeon very well,andMarco had to cover his eyes from the
glare as she blew past him.
Cassie reached the bottom first. There was one last door. She tried
to open it, but it was locked.
Allow me, Marco offered smugly, sticking a ghostly hand in the
lock. He materialized for an instant, shattering the lock.
OW! he cried, pulling back his injured hand.
Cassie stared at him. Why did you do that?
I felt like being stupid, Marco said sarcastically. Besides, we
needed to get that door open somehow. And he slipped through
the door.
Cassie opened it and followed.
Oh, my, she gasped, looking around at the dungeon. On every
side, there werethick wooden doors with steel bar rods for
windows. There was not a source oflight anywhere. No candles, no
sunlight, no torches, nothing butCassie herself.
Marco grinned. You light up my life, he sang.
Marco? a weak voice said. Cassie?
Ax! Cassie cried. Where are you?
Here. There came a sound of scratching from on of the cells.
Cassie and Marco hurried over to the sound. Marco slipped
through the door while Cassie hoveredoutside looking in.
Ax was held in a globe, but he didn't look all that good. He looked
tired, worn out. Defeated.
Cassie! Marco! Ax exclaimed, visibly brightening, smiling with
his eyes. Then his face darkened. Forgive me.
Whatever for, Ax-man? Marco said, sliding through the globe to
stand with him.
For...for Tobias. For what I did to him.
Oh, come off it, Ax-man. We know what happened.
Zilos-The-Geek possessed you and made you attack him.
He's alright, Ax, Cassie put in compasionately. Tobias is not
dead.
He isn't?! Ax stated happily. That is very good news indeed.
But I need totell you something. David is here.
Yeah, Ax, we know, Marco said as he turned his attention to the
force field.
You do? Well, Zilos has a trap. I do not know what he has
planned, but he seemed very confident that his trap would succeed.
You must get word to PrinceJake.
We will, Ax, but only after we get you out of here. Jake wouldn't
be too happywith us if we left you to the dogs.
Dogs? But there are no dogs here.
Marco continued to study the globe. He thought he spotted
something.
Hey, Cassie, could you brighten things up a little bit in here?
Sure, but you may want to look away, Ax and Marco. And she
slowly began to brighten. Ax turned all four eyes away as she
became too bright to look atdirectly.
Ah, ha! Marco exclaimed. A crack.
What? Ax asked.
There's a flaw in this globe. And it looks like it's Andalite-made.
Ax cheered up considerably. Then there is a way out! Be careful,
Marco. And with that Aximili started to strike at the crack with
his tail repeatedly. Marcoslipped back outside the globe, turned
solid, and started hitting the other side
of the crack.
With the sound of broken glass, the force field shattered. Marco
became transparent again, and Ax stepped out of his prison.
* * * * *
Beneath the dungeon, something slept. It was large and black, with
black fur and a sharp ax. It had two hooves and two hands, and a
bull-like face. Standing at twenty feet, the Gallu towered over it's
relative, the minotaur.
It heard the sound of shattered glass. It openned its red eyes and
pushed itself up.
Loosening its muscles and testing its huge ax, the Gallu walked up
to the hidden staircase that led to the dungeon.
* * * * *
Queen Marah held the onto the fragile boy with one hand and held
her weakening servant's hand on the other. She was careful to not
take too much strength. Shedidn't need much, after all.
When she was done, she released her servant and said, "Thank you.
Bring in Phalie." The servant nodded, bowed, and left to get Phalie.
Marah turned back to her daughter's rescuer as the door shut. Every
now and then, Tobias would stir and mutter something, and he
actually woke up once, buthe was still too weak to have a
conversation with.
"At least he doesn't need extra strength as much as he used to,"
Marah said, trying to look on the bright side of the miserable
situation of being in thesame room with a comatose person for over
48 hours with no rest.
Queen Marah thought about the events of the last few days. So
many things had happened so fast, she almost found it hard to
believe. Her daughter'sdisappearance, the Animorphs' appearance,
the frantic search for Ariana, the many attacks on the castle,
Ariana's being found andbrought home, the ball, and the tragic
events that happened there that causedher husband to call for war
so that Aximili may be saved.
Then she realized that her servant had not arrived.
"Phalie!" Marah called. She waited a few moments, but there was
no answer.
"PHALIE!" she cried. Still no answer. She didn't like this. Not a
bit.
She checked up on Tobias once more, just to be sure that he could
survive without her help for a few minutes. Then she walked over
to the door and tried \to open it.
The door wouldn't budge. It was locked.
She started banging on the door. "Open!" she commanded it. The
doorknob turned, the door shuttered, then it fell silent.
"This is not good," Marah muttered to herself, backing away.
She strained her ears to hear. She could hear some bustle from the
court outside. She can hear the wind rustling the leaves from the
nearby forest. Shecannot hear anything else.
Unnerved, the Queen of Hivena sat next to Tobias. To her surprise,
the boy's eyes were open.
"Tobias," she said gently. "I'm glad you're awake. How do you
feel?"
Tobias thought, looking around the room weakly. "Not so good,"
he answered weakly. "Where are the others?"
Tobias shivered, even though the room wasn't cold. Marah pulled
the blanket over him tighter.
"Your friends are alright," she said to the boy. "They are going to
rescue Aximilifrom Zilos."
"Zilos possessed him," Tobias weakly blurted as best as he could.
Marah nodded. "I know. Lecrian found out."
"Eran shot me. He had a gun." Tobias said, still as weak as before.
His face still showed no emotion.
Marah shook her head sadly. "No, it wasn't. It was someone who
knew you. His name was David."
Tobias didn't say anything. Even though he didn't show a shread of
emotion on his face, Marah knew that the news had shocked him,
judging from the silence.
"But...how?"
"Tobias," she deflected the question. "You need your rest. Now, go
to sleep. No more questions. You need to save your strength."
Obediently, Tobias closed his eyes and relaxed. Marah felt better.
She had beaten death at his own game!
{Mother!} Ariana cried silently in her mind. That shook her out of
her smug thoughts.
{Mother!} Ariana called again. {The whole hallway is clogged up!
We have spydrs!!! And they have completely filled the hallway
outside your room withtheir webs. Wecan't reach you!}
Marah froze. "Oh, no," she muttered. Spydr's are especially
attracted to helpless victims.
Tobias. They were after Tobias.
Marah groped down under the bed until dhe found the old rusty
sword there. The pulled it out and looked around.
No spydrs. None that she can see, at least.
She felt and saw a shadow cloak the room. She turned towards the
window. A two foot tall spydr was crawling through, followed by
two others.
{Mother!!!} Ariana screamed as the three spydrs split up.
{What?!?} Marah thought back irritably, standing as close to
Tobias as possible and trying to keep each spydr in sight.
{One of those spydrs is the one who impersonated Eran. One of
them is David.}
Marah looked hard at the approaching spydrs. Each one had its
eyes focused on Tobias.
"I guess I shall find out which is which the hard way," she
muttered. She swung her sword.
Her rusty sword sung as it flew through the air at the nearest spydr.
It leaped back totally avoiding the blow, then leaped on to her
before she could recover.
"AHHH!" she yelled, hitting it away with her fist. She used extra
strength from her servants and put it into her arm. The spydr
shattered, twitching as it fell to the floor, dead.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw another spydr leap at Tobias.
She quickly swung her sword around, slicing the spydr in half as it
landed on the boy.
She pivoted back around, fiercely facing the last spydr. The spydr
hesitsted. A very un-spydrlike action.
"You are not going to get him, David," she spat. She could swear
the spydr blinked.
Then the spydr named David got angry. Get out of my way. He's
the one I'm after. Not you. But you'll die if you don't stay out of my
business.
Marah laughed bitterly. "Not my business? He saved my daughter's
life. And then you trapped me in here. Of course this is my
business. And I am not the one who isgoing to die if he does not
skitter out of here."
David laughed. It's a pity. You know, I don't want to do this, but I
have to. They did this to me. They destoyed my family and my life,
then destroyed itagain. So now I'm going to destroy them. One ...
by ... ONE! and David spat ather.
A long, thin line of webbing extending from David's mouth
snagged Marah's sword and jerked it out of her hands. With
lightening speed, David snapped offthe webbing and leaped at
Marah. She screamed and tried to swipe him off butmissed as he
scrambled out of the way of her flailing arms.
David opened his mouth again and spat in her face, blinding her
with his nauseous webbing. Then he leaped off her.
Marah knew why he left her. Using her extra strength, she tore off
the webbing and ran towards Tobias' bed.
Tobias was just beginning to stir. He felt a weight land on his bed.
He opened hiseyes to see a black, furry, ugly face with eight eyes
staring down at him.
You're mine, Bird-boy, David gloated over the sick hero. He had
leaped onto his bed and was now only inches from his face. He
opened his jaws to bit...
Marah screamed, grabbed one of his legs, and tore him off Tobias's
bed just before his poisonous jaws closed. In the same motion, she
threw him against thefar wall, stunning him.
She looked at her fallen sword, but it was covered in webbing,
useless. Turning back to David, she snarled and walked towards
him, fists clentched.
You're just asking to die, aren't you? David asked with a smirk,
shaking off the dizzines.
"I am not the one who will die," Marah repeated. She was only five
feet away from him.
Oh. You're not? And David attacked her. Marah, thinking that
he wouldn't haverecovered so quickly, was caught off-gaurd.
"Ah!" Marah screamed as David bit her shoulder. She swiped him
off while his teeth were still in her. The teeth came out, but tore her
flesh.
She could feel the poison course through her, igniting her. Setting
every nerve on fire. Her brain was bursting in burning pain.
She collapsed on one knee, clutching at her injured shoulder. She
didn't see David rush at her again.
David! a new voice called challengingly. A weak voice, but
very, very familiar. You rat! It's me you want.
David stopped just as he was about to bite the Queen again and
turned to Tobias. Tobias' head was turned to him, his blue eyes
staring straight at him. But hewas too weak to even hold his own
head up.
How many times do I have to kill you, Bird-boy? David asked
as he menacingly crept towards Tobias. Come on. I want a
number. But Tobias' strength wasspent. He couldn't even answer
as he fell back into unconsciousness.
Laughing quietly, David crawled up on Tobias's bed, ignoring
Marah, who was using the tapestries to pull herself up. He opened
his jaws once more to bite at Tobias.
He was too sure of himself to care about the movement to his side.
Suddenly, a slender, delicate hand clamped itself down on him.
The hand lifted him up and held him up high. Helpless.
Wha? he exclaimed. He couldn't struggle. No leverage. He
couldn't turn his head to see, either, but he knew who it was.
Impossible! David yelled. Marah groaned from the noise as it
echoed in her burning brain. You can't be walking! You can't!
Marah didn't listen to him. She wasn't thinking straight, either. All
she knew was that she had to get rid of this spydr.
She staggered to the open window, swaying from weakness and
pain. Ignoring David's screams, she threw him out the window, as
far as she possibly could.Then, with trembling hands, she reached
dangerously outside the window, grabbed
ahold of the shutters, and closed them.
Wordlessly, forcing one foot in front of the other, Marah made her
way back to the sleeping Tobias. She collapsed on the ground
beside him, not seeing theremains of the dead spydrs. She grabbed
Tobias' hand. If his heart ever stoppedbeating, she would give him
strength. Just enough strength.
Still touching the boy's hand, Marah slipped into painless
unconsciousness.
{Oh, Mother,} Ariana moaned. {Oh, Mother.}
* * * * *
Ah ha! Rachel cried as she blew her fire at another harpy. The
half vulture,half hag creature burst into flames and crashed to the
ground, landing on agroup of Zilos' knights.
Rachel was having a blast. Not so much because of the battle as
much as the sheer dragon experiance. Her majestic wings filled the
sky, lifting her tons of corded muscle as easily as a feather. Her
hands were strong, agile, and deadly.And she could see just about
anything. The invisible glowed. Her vision wassharp, though
nothing compared to her eagle morph. And her periferal vision
wasincredible, allowing her to see almost everywhere. Her hearing
tuned out thehowling sound of miving wing and focused on
animated movement. The dragoninstincts were calm, more fearless
than the grizzly, and more cunning than thewolf.
A huge bird made of fire flew straight towards her. Gracefully,
Rachel snapped at it with her trapjaw mouth, biting into its chest.
Her teeth passed throughthe fire, to the point where her eyes were
just out of the flaming body. But her teeth did clamp onto
something deep inside the fire.
A blast of supercool air coming from a nearby ice dragon hit the
firebird and her. The forming ice didn't hurt Rachel, but as she
watched, the flames of thefirebird blew out.
The firebird was nothing more than a blackened skeleton. A
burned, animated skeleton half the size of the image the fire
created. But even as Rachel watchedfrom the corner of her eyes,
patches of the black bones turned white, growinghot.
Rachel quickly snapped her jaws closed, crushing the skeleton in
two. She watched it fall to the ground. The white patches dimmed,
and the bird stoppedmoving.
Something slammed into Rachel.
Hey! she yelled as she turned her serpentine neck to see what hit
her while she was distracted. It was another firebird, about the
same size as the firstone. With the speed of a rattlesnake, Rachel
snapped it in two, then watched it fall burning to the ground. It hit
just as hard as the first bird, and stoppedmoving like the first bird,
but something was wrong. The fire comtinued to burn.
But then, off to one side of her, she saw a baalrog fly straight
towards the pale blue ice dragon while he was busy fighting two
others. Rachel turned awayfrom her doubts and flew towards her
comrade's assistance.
As the baalrog drew back his whip to attack the distracted dragon
from behind, Rachel reached him. She spun in midair, hitting the
demon full in the chest withher wing. She continued the rotation,
sending the demon cartwheeling backwards,
loosing control.
Rachel turned back to the ice dragon. He had chased off the other
two baalrogs. He grinned his gratitude, then plunged back into the
battle.
Rachel looked back down at the second firebird. It was still
burning.
Then it began to move. The broken pieces of it creeped together.
The spine began to straighten, and the head began to lift. The fire
filled out, once againbuilding the illusion of fiery flesh. The
firebird stood, looked up at Rachel,and flew.
Duh! Rachel exclaimed. The *phoenix* always rose. But
then she looked backat the first phoenix. It still laid there, cold and
dead.
But why? she thought. She wasn't the thinking kind, but she still
wanted to know what the difference was between the first phoenix
and the second.
The living phoenix reached Rachel then, distracting her. She easily
pulled her head out of its flight path, but as it zoomed past her, she
snapped at its hindlegs, catching it. The phoenix jerked to a stop
and gawked back at her. Itflapped its wings like mad, but Rachel
held on without anything remotelyresembling trouble.
She saw another ice dragon fly nearby.
Hey! Hey, you, she called. Yeah. You. Could you please put
this bird's fire out? The dragon breathed in, then blew out,
sending the freezing blast straightat the struggling bird. Its fire
blew out, and Rachel once again tore it in two. This time, it didn't
rise.
"Congratulations, Rachel," a familiar voice said behind her head.
"Ruthless and efficient, specializing in destruction. My favorite
Animorph."
Rachel spun her head around in shock and hate. She knew that
voice.
Drode!?!
Drode sat happily on her back, snugly seated between her wings.
He had a birdlike body, with two legs and a stubby tail, but with
many-jointed, flimsy hands. His head was vaguely human in shape,
with anarrow lower jaw and big, mocking, and intelligent eyes. He
was wrinkled like a prune, and was so dark he was almost black.
Green trimmed his eyes and mouth. Atfirst glance, Drode wasn't
much, but he grinned at Rachel without a shread offear as she
glared angerly at
him.
"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel," he said. "My favorite. Do you honestly
think that it'll be this easy? Just give him time, and by the time you
get back he'll be fit as afiddle?" Drode laughed. He leaned forward,
as if he had a secret. "You're goingto loose him, Rachel. You're
going to loose him soon."
Without thinking, Rachel snapped at him.
Ow! She recoiled sharply. An invisible electric field
surrounding Drode quieted slowly.
Drode clapped his limp hands. "Bravo, Rachel," he said. "I have
always approved of your hostile, aggressive side. Unfortunately,
that alone will not save your bird. Or maybe it will." He paused.
"You know what you can do something to savehim Rachel.
Something thatwill make Crayak happy. Happy enough that he will
save Tobias personally."
Rachel knew exactly what he was talking about. You can stuff
your offer, shesnapped. Marah is--
"*Was* taking care of Tobias." His laughing eyes twinkled. "She
isn't anymore."
Rachel swore. You did this! she yelled accusingly, hatred safely
blinding her.Your Crayak is responsible for this! He's the one
who put us here. He's the onewho gave David his power back and
sent him after us. No way how I am ever going
to do anything for Crayak. Ever! And with that, she barrelrolled,
sending Drode in a freefall. Before he fell out of reach, Rachel
swiped a clawed hand at him, ignoring the electrified force field.
Drode vanished just as she hit his force field.
Rachel stared at the spot where Drode disappeared. She felt eyes
on her.
She looked down on the battlefield and saw Jake. Jake was staring
straight at her.
Rachel turned away from him, hoping that not seeing him would
help her keep Drode's foul offer out of her mind.
Jake watched her for a second longer. Then he, too, turned back to
the battle.
* * * * *
Cassie, Marco and Ax hurried up the winding stone stairs. The
halls were surprisingly wide and tall, and the sound of their
running feet reverberated offthe stone walls over and again. Ax
was himself, since he was fast enough as is. Both Cassie and
Marco stayed in their morphs.
As Cassie flew through the hall, Ax ran up the stairs and Marco
floated through the ceilings, a thump! thump! thumping sound
followed. When they first heard it beneath theirfeet in the dungeon,
they each decided it was best to just get out of there. Not even Ax
opted to stay, since he had to warn Prince Jake. The heavy
footstepspursued them, but they were outrunning it.
We have Andre the Giant after us, Marco piped as he stuck his
head down through the floors to watch Cassie and Axblow past.
Maybe I can get hisautograph.Congratulate him on the excellant
job on "Princess Bride."
Autograph? Ax asked.
I liked that movie, too, Cassie responded to Marco. But I don't
want anyone'sautograph right now. Especially not from whatever is
chasing us.
Marco sighed wistfully. You'll never be a Rachel, he said sadly,
then he pulled his head back through the ceiling.
Cassie flew ahead of Ax. She flashed past a few chained doors. She
glimpsed what was behind one.
She pulled to a sudden stop and flashed back to the door. Like
most doors in Zilos' underground, there was a small window
carved through the door so shecould see inside. Her heart broke at
what she saw.
A unicorn. It was small and beautiful, with delicate hooves,
sea-foam white fur, a snow white, shimmering mane, sea blue eyes,
and with a small glow all around.It was easily the most beautiful
thing Cassie had ever seen. It was tied to the wall by a black chain
that was surprisingly long, and something round and a footin
diameter wasstrapped to its back, but those were not the first things
Cassie noticed.
In place of a horn was a bloody gash. The unicorn whinnied in
pain.
No, Cassie muttered.
She tried to open the door. It was unlocked, but it was barred.
She started to demorph just as Ax caught up with her.
Now would not be a fortunate time to stop, Cassie, he said
simply.
I'm going to free her, Cassie insisted, her light dimming. She
was well on her way to becoming human. "Help me," she asked Ax
as she made the transition.
I must warn Prince Jake.
"Of what?" Cassie interrupted, fully human. The sounds of
footfalls slowly grew louder.
Cassie looked around at the wide halls and decided she had enough
room to morph to elemental. She was just beginning to change
when Marco floated back down from the floor above.
I didn't hear any pitter-patter of Ax-man's dainty toes, so--whoa
Cassie! This is so *not* the time for a lunch break.
Cassie didn't answer. Marco floated down to the floor and looked
in through the door window.
Marco narrowed his eyes at Cassie, who had stopped morphing.
Nuh uh, Cassie, he said. We are so NOT here to save a white
horse.
"She's dying," Cassie argued.
So are a lot of men outside, Marco shot back. Get it together,
Earth Mother. We got Ax. Now let's just get out of here before
Thunder Thighs catches up with us. We. Are. Not. Rescuing.
Animals.
"Why would Zilos have an animal in the first place?" Cassie
reasoned. "He's using her power, Marco."
Who cares? Oh, I forget. Tree-hugging Cassie does.
Listening to his two friends argue, Ax looked at the unicorn. It was
truely a magnificent creature, despite its...
Ax saw the sphere chained to its back. All four of Ax's eyes turned
to stare at it.
"It's a *unicorn.* Maybe it can help Tobias. Heal him."
I have no clue of what you're talkihng about. How can it help
Tobias if it can't help itself? I certainly don't see it healing that
scab.
Marco? Cassie? Ax interrupted, not looking away from the
sphere. I think we should get in there.
Marco slapped his ghostly forehead and moaned. Never thought
I'd see the day that Cassie would convert you. The sound of heavy
footsteps was much louder. They sounded like approaching
thunder.
Convert me to what? You haven't noticed the proton-shift
explosive device attached to the creature's back?
Cassie and Marco stared at Ax.
What? A what?!? A *nuke?!?*
"You're kidding," Cassie gasped.
Marco looked at the stunned expression on Cassie's face, then
looked at Ax, who looked back with one stalk eye, then at the
unicorn with the bomb strapped to its back.
Oh, man. I hate this. He swore, then stuck his hand into the solid
oak door and turned solid. Completely and totally solid.
The door exploded. The sheer sound of it tore the air. Cassie was
knocked off her feet from the force, and Ax staggered back. Marco
was thrown across the hall. Wood shrapnel filled the air, nearly
blinding Ax and Cassie. When they opened thier eyes again, the
door was totally gone.
As Ax recovered and hurried inside, Cassie heard an agonized
groan behind her. Marco, semi-transparent again, was
painfully laying on the floor with his back towards her. His legs
were drawn up, and he seemed to be holding something close to his
chest. Numbly, her nerves still razzelled and ears still ringing from
the explosion, she crawled over to him. She looked over his
shoulder and saw what he was holding on to so painfully.
Marco was cradeling his arm, his bloodless, tear-streaked face tight
from trying not to scream. Tears squeezed out from beneath his
tightly shut eyes, and his mouth was sealed shut, holding back his
cries. Where his hand should have been,
there was nothing but a shattered stump. Cracks were drawn up his
arm, ending at just below the elbow. Even as a ghost, a clear fluid
poured out from the stump and the cracks like blood.
Cassie heart contrasted, crying out in sheer sympathy. "Marco!"
she shouted to him. "Demorph! Now!" To her relief, Marco's
ghostly skin darkened.
Trembling at what happened to Marco, but hopeful that he would
pull out of the morph, Cassie looked back down the hall, where the
giant's footsteps grew even louder, filling her ears.
She knew what she had to do. She was starting to morph elemental
when Ax's thought-speak yelled in her head.
Cassie, I can't get to the explosive device! he reported loudly.
Cassie winced from the shout, then turned to see what was the
matter.
The unicorn was the problem. Ax was trying to reach it so he could
get to the bomb, but the unicorn was running away from him. The
unicorn was just as fast as Ax was, and just as agile, and with the
long leash it was given, Ax was running all over the room trying to
catch it without using his tail. Every time he caught it, it tore out of
his grasp again and continued zigzagging through the cold stone
room.
Go ahead, Marco said weakly, partially demorphed. I'll take
care of whatsis down there.
Cassie turned back to him just in time to see white bones shoot out
from the shattered stump. She shuttered.
Marco agreed. Yuck. Yuck yuck yu-- Just then he lost the power
of thought-speak as he made the transition.
Cassie ran to the room where Ax was chasing the elusive,
frightened unicorn. Without a second thought, she walked towards
the jumpy unicorn, trying to ignore the thunderous booms of
something large running up the stairs.
"Ax, wait," Cassie said to him as she approached. Ax, quivering
with frustration, stopped in his tracks, deciding to let Cassie have a
try at the stupid creature with the bomb on its back. The
shimmering unicorn, seeing that Ax had stopped trying to touch it,
also slowed to a stop, still keeping an eye on him.
The floor beneath them gradually began to shake. The giant was
very close. Cassie looked back at Marco, and was relieved to find
huge, black bat wings sproating from his shoulderblades. He was
morphing as fast as he could, knowing even more than Cassie
knew that he had to delay the monster until Ax could defuse the
bomb, and that every second may be vital.
Cassie smiled at Marco's lightning quick thinking, then turned back
to the unicorn. She still had to comfort the animal before Ax could
get to the bomb.
She slowly walked up to the beautiful unicorn, who kept watching
Ax suspiciously. It did not even seem aware of Cassie's presense
until Cassie was close enough to touch it.
As Cassie reached out with one comforting hand to sooth the
creature, the unicorn turned its head and looked directly at Cassie.
Cassie looked back, and immediately froze.
The castle still shook with every step of the yet unseen giant. Ax
still waited impatiently on the other side of the room, eagar to get
to the bomb. Marco still morphed, and was now shooting from the
floor to full demon size, but Cassie couldn't pay attention to her
surroundings, much less move. Tears sprang to her eyes as she
looked into the unicorn's eternal eye, and saw innocence, wisdom,
joy, peace, and purity in them.
Cassie slowly stroked the creature as the unicorn calmed down,
who was not afraid of her.
Ax, seeing this as his oportunity, calmly walked up to them. The
unicorn, seeing him, hurried to the other side of Cassie.
Acquire it, Cassie, Ax instructed when he saw the stubborn
unicorn shy away from him. I have to get the explosive device.
Cassie nodded, patted the shimmering unicorn, and began to
acquire it. Almost to Cassie's disappointment, the unicorn acted
just like most other animals. It became calm and lax.
Ax jumped forward eagarly and started to study the bomb. The
unicorn didn't even flintch.
Boom! The castle shook so badly Cassie almost broke her
concentration. She looked out to the hall and saw a Baalrog
fighting a huge black monitaur-like thing welding an ax. A Gallu.
Nervously, Cassie turned back to Ax and tried to focus on his
work. She saw the globe flip open and Ax's many-fingered hands
reaching inside. She watched anxiously, but continued to acquire
the unicorn so it would not panic.
A few long seconds later, Ax said in calm relief, The explosive
devise is deactivated. He cut the cords that bound the bomb to the
unicorn and set it down. Then, almost absentmindedly, Ax severed
the cords binding the unicorn to the wall.
The unicorn, somehow sensing its freedom, broke out of the trance
Cassie put it in, pushed past her, and bolted out of the hole that was
once a door. Cassie shot Ax a look of sheer gratitude.
Oh, sure, Marco complained loudly. He sounded strained and
jumpy, though he obviously tried to cover it. Forget all about poor
ol' Marco.
We are coming, Marco, Ax called. He limbered up his tail for a
second, then blew out of the doorway.
* * * * *
The battle outside the castle of Levakh was not going well. Men
were dying, and even though the dragons won their battle in the air
and had started to aid their allies on the ground, Themis and his
army were being pushed back by the giants and various monsters.
Lecrian and Jake were soon separated from King Themis, and then
Lecrian somehow lost sight of Jake.
Lecrian ducked a beam of light aimed for his back. He spun around
and charged viciously at the basilisk that tried to ambush him. He
quickly slid his enchanted sword in its chest, and it died.
Lecrian quickly pulled his sword out of the heavy, limp body and
looked around fearfully, but no enemies were aiming for him at the
moment.
'Oh man,' he thought, as he pushed the images that surrounded his
vision back. His foresight saved him from the basilisk, warning
him of its actions, but that was all he was grateful for. It took away
his periferal vision, and what the images showed him were
disturbing.
A spydr was attacking his mother. His father was becoming
desprite enough to use his power. Marco's hand was destroyed.
Rachel was avoiding someone. His brothers were hard-pressed,
fighting back to back against a pack of bug bears. The images
showed him all of this, and none of it was helping him.
Pushing back the images that were trying to flood his vision,
Lecrian did not see the archer aim at him. He did not see the
poison-tipped arrow fly towards his back.
He felt the arrow hit him. The blackness consumed him before he
hit the ground.
in his hands. He was shaking. Shaking badly.
Cassie came and sat next to him in a similar chair. Without a word,
she hugged him and held him while his shaking slowly lessened.
"Cassie did not hate," a detached, little-girl's voice said simply.
The peaceful, healing scene melted away, replaced by a huge,
metallic vehicle far underwater. Six creatures were swimming
away from it. Dolphins.
The vehicle exploded. Blinding light consumed everything,
including the dolphins. Water erupted and rippled away at
lightning speed. Even the landbeyond the water was affected by the
blast, trembling as if it was hit by anearthquake.
Ax fixed it so it'll be a dud, Tobias's disembodied voice
explained. Just asthe deadly waves hit the sea shelf and began to
grow, Lecrian's dream eyes grewdim, as if he was going blind, until
darkness consumed him, too.
Someone or something is using me, and I don't like it very
much. Tobias saidangerly in the total darkness.
The darkness remained absolute, but Lecrian could no longer hear
the trembling earth.Instead, he heard the sound of dripping water,
so faint that any other noicewould make it impossible to hear.
Then he couldn't hear it anymore. Someone was walking, and that
someone carried a light of some sort, because Lecrian could see a
light coming from the samedirection as the sound.
As the light drew closer, Lecrian could see that he was inside the
stone walls of a dungeon. The room was empty, and there were cell
doors all around. One of thedoors had a light behind it, and it was
growing brighter.
Without thinking, Lecrian walked to and looked into one of the
cells.
Aximili stood there. He looked haggard and tired, despairing. He
was surrounded by a force field, preventing him from using
aninsect morph to escape. Aximili heard the man coming, and
suddenly he wasn'thaggard anymore. In sheer, angry defiance and
frustration, Aximili's tailflashed, slicing atthe globe.
Lecrian heard the door open, but he couldn't turn his dream head to
see who it was. Instead, he began to float like a ghost into Aximili's
cell. No longerrestrained by the need for light, Lecrian saw the
crack.
There was a crack in the globe. It was small, nearly invisible, but it
was there.
But the cell was too dark. Even with the light approaching, the cell
would be too dark for Aximili to see it, especially now that he has
given up hope ofescaping on his own.
~~~
Everyone was on the move the next day. The dragons flew, each
one carrying many of the soldiers of Hivena on their backs. The
Animorphs, too, flew, but in bird morph. They only stopped to
land, demorph, and remorph again.
As night approached, Levakh came into view. Jake, Rachel, Cassie
and Marco saw it way before anyone else did.
My word! Cassie exclaimed.
The lush, vast Forest Sea that served as a natural boundary between
Levakh and the neighboring kingdoms came to an abrupt end.
Beyond it, the flat plain wasblack, as if it was burnt, even though it
wasn't. All light was absorbed by the
blackness of the land. Even the setting sun could not color that
land. The castle itself was a huge, lightless, spiring monolith,
scraping the sky.
As they flew closer, and before the sun could set, the four of them
gave their report.
Talk about overkill, Marco exclaimed. What could he possibly
use all thoserejects for? To teach him the "monster mash?"
"What is it?" King Themis asked loudly, trying to be heard over the
fast moving air. He knew that the Animorphs had excelent hearing
in their bird forms, but he didn't want to test just how good their
hearing was, especiaslly when he had ahard time hearing himself.
He rode the golden Dragon King at the head of the army with the
Animorphs, but neither of them could make out outline of the
castle, much less anything else.
He has a whole army! Rachel reported. Thunder lizards,
phoenixes, pegasuses,giants --
They might be giants, Marco interjected.
--vampires... Cassie, what are those called?
Perytons, gallu, manticores, bug bears...the list goes on. Cassie
finished just as the sun crossed the line between mostly over the
horizon to mostly underthe horizon.
Anyway, Jake said, there's a lot there.
"How many?" the Dragon King said, clearly heard over the wind.
I don't know. Anyone good at estimating?
Thousands of monsters, Rachel answered without hesitation,
and a few more thousand regular guys.
Marco looked at her in wonder. At least it looked like it should
have been wonder, being an osprey's face. What? Now Shopping
Queen Xena can count at a glance? I'm impressed.
Themis wasn't happy.
"Rurga! How in the world did he get that much power?!" he yelled
angerly.
Huh? What do you mean? Jake asked, shocked at the outburst.
"He's a summoner!" he stated lividly, still making sure that he is
heard. "That is all he is. He doesn't have very many sources of
magic. Certainly not fromhimself or from the land. He simply
doesn't have the power to summon such anarmy, much less control
it."
I don't understand, Cassie said. What was that about getting
magic from magicfrom the land?
Themis slowly calmed down. "There are many forms of magic," he
explained. He looked at his sons flying behind him. "Some magic
in part of us. It is limitedin that no more is learned, but it never
leaves you because it comes directlyfrom within. Your self is the
source of the magic. My magic is diverse andadaptable, but I can't
just call it up from anywhere. My magic mostly comes frommy
home, though I still do have a little bit that comes from me.
Summoners,though," he said as his face hardened, "get their magic
from others."
He looked back at the dark land. "He couldn't summon an army
that large. Not unless he's either tapping into a very powerful,
godlike being, or from a sourcethat doesn't run out of magic." He
sighed, this time calming down all the wayback to normal.
Themis? We need to rest, Jake said in private thought-speech.
We've been flying all day with no breaks. The others are trying to
not complain, but I knowthat they are out on their feet. You know,
dead tired.
Themis nodded. "I was thinking of the same thing about my men,"
he said to himself.
Soon, camp was set. A good dinner was cooked by the patient
chefs, gaurds were set, shifts were decided, the dragons flew
tirelessly overhead, looking forthrie own food, and the Animorphs
and the princes and king got ready to rest.
As the camp was settling down, Rachel sat next to a fire, alone.
She was thinking hard, looking for some answers and not finding
any.
"Hi, Rachel," Cassie greeted her as she came up to her. She saw the
frustrated, almost haunted look on Rachel's face. "Would you like
some company?"
Rachel grunted. "Sure."
Cassie sat down, looking at Rachel that sideways look that Rachel
was so familiar with. Rachel sighed, deciding to just give Cassie
the answers intead ofwait for her to figure out what was bothering
her.
"Why Tobias?" she asked, not really directing the question to her
best friend. "Why did David shoot him?"
"Maybe because it was because he thought he killed him before,
and he wanted to get him this time. You know, a grudge against the
one who got away."
"But Tobias was ~human.~ Didn't David himself say that he
wouldn't kill a human? Just animals?"
Cassie hasitated. "He's not human anymore. He believes that no
human laws bind him, now. An animal can't murder. At least that
would be his excuse.
Rachel looked away and was quiet for a while. Cassie knew what
she was thinking.
"But he hates me more. Much more than Tobias. Why didn't he
shoot me, instead?"
Cassie hugged her friend. For a while, she didn't answer. When she
did, soft and strained, feeling Rachel's pain.
"What could hurt you more," she said, "than seeing Tobias die?"
For a long while, neither girl said anything. They just listened to
the fire pop and to the blowing wind.
"He'll be alright," Rachel firmly said. "I know he will be."
"Yeah. He will," Cassie confirmed. "He will recover soon. He
always has."
Not too far away, something hovered unseen in the air. It was a
larah, an invisible, ghost-like being.
The larah scowled, turned, and floated away.
Bird-boy's not going to get away from me again, David vowed,
as he silently flew back towards Hivena.
* * * * *
The sun was just thinking of waking up. Nothing moved except a
small, black creature named Jake.
Jake crawled through the black land surrounding the castle of
Levakh. He was a pure black, scrawny thing that stood two feet tall
at best, with skeletal,spindly limbs with sharp joints, clawed hands
and feet, and small, sharp,shark-like teeth. He was a goblin, one of
the nastier members of the faeriefamily.
Jake crept closer to the sleeping castle and army, invisible against
the blackness of the land. He had to crane his thin neck to see the
tops of thetowers. Basilisks, a kind of large lizard, draped
themselves over the walls.They were joined by harpies, griffins,
phoenixes, pegasuses, and several otherflying creatures that Jake
did not recognize. At the base of the castle walls, amoat of oily
water swirled restlessly, in spite of the unmoving air. Outside of
the moat, hundreds of monsters laid asleep. Hundreds of giants of
all kinds,spinxes, scorpion-tailed manticores, giant bull men,
wingless lizards of allsizes, cats of all kinds, even the rare peryton,
a winged, man-eating deer. Onlythe vampires were up and around,
but even they were heading back to their coffins as the sun's deadly
rays slowly brightened. The drawbridge was down, butonly so a
couple of cyclopes could lay on it. Looking past them, Jake could
see moremonsters, but also the human half of the army. With his
goblin eyes, he couldsee that some of the soldiers' weapons were
glowing with the aura of magic.
How in the world are we going to get Ax out of there? he
mused.
Something virtually invisible floated up behind him.
Boo! it said.
Ahhhhh! Jake yelled. He spun around and hissed at the larah
hovering behind him. It was tall, with light brown hair and totally
white eyes. It looked like a human ghost, except for the fact that it
had teeth. Very, very sharp teeth.
Larahs look almost identical to ghosts. Ghosts, though eerie, are
basically harmless. Larahs are not.
And Jake didn't like larahs. Not in the least. He really did not want
to mess with one right then, and the goblin mind wholeheartedly
agreed.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! the deadly larah laughed, its menacing
presense melting away as it held its sides in a feeble
attempt to control its laughter.
Jake recognized the voice.
Marco?!
Of course it's me, he answered, finally getting a hold on himself.
Who elsewould it be?
Jake shuttered, still trying to control his panic. You almost gave
me a heart attack! Please. Don't do that again. You know what
happened last time.
Marco remembered and winced. Sorry, man.
Jake finally calmed down. Okay, okay. What are you doing up?
Well, Marco began, it all started with the sudden silence.
What? Jake asked, confused.
You stopped snoring, Marco explained. The sudden silence
woke me up. Knowingjust how un-bright you are, I had to come
looking for you. And what are youdoing here, may I ask.
Jake looked over his shoulder at the castle. Checking things out. I
was hoping to find a way in, but I can't even get close. The soldiers
have magical weapons.I think Themis would like to know that.
No he won't. He'll hate the news. And you better get out of here,
fearless leader. Marco nodded to his left. Some cousins of the
ghost are scouting thearea.
Larahs?
Some are, but I didn't recognize the rest. So, get out of here
already, Jake. I'll cover you.
Jake nodded, looked one last time at the impenetrable fortress, and
scampered away just as the sun barely started to peek over the
horizon.
* * * * *
An hour later...
"Okay, guys," Jake began as he bent down to pick up a couple of
black twigs.
"Now all we need to do is decide who's going to go."
"Rachel will! Rachel will!" Marco cried excitedly but before she
could volunteer.
"Oh, shut up, Marco," Rachel grumbled good-naturely.
Earlier, Jake and Marco woke Rachel and Cassie up. They and the
rest of the army had a quick breakfast, then got ready for the battle.
Marco was right: Themiswasn't happy with the news about the
magical weapons, but he was gratefulnonetheless. Finally, the four
of them put their heads together and came to anagreement: Ax
needed special attention if he was to be rescued, but Themis
wouldneed help, too. Two Animorphs find a way into the castle,
the other two stay out
and fight.
"Hey, I was only trying to make life easier for you," Marco
defended himself.
"You failed miserably," Rachel grumbled again.
Jake snapped the twigs in two, making sure that one half of each
twig was smaller than the other half. He turned his back to them,
gripped them in such away that no one could tell which ones were
shortest, then turned back around.
"Shorter ones go. Long stay."
Rachel reached for a twig first. Long.
"Awwww, poor Xena," Marco said, reaching for his twig.
"Short," Rachel commented. "How accurate."
Then Cassie. Short.
"Looks like you're stuck with me, Cassie," Marco chimed, tossing
the broken twig behind him. Jake just looked tired.
Crimber, dressed in light leather armor, ran up to them. "Jake, we
are about to start. You ready?"
Jake nodded. The others nodded with him.
As they followed Crimber to his father, Marco muttered, "Whoa. I
just now realized just how insane our idea is."
* * * * *
One hour before dawn...
Rachel approached the golden Dragon King. She admired him, his
sheer power, grace, and intelligence, but she had a specific
question in mind.
"Hey, Dragon King!" she called. He turned his huge, beautiful head
to look at her with pure red eyes. "Is it alright if I morph that black
dragon? I'd ask him myself, but he doesn't appear to be here at the
moment."
The Dragon King grinned. His smile was full of polished, long,
sword-like teeth. "Of course," he answered easily.
Rachel grinned in return, then walked back to where Lecrian was
talking to her friends.
* * * * *
At dawn...
The sun just barely peeked over the horizon. The air was crisp and
chill, and a thin mist spread over the black lands of Levakh.
All of the earthbound monstrous army of Zilos silently stood at
attention, with the human half standing behind them with weapons
ready. They filled the the black plainssurrounding the castle.
Inside, more soldiers and a few of the smaller monstersguarded the
home of the summoner, who stood atop the highest tower,
hisfaithful, black pegasus standing nearby. The air above the castle
was filledwith all of the flying creatures at his command.
Advancing on Zilos and his army was King Themis, the Dragon
King, and their armies. Themis's human but strong, skilled and
forever loyal army spread acrossthe land and chanted their battle
song. Themis himself marched at their head, along with his sons
and a werewolf namedJake. Above them, the Dragon King and his
army of multicolored, multi-powered
dragons flew, and Rachel flew with them.
Jake loped alongside Herlim, alert. He didn't like the odds.
Maybe it's for the best, Jake mused.
"And what's for the best?" Herlim asked strainfully. He was
focussing on all of the blades of the army, making the edges of
them glow red-hot. Crimber washelping him, aiming Herlim's
energy with unerring accuracy.
How it's just me and Rachel out here and Marco and Cassie going
in. He sighedsadly, grateful that neither Cassie nor Marco would
be under direct attack, andthat Rachel was with him.
With a blood-curdling cry, the battle began.
Surging with the tide of humanity behind him, Jake sprinted
forward, teeth bared and claws gleaming. He leaped upon a cyclops
and scampered up its body withlightning speed until he reached the
head. With his clawed hand, he slashed at
the single eye, blinding it just as it swiped at him. It screamed in
pain and rage, but it was out of any real fight.
The army easily sidestepped its blundering feet and surged past it,
attacking more immediately dangerous monsters. Lecrian and his
brothers stayed with theirfather, who focused on a spell. Muttering
under his breath, Themis unleashed hisspell, and suddenly a grey
cloud formed overhead. In the sky above, dragons blewfire, ice,
lightening, light, sickness, and many other forms of the
breathattack upon the other flying creatures, while other dragons
dived at the giants.Rachel herself took down two fire giants,
ignoring their fire weapons andbeating them to the ground.
Unnoticed in the chaos, a beam of light flashed from the forest
bordering the black plains. The light ray shot over through the
battle and through a window of the castle, stopping at the first
door. The light came to an abrupt stop.
The light was Cassie, in a humanoid form with four arms, but also
glowed so brightly it hurt to look at her. In her hands, she helhd
tightly onto a man.
The man became intangible like a ghost. He grinned at Cassie with
shark-like teeth, then slipped through the door as if it wasn't even
there.
Cassie opened the door and followed Marco, trying to keep her
shining down. The door led to a stone hallway, with two stairways
on either side, both leadingdown.
Lecrian said 'dungeon,' right? Marco asked as he seeped through
the floor.
Yes, but...hey, wait for me, Marco, Cassie said, flashing over to
the one ofthe stairs.
Marco easily slipped through the stone floors, falling but with a
great deal of control.
He was flying! And without having to use wings, either, so it was
all effortless.
He looked to the side, where there was a flash of light. Cassie was
still trying to find a way to the dungeon, only she couldn't just fall
through the floors.Shewas searching every door, looking for ways
down, and so far she was keeping up with him.
Marco descended many floors, always with Cassie flashing by not
far behind.
He felt nervous the farther he descended, so he felt he need to relief
his stress.
Hey, Cassie. Having trouble?
No, she replied. I'm keeping up.
He passed through one more floor to find himself surrounded by
darkness. What is that glowing thing you morphed into? It looks
like a glow worm, only withlegs and too many arms.
It's called star-child she answered as she opened one last door
and flew down the stairs. Her glowing body lit the stairway leading
to the dungeon very well,andMarco had to cover his eyes from the
glare as she blew past him.
Cassie reached the bottom first. There was one last door. She tried
to open it, but it was locked.
Allow me, Marco offered smugly, sticking a ghostly hand in the
lock. He materialized for an instant, shattering the lock.
OW! he cried, pulling back his injured hand.
Cassie stared at him. Why did you do that?
I felt like being stupid, Marco said sarcastically. Besides, we
needed to get that door open somehow. And he slipped through
the door.
Cassie opened it and followed.
Oh, my, she gasped, looking around at the dungeon. On every
side, there werethick wooden doors with steel bar rods for
windows. There was not a source oflight anywhere. No candles, no
sunlight, no torches, nothing butCassie herself.
Marco grinned. You light up my life, he sang.
Marco? a weak voice said. Cassie?
Ax! Cassie cried. Where are you?
Here. There came a sound of scratching from on of the cells.
Cassie and Marco hurried over to the sound. Marco slipped
through the door while Cassie hoveredoutside looking in.
Ax was held in a globe, but he didn't look all that good. He looked
tired, worn out. Defeated.
Cassie! Marco! Ax exclaimed, visibly brightening, smiling with
his eyes. Then his face darkened. Forgive me.
Whatever for, Ax-man? Marco said, sliding through the globe to
stand with him.
For...for Tobias. For what I did to him.
Oh, come off it, Ax-man. We know what happened.
Zilos-The-Geek possessed you and made you attack him.
He's alright, Ax, Cassie put in compasionately. Tobias is not
dead.
He isn't?! Ax stated happily. That is very good news indeed.
But I need totell you something. David is here.
Yeah, Ax, we know, Marco said as he turned his attention to the
force field.
You do? Well, Zilos has a trap. I do not know what he has
planned, but he seemed very confident that his trap would succeed.
You must get word to PrinceJake.
We will, Ax, but only after we get you out of here. Jake wouldn't
be too happywith us if we left you to the dogs.
Dogs? But there are no dogs here.
Marco continued to study the globe. He thought he spotted
something.
Hey, Cassie, could you brighten things up a little bit in here?
Sure, but you may want to look away, Ax and Marco. And she
slowly began to brighten. Ax turned all four eyes away as she
became too bright to look atdirectly.
Ah, ha! Marco exclaimed. A crack.
What? Ax asked.
There's a flaw in this globe. And it looks like it's Andalite-made.
Ax cheered up considerably. Then there is a way out! Be careful,
Marco. And with that Aximili started to strike at the crack with
his tail repeatedly. Marcoslipped back outside the globe, turned
solid, and started hitting the other side
of the crack.
With the sound of broken glass, the force field shattered. Marco
became transparent again, and Ax stepped out of his prison.
* * * * *
Beneath the dungeon, something slept. It was large and black, with
black fur and a sharp ax. It had two hooves and two hands, and a
bull-like face. Standing at twenty feet, the Gallu towered over it's
relative, the minotaur.
It heard the sound of shattered glass. It openned its red eyes and
pushed itself up.
Loosening its muscles and testing its huge ax, the Gallu walked up
to the hidden staircase that led to the dungeon.
* * * * *
Queen Marah held the onto the fragile boy with one hand and held
her weakening servant's hand on the other. She was careful to not
take too much strength. Shedidn't need much, after all.
When she was done, she released her servant and said, "Thank you.
Bring in Phalie." The servant nodded, bowed, and left to get Phalie.
Marah turned back to her daughter's rescuer as the door shut. Every
now and then, Tobias would stir and mutter something, and he
actually woke up once, buthe was still too weak to have a
conversation with.
"At least he doesn't need extra strength as much as he used to,"
Marah said, trying to look on the bright side of the miserable
situation of being in thesame room with a comatose person for over
48 hours with no rest.
Queen Marah thought about the events of the last few days. So
many things had happened so fast, she almost found it hard to
believe. Her daughter'sdisappearance, the Animorphs' appearance,
the frantic search for Ariana, the many attacks on the castle,
Ariana's being found andbrought home, the ball, and the tragic
events that happened there that causedher husband to call for war
so that Aximili may be saved.
Then she realized that her servant had not arrived.
"Phalie!" Marah called. She waited a few moments, but there was
no answer.
"PHALIE!" she cried. Still no answer. She didn't like this. Not a
bit.
She checked up on Tobias once more, just to be sure that he could
survive without her help for a few minutes. Then she walked over
to the door and tried \to open it.
The door wouldn't budge. It was locked.
She started banging on the door. "Open!" she commanded it. The
doorknob turned, the door shuttered, then it fell silent.
"This is not good," Marah muttered to herself, backing away.
She strained her ears to hear. She could hear some bustle from the
court outside. She can hear the wind rustling the leaves from the
nearby forest. Shecannot hear anything else.
Unnerved, the Queen of Hivena sat next to Tobias. To her surprise,
the boy's eyes were open.
"Tobias," she said gently. "I'm glad you're awake. How do you
feel?"
Tobias thought, looking around the room weakly. "Not so good,"
he answered weakly. "Where are the others?"
Tobias shivered, even though the room wasn't cold. Marah pulled
the blanket over him tighter.
"Your friends are alright," she said to the boy. "They are going to
rescue Aximilifrom Zilos."
"Zilos possessed him," Tobias weakly blurted as best as he could.
Marah nodded. "I know. Lecrian found out."
"Eran shot me. He had a gun." Tobias said, still as weak as before.
His face still showed no emotion.
Marah shook her head sadly. "No, it wasn't. It was someone who
knew you. His name was David."
Tobias didn't say anything. Even though he didn't show a shread of
emotion on his face, Marah knew that the news had shocked him,
judging from the silence.
"But...how?"
"Tobias," she deflected the question. "You need your rest. Now, go
to sleep. No more questions. You need to save your strength."
Obediently, Tobias closed his eyes and relaxed. Marah felt better.
She had beaten death at his own game!
{Mother!} Ariana cried silently in her mind. That shook her out of
her smug thoughts.
{Mother!} Ariana called again. {The whole hallway is clogged up!
We have spydrs!!! And they have completely filled the hallway
outside your room withtheir webs. Wecan't reach you!}
Marah froze. "Oh, no," she muttered. Spydr's are especially
attracted to helpless victims.
Tobias. They were after Tobias.
Marah groped down under the bed until dhe found the old rusty
sword there. The pulled it out and looked around.
No spydrs. None that she can see, at least.
She felt and saw a shadow cloak the room. She turned towards the
window. A two foot tall spydr was crawling through, followed by
two others.
{Mother!!!} Ariana screamed as the three spydrs split up.
{What?!?} Marah thought back irritably, standing as close to
Tobias as possible and trying to keep each spydr in sight.
{One of those spydrs is the one who impersonated Eran. One of
them is David.}
Marah looked hard at the approaching spydrs. Each one had its
eyes focused on Tobias.
"I guess I shall find out which is which the hard way," she
muttered. She swung her sword.
Her rusty sword sung as it flew through the air at the nearest spydr.
It leaped back totally avoiding the blow, then leaped on to her
before she could recover.
"AHHH!" she yelled, hitting it away with her fist. She used extra
strength from her servants and put it into her arm. The spydr
shattered, twitching as it fell to the floor, dead.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw another spydr leap at Tobias.
She quickly swung her sword around, slicing the spydr in half as it
landed on the boy.
She pivoted back around, fiercely facing the last spydr. The spydr
hesitsted. A very un-spydrlike action.
"You are not going to get him, David," she spat. She could swear
the spydr blinked.
Then the spydr named David got angry. Get out of my way. He's
the one I'm after. Not you. But you'll die if you don't stay out of my
business.
Marah laughed bitterly. "Not my business? He saved my daughter's
life. And then you trapped me in here. Of course this is my
business. And I am not the one who isgoing to die if he does not
skitter out of here."
David laughed. It's a pity. You know, I don't want to do this, but I
have to. They did this to me. They destoyed my family and my life,
then destroyed itagain. So now I'm going to destroy them. One ...
by ... ONE! and David spat ather.
A long, thin line of webbing extending from David's mouth
snagged Marah's sword and jerked it out of her hands. With
lightening speed, David snapped offthe webbing and leaped at
Marah. She screamed and tried to swipe him off butmissed as he
scrambled out of the way of her flailing arms.
David opened his mouth again and spat in her face, blinding her
with his nauseous webbing. Then he leaped off her.
Marah knew why he left her. Using her extra strength, she tore off
the webbing and ran towards Tobias' bed.
Tobias was just beginning to stir. He felt a weight land on his bed.
He opened hiseyes to see a black, furry, ugly face with eight eyes
staring down at him.
You're mine, Bird-boy, David gloated over the sick hero. He had
leaped onto his bed and was now only inches from his face. He
opened his jaws to bit...
Marah screamed, grabbed one of his legs, and tore him off Tobias's
bed just before his poisonous jaws closed. In the same motion, she
threw him against thefar wall, stunning him.
She looked at her fallen sword, but it was covered in webbing,
useless. Turning back to David, she snarled and walked towards
him, fists clentched.
You're just asking to die, aren't you? David asked with a smirk,
shaking off the dizzines.
"I am not the one who will die," Marah repeated. She was only five
feet away from him.
Oh. You're not? And David attacked her. Marah, thinking that
he wouldn't haverecovered so quickly, was caught off-gaurd.
"Ah!" Marah screamed as David bit her shoulder. She swiped him
off while his teeth were still in her. The teeth came out, but tore her
flesh.
She could feel the poison course through her, igniting her. Setting
every nerve on fire. Her brain was bursting in burning pain.
She collapsed on one knee, clutching at her injured shoulder. She
didn't see David rush at her again.
David! a new voice called challengingly. A weak voice, but
very, very familiar. You rat! It's me you want.
David stopped just as he was about to bite the Queen again and
turned to Tobias. Tobias' head was turned to him, his blue eyes
staring straight at him. But hewas too weak to even hold his own
head up.
How many times do I have to kill you, Bird-boy? David asked
as he menacingly crept towards Tobias. Come on. I want a
number. But Tobias' strength wasspent. He couldn't even answer
as he fell back into unconsciousness.
Laughing quietly, David crawled up on Tobias's bed, ignoring
Marah, who was using the tapestries to pull herself up. He opened
his jaws once more to bite at Tobias.
He was too sure of himself to care about the movement to his side.
Suddenly, a slender, delicate hand clamped itself down on him.
The hand lifted him up and held him up high. Helpless.
Wha? he exclaimed. He couldn't struggle. No leverage. He
couldn't turn his head to see, either, but he knew who it was.
Impossible! David yelled. Marah groaned from the noise as it
echoed in her burning brain. You can't be walking! You can't!
Marah didn't listen to him. She wasn't thinking straight, either. All
she knew was that she had to get rid of this spydr.
She staggered to the open window, swaying from weakness and
pain. Ignoring David's screams, she threw him out the window, as
far as she possibly could.Then, with trembling hands, she reached
dangerously outside the window, grabbed
ahold of the shutters, and closed them.
Wordlessly, forcing one foot in front of the other, Marah made her
way back to the sleeping Tobias. She collapsed on the ground
beside him, not seeing theremains of the dead spydrs. She grabbed
Tobias' hand. If his heart ever stoppedbeating, she would give him
strength. Just enough strength.
Still touching the boy's hand, Marah slipped into painless
unconsciousness.
{Oh, Mother,} Ariana moaned. {Oh, Mother.}
* * * * *
Ah ha! Rachel cried as she blew her fire at another harpy. The
half vulture,half hag creature burst into flames and crashed to the
ground, landing on agroup of Zilos' knights.
Rachel was having a blast. Not so much because of the battle as
much as the sheer dragon experiance. Her majestic wings filled the
sky, lifting her tons of corded muscle as easily as a feather. Her
hands were strong, agile, and deadly.And she could see just about
anything. The invisible glowed. Her vision wassharp, though
nothing compared to her eagle morph. And her periferal vision
wasincredible, allowing her to see almost everywhere. Her hearing
tuned out thehowling sound of miving wing and focused on
animated movement. The dragoninstincts were calm, more fearless
than the grizzly, and more cunning than thewolf.
A huge bird made of fire flew straight towards her. Gracefully,
Rachel snapped at it with her trapjaw mouth, biting into its chest.
Her teeth passed throughthe fire, to the point where her eyes were
just out of the flaming body. But her teeth did clamp onto
something deep inside the fire.
A blast of supercool air coming from a nearby ice dragon hit the
firebird and her. The forming ice didn't hurt Rachel, but as she
watched, the flames of thefirebird blew out.
The firebird was nothing more than a blackened skeleton. A
burned, animated skeleton half the size of the image the fire
created. But even as Rachel watchedfrom the corner of her eyes,
patches of the black bones turned white, growinghot.
Rachel quickly snapped her jaws closed, crushing the skeleton in
two. She watched it fall to the ground. The white patches dimmed,
and the bird stoppedmoving.
Something slammed into Rachel.
Hey! she yelled as she turned her serpentine neck to see what hit
her while she was distracted. It was another firebird, about the
same size as the firstone. With the speed of a rattlesnake, Rachel
snapped it in two, then watched it fall burning to the ground. It hit
just as hard as the first bird, and stoppedmoving like the first bird,
but something was wrong. The fire comtinued to burn.
But then, off to one side of her, she saw a baalrog fly straight
towards the pale blue ice dragon while he was busy fighting two
others. Rachel turned awayfrom her doubts and flew towards her
comrade's assistance.
As the baalrog drew back his whip to attack the distracted dragon
from behind, Rachel reached him. She spun in midair, hitting the
demon full in the chest withher wing. She continued the rotation,
sending the demon cartwheeling backwards,
loosing control.
Rachel turned back to the ice dragon. He had chased off the other
two baalrogs. He grinned his gratitude, then plunged back into the
battle.
Rachel looked back down at the second firebird. It was still
burning.
Then it began to move. The broken pieces of it creeped together.
The spine began to straighten, and the head began to lift. The fire
filled out, once againbuilding the illusion of fiery flesh. The
firebird stood, looked up at Rachel,and flew.
Duh! Rachel exclaimed. The *phoenix* always rose. But
then she looked backat the first phoenix. It still laid there, cold and
dead.
But why? she thought. She wasn't the thinking kind, but she still
wanted to know what the difference was between the first phoenix
and the second.
The living phoenix reached Rachel then, distracting her. She easily
pulled her head out of its flight path, but as it zoomed past her, she
snapped at its hindlegs, catching it. The phoenix jerked to a stop
and gawked back at her. Itflapped its wings like mad, but Rachel
held on without anything remotelyresembling trouble.
She saw another ice dragon fly nearby.
Hey! Hey, you, she called. Yeah. You. Could you please put
this bird's fire out? The dragon breathed in, then blew out,
sending the freezing blast straightat the struggling bird. Its fire
blew out, and Rachel once again tore it in two. This time, it didn't
rise.
"Congratulations, Rachel," a familiar voice said behind her head.
"Ruthless and efficient, specializing in destruction. My favorite
Animorph."
Rachel spun her head around in shock and hate. She knew that
voice.
Drode!?!
Drode sat happily on her back, snugly seated between her wings.
He had a birdlike body, with two legs and a stubby tail, but with
many-jointed, flimsy hands. His head was vaguely human in shape,
with anarrow lower jaw and big, mocking, and intelligent eyes. He
was wrinkled like a prune, and was so dark he was almost black.
Green trimmed his eyes and mouth. Atfirst glance, Drode wasn't
much, but he grinned at Rachel without a shread offear as she
glared angerly at
him.
"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel," he said. "My favorite. Do you honestly
think that it'll be this easy? Just give him time, and by the time you
get back he'll be fit as afiddle?" Drode laughed. He leaned forward,
as if he had a secret. "You're goingto loose him, Rachel. You're
going to loose him soon."
Without thinking, Rachel snapped at him.
Ow! She recoiled sharply. An invisible electric field
surrounding Drode quieted slowly.
Drode clapped his limp hands. "Bravo, Rachel," he said. "I have
always approved of your hostile, aggressive side. Unfortunately,
that alone will not save your bird. Or maybe it will." He paused.
"You know what you can do something to savehim Rachel.
Something thatwill make Crayak happy. Happy enough that he will
save Tobias personally."
Rachel knew exactly what he was talking about. You can stuff
your offer, shesnapped. Marah is--
"*Was* taking care of Tobias." His laughing eyes twinkled. "She
isn't anymore."
Rachel swore. You did this! she yelled accusingly, hatred safely
blinding her.Your Crayak is responsible for this! He's the one
who put us here. He's the onewho gave David his power back and
sent him after us. No way how I am ever going
to do anything for Crayak. Ever! And with that, she barrelrolled,
sending Drode in a freefall. Before he fell out of reach, Rachel
swiped a clawed hand at him, ignoring the electrified force field.
Drode vanished just as she hit his force field.
Rachel stared at the spot where Drode disappeared. She felt eyes
on her.
She looked down on the battlefield and saw Jake. Jake was staring
straight at her.
Rachel turned away from him, hoping that not seeing him would
help her keep Drode's foul offer out of her mind.
Jake watched her for a second longer. Then he, too, turned back to
the battle.
* * * * *
Cassie, Marco and Ax hurried up the winding stone stairs. The
halls were surprisingly wide and tall, and the sound of their
running feet reverberated offthe stone walls over and again. Ax
was himself, since he was fast enough as is. Both Cassie and
Marco stayed in their morphs.
As Cassie flew through the hall, Ax ran up the stairs and Marco
floated through the ceilings, a thump! thump! thumping sound
followed. When they first heard it beneath theirfeet in the dungeon,
they each decided it was best to just get out of there. Not even Ax
opted to stay, since he had to warn Prince Jake. The heavy
footstepspursued them, but they were outrunning it.
We have Andre the Giant after us, Marco piped as he stuck his
head down through the floors to watch Cassie and Axblow past.
Maybe I can get hisautograph.Congratulate him on the excellant
job on "Princess Bride."
Autograph? Ax asked.
I liked that movie, too, Cassie responded to Marco. But I don't
want anyone'sautograph right now. Especially not from whatever is
chasing us.
Marco sighed wistfully. You'll never be a Rachel, he said sadly,
then he pulled his head back through the ceiling.
Cassie flew ahead of Ax. She flashed past a few chained doors. She
glimpsed what was behind one.
She pulled to a sudden stop and flashed back to the door. Like
most doors in Zilos' underground, there was a small window
carved through the door so shecould see inside. Her heart broke at
what she saw.
A unicorn. It was small and beautiful, with delicate hooves,
sea-foam white fur, a snow white, shimmering mane, sea blue eyes,
and with a small glow all around.It was easily the most beautiful
thing Cassie had ever seen. It was tied to the wall by a black chain
that was surprisingly long, and something round and a footin
diameter wasstrapped to its back, but those were not the first things
Cassie noticed.
In place of a horn was a bloody gash. The unicorn whinnied in
pain.
No, Cassie muttered.
She tried to open the door. It was unlocked, but it was barred.
She started to demorph just as Ax caught up with her.
Now would not be a fortunate time to stop, Cassie, he said
simply.
I'm going to free her, Cassie insisted, her light dimming. She
was well on her way to becoming human. "Help me," she asked Ax
as she made the transition.
I must warn Prince Jake.
"Of what?" Cassie interrupted, fully human. The sounds of
footfalls slowly grew louder.
Cassie looked around at the wide halls and decided she had enough
room to morph to elemental. She was just beginning to change
when Marco floated back down from the floor above.
I didn't hear any pitter-patter of Ax-man's dainty toes, so--whoa
Cassie! This is so *not* the time for a lunch break.
Cassie didn't answer. Marco floated down to the floor and looked
in through the door window.
Marco narrowed his eyes at Cassie, who had stopped morphing.
Nuh uh, Cassie, he said. We are so NOT here to save a white
horse.
"She's dying," Cassie argued.
So are a lot of men outside, Marco shot back. Get it together,
Earth Mother. We got Ax. Now let's just get out of here before
Thunder Thighs catches up with us. We. Are. Not. Rescuing.
Animals.
"Why would Zilos have an animal in the first place?" Cassie
reasoned. "He's using her power, Marco."
Who cares? Oh, I forget. Tree-hugging Cassie does.
Listening to his two friends argue, Ax looked at the unicorn. It was
truely a magnificent creature, despite its...
Ax saw the sphere chained to its back. All four of Ax's eyes turned
to stare at it.
"It's a *unicorn.* Maybe it can help Tobias. Heal him."
I have no clue of what you're talkihng about. How can it help
Tobias if it can't help itself? I certainly don't see it healing that
scab.
Marco? Cassie? Ax interrupted, not looking away from the
sphere. I think we should get in there.
Marco slapped his ghostly forehead and moaned. Never thought
I'd see the day that Cassie would convert you. The sound of heavy
footsteps was much louder. They sounded like approaching
thunder.
Convert me to what? You haven't noticed the proton-shift
explosive device attached to the creature's back?
Cassie and Marco stared at Ax.
What? A what?!? A *nuke?!?*
"You're kidding," Cassie gasped.
Marco looked at the stunned expression on Cassie's face, then
looked at Ax, who looked back with one stalk eye, then at the
unicorn with the bomb strapped to its back.
Oh, man. I hate this. He swore, then stuck his hand into the solid
oak door and turned solid. Completely and totally solid.
The door exploded. The sheer sound of it tore the air. Cassie was
knocked off her feet from the force, and Ax staggered back. Marco
was thrown across the hall. Wood shrapnel filled the air, nearly
blinding Ax and Cassie. When they opened thier eyes again, the
door was totally gone.
As Ax recovered and hurried inside, Cassie heard an agonized
groan behind her. Marco, semi-transparent again, was
painfully laying on the floor with his back towards her. His legs
were drawn up, and he seemed to be holding something close to his
chest. Numbly, her nerves still razzelled and ears still ringing from
the explosion, she crawled over to him. She looked over his
shoulder and saw what he was holding on to so painfully.
Marco was cradeling his arm, his bloodless, tear-streaked face tight
from trying not to scream. Tears squeezed out from beneath his
tightly shut eyes, and his mouth was sealed shut, holding back his
cries. Where his hand should have been,
there was nothing but a shattered stump. Cracks were drawn up his
arm, ending at just below the elbow. Even as a ghost, a clear fluid
poured out from the stump and the cracks like blood.
Cassie heart contrasted, crying out in sheer sympathy. "Marco!"
she shouted to him. "Demorph! Now!" To her relief, Marco's
ghostly skin darkened.
Trembling at what happened to Marco, but hopeful that he would
pull out of the morph, Cassie looked back down the hall, where the
giant's footsteps grew even louder, filling her ears.
She knew what she had to do. She was starting to morph elemental
when Ax's thought-speak yelled in her head.
Cassie, I can't get to the explosive device! he reported loudly.
Cassie winced from the shout, then turned to see what was the
matter.
The unicorn was the problem. Ax was trying to reach it so he could
get to the bomb, but the unicorn was running away from him. The
unicorn was just as fast as Ax was, and just as agile, and with the
long leash it was given, Ax was running all over the room trying to
catch it without using his tail. Every time he caught it, it tore out of
his grasp again and continued zigzagging through the cold stone
room.
Go ahead, Marco said weakly, partially demorphed. I'll take
care of whatsis down there.
Cassie turned back to him just in time to see white bones shoot out
from the shattered stump. She shuttered.
Marco agreed. Yuck. Yuck yuck yu-- Just then he lost the power
of thought-speak as he made the transition.
Cassie ran to the room where Ax was chasing the elusive,
frightened unicorn. Without a second thought, she walked towards
the jumpy unicorn, trying to ignore the thunderous booms of
something large running up the stairs.
"Ax, wait," Cassie said to him as she approached. Ax, quivering
with frustration, stopped in his tracks, deciding to let Cassie have a
try at the stupid creature with the bomb on its back. The
shimmering unicorn, seeing that Ax had stopped trying to touch it,
also slowed to a stop, still keeping an eye on him.
The floor beneath them gradually began to shake. The giant was
very close. Cassie looked back at Marco, and was relieved to find
huge, black bat wings sproating from his shoulderblades. He was
morphing as fast as he could, knowing even more than Cassie
knew that he had to delay the monster until Ax could defuse the
bomb, and that every second may be vital.
Cassie smiled at Marco's lightning quick thinking, then turned back
to the unicorn. She still had to comfort the animal before Ax could
get to the bomb.
She slowly walked up to the beautiful unicorn, who kept watching
Ax suspiciously. It did not even seem aware of Cassie's presense
until Cassie was close enough to touch it.
As Cassie reached out with one comforting hand to sooth the
creature, the unicorn turned its head and looked directly at Cassie.
Cassie looked back, and immediately froze.
The castle still shook with every step of the yet unseen giant. Ax
still waited impatiently on the other side of the room, eagar to get
to the bomb. Marco still morphed, and was now shooting from the
floor to full demon size, but Cassie couldn't pay attention to her
surroundings, much less move. Tears sprang to her eyes as she
looked into the unicorn's eternal eye, and saw innocence, wisdom,
joy, peace, and purity in them.
Cassie slowly stroked the creature as the unicorn calmed down,
who was not afraid of her.
Ax, seeing this as his oportunity, calmly walked up to them. The
unicorn, seeing him, hurried to the other side of Cassie.
Acquire it, Cassie, Ax instructed when he saw the stubborn
unicorn shy away from him. I have to get the explosive device.
Cassie nodded, patted the shimmering unicorn, and began to
acquire it. Almost to Cassie's disappointment, the unicorn acted
just like most other animals. It became calm and lax.
Ax jumped forward eagarly and started to study the bomb. The
unicorn didn't even flintch.
Boom! The castle shook so badly Cassie almost broke her
concentration. She looked out to the hall and saw a Baalrog
fighting a huge black monitaur-like thing welding an ax. A Gallu.
Nervously, Cassie turned back to Ax and tried to focus on his
work. She saw the globe flip open and Ax's many-fingered hands
reaching inside. She watched anxiously, but continued to acquire
the unicorn so it would not panic.
A few long seconds later, Ax said in calm relief, The explosive
devise is deactivated. He cut the cords that bound the bomb to the
unicorn and set it down. Then, almost absentmindedly, Ax severed
the cords binding the unicorn to the wall.
The unicorn, somehow sensing its freedom, broke out of the trance
Cassie put it in, pushed past her, and bolted out of the hole that was
once a door. Cassie shot Ax a look of sheer gratitude.
Oh, sure, Marco complained loudly. He sounded strained and
jumpy, though he obviously tried to cover it. Forget all about poor
ol' Marco.
We are coming, Marco, Ax called. He limbered up his tail for a
second, then blew out of the doorway.
* * * * *
The battle outside the castle of Levakh was not going well. Men
were dying, and even though the dragons won their battle in the air
and had started to aid their allies on the ground, Themis and his
army were being pushed back by the giants and various monsters.
Lecrian and Jake were soon separated from King Themis, and then
Lecrian somehow lost sight of Jake.
Lecrian ducked a beam of light aimed for his back. He spun around
and charged viciously at the basilisk that tried to ambush him. He
quickly slid his enchanted sword in its chest, and it died.
Lecrian quickly pulled his sword out of the heavy, limp body and
looked around fearfully, but no enemies were aiming for him at the
moment.
'Oh man,' he thought, as he pushed the images that surrounded his
vision back. His foresight saved him from the basilisk, warning
him of its actions, but that was all he was grateful for. It took away
his periferal vision, and what the images showed him were
disturbing.
A spydr was attacking his mother. His father was becoming
desprite enough to use his power. Marco's hand was destroyed.
Rachel was avoiding someone. His brothers were hard-pressed,
fighting back to back against a pack of bug bears. The images
showed him all of this, and none of it was helping him.
Pushing back the images that were trying to flood his vision,
Lecrian did not see the archer aim at him. He did not see the
poison-tipped arrow fly towards his back.
He felt the arrow hit him. The blackness consumed him before he
hit the ground.
