Guardians of Ga'Hoole 06 - The Burning

incessantly in Otulissa’s brain. She and Gylfie could speak only in the small hollow they shared together. There was no talking at meals. In the library, all requests for books were made in writing. Even the nest-maid snakes, generally very chatty by nature, were silent. Otulissa was completely frinked. Oh, yes, there were certain times when one could speak—discussions could be held in study hollows, which were off the library. But some of the most stimulating and intellectual discussion that Otulissa had ever had were inthe dining hollow of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree over a nice, plump roasted vole. And here, that was impossible.
    Gylfie, on the other hand, found it a relief to have Otulissa bound to enforced silence. She saw that there was a kind of beauty in this silence. The brothers of the Glauxian retreat were more alive and interesting than any owls she had ever encountered—in their own way. She saw that actually there was a kind of communication among them, but one had to be keen to an array of subtle signs and signals to notice it. Words—at least, spoken words—were not always needed. She tried to explain this to Otulissa, but to no avail.
    “But you don’t understand, Gylfie. This library is the most magnificent I could have ever imagined. And I am finding out so much about fleckasia, but I need to talk about it, too. Not only fleckasia, but things called cold fire and ice flames. Sort of the opposite of bonk flames.”
    “Well, there are those times in the study hollows.”
    “I know, but I can’t get a word in edgewise.” Otulissa sighed.
    “What? You, of all owls, can’t get a word in edgewise?”
    “You don’t understand. These owls are weird. They don’t talk much. But they have these odd ways of communicating without talking and even in the study hollows, where they are allowed to talk, there is a lot of silence.There are these gaps in the conversation, but it’s still like they are talking. And I can’t get in on it.”
    “Hmmm” was all Gylfie could say. She didn’t know quite what to tell her. Poor Otulissa—the most fluent in Krakish of all the owls of the Chaw of Chaws All those irregular verbs she had practiced on the flight north, and no place to use them.
    “Look, Otulissa, I’ll go to a study hollow with you and see if I can help.”
    “Oh, would you, Gylfie? That would be so great. I mean, I’ve been reading all this stuff about fleckasia but I need to discuss it. And they also have the most complete history of the War of the Ice Claws and other wars, too. I need to study the strategy, you know, for the invasion plan of St. Aggie’s. After all, it is my plan that we are going to use and that was why I was sent here by the parliament. They’re counting on us, Gylfie.”
    Us; she said “us.” Gylfie supposed it was nice of Otulissa to include her. But it was Otulissa’s plan that the owls of Ga’Hoole were most likely to implement in the coming invasion. The Chaw of Chaws was not here in the Northern Kingdoms solely to recruit owls to fight, as Soren was doing in the Firth of Fangs, but to study the strategies of invasion.
    If this invasion did indeed take place, it would be thelargest in the history of owlkind—staggering in size, epic in significance. In one night, thousands of owls of all kinds would cross seventy leagues from the Island of Hoole to the canyonlands of St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. The land of this region was cut by deep ravines. It bristled with rocky spires and needles. It appeared barren of trees, rivers, or lakes. But it was rich in one thing: the deadly flecks that could destroy owls’ minds.
    St. Aggie’s had fallen and was now held by the most dangerous owls on earth, the Pure Ones. The Pure Ones were smart. They knew enough about flecks to be able to destroy any owls that flew against them and challenged their plan for complete dominion over the owl universe.
    Only a massive invasion of the canyonlands could finish their tyranny forever. It would be an invasion requiring the help of many allies. And the very best of these allies were to be found in the Northern Kingdoms. Otulissa had been given the task of studying all she could about fleckasia and the battle strategies implemented during the War of the Ice Claws. And the best place to do that was here in the magnificent library of the Glauxian Brothers’ retreat.
    Life at the retreat followed a fairly unvarying routine. The hours of the night were spent in meditative