Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

and gradually specks of white began to appear. The dense ruff feathers that grew just under the beak turned white and those on her chest turned gray and became mottled with white patches in a ripplelike pattern. Lastly, the two huge tufts that swept out from every hagsfiend’s brow began to shrink and poke up in the manner of a Great Horned’s tufts, directly above the eyes, which now had semicircles of white feathers.
    While all this was transpiring, Ygryk began to diminish in size; hagsfiends were twice as big as the largest of owls. It took but a short time for this transformation to be completed. And when it was finished, she began talking rapidly to the minute half-hags in the peculiar language of hagsfiends and their parasitic companions. Ygryk was giving them the revised flight plan instructions. With her new body, a new flight formation was necessary for the half-hags. Again Pleek’s eyes gleamed with pride. What a creature she was! And if it worked, if indeed they could capture the young son of King H’rath and Queen Siv and change him into a true hagsfiend—not merely an owl with a haggish appearance as he himself had become—if it worked, there would be no limit to their power. Although Lord Arrin had granted them the possibility of keeping this chick for their own, neither Lord Arrin nor any of his top lieutenants knew of the charm that dear Ygryk possessed to transform the owl prince into a hagsfiend. Had they known they would have never permitted the adoption. For Lord Arrin would countenance nothing that might threaten his own power. Secretly, Pleek believed that the reason he had not been permitted into Arrin’s inner circle until now was because the lord feared him. He surrounded himself with noddy owls: owls who nodded in constant agreement with him. But nowLord Arrin needed them because he wanted Siv as his consort as much as Ygryk and Pleek yearned for a chick of their own.
    “Ready?” Pleek asked Ygryk.
    “Yes.” The two birds lifted off the island and set their beaks for the island in the Bitter Sea where the half-hags had tracked Siv.
    Siv herself had begun to have odd sensations in her gizzard as she was approaching the Bitter Sea. She was not sure what it was but she felt in some way that she was being followed. The Bitter Sea’s westernmost edge lapped the shores of what was called the Nameless, and she decided to fetch up there for a while on a high cliff. The cliffs were notched with deep crevices that were perfect for observing without being observed. She was surprised, however, when she lighted down on the cliff to see an immense Snowy stick her head out from one of these niches. Few birds ever came to the Nameless. It was considered inhospitable and there was a dearth of game. And this was not just any Snowy, but the Snow Rose, the gadfeather she had seen at the gathering at the mouth of the firthkin a few nights before. She was certain she would have noticed a gadfeather passing her inflight, especially this one who wore a strand of red berries woven through her feathers along with silvery tufts of reindeer moss and a dazzling blue plume of a bird she herself had never before seen. The plume was stuck in at a jaunty angle in her head feathers. This was not a bird one could miss.
    “Beg your pardon,” the Snow Rose asked, “but didn’t I see you at the gathering for gadfeathers at the firthkin?”
    “Yes, and I heard you sing. Your voice is lovely.”
    “Oh, thank you.”
    “I could never forget it. I have never heard such a voice.”
    “How kind of you to remember.” The Snow Rose blinked. This Spotted Owl seems different from most gadfeathers, she thought. She had a kind of elegance that went beyond the moss and various feathers she had tucked into her plumage. Indeed, her gadfeather costume, or gaddis as it was called, was not very special at all. No, there was something else that suggested a deeper elegance, an indefinable grace. “You wouldn’t mind, would you…” The Snow Rose hesitated for a moment.
    “Mind what?” Siv asked.
    “If…if…”
    “Yes?”
    “If I joined you for a bit on your wanderings?”
    Siv truly did not know how to answer. Yes, she would mind, but the Snow Rose was so nice and lovely she hated to appear unfriendly. She had hoped to have some time alone with her son but maybe that was not even a very good idea. She would not be tempted to reveal her identity as his mother with another owl around. She cocked her head and looked at