Guardians of Ga'Hoole 04 - The Siege

isn’t she a spy?
    “But I saw Uklah sneak flecks out,” Otulissa said.
    “Of course you did,” Skench answered. “She can’t haveher fellow spies think she’s become a turnfeather. Uklah feeds them just enough information, some true, some false, so they won’t become suspicious of her. The flecks she sneaks out are tucked into nests by the spy moss tenders in the hatchery, the nests with Barn Owl eggs. We retrieve them during shift changes. There are two other Barn Owls who work as double agents up there. They pull out the stolen flecks for us. So there’s no harm done.”
    Otulissa was dying to ask what harm they had been expecting. But she had to guess that putting magnetic materials into nests with eggs could cause a major disturbance in the gizzards or the brains of unhatched chicks. Even though Dewlap had seized the book, she had read enough of the beginning chapters of Fleckasia and Other Disorders of the Gizzard to know that overexposure to flecks at certain periods in a young owl’s life was not a good thing. And Soren had told them about how that brave owl Hortense had felt that the reason she was so small for an owl of her age was due to the large deposits of flecks that run through the creeks of Ambala. Perhaps flecks in the nest would cause the Barn Owl chicks to resist moon blinking and to identify in some way with the Pure Ones.
    Now Otulissa swiveled her head toward Uklah and carefully began to phrase her question as a statement. “Turnfeather to the Pure Ones,” she began slowly.
    “No need for that,” Skench interrupted, sensing what Otulissa was about to do. “You can ask questions here. But not yet. We have some questions. Higher magnetics—what is it? Why, on that terrible night when those owls escaped more than a year ago, did I go yeep? It was the magic of higher magnetics.”
    “No, it wasn’t magic,” Otulissa replied. “It was science. Magic and science aren’t the same thing. I don’t know anything about magic. Higher magnetics is science.”
    “Tell us about it,” Spoorn urged. “What makes us feel strange when we are in our battle claws around flecks? Where do flecks get their power?”
    Otulissa was debating with herself just how much she should tell them. This was different from giving them information about the Northern Kingdoms. They could do real damage with what they might find out about flecks.
    Uklah stepped forward. “There was a terrible battle in the woods,” she said, “between the High Tyto, Kludd, and his brother, and owls from the Great Ga’Hoole Tree. Those owls did something to the bags of flecks that destroyed their power. What was it? We need to know.”
    That was when it clicked in Otulissa’s mind. Owls like this did not need to know. They needed to be kept ignorant. She would feed them false information—just for alittle while, just long enough so she could gain their confidence and the Chaw of Chaws could escape. As far as Otulissa was concerned, their mission was accomplished. They had found out what they had come to learn. There were infiltrators. A few, like Uklah, were double agents, actually working for St. Aggie’s. The rulers of St. Aggie’s didn’t know much about flecks. The Pure Ones were planning to take over St. Aggie’s but because of the double agents, they might be thwarted. It was time to get out.
    But first Otulissa wanted to know something. She would be crafty about how she said it. “Although flecks in the nest of unhatched eggs will disturb the chicks’ brains in a certain way, exposure for adults is quite different.”
    “Oh, yes! You are smart, aren’t you! That’s how we avoid being moon blinked. Small amounts of flecks ingested lessen the effects of moon blinking considerably,” said Skench.
    Just what I thought! Otulissa then continued. “Well then, of course, you know about flux density.” The owls stared blankly at her. “You don’t know about flux density? Oh, dear. Then I should begin at the beginning…”
    Otulissa never mentioned that fire can destroy the flecks’ power. She never told them that she had read that certain other objects that did not contain flecks couldtemporarily gain the magnetic powers of flecks by rubbing up against one another, nor did she tell them about mu metal, which could shield one from the powers of a magnetic field. But she did talk. She talked and she talked and she talked, as only Otulissa could talk. She made up something she called the Basic Fleckasian Laws