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CHAPTER 21
Cassie yelled a warning.
Jake said.
I figured out the eight blurry figures were Hork-Bajir when I was about three feet away from
slamming into the first one. By then it was too late to stop.
"Kill the gaffnur Andalites!" a Hork-Bajir cried in the weird mix of languages that they use.
"Kill fraghent Andalite halaf kill all!"
Suddenly, I realized I was cut. A searing pain radiated from my shoulder. I swung my paw
and hit the Hork-Bajir in the head. He fell, but as he fell he slashed with his tyrannosaurus
feet, and ripped a second cut in me.
From that point on, it was a nightmare of terrible images that seemed to float in and out of
my hazy vision.
I saw Cassie, with her bone-breaking jaws sunk into the throat of a Hork-Bajir.
I saw Ax, his tail like a deadly bullwhip, lashing, cutting, lashing again, till one of the Hork-
Bajir stood screaming, holding his own severed arm.
I saw Jake and a Hork-Bajir locked in a deadly embrace as they rolled and slashed at each
other
with superhuman speed.
I saw Marco fighting with one arm as he held his own sliced stomach together with the other
hand.
And everywhere, snarling, growling, raging, roaring noise.
"Die, gaferach, die!"
"RRRROOOWWRRR!"
I couldn't tell who was winning. I couldn't tell who was hurt. It all became one long cry, one
long scream of rage. Hork-Bajir and Animorph.
Alien and animal.
We were flesh-and-blood creatures thrown into a meat grinder. Thirteen deadly animals
locked in a combat to the death.
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I felt the bear weakening as he was cut again and again by Hork-Bajir blades. I was losing
blood. The human part of me knew that. I could feel my strength ebbing.
I charged again and hit a Hork-Bajir in the stomach. I carried him along with my momentum
as he slashed wildly at me.
CRAAAASSSSHHHH!
I'd hit something! Glass. It had shattered.
A window! I had shoved the Hork-Bajir through the window.
"AAAAAA-AAAARRRRR!"
I heard the Hork-Bajir's cry, dying away as it fell.
A sudden flash of movement, as something came zooming through the shattered window.
"Tseeeeeerrr!"
Tobias screamed as he spread his talons forward and struck the closest Hork-Bajir, raking his
eyes.
The battle had turned!
The Hork-Bajir had had enough. Maybe it was hearing one of their fellows fall sixty stories.
Or maybe it was Tobias's arrival, strengthening our side. But whatever it was, the remaining
Hork-Bajir ran.
Three of them ran. The rest would not be running anywhere.
Marco grabbed the crumpled door and slammed it back in place. Then, with what must have
been the last of his strength, he shoved a desk in place to block the door.
Jake said.
Tobias said.
I stared blankly at my left paw. It wasn't there. It was a stump.
I said. I focused on my human body. My weak but healthy human body.
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Morphing is done from DNA, fortunately. DNA is not affected by injuries, so injuries do not
follow you from one morph to another.
Exhaustion does.
As my human body emerged from the vast bulk of the grizzly, I felt so weary I was afraid I
might faint.
Through human eyes, I saw a scene of carnage. The Hork-Bajir lay sprawled around the
room. Most seemed to be breathing. None were conscious. All were bleeding from claw-and-
teeth wounds.
Unfortunately for the Hork-Bajir, they could not simply morph out of their injured bodies.
"Everyone okay?" Jake asked, sounding as weary as I felt.
"Yeah, but that was way too close," Cassie said.
We were in a large office. I could see that now with my human eyes. Desks lay splintered.
The carpet was ripped into ribbons. The walls were gouged. Floor-to-ceiling windows formed
one wall. They were shattered. I remembered the Hork-Bajir falling, and shuddered. There
was a door in one wall.
"Through there?" Marco suggested.
"Let's try it," I said. I staggered toward the door. It was not locked.
A bare room. Tile floor. White painted walls.
The wall of windows was blocked by heavy curtains. The room was empty but for a large,
massively built platform in the very center.
It was a steel pedestal, maybe three-feet-high, eight-feet-long.
And atop that pedestal was a machine the size of a small car. It was shaped like a cylinder,
tapered to dull points on both ends.
It gleamed brightly, like new chrome, as if it had just been polished. And it made a slight,
low humming noise. As I approached I felt my hair stand on end from the static electricity. It
was warm in the room, very warm. It smelled like lightning.
Ax said.
"The Kandrona," I echoed.
For a full minute we all just stood there, gaping at it.
"Rachel?" Jake said at last. "We need you to morph again. Can you do it?"
I nodded slowly. "Elephant?"
"Elephant. I don't know how else we're going to do it. We don't have any tools or anything."
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I morphed the elephant.
Tobias flew outside to make sure there were no pedestrians below on the dark sidewalk. It
took every last ounce of power that elephant had. But the Kandrona did move.
It did, slowly, in jerks and starts, slide across the floor.
And when at last I shoved it through the windows, it did fall the sixty stories, to smash into
the concrete below.
We did it," I whispered as I returned to my normal body. "We destroyed the Kandrona."
"We have to get out of here," Jake said. "The Yeerks will know. They'll be all over this place.
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