Guardians of Ga'Hoole 11 - To Be a King

son will meet again in glaumora,” he said, “—in owl heaven.”
    The cubs instantly looked toward their mother. “But…” Anka blinked with confusion. “If Siv is in owl heaven and we are in bear heaven, we won’t see her there, either.”
    “Don’t worry, child,” Theo said. “There are no separate heavens. All creatures are together. We just call them by different names.”
    “But you have not come merely to tell me of the death of my dear friend,” Svenka said.
    A feeling of great relief swept through Theo. “No. I have been sent by Hoole. Are you familiar with the term ‘slipgizzle’?”
    “Spy,” Svenka said with more than a hint of unpleasantness in her voice.
    “Yes.” Theo paused. “I’m not asking that you go out andspy, but just to keep your ears open.” And, Theo thought, those are rather large ears. “There is not much time, Svenka. The last of the H’rathian troops were forced out of the palace by Lord Arrin. And now rumors abound that hagsfiends have formed an entire division—of just hagsfiends.”
    “A division of hagsfiends!” There was a flash of alarm in Svenka’s dark eyes.
    Theo nodded. The notion of King H’rath’s Ice Palace falling to hagsfiends was as unthinkable to a polar bear as it was to any decent owl in the N’yrthghar. “Winter is setting in. The more water that freezes, the safer the hags-fiends are and the more vulnerable we are. Hoole is planning an invasion, a massive one. It has to happen on or before the Long Night. And we need all the information we can get, as fast as we can get it.”
    Svenka shook her head heavily as if despairing. “But we bears are solitary creatures. We do not hear much news.”
    “Oh, Mum,” Rolf said, almost dancing off the iceberg with excitement. “I heard that a school of blueskins had been swimming out of the firthkin.” He turned to Theo.
    “And I heard a seal talking about anchovies in the ice gut that connects this firthkin to the big firth,” Anka said.
    “Cubs! Cubs!” Svenka interrupted. “I don’t think schooling fish is the information that our friend Theo has in mind.”
    “Well, that is all very interesting,” Theo said politely, thinking that such information could be quite helpful in tracking other polar bears who might agree to become part of the slipgizzle network.
    “What exactly do you want to find out?” Svenka said.
    “There is an owl with King Hoole, a very brave owl and good fighter—Strix Strumajen of the Ice Regiment. Her daughter, although very young, decided to fight, as well, but was lost in a skirmish off the Ice Fangs. We want to know if she is still alive.”
    Svenka shuddered. She was all too familiar with hagsfiends’ habits. Just before her cubs were born, she had witnessed the murder of Myrrthe, Siv’s beloved servant. Never would she forget the image of that hagsfiend flying off with the huge white Snowy’s head impaled on the ice pike, still bleeding, leaving a trail like that of a bloody comet.
    “And,” Theo interrupted her grim recollections, “we need to learn all we can about the movements of hagsfiends and Lord Arrin.” Theo went on to tell Svenka about the great tree and how Hoole was starting a new order. “You see, Svenka,” Theo continued, “King Hoole is a very different sort of king. He does not want to be an absolute ruler. Despite the fact that he now possesses the greatest of all powers—the ember—he does not want to rule byany kind of magic—nachtmagen or otherwise. Hoole says that the true roots of power must be the ideals of goodness, equality, and nobility.”
    Svenka pondered the ways of hagsfiends and this young king. “I will find out what I can,” she told Theo.
    A deep quietness descended upon them and if the wind had not picked up, they might have heard the soft whispers of the half-hags’ wings.
    “What!” Kreeth screeched. “He wants to rid the world of magic? What an idiot!” She began to croak madly with laughter, then she turned serious. “But that ember! That ember! I must have it. It is wasted on this stupid king. It will be wasted on any creature, save myself.” Her eyes became dark pinpricks as the old hagsfiend began to dream of spells never imagined, of curses and enchantments never conceived. “Well, my dear, we have our work cut out for us. Now, tell me, have you practiced your Spotted Owl transformation lately?”

CHAPTER TEN
Into the S’yrthghar
    “ B ut I can’t sing!” Hoole protested.
    “Nor