Exile (13 page)
Authors: Kathryn Lasky
An Old Friend
S
he’s up there in the garden. Just fly straight up.” Matron, the burly Short-eared Owl who was head of the nursing staff, directed.
“Yes, ma’am. I thank you so much!” the Spotted Owl said. His speech was tinged with the Krakish burr.
He flew around the tree until he came to what was called the starboard side crotch, where another trunk branched off from the main one. It was his first visit ever to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and he marveled at the array of subsidiary trunks that split from the main one and loomed toward the sky like a maze of radiating spires soaring into the night. The tree was truly as remarkable as he had heard.
Cleve had been intrigued when he had learned of the hanging garden that Otulissa had cultivated in the lower part of the canopy in the soil that collected in the tree lap.
He paused as he caught sight of her perched on a mossy hump. Her back was to him. He did not want to startle her. She seemed to be studying the stalks of a cladonia, one of the most beautiful lichens.
“Vreeling cladonia mich vaargen, scmuttz engen guneer gunden,” Cleve spoke softly.
Otulissa gasped. Her gizzard shuddered. She dared not turn around. Was she dreaming? This could not be true. Someone was speaking to her in beautiful Krakish about the amazing diversity of cladonia lichen. It had been so long since she had heard Krakish spoken.
She slowly turned around. Tears spilled from her one good eye. “Bisshen ninga Krakish y faar son.”
“You speak lovely Krakish, Otulissa. I never forgot your voice. I never will.”
“Cleve! Cleve!” That was all she could say. Her gizzard quaked with so many emotions that she could hardly speak.
He is still so handsome. How could he ever…
But he had flown right up to her and wrapped her in his wings. “I have missed you, Otulissa.”
“But, Cleve, I am so different now.”
“You are the same beautiful, smart Spotted Owl that I fell in love with long ago.”
She extricated herself from his wings and raised a talon and tore off the bandanna. The pit where her
eye had been had healed but the scar was still fresh. “Look at me!”
“What do you take me for, Otulissa? It is the whole owl you are that matters.”
“But, Cleve, I got this wound in battle. You are a gizzard-resister. I am a warrior. That is why we parted, remember?”
“I remember.”
“Have you changed?”
“No. Have you?”
Otulissa didn’t answer but looked down at her talons. What was she to say? She wasn’t just a warrior, but she still believed that there were times when force was called for.
“I thought so.” Cleve nodded. “You haven’t changed and nor have I. But, Otulissa, we are both much more than we were. You are more than a warrior, and I am more than a gizzard-resister. I am a healer now, an herbalist. That was what I was studying at the retreat. You see, we are both more than the sum of our parts. And together…”
I can’t believe this is happening
, Otulissa thought. But it was. Could she raise young’uns with only one eye? It seemed to her that it took at least a dozen eyes to keep chicks in order. So what difference did one eye more or less make?
In another part of the tree, in the King’s hollow, Coryn poked at the fire and watched the flames flare up, then settle down. He bent forward. Once again, he was seeking the rich images between in the central plane. These were the shapes that one with firesight sorted out to make some kind of sense from the images. And these were making a kind of sense, though a dreadful one. Coryn saw another cave, not the one in the canyonlands, but an ice-bright cave, and in it he saw two owls huddled. One cast a blue shadow on the wall of ice. The other raised her face. It loomed like a pitted ice moon. Coryn touched the scar that ran down his own face. It was not his own reflection in the flames. It was Nyra’s and, facing her, stood the Striga. His gizzard turned. He was horrified, but at the same instant he felt something stronger and more powerful. For deep in his gizzard, Coryn finally knew that he was free—free from the haunting doubts about his mother, his own blood.
I know at last who I am. And who I am not. I was born of a haggish owl, and though her blood flows through me I am my own owl. My gizzard is mine. I am a king, but more important, I am a Guardian
.
Coryn knew that he needed only courage to make strong the weak, mend the broken, vanquish the proud, and make powerless those who abused the frail. He
reached for the first book of the legends, and placed his talon on it. And began to whisper the oath of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole. “I am the eyes in the night, the silence within the wind. I am the talons through the fire, the shield that guards the innocent…” And finally Coryn thought,
I am free, truly free!
and others
from the
GUARDIANS OF GA’HOOLE SERIES
The Band
SOREN: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba
, from the Forest Kingdom of Tyto; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and close advisor to the King
GYLFIE: Elf Owl,
Micranthene whitneyi
, from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; Soren’s best friend; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and ryb of the navigation chaw
TWILIGHT: Great Gray Owl,
Strix nebulosa
, free flier, orphaned within hours of hatching; Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
DIGGER: Burrowing Owl,
Speotyto cunicularius
, from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; lost in desert after attack in which his brother was killed by owls from St. Aegolius; Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
The Leaders of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
CORYN: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba
, the young king of the great tree; son of Nyra, leader of the Pure Ones
EZYLRYB: Whiskered Screech Owl,
Otus trichopsis
, Soren’s former mentor, the wise, much-loved, departed ryb at the great Ga’Hoole Tree
Others at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
OTULISSA: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis
, chief ryb and ryb of Ga’Hoolology and weather chaws; an owl of great learning and prestigious lineage
MARTIN: Northern Saw-whet Owl,
Aegolius acadicus
, member of the Chaw of Chaws; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
RUBY: Short-eared Owl,
Asio flammeus
, member of the Chaw of Chaws; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
EGLANTINE: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba
, Soren’s younger sister
MADAME PLONK: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca
, the elegant singer of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
MRS. PLITHIVER: blind snake, formerly the nest-maid for Soren’s family; now a member of the harp guild at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
OCTAVIA: Kielian snake, nest-maid for many years for Madame Plonk and Ezylryb (also known as BRIGID)
ELYAN: Great Gray Owl,
Strix nebulosa
, member of the parliament unwholesomely in thrall to the Ember of Hoole
DOC FINEBEAK: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca
, famed freelance tracker once in the employ of the Pure Ones
Characters from the Time of the Legends
GRANK: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis
, the first collier; friend to young King H’rath and Queen Siv during their youth; first owl to find the ember
HOOLE: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis
, son of H’rath; retriever of the Ember of Hoole; founder and first king of the great tree
H’RATH: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis
, king of the N’yrthghar, the frigid region known in later times as the Northern Kingdoms; father of Hoole
SIV: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis
, queen of H’rath of the N’yrthghar; mother of Hoole.
KREETH: Female hagsfiend with strong powers of nacht-magen; friend of Ygryk, conjures Lutta into being
Other Characters
DUNLEAVY MACHEATH: treacherous dire wolf, once leader of the MacHeath clan in Beyond the Beyond
GYLLBANE: courageous member of the MacHeath clan of dire wolves; her pup Cody was maimed by clan leader Dunleavy MacHeath
BESS: Boreal Owl,
Aegolius funerus
, daughter of Grimble, a guard at St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; keeper of the Palace of Mists (also known as THE KNOWER)
BRAITHE: Whiskered Screech Owl,
Otus trichopsis
, owl from Ambala and a memorizer of books; flew with the Greenowls of Ambala to the great tree on Balefire Night
Blue Owls
STRIGA: Blue Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca
, a former dragon owl from the Middle Kingdom seeking a more meaningful life (also known as ORLANDO)
TENGSHU: Blue Long-Eared Owl,
Asio otis
, qui master and sage of the Middle Kingdom
THE
G
UARDIANS
OF G
A
’H
OOLE
Book Fifteen
The War of the Ember
“
A
ll right,” Ruby said, taking a step closer to the others. “You’ve studied the charts. You each know your individual flight plan.”
“Yes,” Fritha answered. “I am to go due east from here into the canyonlands, then circle back west and head for Beyond the Beyond, and head straight out toward the Wolf’s Fang.”
“And you, Wensel?”
“Yes ma’am.” Wensel then repeated the details of his route.
“Excellent!” Bess replied after they had recited their individual flight plans. She accompanied them to the turret
opposite the bell tower and watched them take off into the wildness of the storm. She had to wedge herself into one of the stone turret notches to keep from being swept off. The raging wind blew the cascading water of the falls in horizontal sheets across the night. Trees shuddered, the noise of their branches a drumbeat beneath the wind. Flashes of lightning illuminated the undersides of rolling clouds, giving them a harsh metallic glow, and always that odd whining that sliced through the wind’s roar, splitting it like a talon through tender flesh.
But the three owls were amazing fliers. Bess watched as they lifted off into the teeth of the storm. Catching every favorable draft, they manipulated their wings constantly to adjust to the confusing air currents. There were alarming shifts and abrupt shears where a wind could accelerate or decelerate dramatically, change its direction completely, pocking the air with deadfalls and suck-down vents, which could spell disaster for the average flier. But these were no average fliers. “Glaux speed,” she murmured softly as she saw them dissolve into a thick dark cloud bank. “Glaux speed!”
Book One:
The Capture
Book Two:
The Journey
Book Three:
The Rescue
Book Four:
The Siege
Book Five:
The Shattering
Book Six:
The Burning
Book Seven:
The Hatchling
Book Eight:
The Outcast
Book Nine:
The First Collier
Book Ten:
The Coming of Hoole
Book Eleven:
To Be a King
Book Twelve:
The Golden Tree
Book Thirteen:
The River of Wind
Book Fourteen:
Exile
Book Fifteen:
The War of the Ember
A Guide Book to the Great Tree
Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole
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eISBN: 978-0-545-28345-8
Text copyright © 2008 by Kathryn Lasky.
Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Artwork by Richard Cowdrey Design by Steve Scott
Cover art by Richard Cowdrey
Cover design by Steve Scott
