Guardians of Ga'Hoole 11 - To Be a King

“—is even greater than mine. She would be such an addition to the tree.”
    Hoole made a short flight from one perch to another in his hollow. Above this perch was a somewhat crude map that one of the members of the H’rathian Guard had brought with him from the N’yrthghar. “The Ice Fangs, I don’t see it here.”
    “It’s off the Bay of Fangs. It isn’t on this map. It was a short but brutal battle that took place there,” Joss said.
    Strix Strumajen shook her head. “She wanted to go into battle so badly. I felt she was too young. But then you, Hoole, are about the same age as she. Siv and I laid our eggs during the same moon cycle. Emerilla was determined to fight, after her father was killed over the Ice Dagger. We all thought that she was too small to manage one of the long scimitars. But, by Glaux, if she didn’t go harvest herself a small blade from the issen vingtygg. It took courage to use, for it required close fighting. She was so quick with it. So bold!” Strix Strumajen’s dark amber eyes filled with tears.
    Hoole dropped his beak and ran it through the feathers on his chest. He was thinking very hard and coming to the edge of an important idea. He looked up and blinked at the three owls. “I don’t want us to lose another owl to these hagsfiends and tyrants. We must act now. If we do not take the battle to them, they will bring the battle to us, to the tree.”
    “Whoever chooses the battlefield wins the battle,” Grank said in a low, gravelly voice.
    “Precisely!” Hoole nodded. “But I am choosing more than one battlefield.”
    “More than one, sir?” Grank blinked. “Is that wise?”
    “Well, you see…” Hoole swiveled his head slowly.“Not all of them will appear to be battlefields. Not all of them will require the same amount of power or resources, but they will be crucial to our ultimate victory.”
    “I don’t follow, sir,” said Joss.
    “Let me explain.” Hoole pointed to the map of the N’yrthghar and lifted it with his talons to reveal another equally crude map of the S’yrthghar. “We must deal with three realms essentially—that of the N’yrthghar, the S’yrthghar, and our own realm here at the great tree. In one realm, we must fight,” he said, pointing to the spot where the great palace of the H’rathghar glacier rose out of the N’yrthghar ice fields. “In another, we must train.” He tapped the tiny island in the vast sea of the Southern Kingdoms. “And here”—he swept his four talons lightly across the great expanse of the continent of the Southern Kingdoms, including that westernmost region known as Beyond the Beyond—“we must find out who our friends are, and if there are hagsfiends anywhere.”
    Hoole flew to the Spotted Owl’s side and tapped her shoulder gently with his wing tip and even preened her back feathers a bit with his beak. “Strix Strumajen, your knowledge of weather is invaluable, but you also have great skill with a variety of weapons. I saw you practicing with battle claws the other evening. You were superb. You will be a formidable threat on this battlefield.” Once more,he indicated the place on the map where his ancestral palace on the H’rathghar glacier stood. “I want you to train a new company of owls with the short blade. Teach them everything you know.”
    “It will be an honor, Your Grace.”
    “Joss, your job is to set up a slipgizzling system in the N’yrthghar. You have been both messenger and spy for years now. It is too much for one owl. We need more information. Find noncombat owls, even gizzard-resisters, who are ready and willing to give it to us.”
    “Yes, Your Majesty. That will be most helpful.”
    Hoole tapped his head with a single talon. “And why not use polar bears as slipgizzles, too?” Hoole blinked at his own question.
    “A wonderful idea!” Joss exclaimed. “I know several.”
    “With your contacts up there, Joss, we’ll at least have a chance of keeping track of the new alliances.”
    “If I may offer a suggestion, Your Grace?” Strix Strumajen stepped forward.
    “Certainly, ma’am.”
    “Perhaps gadfeathers might make good slipgizzles because of their wandering ways.”
    “Brilliant! The Snow Rose might help us find them!” Hoole exclaimed, and then continued quietly as if thinking aloud, “By Glaux—gadfeathers, polar bears, monks,who knows? Maybe even wolves!—we will bring the battle to them with alliances of our own, alliances beyond anything they ever