Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

Nothing at all.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
At Last, the Beyond
    D eep in a cliff cave in Beyond the Beyond, the remaining mates of Dunleavy MacHeath licked the socket where his eye had been. “Hordweard gone, eh?” he said.
    “Yes, my lord,” a yellowish wolf replied in a tight voice.
    “She won’t last long without me. Stupid she wolf. She’ll come back.” He paused. “Won’t she?” There was silence. Then his hackles rose and he snarled. “Won’t she?” The yellow wolf sank to her knees, lowered the maimed stump of her tail, and said in a quaking voice, “Of course, my lord. Of course!” He rose now and walked slowly about the cave. The newest litter of cubs scattered to the deepest shadows. They already knew not to be in their father’s way when he was like this. A tiny black cub named Blackmore had already been kicked so hard by his father that his brains were addled and he stumbled around half the time in a daze. Each of MacHeath’s mates had been maimed by him in some way during one of his violentrages. One, Ragwyn, had a terrible scar that ran across her face like a bolt of jagged lightning. Another, Dagmar, had only half her tongue, and Sinfagel, like MacHeath himself, was missing one eye. “Won’t she?” He snarled again and again as he walked up to each of his mates. He stood now across from Sinfagel who was groveling at his feet. He nudged her face upward roughly. “Look me in the eye!” He roared and then roared again with laughter. “Quite a pair we make, my one-eyed bonnie! Don’t we?”
    “Yes, my lord,” she answered, terrified.
    Three more days passed and still Hordweard had not returned. MacHeath knew that the other wolves had not accepted her into their packs. She was too old for mating, too slow for hunting. “She’ll come back. She’ll come back,” he muttered again and again.
    He finally sent Ragwyn to seek her. He wanted at least to know where she was dwelling. Ragwyn returned with more news than he had anticipated.
    “She is living close to the cave of Fengo,” she told him.
    “Does he pay her much attention?” MacHeath asked, suddenly nervous. It would not do to have Fengo taking up with one of his mates. How humiliating that would be! She was still his, by Lupus!
    No, no, not really.” Perhaps a bit more than the other wolves, she thought. But she would not tell MacHeath this. So she moved on to the other news. “Owls have been spotted coming over the southern ridges. They should be here by moonrise.”
    “You mean Grank?”
    “Yes, sir. And two others. Maybe more. I’m not sure.”
    “Is that so?” MacHeath said slowly. He had never trusted that owl, not in all the years Grank had been coming here. He closed his remaining eye. Sometimes it was almost as if he could still see with his missing eye. It was as if the empty socket had visions of its own of a very private nature. And what if one of those owls is the one destined to retrieve the ember, the wolf ember? he thought. Suddenly, MacHeath had an idea. “Ragwyn, get my gnaw-bone.” Ragwyn went over to the pile of bones that had been gnawed in such a way as to be inscribed with designs. This was a pastime for many of the wolves, and MacHeath’s gnaw-bones were considered crude compared to most others. Still, every wolf leader had his favorite.
    “No, not that one, idiot! My best one.” He kicked away a pup who had come too close. Ragwyn fetched his best gnaw-bone. It had been scraped and then engraved with a fairly decent profile of one of the volcanoes. “Now listen carefully, Ragwyn. I want you to take this bone to Hordweard and tell her she may keep it if she will provideme with information about the owls.” He dropped his voice lower. “Tell her that she can keep the gnaw-bone while she is thinking over my proposition. If she decides to help…well, let’s just say no hard feelings about our little spats—or her leaving.”
    Ragwyn’s eyes opened wide and green with surprise. “Your best gnaw-bone, are you sure?” Before the words were completely out she knew she had made a mistake. He gave her a hard swat across her muzzle, which sent her reeling.
    “There he is, lad. There he is.” Grank pointed his beak in the direction of a high arching cliff. Fengo had spotted Grank before anyone else and leaped up into the air with excitement, giving howl after howl of joy. As the owls approached, Hoole was mesmerized by the sight of this handsome wolf leaping high into the air, leaping in a stream