Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

the Snow Rose. “Yes, how nice. I am heading to the island where I understand the Glauxian Brothers have a retreat.”
    “Do you plan to visit them?”
    “Oh…” Siv hesitated. “Perhaps. They keep to themselves, you know. Vows of silence and all that. Rather studious, I think.”
    “Yes, but I once sang for them.”
    “You did?” Siv was shocked.
    “Oh, yes. They enjoy music very much, you know.”
    “No…no, I didn’t know,” Siv answered.
    “And they be quite welcoming to visitors.”
    Perhaps, Siv thought to herself, this is not a bad idea at all. If we are with the Glauxian Brothers for a few days it might be easier for me to get away from the Snow Rose to see my son. But might the Glauxian Brothers remember her from the times they visited in court even disguised as she was?
    But I have changed so much, she thought somewhat wistfully. She had been young then, her plumage a rich dark brown with the whitest of spots, not to mention whole wings. No, they would never realize that this dull brown bird with moss and feathers tucked in here and there as if trying to disguise her shabbiness, was in fact Queen Siv, mate of King H’rath.
    So at First Black, the two owls rose in the air on a heading for the island in the middle of the Bitter Sea. It was a moonless night and the stars shone brighter because of it as they reached the island. Perhaps if it had not been moonless, Siv would not have spotted the curls of smoke that smudged the deep black of the night. She felt her gizzard quicken. This must be the place! It has to be one of Grank’s fires! Joy sang through her hollow bones.
    “Do you think that’s a fire over there?” the Snow Rose asked. “Do you see that smoke?”
    “Yes.”
    “We should go see what’s happening.”
    “Oh, I’d prefer not. I’m tired. You know, this wing gives me trouble and the wind has changed and we’re flying against it. I’d like to get to the Glauxian Brothers as soon as we can.”
    “Oh, yes, I understand…er…” The Snow Rosehesitated, then continued. “Don’t think me rude. But if we are to be fly mates might you tell me your name?”
    Name, name, Siv thought in a panic. What’s my name? “Elka!” she said suddenly. She remembered that her dear servant, Myrrthe, who had been killed by hagsfiends, had a sister named Elka.
    “Elka, a very nice name,” the Snow Rose replied.

CHAPTER TWELVE
So Near But Yet So Far
    B eneath that curl of smoke in the night sky, Grank perched by the forge, peering into the fire. He simply did not understand. Had he lost his firesight? Oh, he could see images, but they were weak, unclear, and impossible to read. How had this happened? Was it old age? Had his eyesight simply dimmed? His eye tubes shortened up? Had his third eyelids thinned out, letting too much flight debris scar his eyes? It was a mystery and a frustrating one at that for although he could not read the images, the blurry suggestions of contours and shapes set his gizzard trembling. He felt that danger lurked nearby but the images themselves seemed too frail to show him more. It was almost as if the life had been sucked out of them, rendering them hopelessly obscure. When he did see something, it seemed nonsensical. Right now lurking in the bottom part of one very weak flame, he saw what appeared to be a truly immense tree and there were theimages of owls hunched over a book of some sort. But what did it all mean?
    What Grank had surmised was true. The fire had for him been leeched of its power. For there was another who had firesight. A fire can only yield its images to one fire reader, and it offers them to the reader with the strongest sight. And that was Hoole. For even though his sight was undisciplined, it was amazingly powerful and what was left for Grank were only dim shadowy shapes. Each morning when Grank and Theo slept, Hoole flew down to the forge to watch the image that stirred his gizzard with emotions he had never experienced. He was so obsessed with his vision that he had ignored the other images in the fire.
    But had the fire not been drained by Hoole, Grank would have seen much to disturb him. There was no telling if he would have recognized Siv clad in the geegaws of a gadfeather but he certainly would have recognized Pleek and would have surmised that the Horned Owl with whom he flew was none other than Ygryk. Grank knew of the “guise charms,” as they were called, of which hagsfiends were capable. And he also knew no other female