Guardians of Ga'Hoole 04 - The Siege

they had first been snatched and brought here as captives, but they did notwant to risk the slightest chance that some owl might hear a familiar note in their voices or catch a recognizable glint in their eyes. It had been Soren and Gylfie’s intention to fade into the background of the Chaw of Chaws and to do as little as possible to attract any attention at all.
    “Steep bank to…uh…uh…this way,” the other Long-eared Owl commanded.
    Glaux, these owls don’t know port from starboard! The thought exploded in Soren’s mind and it gave him great joy. He realized how much he had learned since arriving at the great tree. It would be brains and not brawn that succeeded here, and this was a comforting thought.
    Within a minute, they were sliding into the dense shadows of a deep crevice. Down, down, down they plunged, until they lighted on the gritty floor. Above, only a thin sliver of the sky was visible. There were enough bad things about St. Aggie’s, but perhaps one of the worst was that in the deep canyons, stone wells, pits, and crevices, the sky seemed so far away. Oftentimes it was not even visible. In just a handful of places did the sky cut through. One of these places was the glaucidium and the moon-blazing chamber, where the horrible moon-blinking procedures were endured.
    “Wait here!” one of the Long-eared Owls barked, andthen waddled off into a stone slit. Soren saw Twilight’s and Ruby’s eyes blink in wonder. Get used to it, Soren thought. This is the world of St. Aggie’s.
    It was a stone world riddled with seams, slits, and slots through which owls seemed to simply disappear. Soren was looking around when he sensed that Gylfie was quivering. He looked down and saw that the little Elf Owl had edged in closer to him. Her eyes were blinking open in a staccato rhythm. Emerging from another crack was a Great Horned Owl and it was none other than Unk, Gylfie’s old pit guard! Surreptitiously, Soren extended one wing ever so slightly, so it barely grazed Gylfie’s head. He felt her calm down. We’ll get through this, Gylfie. We are smarter than they are. We’ll get through it. He willed the words that took shape in his head to somehow get through to his best friend. He knew how scared she must be. He was terribly frightened of meeting up with Aunt Finny, the old Snowy Owl who had been his pit guardian.
    Although the pit guardians were not considered the highest level of guards, there was something dreadful about them. They were, of all the owls of St. Aggie’s, the slyest and the most duplicitous. They were masters of falsehood. They pretended to be warm, but it was all part of their strategy to suck a young owlet into their power.
    But now it seemed that Unk was no longer a pitguardian. His words, no longer jollied and honeyed, sliced the shadows of the crevice. “How did you come here? How did you know about us? What is your purpose?”
    Martin took a tentative step forward. In a quavering voice he began. “My name is Martin.” Oh, racdrops! Soren thought. Why’d he have to say that?
    “Names mean nothing here. You shall be given a number designation. Someday you might earn a name. Until then, I repeat, names mean nothing. Continue.”
    “We came from the Northern Kingdoms.”
    A shiver seemed to pass through Unk and, at a slight, almost invisible signal, the other Long-eared Owl vanished through another crack. Hardly a minute had passed before a Western Screech stepped from the same crack, followed by an immense and ragged Great Horned Owl. It was Skench. Soren and Gylfie felt their gizzards almost split with fear.
    “I am Skench, the Ablah General. I am told you come from the Northern Kingdoms—and yet two of you are desert owls. Now tell me how desert owls found their way to the Northern Kingdoms.”
    “Well, Your Ablah,” Martin nodded in his most obsequious manner. And he began to tell the story they had concocted of williwaws and violent winds. Soren looked on with amazement. Martin was doing a magnificent job.He even threw in the Lobeleian current, which the St. Aggie’s owls knew nothing about, but they nodded wisely for they were too embarrassed to admit ignorance. In a brief time, Martin had laid the perfect groundwork with his cover story. The Chaw of Chaws appeared smart, but not too smart. They were owls who had seen a lot of the world and become disenchanted with the Northern Kingdoms. Although they had not known one another before they had been sucked up into