The Invasion (32 page)

I realized I’d been wrong to be hopeful.

We were not going to make it.

F
rom Visser Three’s Andalite body, the creature grew. Tall as a tree, towering over even Rachel. Eight massive legs. Eight long, spindly arms, each ending in a three-fingered claw. And from the place where the top set of arms grew came the heads.

Heads. Plural. Eight of them. This creature had a thing for the number eight.

Even the Hork-Bajir-Controllers backed away. Even they didn’t want to be near Visser Three when he morphed this way.

But the Taxxons edged in closer, crowding around
their leader like a pack of hungry dogs looking for table scraps.

I was frozen in terror. Stunned. Even the tiger that was a part of me was confused and worried.

I had started to think that with our morphed bodies we could take on anything. But we couldn’t take on this monster. Not and survive.

Run!
I yelled to the others.
Up the stairs!

Cassie nudged two of the humans from the cages and tossed back her head. They figured out what she wanted and climbed on her back. Then she galloped toward the stairs.

Yes, run,
Visser Three crowed.
It makes a more challenging target.

Then, Visser Three struck.

From one of the heads a round, spinning ball of flame erupted. A ball of flame that flew like a missile.

It skimmed through the air and splatted against the back of one of the women riding Cassie.

“Ahhhh!” She fell off, screaming and rolling around to put out the flames. Cassie kept going with only one rider. She reached the base of the stairs.

Target practice!
Visser Three laughed. He fired fireball after fireball, one head after another.

One singed my shoulder and flew past. One hit Rachel in the ear and made her scream in my head and trumpet in terror.

The air was full of fire.

We have to get out of here!
Marco yelled.

Yes, run! Run for the stairs!
I repeated.
Rachel! Get moving! Clear a path!