Guardians of Ga'Hoole 08 - The Outcast

with presents as tokens of our respect and admiration of the MacHeaths.”
    “And what is this news, Lord Duncan MacDuncan?”
    “There is a foaming-mouth wolf that skirts the edges of your territory. We have seen its signs. But so far we have not spotted it. Perhaps good Lupus,” Duncan MacDuncan tipped his head back and up toward the sky, “has already taken it on the spirit trail.”
    All the wolves murmured some sort of blessing that Coryn did not understand.
    “Thank you, Lord Duncan, for sharing this news with our clan. We are most grateful.”
    That had been Lord Duncan’s plan. He was coming to ask for permission to pass through the territory because it was the most direct route to the Sacred Volcanoes, and he had brought presents, for which the MacHeaths would be grateful. But news of a foaming-mouth wolf was even more valuable. Duncan MacDuncan wanted this wily and cantankerous old chieftain in double debt to him.
    “And now for the presents. Bring them forth, Sir Donalbain.” An immense wolf with a gray coat brought forward a skin bag that he clutched in his mouth. When he dropped it in front of the chieftain’s paws, several sparkling jewels spilled out as well as some finely crafted gnaw-bones from a famous MacDuncan gnaw wolf of old.
    “He’ll go for the jewels,” Duncan had said before. “The old coot doesn’t know a finely crafted gnaw-bone from a stick of wood.”
    He was right, for Lord Dunleavey MacHeath immediately started pawing the jewels. “Aaah, emeralds from the Emerald River. How interesting.” He turned to one of his own nobles. “Sir Crathmore, will you fetch the gift our most recent visitor brought to us.”
    “Certainly, my lord.”
    The wolf returned in no time and set down a bundle of what looked like scraps of leather.
    The wolves of the MacDuncan clan crowded closer to have a look.
    “What is it?…Never seen anything like it.” The MacDuncan wolves were puzzled.
    “Art, they call it. Paintings. They are eyes of the Others, and all green at that!”
    “Maybe the Others had a little wolf in them,” Duncan offered. There was hearty laughter at this.
    It was at precisely this point that Coryn began to have uneasy feelings in the Gadderheal. He could feel the heat of the fire and yet he resisted looking at it. At that moment, a scruffy wolf pup missing a tail lurched into the Gadderheal. It was obvious that the tail had been bitten off and, as Coryn looked more closely, he noticed that the reason the pup limped was because there was something wrong with one of his footpads. A sickening sensation washed through Coryn. He felt he might yarp a pellet any second, which he knew was not the thing to do in a ceremonial cave like a Gadderheal. But it was clear that, as Hamish had told him, this pup had been maimed on purpose so that he could become a gnaw wolf.
    “Ah, Cody,” said MacHeath, “our little gnaw wolf. Show Lord Duncan your bones.”
    Cody waddled to a corner and dragged out a few bones.
    Coryn noticed a cream-colored female watching the lame pup and saw her then shift her gaze to him. He had never seen eyes brimming with such sadness. For a minute, she seemed to study him. Was she staring at his scar? She could never know that I was maimed by my own mother, never!
    “He gnaws beautifully, as you see, Lord Duncan.”
    “Yes, I can see.” Duncan MacDuncan could hardly conceal his disgust.
    “His great-grandmum was a MacDuncan, you know.”
    It was in the midst of this conversation in which Lord MacHeath was obviously angling for the maimed pup to be considered for the Sacred Watch that Coryn, desperate to turn his eyes from the pup, caught a glimpse—just a glimpse of the fire. But in that instant he knew he could deny the flames no longer. He swiveled his head. He watched the flames first and then his gaze penetrated the glow of the embers. He saw a face, covered in soot, as black as a Rogue smith fresh from the forge. And beneath the ash and grime, glowing as fiercely as that moon perched and trembling on the edge of the Beyond, was an immense white face with a scar just like his own. He felt his gizzard grow still and then lock. Nyra has been here! She has been right in this Gadderheal. She is the visitor who brought the green eyes as gifts.

CHAPTER TWENTY
A Spotted Owl Goes Yeep
    W hy didn’t you tell me all this before, Coryn?” Hamish demanded.
    “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I can’t explain it.”
    Hamish thought a while and then said,