I blinked. Even that little motion hurt like hell. I felt like my skin was on fire. I tried to suck in a breath of air, but instead got a lung full of smoke. "Ecch!" I choked. I began coughing crazily. I had to clear my lungs! Had to . . . I needed air! I needed to breathe . . .

"Jake, wake up."

I opened my eyes. It hadn't hurt as much as the last time. "What happened?" I murmured. Then it all came back to me -- the laser cutting through the controls, the ship beginning to nose-dive, the crash, the explosion -- I noticed Loren looking down at me, concern on her face. "Are we alive?"

She nodded. "As alive as we can be. The Yeerks are all dead, even Visser Six. You're secret's safe for now."

"How did we get out of the ship?" I asked, struggling to sit up. "I thought for sure we were dead."

"Tycoola and Arbron came back for us," I heard Tobias say from behind me. "Managed to pull us all out just before the wreckage blew up."

"I've been trying to reach Cha-Nab for hours, but I can't get through," Loren added. "But, we're all in one piece, none of us have crossed over -- that's good, I guess."

I looked around at our surroundings for the first time. Everyone was there. I could see Tycoola and Mat, Strike, Arbron in his natural shape, there was Ax standing on three legs while favoring the fourth, and . . . "Where's Cassie?" I asked when I didn’t see her. I knew my voice was trembling.

"Right here, Jake," she said from behind me.

I spun around as well as I could without falling flat on my face. A searing pain ripped through my spine, but I ignored it. And there she was. Kneeling on the ground just a few feet away.

I couldn't stop myself. I just crawled over to her, threw my arms around her, and kissed her from pure relief. When we broke apart a minute later, I just cried into her shoulder. I don't know why I did. I just felt like I needed to cry.

"Shh, Jake, we're all okay," she said, holding me. "Come on, pull yourself together. We need you."

I took a few deep breaths and nodded. Pulling away from her, I looked over at Loren. She didn’t seem to be hurt at all. "How did you manage not to be injured?"

"I projected an astral plane around the nine of us," she said. "It saved me from any injury, and protected you. If I hadn't done it, we would've all been dead."

"Where are we?" I wondered. From what I could tell, we were inside a cave. There weren't a lot of trees near it, so I could see the smoke coming from the wreckage. "And how did we get here?"

"Tycoola and Arbron flew us all here. It was as far as they could get us before the ship blew. Both of them were hit by shrapnel," Tobias said. "As for injuries, Cassie's the one who's been messing with that."

"I haven't had a chance to really look," she added, still holding my hand. "I just checked to see if everyone was alive. I figured that the most important part right now."

I nodded. "It was. Now we need to see who can walk out of here, and who needs help. Because we need to get back to Elysia."

"Since there's no way of telling where we are, we could be very far from Elysia. I do know we flew over at least one ravine, which divides each ring into territories and communities, so there's a chance we might not even be in Elysia," Loren said.

"Doesn't matter," Tobias said. "We have to get there. Do you think they saw the explosion?"

<Definitely,> Arbron said. <You were all unconscious, but Tycoola and I saw the explosion. It was huge. I bet half the ring saw it.>

I sighed. "I don't really care if they saw it or not. What I care about right now is who needs help and who can make it on their own, at least for a little while. Because I have a feeling we have a very long way to go."

Loren had no injuries, so she helped me check over everyone. I wanted to start with Jake, but he insisted on him last. He wasn't critical.

I was kneeling beside Tobias, who was holding his arm gingerly to his chest. "Well, doc, what's the verdict?" he asked, grinning. I pressed him gently on the elbow, and he winced.

"Nothing much," I replied. "I think you just have a dislocated elbow and a cracked shoulder. We'll have to keep your arm in a sling for now. Your mother will get you one."

"My mother," Tobias muttered. "You know, Cassie, I don't feel too comfortable referring to her that way. Not yet. So . . . ?"

I smiled. "Loren will get you one."

"Thanks," he said, smiling a little. Then he turned to Loren, who was tearing up shirts and stuff to make bandages.

Arbron was perfectly fine, since he'd been hit in morph and had since then morphed out. He was keeping Ax company while I checked his leg. "Ax, can you move it at all?"

He started to raise his leg up off the ground. <Ahhh!> he cried out in pain. <Oh, it hurts it hurts it hurts! Damn, it hurts!>

"It must really be hurting," I muttered to Arbron, "if he's cussing." Then I turned back to Ax. "Okay. You obviously did something to that leg, but without an X-ray, I can't help you. So what I'm going to do right now is have you use this big stick as a cane." I handed him a stick that was lying on the cave floor. "It's sturdy enough, and it'll act just like a fourth leg. Arbron, help him over to Loren. I want that leg bandaged as well as possible." He nodded and started leading a hobbling Ax over to where Loren was sitting.

Tycoola had been hit by a piece of shrapnel. "Broken wing," I reported. I could tell immediately from the way her wing bent back at a very awkward angle. "Loren or Arbron, hand me some bandages."

Arbron obliged. I grabbed a very thick branch off the ground and handed it to Tycoola. "Stick that in your mouth and bite down hard," I ordered. "This is going to hurt. I'm going to pop your bone back in place, then tie this bandaged around your wing and slip it under your arm. Got it?" She nodded. "On the count of three. One," I pushed the bone back in place suddenly. Tycoola bit right through the stick and still ended up screeching in pain.

"You said three!" she exclaimed accusingly.

"Yeah, and you would've tensed up on three," I replied as I tied the strip of fabric in place. "This'll be uncomfortable for awhile, but at least your wing won't heal crookedly.

Strike was waiting patiently for her turn. I ran my hand along the long cut that ran along her side. "Superficial," I said. "Nothing's broken, and there's no infection. Report to Loren to dress that wound."

"Cassie!" Jake shouted from across the cave where he was sitting next to Mat Hewk. "Is this normal?"

I hurried over. Mat was lying flat on his back. I realized immediately what Jake was referring to. Mat's eyes were fluttering open and shut, and every time he took a breath, I could hear a faint gurgling in the back of his throat. "Mat?" I called. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him lightly. "Mat Hewk, can you hear me? It's Cassie."

Suddenly he began to shake. "Arbron, Loren, get over here and help me!" I yelled. They raced over. "Hold him down," I ordered.

"Cassie, what's happening?" Jake asked, his voice shaking. "What's wrong with him?"

I didn't answer him. "He can't breathe," I said. "There's blood or saliva or something collecting in his throat, and he can't breathe. Quick, I need something sharp. Like a knife or something."

Fortunately, Jake had his Swiss Army knife in his back pocket. He quickly handed it to me. Taking a deep breath and reminding myself that I'd done it several times, I proceeded to cut open a small hole in where I hoped was Mat's windpipe. "Somebody bring me a tube," I shouted. "A straw or something."

"How about a piece of hose?" Tobias asked. "There's one attached to this laser over here."

I just handed out my hand.

The hose was just big enough to fit inside the hole I had made. I needed to keep it open. Then, using a few bandages, I wrapped it around the rest of his neck so I could stop the breathing. The gurgling stopped, and he stopped shaking. But he was still unconscious.

I sank back and took a few more deep breaths. <Is he going to be all right?> Arbron asked with concern.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I've never performed a tracheotomy on a Hork-Bajir before. I was going on instinct. It'll be touch and go, especially if he doesn't wake up."

"And if he doessss?" Strike asked.

I sighed. "I'd give him a 50-50 chance of survival if he wakes up. More is we can get him to a decent hospital, less if he stays unconscious."

"But we can't move him," Jake said. "None of us are strong enough, and he's in a precarious balance right now."

"So we're stuck here until Mat decides what he wants to do," Tycoola sighed.

Decide to live, Mat, I pleaded silently. Please don't make us leave anyone behind.

Cassie said my scratch was superficial. I was glad about this, and I trusted her a lot. For a human, she's not bad.

Mat Hewk's in worse shape than anyone else, even though very few people are walking around without injury. Jake hurt his back, so he won't be doing much but walking, and even Cassie hurt her wrist. Other than that, thanks to Loren's powers, we're all okay. Except for Mat.

We were all taking turns keeping an eye on him, and it was Arbron's turn for watch when Jake decided to call together a meeting. Even Loren is usually Elfangor's second-in-command, everyone was looking towards Jake for this mission. Even Loren. "We need to figure out what to do," Jake said once we were all assembled, more or less.

"We need to find the nearessst community," I pointed out. "Mat needsss a doctor."

Jake nodded. "Arbron." Arbron looked up. "You said that you could tell from the trees what kind of community this is. Can you estimate what we've got here?"

Arbron got up from where he was keeping an eye on Mat and slipped outside of the cave. A minute later he slipped back in. <A lot of the trees are burned from the wreck,> he reported, <but a handful are still intact. I'd estimate from the few that I can see that we've got humans, Iskoort, Pemalites, and either Arn or Hork-Bajir. Since both of them are native to the same planet, their trees are very similar -- this one's about half burned so I can't really tell.>

"I'd go up top and check it out, but my wing is useless," Tycoola said dejectedly. She didn't like it when she couldn't use her wings.

"I'll go," Tobias offered.

Jake shook his head firmly. "No. You're arm is injured pretty badly -- and you know it'll become a wing. The pain might be so bad that you get knocked out in the process of morphing. I don't want to take the risk."

<A kafit would be too noticeable,> Arbron muttered, <even if there aren't any Andalites around.>

"Do we know for sure if there aren't?" Loren asked.

<No.>

Suddenly Cassie clapped her hands. "But there could be, right? Arbron, did some of those trees look Andalite to you?"

<Sort of,> he said, turning his stalk eyes to look at her, but keeping his main eyes focused on Mat. <I mean, yeah, but they were pretty badly burned.>

"Ax," Cassie said, looking at him. "Remember when you were trapped in the remains of your Dome ship? You sent out a thought-speak distress signal. If you do that here, do you think Andalites would come?"

<Any decent Andalite would come to help a fallen comrade,> he replied. Then, with a touch of scorn, he muttered, <Any decent Andalite.>

"What'sss that about?" I hissed in Tobias' ear.

"Don't do that," he said, rubbing his ear where my tongue had flicked him. "It has to do with the time when we encountered some Andalites about a year ago, and their captain turned out being a traitor. An entire crew of Andalites lost their lives."

I was shocked. Arbron and Elfangor had never said anything about Andalites being traitors. Traitors were common among my people, but I hadn't thought it possible for Andalites.

Ax and Arbron linked hands and closed their eyes -- all of them. I hoped their distress call would work. I wasn't entirely sure how the call would work, but I prayed some Andalite would hear it. Maybe even Elfangor would hear it.

Both my stomachs began to growl at me. "Jake?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to need to get sssssome food," I said. "I can't be the only one hungry."

"She's right, man," Tobias agreed. "We need food."

Jake groaned. "I don't even want to think about the different things everybody eats. Okay. Who here knows what everyone eats?"

Loren looked up. "I do. I can look in the immediate area and see if there's anything around."

"Go for it," Jake said, "but keep the cave within your line of vision."

Loren nodded and hurried off.

Once again my stomachs growled.

The terrain was very different from Elysia. More like a jungle instead of a forest. I hoped that didn't mean it would have jungle animals, too. I didn't really need to see a leopard or crocodile or something right now. Or worse, I added.

I didn't need to worry about anything for Arbron and Ax, since there was a patch of grass right outside the cave for them to use. Mat wasn’t going to be eating anything until he woke up, but just in case, I scraped some tree bark off the only Hork-Bajir tree that was still standing.

There was a bush full of berries about six feet away, and I could tell they weren't poisonous, so I grabbed a handful for us humans. "It'll have to do," I muttered when I saw how few of the berries were ripe enough to eat without making you sick. Then I started searching for something for Tycoola and Strike.

They were going to be the hardest. Farsights are grazers, despite their looks of a bird of prey. The only problem was, if they ate leaves that were glossed on one side, they'd get extremely sick. Only a few trees in the entire jungle had leaves like that, and many of them had been burned. This was not a Farsight environment.

Strike was a little easier. She just ate something with meat. I managed to find a dead rabbit that had gotten caught in the fire from the crash. It seemed out of place in the jungle, but some of the trees were human, so it made sense that some of the animals would be, too.

Armed with my small food supply, I walked back into the cave. Arbron was helping Ax graze, but when they saw me they ducked back into the cave.

"Okay," I said, "I've got something for everyone. There's bark for Mat when he wakes up, I've got berries for us omnivores, some leaves for Tycoola, and since both of your stomachs are complaining, Strike, I got you this." I tossed her the rabbit. "It's a little overcooked, but . . ."

"But it'ssss food," she hissed. Tobias, Cassie, Jake, and Ax, who had never seen an Alleri serpent eat before, watched in fascination as Strike wrapped her entire mouth around the rabbit and swallowed without even chewing. "Thankssss, Loren," she replied.

I divided up the berries into even piles, just enough for each of us. "Hopefully, once we start moving, there will be more good along the way," Jake said. "How far do you estimate we are from Elysia?"

<At most?> Arbron asked. <About six communities. At least, we're one community away.>

This was not good news.

<I'm not getting any reply from the distress signal,> Ax said. <Noth -- wait! I'm picking something up.>

Arbron suddenly doubled over. <AAhhHHH! So am I. And I hurts!>

Suddenly both of them stopped. They were shaking. <It stopped. Suddenly,> Ax said. <Whoever was sending it got cut off.>

Then, I wasn't in the cave. I was standing at the edge of an unfamiliar community. People were running around, screaming.

And at the very far end of the community, coming rapidly closer, was a tangled mass of tentacles and wires and vines. It was eating up everything in sight. Beyond the thing was -- whiteness. There was nothing there. Nothing.

Then, suddenly, I was staring at Tobias. "Are you okay?" he asked, swallowing a berry and making a face. "Too bad you ate all that rabbit, Strike. I could've used some."

It was Arbron who noticed the look of distress on my face. <Loren? What happened? Did you have another vision?>

I nodded, still too stunned to speak. I knew there was only one thing that thing of destruction could've been. <What was it?> he probed.

"It's here," I whispered. "The virus. It's on the fourth ring."

This wasn't very good news. <Was that what the other distress call was about?> I asked.

She nodded. "I'm going to guess, yeah. I think it just made the transition over from the third ring, so it was pretty tired. This community is right where it entered. I could see the other end of the ring behind it. Whether it goes right or left will determine our fate, and Elysia's. If it goes right, it'll buy us some time. If it goes left, it'll be right on our heels. Or it could go both."

"Either way, we have to move now," Prince Jake snapped. "Tired or not, we can't get caught by that thing. Now it's even more important that we get back to Elysia. We have to warn them."

"Do you think they found Marco's mother?" Cassie asked.

"Marco's mother?" Tobias repeated.

<Long story,> I said. <We'll tell you on the way.>

Strike was looking at Mat Hewk. "What about Mat?" she asked in a quavering voice.

Everyone looked at Jake. He seemed to be struggling. "We have to leave him," he said finally. "I don't want to do it, but we can't take the time to figure out how to bring him along. "

<It's the only way, Strike,> Arbron said gently. He placed a comforting hand on Strike's neck. <Mat wouldn't want us to sacrifice ourselves to save him.>

Strike apparently noticed this. She nodded her head and touched Mat's limp hand with her snout. "Maybe he'll wake up and come after ussss," she said, but I could tell she didn't believe it.

"Come on," Prince Jake called from outside the cave. "We have to move as fast as we possibly can. Even you, Ax."

Loren was the best tracker we had, so she stayed near the front. As we rounded the side of cave, he stopped us suddenly. "Just a reminder," he said, looking straight at me. "I already told this to one of you before, but I think I better tell the rest. None of you have permission to get killed. No matter how heroic it is. If one of us can't possibly go on, then the rest have to continue. Understand?"

We all nodded. "Good. Let's go."

So we started for Elysia, a little group of eight.

When there should've been nine.

Smack.

"Ow," I said as my wing once again hit another low tree branch.

Smack.

"Ow."

Tobias looked over his shoulder and glared at me. "Are you going to keep doing that?"

"Doing what?" I demanded. "It's not like I'm purposely trying to hit my wing against tree branches."

Loren was up ahead, scanning the skies. "I think it might have gone right," she said. "But we should still keep moving, just in case it decides to turn around."

"If it did go right, how long 'till it reaches Elysia?" Jake asked. He was limping towards the front of the group, but unlike me, he wasn't complaining.

She shrugged. "A week, maybe two."

"Let's hope we reach Elysia first."

Pretty much all of us were in agreement on that.

Smack. "Ow."

Tobias whirled around. "Will you just shut-up? You're not the only one with a broken limb, you know!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I know," I replied testily. "I also don't see anyone else with a broken wing that keeps hitting tree branches."

<Will you both shut up?> Ax practically shouted. <Tycoola, quit complaining. Tobias, quit reprimanding.>

"You're telling me to shut up? She started it!" Tobias whined.

Loren spun around. "Tobias," she growled.

"ENOUGH!" Jake yelled at the top of his lungs. He couldn't exactly turn around to look at us, but he started yelling at us anyway. "I know we're all tired. I know we're all hungry. I know we're all hurt. I know we're all upset about Mat Hewk. But we have to get over it. We're the only hope Elysia has, because we're the only ones who know that the freakin' virus has arrived ahead of schedule! So everybody pipe down, quit complaining, and just march!"

We all stared at Jake in shock. That was the most he'd ever yelled since the Bug fighter had crashed.

According to Cassie, Tobias, and Ax, Jake doesn't yell much at all.

But when he does, it's a good idea to just do exactly what he says.

So we stopped complaining and basically fell very silent.

<Hup two three four! Hup two three four!>

Jake sighed deeply. "Arbron, what did I just say?"

Arbron stopped chanting and looked sheepish. <You said you wanted us to march,> he said pathetically.

"Great," Tobias muttered, "we've got a stand-in Marco."

I couldn't help but smile. Jake gave Tobias and me another look, glanced at Arbron and just shook his head, then started walking again, using a stick Cassie had given him as a cane every time he reached a tough spot.

<Oops,> Ax sad meekly.

"What happened now?" Jake demanded in exasperation.

<Prince Jake, I'm afraid that I broke the walking stick Cassie is making me use.>

We had to take a five minute time-out while Cassie went hunting for a big enough stick for Ax to use.

When we finally started walking again, we had already wasted about thirty minutes. In the back of my mind, I thought about all the destruction the virus had done in that thirty minutes. With that in mind, I picked up the pace, not even caring anymore about the fact that my wing smacked into a dozen more low branches.

Suddenly Tobias stopped. "What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "Jake's stopped."

"What's going on?" I called up to Jake. Strike was waiting impatiently behind me. Alleri serpents don't like to be kept waiting for too long.

"We reached a ravine!" Loren called back. "I can see the trees on the other side -- I don't think it's Elysia, but maybe we can make it to their community and warn them, at least. And maybe they can tell us where we are."

"How big issss the ravine?" Strike hissed.

"Can't be too big if Loren can see across it," Cassie said.

<That's not the problem,> Arbron called back.

"Then what is the problem?" I demanded.

Loren turned to look at us. "It's the crossing bride," she said, referring to the stone and wood bridges that cross each ravine to connect the communities. "It's in pretty bad shape. Either we take our chances going across, and hope it doesn't give out beneath us, or we climb down the rock cliffs."

"We have to walk across," Jake said. "Some of us can't climb."

I saw the bridge then. I didn't like what I saw. In many places of the bridge, the wood had rotted out, leaving the stone. Including a five foot portion right in the middle, right across the deepest and most dangerous part of the ravine.

It wasn't the fact that the bridge was very high off the ground that scared me.

It was the fact that there wasn't anything below you to catch you if you fell.

"Jake, morphing would be a good idea right now," I muttered.

He shook his head. "Cassie doesn't want any of us morphing. Too dangerous with these injuries. Morphing doesn't usually hurt, but there's chance we might black out or something. That wouldn't be good."

"Jake, if Ax doesn't morph or something, he's gonna have one hell of a time getting over that thing."

Jake glanced back at Ax, who was hobbling along at a very slow pace. He'd been one of the reasons we were moving so slow. He sighed. "Ax," he said.

<Yes, Prince Jake?>

"I want you to morph something that'll get you over this bridge. Horse, maybe. The rest of us better keep an eye on him while he does. If it goes over okay, then I want Tobias and Cassie to try," Jake said. I could see that he wasn't sure if he was making the right decision or not.

Ax began to morph. The morph went from the head down. First his head changed and distorted, growing larger. His stalk eyes combined with his ears to form horse ears, his tail split into several strands and became long horse hair. A mane sprouted from his head and back.

But what we were concerned about was the legs. The first three changed without any problem at all. Then the fourth one began to change, becoming thicker and muscular. <Ahh! Ah Ah! That hurts.> But he got through the morph.

"Okay," Jake said. "Ax? How are you doing?"

<I'm fine, Prince Jake.>

"Cassie, Tobias, your up. Arbron are you going to be okay in your own body?>

Cassie and I were morphing when Arbron answered that yes, yes he was fine in his own body.

<We're ready, Jake,> Cassie said a moment later. <Now it's your turn.>

Jake closed his eyes and began to morph. He had more trouble than the rest of us, since his entire back was injured and the twisting spine during the morph was rough on him. But he was fine when he finished morphing.

<Everyone ready?> Jake asked a moment later.

Slowly, one by one, everyone said yes.

<Let's go,> he said. <But take it easy. Don't rush. I don't want anyone to think that this would be a good time to go skydiving or anything. Remember: you don't have permission to get killed . . . >

<No matter how heroic you think it might be,> Cassie, Ax, and I chorused. We'd heard it a million times already.

Jake snorted in indignation. "Come on," he said, moving forward.

I was closest to the bridge, so I went first. Slowly, cautiously, I placed one hoof the stone. Then another. Then my back hooves. I stood for a moment, getting my bearings.

Then, wondering if I was crazy, because a horse definitely doesn't belong twenty miles in the air, I started to move slowly forward.

I was not a happy Andalites.

Andalites belong in large grassy fields with a stream or two and lots of trees. Not stepping across a narrow, broken stone bridge over a ravine about a million feet deep. That's just not a good idea. Maybe I should've morphed the kafit bird after all, I thought to myself.

But it was too late now. I was already about halfway across the bridge. I was last, directly behind Strike. Tobias had just about reached the other side of the bridge, and he was practically shaking with relief. There was about two feet between each of us so we wouldn't bump into each other accidentally. I was actually three feet behind Strike. The last thing I needed was the get smacked in the face with her three foot long tail.

<Can you move a little faster?> I asked her.

"No" she hissed. "Would you like me to accidentally ssssslither off the sssside if thisssss rock?"

Actually, I didn't. Not even close. Even though my unofficial job in the Core is to pester the heck out of Strike, I actually kind of like her. As serpents go, she's not bad. We're good friends, so she doesn't take any of the stuff I say personally. Unless she's really in a bad mood.

I clammed up. She was obviously in one of her moods.

"Watch out up here," she called back. "There'ssss a weak sssspot in the sstone."

I've gotten in plenty trouble for not paying attention. Ask anyone. Especially Elfangor, since he's the one who's made sure I've gotten the trouble. But it's never really hurt me much.

I stepped onto the stone. At the same time, I stepped on a pebble, which lodged itself into my hoof. <Uh oh,> I said. <I have a rock stuck in my hoof.>

"Jusssst keep moving," Strike said.

I did, but I was a little off balance now. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I reached the problem spot that Strike had pointed out.

That's when my hoof slid out from under me as a rock went crumbling off the side. <Whoa-oa-oa!> I screamed as my leg folded beneath me. By combined weight slammed into the bridge, and the slab beneath me began to give out.

<Whoa-oa-oa!>

I whipped my head around just in time to see Arbron crash onto the bridge. An already formed crack began to get bigger and bigger. "ARBRON!" I cried. I curled myself up as tight possible, whipped my head around so that my body was in a U-shape, and wrapped my tail around his arm. I wrapped my upper body around a ruined stone pillar that jutted out of the bridge. "JAKE, TYCOOLA, LOREN! HELP!"

I could already hear Tycoola scrambling back towards me as fast as she could. Arbron wrapped his arm around my tail and tried pulling himself back up. But Andalite arms are useless for that kind of thing.

Arbron focused all four of his eyes up at me. <Don't let go, Strike,> he pleaded. <Please -- don't let go.>

"I'm not letting go of you, Arbron," I promised.

I felt Tycoola grabbed me and start pulling. I could feel my tail inching back bit by bit, and I could see Arbron rising slowly. I could also see the blackness of the ravine below him. I couldn't see the ravine bottom -- it was too far down.

"Hold on, you guys," Tycoola said as she began pulling up Arbron.

Beneath me, I could feel the bridge shifting slightly. My hold on the rock got looser before I realized what was happening. The rock was sliding out from underneath me, too! Arbron noticed it, and his main eyes widened. Then they narrowed defiantly.

<Let go, Strike,> he said. <It's time to let go of me.>

I shook my head. "I promissed I wouldn't let you go."

<Strike, if you don’t let go, we're both going to drop, and you're going to drag Tycoola, Loren, and everyone else in after you. You need to let go. Now.>

"Never," I hissed. But my hold on the bridge was loosening. Any minute now the stone was going to fall out from under me. The only thing keeping it in place was Tycoola, but even she wouldn't be enough soon. "Tycoola."

"What?"

"Let go." I don't know what made me say that. All I knew was that I was not letting go of Arbron.

Tycoola was horrified. "No way, Strike!"

"Let go now!" I whipped my head around and snapped my jaws at her. Startled, she jumped back. Her hold loosened. "No!" she screamed as I pulled out of her grasp.

The rock began to slide. I looked back at Arbron. He was staring up at me. He had been the only one who ever really understood me. He'd been my closest friend. "Friends to the death, remember?" I whispered.

He swallowed. <To the death,> he repeated. I inched forward and brought my head down near his. I could hear Tycoola trying to grab me.

"I love you, Arbron," I whispered. I don't know if he heard me or not.

Then the rock gave out . . .