The Coming of Hoole (14 page)
Into a New Night
T
he Golden Talons glowed in the sky directly over the crater of Dunmore. The owls had gathered on the ridge along with Fengo and Namara and several other wolves.
“So,” Fengo said, “it is time for you to go, eh?”
“Yes.” Hoole nodded. “How can I ever thank you for the lessons I have learned from you? Forgive my sometimes impudence.”
“It was not impudence. It was the truth,” Fengo replied, glancing at Namara. “And where shall you go—back to the N’yrthghar?”
Lord Rathnik took a step forward. “I am afraid there is no longer a palace for our king, nor a throne. It fell to the hagsfiends and Lord Arrin in the last battle of the H’rathghar glacier.”
“No matter,” Hoole said quietly. “I need no palace of ice nor a crown to be a good king. I need only a code of honor and a gizzard of good grace.” Hoole looked to the
east where the sun would rise in several hours. “There is an island in that vast boisterous sea of the Southern Kingdoms, and I think that Grank and Theo, Phineas, and Lord Rathnik and his knights of the Ice Regiment of H’rath will fly there with me. The island draws me. It is a special island, I think, with a special tree. And it is there that I shall have my court.”
“Well, Glaux speed you, Hoole,” Fengo said.
“Yes.” Namara came up to Hoole and laid back her ears.
“No. No, Namara. Stand tall and wish me well.”
“Glaux speed,” the golden wolf said with a tear in her eye.
And so the owls rose in that star-scattered night and headed east toward the sea, and as dawn lightened the horizon they could see the crown of an immense tree breaking through the clouds that raced above the layers of fog. As the fog cleared away, Grank gasped when he caught sight of this island and its magnificent tree. The tree glowed as luminous as that egg he had taken so long before to nurture and raise on another island in another sea. That island had had no name, nor did this one. He wondered what it might be called. And as if reading his
thoughts, Hoole said, “Look! Just look at that island and the tree! What should we call it?”
This is a good tree…It has…Ga’, Uncle Grank. Yes, Ga’.
Hoole’s words suddenly came back to Grank. He swiveled his head toward the young king. “You said the tree had Ga’, lad. We should call it Ga’Hoole. Ga’Hoole,” he shouted to the clouds and to the rising sun.
The dozen owls flying with them took up the cheer and shouted it to the world: “Ga’Hoole!”
So ends this story of Hoole forged in the fires of my memory.
C
oryn closed the book and looked at his uncle Soren. “He was so noble! Oh, that I might be as noble.”
“You will,” Soren said quickly. Digger, Gylfie, Twilight, and Otulissa all nodded.
“Forged in the fires of his memory,” Otulissa said softly. “I think it was Theo who wrote this down. Theo, the first blacksmith.”
“But what is the meaning of it all?” Digger asked. “Why did Ezylryb want you to read this?”
Otulissa answered quickly. “To instill in all of us those ancient codes of honor, of trust.”
“Perhaps,” Digger, the most philosophical of all the owls, said slowly. “But there is something beyond that.”
Otulissa began to interrupt with another theory.
“Quiet, Otulissa,” Soren said. “Let Digger speak.”
“The ember has great powers, powers that we know that Nyra desperately wanted. But did she want them just for herself?”
“I think not,” Coryn said. He paused a long time. He
could not bring himself to tell the others what Soren already knew. That he suspected his own mother was a hagsfiend. “I know,” he continued, “that there are still some hagsfiends that fly about, but they are weak and impotent. They skulk around the edges of the night and are easily dispersed like fog on a sunny day. I know because I have encountered them. But now that the ember is back, they could gain power, especially with Nyra as their leader.”
Soren now spoke. “Before Ezylryb died, he warned us of the power of the ember.”
“Perhaps,” said Gylfie, “the final legend will tell us more.”
“Perhaps,” replied Coryn. He spoke slowly with great reflection. “It is as if for centuries we have lived in a blessed world. Yes, we have had our battles, our enemies. Yes, there were flecks that could destroy owls’ minds and will, but there was no nachtmagen. We have lived in a world of reason, not magic and spells. But now it is as if the fragile, invisible membrane that has sealed off our world so long from the irrationality of spells and charms has been torn—and through that small tear…” Coryn’s dark eyes grew huge and darker. He swiveled his head around to look at each one of these owls. “Through this small tear, I fear nachtmagen is once again seeping into the Glaux-blessed world of owls.”
G
UARDIANS
of G
A
’H
OOLE
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
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
GYLFIE: Elf Owl,
Micrathene 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
TWILIGHT: Great Gray Owl,
Strix nebulosa,
free flier; orphaned within hours of hatching; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
DIGGER: Burrowing Owl,
Athene cunicularia,
from the Desert Kingdom of Kuneer; lost in the desert after an attack in which his brother was killed by owls from St. Aegolius; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
The Leaders of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
CORYN: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
the new young king of the great tree; son of Nyra, leader of the Pure Ones
EZYLRYB: Whiskered Screech Owl,
Otus trichopsis,
the wise old weather-interpretation and colliering ryb (teacher) at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree; Soren’s mentor (also known as LYZE OF KIEL)
Others at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
OTULISSA: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
a student of prestigious lineage at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
OCTAVIA: Kielian snake, nest-maid for Madame Plonk and Ezylryb (also known as BRIGID)
Characters from the Time of the Legends
GRANK: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
the first collier; friend to King H’rath and Queen Siv during their youth; first owl to find the ember
H’RATH: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
King of the N’yrthghar, a frigid region known in later times as the Northern Kingdoms; father of Hoole
SIV: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
mate of H’rath and Queen of the N’yrthghar, a frigid region known in later times as the Northern Kingdoms; mother of Hoole
MYRRTHE: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca,
faithful servant of Queen Siv, formerly her nursemaid and governess; flees with Queen Siv after the death of H’rath
RORKNA: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
Glauxess of the Glauxian Sisters’ Retreat on the Island of Elsemere; cousin of Queen Siv
LORD ARRIN: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
traitorous chieftain of a kingdom bordering King H’rath’s realm; killed H’rath
PLEEK: Great Horned Owl,
Bubo virginianus,
enemy of King H’rath; known to consort with hagsfiends and to have taken one, Ygryk, for a mate
THEO: Great Horned Owl,
Bubo virginianus,
a gizzard-resister and apprentice to Grank; possesses great blacksmithing skills
SVENKA: Polar bear in the Bitter Sea; comes to the aid of Queen Siv
SVARR: Polar bear, father of Svenka’s cubs
PENRYCK: Male hagsfiend, ally of Lord Arrin
YGRYK: Female hagsfiend, Pleek’s mate
KREETH: Female hagsfiend with strong powers of nachtmagen; friend of Ygryk
ULLRYCK: Female hagsfiend, deadly assassin in Lord Arrin’s service
BERWYCK: Boreal Owl,
Aegolius funereus,
a member of the Glauxian Brothers and friend to Hoole and Grank
PHINEAS: Northern Pygmy Owl,
Glaucidium californicum,
friend of Hoole and owl of great pluck
THE SNOW ROSE: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca,
gadfeather and renowned singer
FENGO: dire wolf, chief of all the clans; friend of Grank
DUNLEAVY MACHEATH: dire wolf, leader of the MacHeath clan, and enemy of Fengo
HORDWEARD: dire wolf, former member of MacHeath clan and former mate of Dunleavy MacHeath; also known as Namara MacNamara
THE
G
UARDIANS
of G
A
’H
OOLE
Book Eleven: To Be a King
D
eep in a cave of the Ice Narrows, that channel of water connecting the Southern and the Northern Waters, the hagsfiend Ygryk watched as an egg trembled. She was not alone. Another, a Great Horned Owl named Pleek, stood behind his mate. Some might call their union—hagsfiend and owl—unholy, but in their own peculiar way, they did love each other. And yet they could not have chicks, for unions such as theirs were barren. But Ygryk, despite her haggish ways, had an obsession to mother. She was desperate for a chick and so driven that she dared fly over open water, which could prove fatal to hagsfiends because their feathers lacked the natural oils of many birds. If their crowlike black feathers came in contact with salt water, they became sodden and their weight dragged them down into the sea. But despite this hazard, she and Pleek had come to live in the Ice Narrows with Kreeth, an immensely powerful hagsfiend who dared to live above the open water of the Ice Narrows. Her reason for this, she stated simply: “Water is my enemy. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
Kreeth had spent a lifetime in her cave above the churning waters of the Narrows, studying to divine a charm that would render her and all hagsfiends immune to the ravages of seawater. So far, she had not succeeded. Nonetheless, she had developed powerful charms and could claim a nachtmagen unequaled among hagsfiends. But she had always worked alone. A recluse, she had vowed never to mate, nor would she become a tool for the likes of Lord Arrin, to fight his stupid battles for a stupid throne and a crown of ice. Just as Ygryk had a peculiar and un-haggish urge to mother, Kreeth herself possessed an odd and un-haggish sense of honor. It was not that she was against war. Kreeth entertained no reservations about killing. She was opposed to war because she thought it was stupid, and dependent on brute force and coarse strategies rather than on charms and spells. And there were very few charms or spells, save for the fyngrot, that worked on a battlefield.
At this moment in her ice hollow, Kreeth tried not to listen as Pleek went on about the defeat of Lord Arrin’s forces in the Beyond by young King Hoole. Once again, Ygryk sighed with regret. She had so desperately wanted Hoole for her own chick. She and Pleek had tried to capture him, and nearly had him with a special fyngrot spell that Kreeth had given her. But they had been attacked at the last minute, their one chance lost. Both she and Pleek had been gravely wounded.
“Stop sighing, Ygryk. What’s done is done. You keep this sighing up and you’re never going to get your half-hags back. They don’t incubate well if their host has her feathers in a twist over something,” Kreeth scolded. Half-hags were the minuscule, poisonous creatures who lived in the small gaps and narrow slotted spaces between the feathers of hagsfiends. In battle, they could dart out with their toxic load and attack. But perhaps the best service that half-hags could perform, with the proper nurturing and training, was that of tracking.
“Now pull yourself together, Ygryk,” Kreeth cautioned, “I have something coming here that, well—how should I put it—might fulfill your motherly desires. Although why anyone would want to mother anything is beyond me. Creating creatures in one’s own image is completely boring in my way of thinking. I only create new life to study it. To see the possibilities.”
Pleek looked around the cave nervously as Kreeth spoke. On the walls, suspended from ice hooks, were the heads of owls killed in battle. It was the practice of the warrior hagsfiends to cut off the heads of their victims, impale them on the tips of their ice swords, and then fly off with them triumphantly from the battlefield. Kreeth offered handsome rewards for several heads. She also collected the ashes of those burned in final ceremonies. But final ceremonies were a ritual of the S’yrthghar, where owls knew how to handle fire. In the north, these ashes were hard to come by. Kreeth craved them for their extremely powerful effect in her haggish recipes.
