Guardians of Ga'Hoole 09 - The First Collier

And it was not just any owl. It was Siv. Dear Owl, Siv! Horrendously maimed, but still and forever Siv!
    You cannot imagine my relief. The images began to fade. As was often the case after an intense, emotionalreading, I was not much more than a contented, but exhausted, pile of feathers. I flew back to the hollow and basked in the glow of the egg. “You are so lucky, little one,” I whispered. “Your mother, your dear mum, the most noble of owls, lives!” Did I imagine it? The light seemed to shimmer a bit as if the chick inside the egg had given the slightest little shiver.
    Had the images in the flames not begun to fade I would have seen what happened next, and this would have diminished my relief and joy considerably. I only learned of it much later. There was another dark speck in the sky flying higher than Siv.
    “I caught sight of him,” Siv told me later, “or maybe I should say I caught the sound of his wing beats. He was flying very noisily for an owl. But I would have recognized Lord Arrin anywhere. If Lord Arrin did not personally kill H’rath, he certainly caused it, arranged it with his cohorts of hagsfiends.”
    As she practiced flying, Siv had been seeking out the smee holes that occurred frequently in this part of the N’yrthghar and especially in this firthkin, which was generally ice free. The steam from the smees gave her a good lift and as she was rising up on one, she heard, then spotted him. She spiraled down rapidly. She was sure that he had already seen her. There was no use hiding. Wouldthe hagsfiends be with him? Dare they come this close to the water?
    “That’s him,” Siv said as she lighted down at the edge of the iceberg.
    “Who?” Svenka asked.
    “Lord Arrin.”
    “The one you told me about? The one who made the alliance with the hagsfiends?”
    “The one who caused my mate to die. And I think Pleek is with him.”
    “Pleek? Who is Pleek?” Svenka asked.
    “A terrible bird. I will not deign to call him an owl. He consorts with hagsfiends.” Siv gave a shudder, but then quickly recovered.
    “I’ll protect you, Siv. I will,” Svenka said.
    “He hasn’t come to kill me,” Siv answered.
    “What did he come for then?”
    “The egg.”
    “But it’s not here,”
    “He doesn’t know that.” Siv turned to Svenka. “And that is our only hope.”
    “Why is that our hope?” Svenka was confused. The polar bear knew that the strategies of owls and the politics of their world were a lot more complicated than those of polar bears.
    “You see, Svenka, he thinks I have the egg. We must keep him thinking that way until the time is right.”
    “Right for what?” the bear asked.
    “For me to get away.”
    “But you’re still too weak.”
    “I know, but this is going to take more than muscle. I’m going to have to think hard about this. But get ready. He’s coming in for a landing.”
    The immense Snowy settled between two spikes of the iceberg. “Milady.” Lord Arrin nodded. “I am pleased that you are healing.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
First Blood
    A s I rejoiced over the survival of my dear Siv, also unbeknownst to me were the trials of Theo. You see, Dear Owl, every now and then the egg had begun to make a very small rocking motion. So I knew that the time of the hatching could not be far off. I could not leave the nest to tend fires, let alone peer into them. I had gone hunting one last time to stock up on food for both the hatchling and myself. Hatchlings don’t eat meat at first. We start them on insects, a few soft worms if they can be found. There were plenty of grubs and such in the tree. It was also important to keep the egg warm now. So I confined myself to the hollow. It was on the second day of this confinement period that I began to think that perhaps Theo should have returned by this time. As tempted as I might be to build a fire for flame reading, I knew that I could not let thoughts of Theo distract me. My only business now, my only reason for living, it seemed, was to see this prince into the world, to make him safe, and toteach him. Theo had said I was a natural-born teacher. This chick would be my greatest test.
    I sat there for long hours on the schneddenfyrr and I wondered how far Theo had to fly for his blasted rocks. And then the next moment I would curse myself for cursing the rocks. Had I not asked him to make battle claws he never would have gone to the Nameless with its evaporated lakes and landlocked seas. Occasionally, I would