Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

the lake, momentarily bleaching the dance of flames a luminous, violent white. And in that split second, Soren’s forgotten dream of early summer burst upon him—piece by piece by piece: thefog; the sea afloat with fragments of paper; suddenly finding himself not over the sea but The Beaks; the lakes shattering into hundreds of dazzling shards; their blinding whiteness reminding him of something; the feeling of dread. No time to wonder. Then his vow “I’ll take these lakes—piece by piece. Yes, Mrs. Plithiver, piece by piece by piece.”
    But, of course, now he knew what the whiteness was. “Nyra!” He screeched, and he thought of Eglantine and Primrose. Piece by piece by piece that evil owl had captured them, their minds, their instincts, and now their bodies!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Sacred Orb
    T he Sacred Orb!” screeched Nyra. “Do you have it? Do you have it?”
    “Worry not, Madame,” a lieutenant called Stryker replied, “it is tucked safely in the flight pouch.”
    “I’ll peck out the eyes of the one who drops it! And then their gizzard!” Nyra said in a deadly voice.
    “Fear not, Madame Pureness. Fear not,” another Pure Guard shouted over the roar of the flames.
    “Can we find a safe tree?” asked Ginger.
    Eglantine and Primrose were being flanked by several guards. There was no possibility of escape. And, most shockingly, there was Ginger with a disgusting smirk on her face. Eglantine should have known. Primrose was right about Ginger all along.
    When the tree had burst into flames, they had all been blown out in the same direction, and then before they knew it, the guards had closed in on them. Now what was this talk of a sacred orb? Strange words, and Eglantine wasnot at all sure what they meant. But she couldn’t think about that now. She had to think about how to get herself and Primrose out of this fix. Primrose looks odd. What have they done to her?
    “Safe tree!” a guard called out. “Safe tree ahead!”
    Before them was an enormous oak that had been singed by the fire but had never actually ignited. It now loomed in the scorched and red-stained night. A hollow opening, not large but adequate, revealed itself midway up the tree. The Pure Guards roughly shoved Eglantine and Primrose through the opening.
    “First the Sacred Orb and then I’ll tend to you!” Nyra swiveled her head and glared at Eglantine.
    “Here, Madame Pureness.” A large Barn Owl stepped forward. Eglantine was stunned as her eyes fell on a Barn Owl egg, glistening white and perfectly round. The other guards folded their legs and dipped their heads in an odd and awkward movement.
    “Bow down!” Nyra shreed at Eglantine and Primrose. “Bow down, for this is your future ruler. Your blessing. Your curse. Your new Glaux Most Pure.”
    Eglantine and Primrose blinked and bowed as best they could.
    “I’ll need some more moss for the Sacred Orb’s nest. I have used practically all my down. Gort, you and Tonk goout and fetch some moss—rabbit ear if you can find it.” Rabbit ear moss was the softest of all the mosses, and scarce. “Nothing but the best for Little Purity,” she said softly, but her eyes had a hard, fierce gleam like no mother’s eyes Eglantine or Primrose had ever seen.
    Then Nyra stepped toward Eglantine in the cramped space. Her white face was streaked with soot. Her black eyes bore into Eglantine. “She knows.” Although Nyra faced Eglantine, it was as if she were directing her words to the Pure Guards. There was a deadly calm in her voice. “She knows that I am not her mother. That I am Her Pureness. Right, my darling?” And the word darling curled like the meanest snarl in the close space of the hollow. Eglantine wilfed. She became almost half her size, and her gizzard quaked as it never had before.
    Primrose stole a glance at her with an odd mixture of fear and relief. Relief to see that her old friend was back, seemingly restored to her senses. But, thought Primrose, Nyra doesn’t know what I know. She doesn’t know that I am not shattered. And then Primrose wondered if Eglantine realized it. She had to keep up the act, but was there any way she could let Eglantine know that it was just an act, that she was all right? If she could, there was a chance that somehow they could escape, but they would have to work together.
    “I should have suspected,” said Ginger suddenly. “When she wanted to fly in this weather, I should have known something was up.”
    “That it was more