Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

have been alone.”
    Lord Arrin blinked. He’s right. Penryck is right. “But what now, Penryck?”
    “Don’t you see, Lord Arrin, it is a blessing.” It was very odd hearing a hagsfiend say a word like “blessing.” A blessing was associated with Glaux, with faith, but never with magic. The word sounded curious from the beak of a hagsfiend, something like the krakish word for blood, “bleshka.”
    “How so?” Lord Arrin asked.
    “A mother yearns for her chick. If we find her, we can follow her. She will lead us right to the chick.”
    “Aaaah.” Lord Arrin blinked. His amber eyes glowed with this sudden realization.
    Penryck wondered yet again how stupid these owls were. Not only did they have no magic but they, who thought that hagsfiends brains were primitive, had their own unique ignorance. Lord Arrin might imagine that he, Penryck, was working for him, but in truth it was quitethe reverse. Penryck himself had a grand scheme for domination, and if they could seize the chick…well…the world would be Penryck’s and he would not be just king of the N’yrthghar but the god of the nachtmagen universe.
    The other owls and hagsfiends whispered among themselves as Lord Arrin and Penryck continued to confer.
    “We need the best trackers,” Lord Arrin was saying in a low voice.
    “Well, we know who that is!” Penryck churred. But it was not the soft gentle laughter of owls. Instead, it sounded rather like ice fracturing.
    “Ygryk! How convenient.”
    Penryck nodded.
    “Invite her and Pleek to the war room,” Lord Arrin said, and then paused. “Of course, we won’t let Ygryk actually keep the chick. She could be its foster mother, nanny, nursemaid, perhaps.”
    Penryck shook his head. “No, that will never do. She will want to possess the chick entirely.”
    Lord Arrin blinked. “Well then, there is only one choice.”
    Penryck nodded.
    “She will be slain as soon as she leads us to the chick.”
    “Precisely,” Penryck replied.
    “And we know who our best assassin is—Ullryck,” Lord Arrin said. He then churred. This, indeed, is a good plan, he thought to himself. “Yes, yes, a good plan. Send for Ygryk and Pleek right now!”
    Ygryk and Pleek followed Penryck as they flew through a tangled web of ice tunnels under the H’rathghar glacier. Their gizzards were tight. Their hearts beat rapidly. Never before had they been asked into this innermost sanctum where Lord Arrin had plotted and strategized against the H’rathian owls of the king. We are coming up in the world, Pleek thought. How they had made fun of him. No, worse. When he had first taken Ygryk as a mate, they all had sneered and treated him as if he were splat from a wet pooper of a bird, a seagull. But look at him now—and look at Ygryk—both of them flying toward the war room to be included in a high-level meeting.
    Lord Arrin began at once. “We have invited you here to perform a special mission.”
    “Your word is our command.” Pleek dipped his head obsequiously.
    “Ygryk, I understand that because of your superb vigilance you have just discovered that Siv has fled the iceberg.”
    “Yes, my lord.” Her voice creaked in the manner of those hagsfiends whose ancestors were said to have emerged from the smee holes that dotted the N’yrthghar. Somehow the heat or the steam from the holes and had given their voices an odd inflection.
    “I know that it is difficult for you hagsfiends with your…” He hesitated as if searching for the proper word.
    Don’t you dare say “primitive,” Penryck silently cursed.
    “…With your unusual brains and thinking processes to master the art of reason, but I have deduced that it would be most logical at this time for Siv to set out in search of her chick.”
    No credit for me, of course! Penryck thought.
    “Therefore,” Lord Arrin continued, “my proposition is simple. Ygryk, you are a superior tracker and you, Pleek, have learned well from this good mate of yours.”
    At last, Pleek thought, someone understands what a jewel my Ygryk truly is!
    “I want Siv as my queen,” Lord Arrin went on. “You want a child. You get me my queen and her chick. I’ll keep the queen and you keep the chick.”
    Pleek and Ygryk were overwhelmed. They slid from the ice shards they had been perched on and bent their legs so deeply that their talons skidded out from underthem and their beaks dug into the ice. “Merciful and all wise Lord Arrin,” Pleek began, “how shall we ever thank you