Morph the Leerans,"; I said.

.all yes!"; the Leerans cried. ..all yes, morph us. Take our water jets. As long as you stay away from other Leerans, you will be safe from psychic probing."; Cassie said, We don't like to--"; .all yes,"; a Leeran responded, reading her thoughts. ..ally do not like to morph sentient creatures. You respect our freedom. But we offer you this freely. We have read what is in the mind of Aximili the Andalite. We know what he suspects, and we know that even among the Andalites there are traitors. So, friends, carry our DNA and help to free our people from the Yeerks."; We rose to the surface. I demorphed. The humans demorphed. We lay there treading water, rising and falling on the gentle Leeran swells. The Leeran sun was still low on the horizon, coming up on another day. It turned the water golden around us.

I reached and pressed my hand against a Leeran's slimy yellow flesh.

..Where sky meets sea, Andalite, human, and Leeran are joined as allies,"; my Leeran said. ..Each with our weaknesses.

Each with our strengths."; It moved me somehow, as ludicrous as it might have looked to an outsider. Humans and an Andalite wallowing clumsily beside big, yellow "psychic frogs," as Marco called them.

Three species on a world conquered by the Yeerks.

We probably would have seemed pathetic to any Yeerk who happened to see us.

A fellow Andalite told me we were weak because we are not united. We do not speak with one voice,"; I said. But this union does not feel weak."; Free people who get together to defend freedom are never weak."; It was Marco who said that. Maybe you can see why, despite all their strangeness, I like humans. And I was starting to like Leerans.

We let the Leerans go their own way to their underwater caves to recover from their injuries.

And we began what might be the most bizarre morph any of us has ever done. The physical part was strange, but no more disturbing than any number of Earth creatures I've morphed. The powerful webbed feet in back, the four sinuous tentacles, the neckless head were almost ordinary compared to the body of a fly or a cockroach.

It was the new sense that was stunning: the psychic sense. It wasn't that I could read every thought in the heads of Prince Jake and Cassie and Marco.

But I could feel enough of their secrets to be embarrassed for them. And, of course, for myself.

Because my own secrets, my vain little ideas, my pretensions were all open to them as well.

I could see so clearly that Marco was hoping for some news of his mother, Visser One. He wondered if she was here on Leera, if she had survived our last encounter.

I could see and feel Prince Jake's crushing weight of responsibility. The way he kept running things through in his mind, over and over again. Trying to figure out what had happened to Tobias and Rachel. Desperate to find a way to protect the rest of us.

And I could feel Cassie's mind as she cried for Rachel and Tobias. As she wondered whether we were doing the right thing. As she dealt with the aftereffects of the violence we'd just endured.

Well,"; Marco said, obviously uncomfortable. I would just like you all to know that whatever thoughts of mine you're reading are totally made up. They aren't real."; Same here,"; Prince Jake said quickly.

Absolutely."; Hey,"; Cassie said, ^the are just morphs to us, right? Lots of times we have trouble controlling the brain of the morph. But we usually handle it. So maybe--"; Maybe since these are just morphs to us, maybe we can turn off the psychic thing!"; Marco said, clutching at the idea.

Then, one by one, I felt their minds close to me. And I closed my own.

It seemed suddenly very lonely as we grabbed the water jets and rode away through the brilliantly alive sea. Suddenly very lonely.

But I guess each species feels most comfortable when they are just themselves. And for humans and Andalites, secrets and lies and the loneliness of privacy are natural.

We passed through a loose ring of Leeran-Controllers set up around the far edges of the City of Worms. None challenged us. We were riding Yeerk-issued water jets, and we stayed far enough off that no one could read our thoughts.

The Leeran city rose from the seabed like a wondrous tower, perhaps half a thousand feet wide at its base, dwindling to a few dozen feet at the very top. The top pressed right against the sparkling water ceiling, up to the border between sea and sky.

At the very top, huge fans sucked in air and blew out exhaust from the entire city.

The city itself violated every logical law, at least as far as Andalites or humans were concerned.

Andalites and humans are accustomed to moving in two dimensions, left and right, forward and back.

But in the water, up and down were just as likely as left or right.

It looks like a gigantic Dairy Queen cone, poked full of a million holes,"; Cassie said. Look! Doors everywhere.

Windows and doors all the same."; The predominant color was pink. But there was blue and green and purple as well, in vast swatches of seemingly random color. Openings were everywhere. Leerans drifted in and out and around and through, a hundred feet up, twenty feet below us, everywhere.

And like some slow-motion tornado, the long, electric-blue worms swam around and around the City of Worms. They formed an eerie halo.

Even as strangers, we could tell the city was tense. There were weapons poking from many of the windows.

And nestled up against the base of the city, floating free, were two craft I'd seen only in pictures: Andalite submarines.

Are those good guys or bad guys?"; Prince Jake asked, gazing at the submarines.

Or a little of each?"; Marco asked dryly.

They are Andalite vessels,"; I said.

Let's go say hello,"; Prince Jake said.

We swam toward the submarines. As we got nearer we could see that a transparent tunnel had been set up between the subs and the city.

Andalite warriors were rushing through the tunnel on urgent errands, their tails cocked and ready.

Down we went, sifting air from the water with our Leeran skin. Down we went, expecting at any moment to be challenged, even shot. But we passed through dozens of Leerans who made no move to stop us.

It's the psychic thing,"; Cassie said.

They know who we are and why we're here."; Then I guess they know who we're looking for,"; Prince Jake said.

And to my amazement, an answer came. It was a vision that filled my head: a sort of arrow showing a doorway we should enter.

Ooookay,"; Marco said. I guess we follow the yellow brick road."; We entered the city through one of the thousands of windows. I don't know what I expected inside, but it wasn't what I found. The tower was merely a shell. Inside were seven or eight, maybe more, huge, floating, transparent bubbles. In each bubble there were levels, a dozen or more floors. There were open holes in the bottoms of the bubbles. Some seemed to be filled with water. Others were filled with air. All contained Leerans doing work, sleeping, living. And one, mostly air, contained perhaps two dozen Andalites on one floor.

We entered the bubble from the bottom and stepped out at last onto dry ground. Two Andalite warriors were waiting.

Demorph,"; one said curtly. The Leerans have told us who you are. Commander Galuit is waiting."; So humility is just not something you Andalites do, is it?"; Marco asked.

We demorphed. It felt good to be Andalite again. But I was worried. I was nervous. I had given my word to Prince Jake that he, and only he, would decide whose orders I should obey. It had seemed easy to make that promise before. But now we were going to see Galuit! The idea of saying no to him ... it made me gasp.