"That's stupid," Rachel broke in. "Just because you survived when some other people didn't, that doesn't mean anything. Besides, with all the help you guys have given us, I'm glad that the two of you managed to make it through." Rachel paused, leaning back on her hands with a relaxed sort of air. "I think it'd be great if we had a few more people like you and Slade, personally."
"Thanks, I think," Shara said, sounding as if even she didn't know if she was being sincere or sarcastic.
"I don't know if having more people like you would really be better for us," she mused aloud, thinking of all the food that she'd had to bring for them both over the course of their stay. "I mean, it's great if someone else manages to escape from Darkon, but I don't know where we'd manage to hide someone else that eats like you or Slade."
"Good point," Shara said, with a soft, rueful laugh. Then she yawned, rubbing her mouth with the back of her hand. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?"
"No, I think that's all," she said, looking to Rachel for confirmation even as her best friend nodded. "Why don't you get to sleep now, Shara? You look tired."
"I think that's a pretty good idea," the other girl said, yawning again as she crawled her way back over to where Slade was sleeping. "Thanks again for all the food, by the way," Shara said, facing Cassie as she settled down next to her brother.
"You're welcome," she said, pitching her voice lower so she wouldn't have too much of a chance of waking Slade up. Though the both of them seemed to be pretty deep sleepers, she still didn't want to chance it.
As she and Rachel climbed down from the hayloft, Cassie couldn't help but reflect on the conversation that she'd had with Shara. She was still disappointed in herself for not noticing how the other girl was doing, for not even suspecting the fact that Shara was actually feeling that she and Slade would have been better off dead. Anyone else would have probably said that she'd just had too much on her mind otherwise, or something else to excuse the fact that she clearly hadn't been paying enough attention to how Shara was feeling.
Cassie had never been one to make excuses for her of behavior, though; she certainly wasn't going to let herself off the hook for this. She'd just have to make sure that Shara was doing all right from now on, not just taking it for granted that as long as the other girl had food and shelter, she would be perfectly fine; Slade might be, since she'd never gotten the impression that there was more to him than met the eye, but that clearly wasn't the case for Shara.
When she and Rachel made it back to the ground, Cassie noticed that her old friend seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
"Cass, I didn't want to bring this up before, since you and Shara were clearly talking about something a lot more important," Rachel said, as Cassie stopped walking so she could give her old friend her full attention. "But, who was that 'Darkon' guy that you both mentioned? I've never heard any of the others mention him."
"I don't think anyone else really knows about him, Rach," she said, leaning slightly against one of the long tables that held the cages with their cargo of sick or injured animals. "He's the leader of the Radam contingent hidden on Earth. I think he might actually be the one that brought them all here in the first place."
"So, he's another of the bad guys that we're going to have to deal with," Rachel said, not sounding particularly worried. "All right."
Holding her old friend back as she started to walk off again, Cassie sighed. "I don't think it's going to be quite as simple as that," she said, knowing that it was best if Rachel knew what they were going to have to deal with once the Radam started making their move. Whenever that turned out to be. "Darkon's the one in command of all the Teknomen, and for the Radam that means he's the strongest out of all of them. You and I have both seen what Slade and Shara can do," she said, thinking back on the carnage that Slade had wreaked on the Fenestre mansion when he'd been in that armored form of his, before she recalled that Rachel hadn't seen that particular battle. "And that was only one of them. Darkon has to be worse, or else he wouldn't be able to command their forces."
She didn't know if that was entirely true, since when she had morphed into Shara she'd felt an almost instinctive urge to seek Darkon out, but she also knew that she couldn't let Rachel start underestimating him if they were going to have to deal with him and his Teknomen in the future. She didn't want any of her friends to suffer any more than they already did.
"Okay, so he's a really bad guy," Rachel said, nodding. "We still have those two on our side; I'm sure they'll be able to handle whatever he can come up with."
Rachel sounded so confidant about that, so sure of herself and all of them, that Cassie didn't want to say anything else to dissuade her. Rachel always seemed so sure of herself, so confidant that all of the Animorphs could handle whatever came their way, that she inspired all of the others to do things that they might not have been able to do otherwise. Cassie was glad that they had her; not only for the fact that she and Rachel were close friends and she would have hated having to lie to the other girl, but because Rachel was Rachel.
As they left the barn, Cassie resisting the urge to look back over her shoulder at the place where Slade and Shara were sleeping, Cassie sighed briefly; she'd have to make a point of spending a bit more time with Shara than she usually did, at least when she could safely take the time to, so probably during the times when she brought the other girl her third meal of the day. It was really the only time she could spend a bit of extra time in the barn without her parents calling her on it. The only time when she wouldn't really have to lie about what she was doing.