This was mine. My problem. My hope. My choice.

  I flew. Flew and flew, circling higher and higher on lush thermals that felt as if they could lift me effortlessly beyond the clouds.

  Below and behind, I saw a falcon I knew as Jake. And a harrier I knew as Cassie. They saw me. Jake, at least, could easily have caught up with me. But they let me go. I guess they knew I needed to think.

  I circled up till I could feel the ceiling of a flat-bottomed cumulus cloud right above me. Then I translated my altitude into distance and headed for the woods. Headed for a very specific place in the woods, far back, far from any trail.

  I had been to this place twice before. Once when the Ellimist showed us all the way. Once when I went there only to hear an amazing story. But even now, even knowing precisely where it

  was, even with all my hawk vision focused, all my innate direction-finding ability carefully attuned, I had a hard time finding it.

  Call it a spell. That's what the Ellimist had done: He had cast a fairy-tale spell over this place, making it almost impossible for any mere mortal to find it. The eyes slid away. The feathers did not feel a breeze that blew from it. The ears heard no sound that came from it.

  It was the valley of the Hork-Bajir. The free Hork-Bajir.

  Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak had been the couple who'd escaped their Yeerk slave masters. How much the Ellimist had intervened . . . well, he would say he never intervenes in the affairs of other species. But Jara and Ket had evaded their Yeerks and avoided recapture with help from us. And they had come to this concealed valley.

  Since then, others had come. Some were escapees. Others had been born into freedom.

  That's where I flew. To the valley of the Hork-Bajir.

  The last time I'd come, they'd been surprised. This time was different. This time, as I flew through the narrow opening of the valley, I saw two dozen Hork-Bajir standing, looking up at the sky, waiting.

  When they saw me they began to point and wave. I thought I recognized Jara and Ket. Standing

  at their center was the young Hork-Bajir girl named Toby. Named after me. She was Jara and Ket's child. And she was what the Hork-Bajir call a

  "seer."

  The Hork-Bajir are not the geniuses of the galaxy. They may look like death and destruction on two legs, but the blades that adorn their seven-foot-tall bodies are designed for stripping edible bark from trees.

  That is not what their slave master Yeerks use them for. The Hork-Bajir have been made into the shock troops of the Yeerk Empire.

  In any case, whether fearsome or sweet, the Hork-Bajir are not an intellectual species. Except for the very rare genetic anomalies they call "seers."

  Looking down at the gaggle of waiting Hork-Bajir, I easily spotted Toby. I'd have spotted her even without knowing her. The rest of the group had the dopey, dim expressions of Teletubbies. Toby had the kind of eyes that looked through you and made you feel like you needed to pull a robe on over your brain.

  "Tobias!" Jara Hamee yelled happily. "Friend Tobias! Friend."

 

  "Toby say you come," Ket said, nodding with great satisfaction. "Toby say, Tobias will come."'

  "Yes," Jara agreed. "Toby say, 'Friend Tobias will come.'"

  "You are here," Ket said.

  Like I said, the Hork-Bajir are long on decent and kind and sweet and generous, and a bit short on witty, clever, and brilliant. If Marco spent a day with the Hork-Bajir, he'd lose his mind and run screaming away looking for someone, anyone, who'd get a joke.

  I landed on a nice, level branch just a foot above their weird, forward-raked head blades.

  "We need you, Tobias," Toby said.

  I sighed inwardly. I didn't want to be needed. I wanted some peace and quiet and a chance to think.

  But that feeling evaporated the instant Toby explained.

  "One of the children, a male named Bek, is missing. He has left the valley. We fear that he may be taken by humans or by human-Controllers. That he may be harmed. Killed. Or worse, made into a Controller."

  Once before when I was feeling low, I went to the Hork-Bajir valley. They'd made me feel better. After all, the Hork-Bajir think I'm their liberator. They think I'm George Washington or whatever. It's hard not to feel good under those circumstances.

  But obviously, this visit was going to be different.

  I demanded.

  "Yes. Search," Jara said. "Look and look and look."

  "Cry, 'Bek, Bek!'" another Hork-Bajir added helpfully.

  "Bek, Bek!" Ket confirmed.

  "Bek is not in the valley," Toby said. "I ... we found tracks leading out of the valley. The right size for a Hork-Bajir of his age."

  I said several words I can't repeat. Jara Hamee asked what they meant.

  I said. I couldn't believe this. A Hork-Bajir child missing! Wandering the woods alone. Or worse: not alone.

 

  "Since this time yesterday," the young seer said.

  <0h, man. I have to get back to the others. We'll start a search. But I don't think our chances are very good.> Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

  Toby looked wary. "No, Bek would not know the way back. But we are able to find our way back."

  That made me stare.

  "Yes, Tobias. How else can we free our brothers and sisters?" She waved an encompassing arm around the group. "How else have these Hork-Bajir come to freedom?"

 

  Toby grinned the frightening Hork-Bajir grin. "We make it happen. We go at night and raid places where we know Hork-Bajir are."

  I asked incredulously.

  Toby looked down. "Tobias, we owe you a great deal."

  "Freedom," Ket Halpak said solemnly. "Hork-Bajir free. Tobias make free."

  I said a little sarcastically.

  "But... but the place where we liberate Hork-Bajir is a secret Yeerk facility that is being built. Not in your city. In the human town beyond the far end of this valley. Tobias ... it is very important for us to continue freeing our brothers and sisters. We are few. We must become many. To fight the Yeerks. Also . . ." She let it hang there.

  I said. I said harshly.

  Toby looked proud. "The Hork-Bajir trusted Andalites to save us from the Yeerks. The Andalites failed. The Andalites took care of their own. We must do the same. We are grateful to the humans called Animorphs. But do you say we should trust all humans?"

  Well, she had me there. It was way too easy to see a day when the Yeerks were defeated and these Hork-Bajir were left behind on Earth. What would happen to them? Humans didn't exactly have an unblemished record of tolerance for different races. After all, before this valley had belonged to the Hork-Bajir, it had probably been inhabited by Native Americans.

 

  "Yes."

 

  "We don't know. He may have followed the scent trails left by our raiders." She sounded doubtful. "It is possible. But he did not leave from that end of the valley."

 

  The seer smiled. "If you promise not to destroy the place, I will show you how to find it."

  I sighed.

  Toby started to say something, but I interrupted her.

  It was Jara who stepped forward then. Toby may have been the brains, but Jara and Ket were the heart of this tiny community. Jara put his big, dangerous claw out, palm up, and I hopped into it. He lifted me up to his goblin face and said, "Tobias ask the Hork-Bajir. Hork-Bajir give. Always. Forever. Anything. Even life. Jara Hamee never forget."

  Toby nodded her agreement.

  Well, what are you going to do? People like that you pretty much have to try and save.

  Chapter

  Morning. The meadow.

  My meadow.

  I saw the other hawk. He was flying, inscribing low circles over the meadow. His eyes were aimed downward, looking for breakfast. But he saw me.

  I knew he saw me, because if our roles were reversed, I would see him.

  He was wondering why... no, that was wrong. He wasn't wondering. He was a true red-tailed hawk. Hawks don't wonder. The question "why" is owned entirely by humans. At least, on Earth it is. Only Homo sapiens asks why. Buteo jamaicensis-red-tailed hawks - don't ask at all.

  He saw me. He knew I was a threat. He watched. He waited. He expected my attack. When my attack came, he would fight. If my attack did not come, he would come after me. It would be a "show" fight. Bluff and threaten and see who ran first. But it could also end up being a very real fight.

  I saw him drop down swiftly on some target. A few seconds later he flapped his way back up into view. His talons were empty. He'd missed.

  Not enough prey in the meadow. Not enough for both of us. One of us had to go. Or both of us would starve.

  I sat on my perch and saw the twitch of grass that told me a rabbit was coming out of its hole. We all have to eat. Rabbits, too.

  My opponent was too far away and at the wrong angle to see what I saw. I opened my wings and swooped out of the shadows.

  This time I would take one of the rabbits. This time my talons would close on squirming, living flesh.

  This time the rabbit would die so that I could live.

  I saw them! Yes! The mother and one of the babies. Just my size, the perfect prey. Slow moving, unaware, unlike the wily mother.

  I was approaching them on a perfect glide path. I was in the mother rabbit's blind spot. I

  opened my talons wide and moved them forward. I trimmed my wings and tail just so. Just perfectly to intercept the little rabbit on its next heedless hop.

  Now! Now! Now! Drop and strike!

 

  The vision seized my mind again. I was the rabbit, not the hawk!

  I saw the talons! Too late! I tried to hop away but the panic froze me in place. I shook with terror. I could see death coming from the sky, but I could not move.

  I screamed and broke off.

  I flapped up and away, and the awful vision faded. The baby rabbit hopped to his mother's side.

  I yelled to an empty sky.

  ?Just tell me this," Marco raged. "When do we get a vacation? I mean, Ben-Hur rowing that Roman galley while the guy whipped him and the other guy banged on that big drum got more downtime than we do."

  We were in Cassie's barn. It was the next day, after the others got back from school. I was in the rafters, in my usual place. From there I could look out through the hayloft to see Cassie's house and the driveway. And I could listen to sounds coming from outside. I could know whether anyone was sneaking up on us.

  "Our lives have become Nintendo games," Marco went on, enjoying the sound of his own outrage. "We're always walking down some dark

  hallway with our blasters drawn and there's an endless array of enemy guys. We blow 'em up, but they keep coming. When do we get to hit the pause button? When do we get to switch over to a nice, peaceful Riven?

  When do we get to turn off the power and put down the joystick and just veg out with some HBO? When do -"

  "When do we get to shut you up?" Rachel interrupted. "When do we get to switch you off? I mean, good grief, Marco, you act like you have something better to do. Before we became Animorphs your entire day consisted of figuring out which girl to annoy next."

  Marco grinned. "And now I always know which girl to annoy next." He put his arm around Rachel and laid his head on her shoulder.

  She laughed and shoved him away.

  It was just a dumb little routine, but I felt a flash of jealousy. There are little intimacies that most humans can have that I can't. I can't shake hands or hug or lay my head on anyone's shoulder.

  And, as I'd expected, Cassie had questioned me closely, listening intently to everything I related about my meeting with DeGroot. Marco came up with about eight different ways it could all be a scam.

  But then I'd told them all this new piece of information: A Hork-Bajir kid was on the loose.

  That's when Marco had started ranting and raving.

  "Okay," Jake said, "we have a lot happening at once. And we can't blow off any of it. We need to find out if DeGroot is for real or a Controller. We need to find out the same about this possible cousin Aria. And we need to try and find this little, lost Hork-Bajir. Twenty-four hours plus last night, plus this morning while we were in school. Coming up on forty-eight hours he's been missing."

  "I hate to think of what could be happening to him," Cassie said.

  Jake nodded. But Marco said, "No, wait. You should try and think of what's happening to him. What are the possibilities?"

  Ax wondered.

  "No. Not necessarily," Cassie said.

  "Most people don't believe you aliens exist," Rachel said.

  Ax nodded, a gesture he'd picked up from humans.

  "Deformed," Cassie speculated. "Affected by birth defects. Or seriously sick."

  I said.

  "Or calling an ambulance," Cassie added.

  I said.

  <0r stick it in a cage and charge people to look at the freak.>

  Jake nodded agreement. "Yeah. Okay. Marco? Get on the Internet and look for any news reports or whatever. Ax? You help him. Cassie and I will go back to the valley entrance, morph wolves, and see if we can pick up Bek's scent. Rachel, you're with Tobias. Figure out if DeGroot and this Aria woman are Controllers. Follow them. Watch them. How long do we have

  till your birthday, Tobias?"

  I asked.

  "Today's the twenty-third. When's your birthday?"

 

  Marco laughed, then I guess he realized I wasn't kidding.

  I forced a laugh.

  I felt uncomfortable being paired with Rachel. She'd seen me eating roadkill. She hadn't mentioned it, and I didn't think she would. Rachel's blunt but sensitive enough, too.

  Still, uncomfortable or not, I wasn't going to start arguing with Jake. I have my problems in life. He has his. I'm not going to complicate his situation.

  Besides, what could I say? I'd rather work with Cassie because she doesn't know I eat road-kill?

  Rachel went into her bald eagle morph. I've seen her do it many times before, of course, but for some reason this time it fascinated me. Is that the right word? No, it mesmerized me.

  Rachel is a beautiful girl. She's beautiful in that way you know will last her whole life. She'll be a beautiful woman. But beauty alone isn't that big a thing. What makes Rachel "Rachel" is what's inside.

  And watching her morph to eagle was like seeing her soul emerge through her flesh.

  Feather patterns appeared across her skin. The golden hair gave way to the characteristic white feathers of the baldie's crown. Her arm bones narrowed and hollowed and grew feathers to become wings.

  Her face, never exactly soft or inviting, became forbidding and intense. Her blue eyes turned golden brown and glared with the fierce glare of a raptor. Her lips became the eagle's huge beak.

  She grew smaller. But she was becoming one of the largest birds in existence.

 

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