Guardians of Ga'Hoole 03 - The Rescue

Fangs. I usually flew aboard a heavy old Barred Owl. He was a terrific flier, fast and silent, but he wasn’t available. They got me a Spotted Owl instead butshe didn’t have the speed. I got there just in time to see the ambush led by Ifghar. It was all going according to his evil plan, except for one thing—Lil was mortally wounded. Ifghar went berserk, and Lyze…well, Lyze went yeep.”
    “Yeep!” Soren was stunned. When birds went yeep due to some enormous fright, some gizzard-chilling terror, their wings folded under and they plummeted to earth. “It was lucky that a bald eagle was flying over just then. The eagle took a plunge and caught Lyze just before he would have hit the water. But he caught him by a talon, severely injuring it. Still, it would have been worse if he had fallen into the sea. He would have drowned. Owls can’t swim worth racdrops. The injured talon never healed properly. It was causing him a great deal of pain. So he finally bit it off himself.”
    “Bit off his own talon?” Soren said in dismay.
    “Believe me, after the first pain he began feeling much better.” She stopped talking.
    Digger sensed that there was still more to tell. He stepped forward. “Is there something else?”
    “Yes, it was in that battle—the Battle of the Ice Talons, it was later named—that I was blinded. I was so distracted with Lyze going yeep that I didn’t see the fierce old Great Gray Owl coming up on the windward flank. I had coiled up to my tallest height and was frantically yelling atLyze to break the yeep spell. The Great Gray swept by and in two seconds plucked out my eyes. That was the end of my military career. And it turned out to be the end of Lyze’s as well. He never picked up a pair of battle claws again.” She paused. “Not to fight, at least.” She nodded at the ones on the wall. “These old rusty ones are the ones he wore in that battle. I convinced him to retrieve them so they wouldn’t fall into enemy talons.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “Well, Lyze and I had become quite fond of each other by this time. He said that he was finished with war and had decided to retreat to a small island far from the Ice Claw Wars, which was in the Bitter Sea. There was a retreat there, an order of Glauxian brothers who were devoted only to study. They had a great library. So that is where we went for a good long time. Nobody asked any questions. Lyze read and read and read. And began his history, the one you saw on the history of the War of the Ice Claws. He also began his serious study of weather at the retreat. It was there I learned how to be a nest-maid snake and tend to his hollow and the hollows of many of the other brothers.”
    “Where did Madame Plonk’s sister come into all this?” Gylfie asked.
    “Oh, a year or so before the great tragedy, she had left her family’s hollow, desperate to escape because of herstepmother. Her life was utterly miserable. Music was not for her. There was something about her that Lyze and his mate, Lil, took a fancy to. I think they liked her toughness, and she seemed extraordinarily skillful with her talons. So Lyze gave her an introduction to the rogue smith on the island of Dark Fowl.”
    “When did you decide to come to the great tree?”
    “It was actually one of the Glauxian brothers’ ideas. He felt that Lyze had so much knowledge that it was a shame for it to be all locked up in a retreat. There were no young ones at the retreat. He felt that Lyze could be a natural teacher. So he advised him to go to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree where there were always young owls to teach. And Lyze said he would but he would never ever train an owl to fight. He would never ever touch a pair of battle claws again. So we came here. I swore an oath of peace, as well.” Octavia paused for several long seconds. “But you know, now I think it is time to break it. I’ll do anything to rescue my beloved master.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Eglantine’s Dream
    T here was stunned silence when Octavia finished her extraordinary tale. It was almost too much to absorb. Soren, Digger, and Gylfie made their way back to their hollow. It was past First Black, and Twilight and Eglantine had overslept. They were just now getting ready for evening chaw practice.
    “Where have you been?” Twilight asked suspiciously.
    “No time to explain now,” Gylfie replied.
    “We’ll tell you all about it later,” Soren said and turned to look at Eglantine. She looked a bit