And then I felt something I had never felt before. Some strange part of
the Howler brain, like an extra sense. My brain had tapped into a pool
of awareness, of knowledge.
Rapid, dizzying flashes of memory. Horrifying images of slaughter,
violence. Not just the Graffen's Children. But species after species.
Planet after planet. I was getting the full, horrific imagery that Erek
had absorbed in a different way.
But this was worse. This wasn't someone else's memory. This was my own.
It was part of me.
And through it all, the massacre of Graffen's Children, the slaughter of
the Mashtimee, the Ron, the Nostnavay, and yes, the Pemalites, the
Howlers felt no anger, no rage.
No one said anything till I was done. And when I was done, I opened my
Howler mind to the collective memory that linked them all.
I searched for the memories we had played for the Howler. I looked in
the great memory pool for some memory of what had occurred on the
Iskoort planet. Nothing. Some memory of us, of five humans and an
Andalite and a Chee and Guide. But there was nothing. No. Not nothing!
Sifting through the collective memory, through the unbroken chain of
horror, I caught a single fugitive image, like a few seconds of film.
Just the picture of Cassie running to me, and our arms and lips and . . .
Jake definately got the collective memory.
