Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

moss, what will happen? Primrose removed the bead of amber from her neck and, holding on to the chain, let it drop into the piles of moss and down.
    A moment later, Primrose had her answer. She pulled up the chain, and the bead of amber was bristling with hundreds of tiny flecks. Now, how could she get rid of the foul stuff? She knew that fire destroyed the magnetic properties of flecks and left them harmless, but she could hardly start a fire in here. She looked around. There was a niche in the tree where some bore worms must have been feeding. She supposed she could scrape the flecks off into that. She just had to get them away from her head. After all, she suddenly realized, she had slept in the same hollow with Eglantine and had suffered no ill effects.
    So Primrose began excavating the flecks, but she thought of it more as fishing than excavating. Each timeshe pulled up the chain, very quietly so as not to alert the guard, it was bristling with flecks. It took twelve times for the amber bead to finally come up clean. “You really are my lucky charm,” she whispered.
    And now, she thought, all I have to do is pretend that I am shattered. She remembered Soren and Gylfie explaining to her how they had pretended to be moon blinked when they were imprisoned in St. Aggie’s. Well, she would pretend to be shattered. After all, she had a very fine example to follow—Eglantine. And with the thought of her friend, Primrose’s gizzard twisted in the most agonizing way.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As a Gizzard Twitches
    I t had been three days since Primrose had disappeared. Everyone had different theories. Otulissa was sure that it was an indication that the Pure Ones were active again.
    “Why the Pure Ones?” Soren asked. “Why not St. Aggie’s?” They were in their hollow having a light snack of dried caterpillars as it would be another hour until tweener.
    “I can’t imagine them coming this far north,” Gylfie said.
    “What would they want with Primrose?” Twilight asked.
    “I’m not sure, but Primrose is smart. I’d been in the library with her a lot lately. She catches on quick. She was really interested in quadrant theory,” Otulissa replied.
    “Quadrant theory?” Twilight asked.
    “You know, the stuff Ezylryb was telling us about the humors,” Otulissa said.
    “The Pure Ones don’t want to know about quadrant theory,” Soren said emphatically. “They want to knowabout flecks. They want to know about how, with higher magnetics, you can make other things fleck-full, and how, with a dowsing rod, you can find flecks. They want to control all the flecks in the world.”
    “But don’t you see, Soren, it’s all connected,” Otulissa said. “Remember when we were at St. Aggie’s, and they were tucking the flecks into the nests in the eggorium? The Pure Ones were doing that. It’s not just flecks they want to control, it’s minds—mind control.”
    Digger suddenly flew in through the sky port. He dropped Otulissa’s dowsing rod on the floor of the hollow.
    “What are you doing with my dowsing rod?”
    “I’m sorry I didn’t ask, Otulissa, but I had a hunch.”
    “Well, I hope it was a good hunch,” she said huffily.
    “It was a good hunch, but I am afraid I have very bad news.”
    “What?” Soren had a terrible feeling deep within him. His gizzard began to tremble.
    “Soren, I had been feeling for a while that something is wrong with Eglantine—more than just summer flux. You know, because Eglantine had once before been imprisoned by the Pure Ones, and her mind had been disturbed then…Well—” Digger hesitated. “I think she is perhaps even more vulnerable.”
    Soren was so frightened he couldn’t even blink.
    “You see, I took the dowsing rod into her hollow. Soren, it went crazy when I passed it over her nest. The place where she sleeps—it’s loaded with flecks.”
    Otulissa wilfed suddenly. “The Pure Ones have infiltrated us!” she cried. “And they know more about flecks than we have ever imagined. They know how to shatter. Eglantine has been shattered,” she said with horror.
    “Eglantine’s gone,” Digger added.
    “Gone?” Soren asked. “Gone where?”
    “I don’t know. But Ginger is gone, too.”
    The alert was given for the search-and-rescue chaw to prepare. There would be two empty spots in their flying formation because now both Primrose and Eglantine were gone. It was Barran herself, the Snowy Owl and monarch of the tree, who led this chaw. Soren was