Guardians of Ga'Hoole 06 - The Burning

to me.
    The library was located in one of the highest reaches of St. Aggie’s, with one port opening directly into the sky. It was through this port that Soren and the rest of the owls descended and quickly overpowered the two guards who were stunned beyond belief to see their old Ablah General. Skench attacked the first one viciously. The attack was enough to make the other owl go yeep as he saw the blood from the torn wing of his fellow guard. The owl stood perfectly still with her wings drooping.
    Soren blinked as he looked around. This was the verystone chamber studded with fleck-filled niches from which he and Gylfie had escaped. Not simply escaped but flown for the first time in their lives. It was here that Grimble, who had risked everything to teach them to fly, had died defending them. Murdered by Skench. Soren could barely look at the Great Horned Owl.
    They had to work fast. They were without battle claws, for if they had worn them the magnetic attraction of the flecks for the metal claws would have been too great. However, they were wearing mu metal helmets to protect their brains from the disorienting effect of the flecks. Soren was directing Ruby and Martin to the niches. Quickly, the owls dropped cold coals into each one.
    “All niches filled and accounted for?” Bubo barked.
    “Yes,” Skench replied.
    “I ain’t asking you. I’m asking Soren.” Bubo didn’t trust the Great Horned Owl any farther than he could yarp a pellet. He wouldn’t put it past the miserable owl to have some flecks tucked away in some unknown niche.
    “Yes, Bubo,” Soren answered. “These are all the niches.”
    “Good. Then let’s get out of here and back to our claws. The real fight is about to begin.”
    With that, the five owls flapped their wings and rose directly out of the stone shaft that was the library.
    How hard it had been for him, Soren recalled, thatfirst flight. Straight up—the most difficult kind of takeoff for inexperienced fliers, which both he and Gylfie had been. But would he ever forget that first sensation once they were out of the shaft and airborne in the dark clarity of a starry night? Soren blinked now. His eyes stung. There were no stars. There was no darkness. What had happened? The air roiled with fog, but his eyes were stinging. This wasn’t fog. It was smoke. The canyonlands were on fire!
    An owl came tearing through the night. It was nearly the same color as the smoke. “Twilight!” Soren called. “What’s happening?”
    “A complete wind shift. Everything was so dry. The canyons are on fire.”
    But aside from their ignition piles what was there to burn? Soren wondered. There was hardly a tree in this rock landscape. But then he remembered. There were all sorts of low-growing scrubby woody plants, and they were dry as tinder. In one spot the smoke cleared, and when he looked down, Soren gasped. It was as if a molten red sea was spreading across the canyonlands. Soren was a collier and used to flying into forest fires, diving between flame columns, but how did one fly in this? The smoke was terrible. The even layer of rising heat was pushing them too far up.
    “What in the world do we do with this?” Martin, who was one of the finest small-ember retrievers the colliers had, flew up on Soren’s port wing.
    “I have no idea. How are the low fliers going to operate?”
    Ruby next flew up. There was a nearly hysterical pitch to her voice. Soren had never seen her like this. “The Pure Ones have most of the first and second assault units pressed in between the two horns of the Great Horns ridge.”
    “Do you mean the rest of the Bonk Brigade and the Strix Struma Strikers?” Bubo asked.
    “I’m afraid so. And Ezylryb can’t see a thing from his perch. The entire code system has broken down,” Ruby continued.
    “Can we at least get back to our weapons?” Soren asked.
    “We can try,” Ruby replied. “Twilight is heading that way now.”
    When they arrived at the weapons cache, they were greeted by the sight of Twilight flying through the smoke wielding a flaming branch in each of his battle-clawed talons and lashing out at two Barn Owls and a Screech Owl that Soren recognized as an old St. Aggie’s lieutenant.Suddenly he saw the Screech Owl stop mid-flight, wheel around, and lash out at Twilight. The Great Gray staggered in the air.
    Bubo and Soren dove for the faltering Twilight, but the Screech Owl was back on them in a flash—with Skench! What side is Skench on?