Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

than just mother love?” Nyra stepped closer to Eglantine. “Mother looove,” she dragged out the word. “More like Mummy’s dummy!” she sneered and cackled. The Pure Guards joined in with soft chur-rings. Without taking her eyes off Elgantine, Nyra again directed a question to the Pure Guards. “But this one—” She cocked her head toward Primrose. “Is she properly shattered?”
    “Yes, Your Pureness.” The Sooty Owl who had guarded Primrose stepped forward. “Good and proper, Madame Pureness.”
    “Oh, no!” Eglantine moaned.
    “Oh, yes,” Nyra paused. “Darling!”
    Fear not, Eglantine. Fear not! Primrose thought. Oh, if only there was a way I could send her a message, some code, anything! If only I could think of something.
    But it wasn’t Primrose who thought of something. It was Eglantine. Her eyes fastened on the gleaming egg. Where, she wondered, had Nyra hidden it the many times she had come to visit? There was, of course, no telling when this egg had been laid, or how close it was to hatching. If I could someway, somehow get that egg, Nyra would go yeep.More than yeep! Great Glaux, all the Pure Ones would be in our power if we had the egg!
    Eglantine, after all, had been trained for search-and-rescue and the members of this chaw were known for their talon dexterity. They were often required to pluck owl chicks from the forest floor. Many times these chicks were injured, and they had to be handled with extreme care.
    Think, Eglantine! Think! The words silently thundered in her brain. Nyra turned to her once more and spoke in that voice that despite its slow calm tone was somehow like a blade cutting the air. “I am down, as it were, to my last fluff of down. My breast is sore and nearly bare from providing the lining for the Sacred Orb’s nest. I feel that you should contribute to your little nephew’s or perhaps your niece’s comfort.” She nodded toward Eglantine’s breast feathers. It was a shocking suggestion. Nyra laughed as she saw the dismay on Eglantine’s face.
    Wait, Eglantine suddenly thought. This is it! My chance!
    “Start plucking!” Nyra ordered.
    Eglantine stepped up to where the egg rested.
    “Bow before you approach.”
    “Oh, sorry,” Eglantine said in her most submissive voice, and once more began to perform the awkward little bowing maneuver. Her shoulders shook and she seemedto cringe, which Nyra observed with pleasure. I must bow deeper this time. This is it. This is it! I have to move fast.
    Primrose looked on, trying to maintain the glassy stare of a shattered owl, but something was prickling her gizzard. She’s going to do something. I just know it. I have to be ready!
    Then it was as if Eglantine’s and Primrose’s minds merged, their gizzards were in harmony, and together they grew bold. With her back to the rest of the owls as she bowed, neither Nyra nor any other owl could see what Eglantine was doing. Under the deception of a most obsequious bow, Eglantine’s talons extended, her two back toes reversing direction as all owl toes can, giving her a powerful grip. Eglantine did not simply stand up from her bowed position, she launched herself like a feathered missile straight out of the hollow’s opening. Primrose was on her tail.
    “They’ve escaped!” Nyra shreed in a stunned voice.
    “Worse than that, Madame Pureness, the Sacred Orb is gone!”
    “Noooooooooooooo!”
    And Nyra, although she was not flying, went yeep and fell over in a dead faint.
    Into the darkness the two young owls flew. “I’m right beside you, Eglantine,” Primrose said.
    “You’re not shattered?”
    “No,” she replied.
    “You’re a stronger owl than me.”
    “No time to talk. They’ll be after us in a minute.”
    Primrose saw Eglantine cock her head in the inimitable manner of Barn Owls as she tried to orient to a sound. They must be coming already! Primrose thought.
    “They’re coming in from the west, about two points off my tail, above us but still behind by less than half a league.”
    The smoke seemed to be growing thicker. Primrose suddenly had an idea. “How good are you at low-level flight, Eglantine?”
    “Not as good as a Pygmy or an Elf, that’s for sure.”
    “Yeah, but you can do it. Remember that lark in the dark, that meadow we went through last spring? You were great for a Barn Owl.”
    “For a Barn Owl maybe, but…”
    “But nothing! We’re being chased by Barn Owls, and you’re better than they are.”
    Eglantine supposed