#34 The Prophecy

[horkbajir]

"Need help," Jara answered. "Toby say, 'Father, get human friends. Bring.'"

A couple of thermals later I spotted about twenty Hork-Bajir clustered together in the center of the valley. Adults and kids. Seeing the kids was especially cool. They were the first Hork-Bajir in generations to be born into freedom.

Toby Hamee moved away from the group to greet us. Toby is the daughter of Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak. She's what the Hork-Bajir call "different." She's what the Arn call a freak of nature. She is a seer. A Hork-Bajir whose intelligence matches that of the Arn themselves.
"Thank you for coming. We felt the need of your advice. The Arn landed last evening in a small Yeerk
ship. We nearly killed him, thinking he was a Controller. He has some sort of plan in mind. We told him to wait so we could bring you to advise us."
"We're flattered," Jake said, "but you don't need us."
"I do need you," Toby said. "I especially need you," she added, looking at Ax. "If I understand his goal, we could use an Andalite's opinion."


"I will do whatever I can to continue the work of Aldrea and Dak Hamee," Toby said guardedly. "A DNA sample is little enough to ask."
Aldrea and Dak were Toby's great-grandparents. They were heroes to the Hork-Bajir because they
had led the battle against the Yeerks. And lost their lives in the fight.
"I give, too," Jara answered.
The other Hork-Bajir all chimed in. All agreeing to allow Quafijinivon to harvest their DNA, despite the fact that none of them besides Toby had any idea what DNA was.


The Arn pulled in a wheezing breath. "Only one in four Ceremonies are actually completed. The appropriate receptacle mind is essential. Aldrea's Ixcila will be attracted to someone most like she was. Someone strong, fierce, independent. Presumably female. Hork-Bajir or Andalite, most likely, but I suppose she might gravitate toward a human. If such a human female existed."
"I don't consider myself worthy of the honor," Toby said, "but I, too, will volunteer."

Ax rolled one eye stalk toward Rachel and one toward Toby. We'd all agreed that Aldrea would be drawn to one of them .. . if the so-called Ceremony worked at all. Rachel, because of her Rachelness. Toby, because she was Aldrea's great-granddaughter and a Hork-Bajir seer.
<And if she doesn't chose to release her hold?> Ax prodded.
Toby turned to Ax. "You only ask this because you don't trust Aldrea. As an Andalite you mistrust anyone who would choose to permanently become Hork-Bajir," she accused.
Toby's gifts didn't just make her more articulate than the other Hork-Bajir. They made her more insightful. More capable of drawing conclusions.

Ax shifted his weight from one hoof to the other. <l ask only because it is a logical question.> he finally said.
"I did not mean to sound suspicious of my Andalite friend," Toby said with no sincerity whatsoever.
<The Hork-Bajir have reason to be . . . hesitant . . . about trusting the Andalites,> Ax allowed.
Toby bowed her head graciously. Then she said, "I , too, want an answer, Arn."
Quafijinivon sighed. "If Aldrea does not choose to release her hold, there is no way to force her to do so," he confessed.
"I see. I trust my great-grandmother," Toby said firmly. "If she chooses me for this honor I will trust my freedom to her."

"May I speak to my great-grandmother now?" Toby asked eagerly. Her voice was filled with awe. She revealed none of Rachel's bemused resentment.

It was the young Hork-Bajir who answered. "They took him, Great-grandmother. Seerow became a Controller. He was brought to Earth as part of their army, here. He died in captivity."
There was not a worse fate I could have imagined for my child. The Yeerks had made his life a living death. And I had not been there to protect him.
"But Seerow's son, Jara Hamee, my father, escaped with the help of the humans here," Toby
continued. "And I, your great-granddaughter, was born in freedom."
I studied her through my new eyes. There was something about her. Something familiar. The
words were too well organized, the speech flowed too smoothly, the ideas .. .
Through my despair I felt a tiny bubble of something that could have been joy.
<Ask her if she's different,> I told Cassie.
A smile spread across Toby's face when she heard the question.
"Yes, Great-grandmother, I am different," she answered. "I am different as Dak Hamee was different."
A seer. A seer born in freedom.
"We have brought you back from death because we need your help," Toby said.


"What you say is true, Great-grandmother," Toby said. "But there is no other way. Few of our
people survived the Andalite virus. Only those who had already been taken off-world by the
Yeerks, and those few with natural immunity like you and my great-grandfather. We could grow
again, take back our world. But not until we weaken the Yeerks."
Toby stepped up in front of me and leaned down so she could look into my eyes. No. Into Aldrea's eyes, because I might just as well not have been there. "Let me accompany you to our planet. We can start again, continue the work you and Dak Hamee began," Toby pleaded.
I felt another stab of grief from Aldrea when Toby said Dak's name. Then I felt her push that
grief aside.
"You are a seer, Toby, but you are also young. You don't know what this Arn, this Andalite, and
even, I suspect, these humans, intend. Even well armed, do you think the few Hork-Bajir that this
creature, this Arn, this manipulator, this liar from a race of liars, this coward from a race of cowards ..." She stabbed my finger toward the Arn.
I felt my face twist into an expression of fury. She regained control over her emotions, but
now adrenaline was flooding my system. She had triggered the classic human physiological response to stress. And with that hormone rush my own fear and anger grew.
"Hork-Bajir kill Hork-Bajir and who will profit?" Aldrea demanded.
"All the enemies of the Yeerks will profit," Jake said.
Toby nodded and said, "True, Great-grandmother, it would be a sideshow. It would only be a distraction for the Yeerks. Many Hork-Bajir would die. And yet we must fight."
Aldrea spread my hands wide. "Why?"
"Because we must be a free people, Greatgrandmother. So far our freedom here, in this valley, on this planet, has been bought and paid for by these humans, our friends. But freedom can't be given. It must be taken and held and defended. Our freedom has to be our own creation."
"Brave talk, Toby. You may reconsider when you see the bodies piled high. Your great-grandfather did."

But it was Toby who interested me. This was her ancestral home. A place she had never seen, but that must, in some way, be part of the substructure of her Hork-Bajir mind. She was staring out of the window with curiosity, even fascination. But Hork-Bajir faces show little emotion. What she felt, if anything,
remained a mystery.

"I've never heard of Yeerks using Arn hosts," Toby said. "I understood the Arn spared themselves that by altering their own physiology."

"Toby is already home," I said. Toby looked up sharply. The idea surprised
her. "This is your home world, Toby."

Aldrea stopped finally and rested. She watched the others catch up. More specifically,
she watched Toby. The young Hork-Bajir seer was blazing through the trees, smiling, laughing.


"The Hork-Bajir symbol for undying love," Toby told the others. "It sounds as if it contains the Andalite letters "A" and "D," as well."


"I want this attack to succeed!" Aldrea shouted. "I don't want a wasted, futile effort. You
humans are just children! What do you know about fighting the Yeerks?"
"They know quite a bit, Great-grandmother," Toby said.

<Young Toby will lead them,> the Andalite said, turning his stalk eyes toward my great-granddaughter. Toby had her back to us. She had been working with the Arn, learning from him. A strange couple: the last remnant of the race that had made the Hork-Bajir to serve in simplicity and ignorance, and the living example of the Arns' failure. She was so like Dak when I first met him. Before the battles. Before I had led Dak to serve the Andalite will.
"No," I said suddenly. "No, Toby will not lead them. Her place is with her people, on Earth.
Someone, some part of Dak and Seerow and me, will survive to do something besides fighting a war."
<I do not believe she will go voluntarily,> Ax said. <She believes this is her duty.>


<And one thing more,> she said. She turned our gaze to Toby. A young Hork-Bajir seer who would, at least in my last dreams, guide her people to freedom.