Guardians of Ga'Hoole 11 - To Be a King

titles.”
    Namara laughed softly. “What brings you here to this lonely place?”
    “Is it lonely for you, Namara?” Hoole asked.
    “No, not really, and if it were, it would be a loneliness of my own choosing. You know me, Hoole. But tell me, why have you come?”
    Hoole told her of his encounter with the hagsfiend in Ambala and how he had suspected that others were around. “So I went to the fire to read the flames.”
    Namara nodded her head as she gnawed on the caribou. “Yes, you were a flame reader. I remember now. And the flames told you that there were hagsfiends loose in the S’yrthghar.”
    “In the Desert of Kuneer to be exact. A perfect place for them, of course. But it told me even more.”
    “What was that?” Namara lifted her head. Her tilted green eyes sparkled. Hoole leaned forward into their green light. He knew he was right. This was the light he had seen in the flames.
    “Namara, the green light in the eyes of wolves willdestroy the fyngrot. I know this. I know it through the flames. I know it in my gizzard.” He paused before going on. He was frightened of asking the next question but he must. “Namara, I need you to lead a wolf pack into the Desert of Kuneer. You are a loner, I know, but you are a natural leader, too. The wolves of the Beyond hold you in great esteem. I am not asking you to live with them. I am asking you to lead them. This is a battle for the wolves. I will go with you. I shall fight. In the Battle of the Beyond I learned from my mother to resist the fyngrot, but I cannot destroy it. My family’s palace, the Ice Palace of the N’yrthghar, has fallen into enemy hands. And now, in the S’yrthghar, there are hagsfiends. Before I can go north again and lead my owls of the great tree on to the H’rathghar glacier to oust those outlaws and tyrants, I must make sure the S’yrthghar is rid of the hagsfiends.”
    “And once this is done, this business with the hags-fiends, will you fly straightaway to the N’yrthghar?”
    “No, not straightaway. There is much to be done before we are ready for that war.”
    “And what is that?” Somehow things had turned around. Namara was not answering Hoole’s questions but asking the questions. Hoole felt it was important to answer her questions with great care and thought. This, in some way, is a test, he thought.
    “There is much to be done before the Guardians of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree are ready. We had one success at the Battle in the Beyond, and though it wasn’t mere chance, we must be better prepared next time. Only four of us fought with battle claws then. That was all we had. We must make more and teach others how to fly with them. We need more colliers, more owls to learn the art of smithing who can produce the battle claws because we have few ice weapons in our part of the world and they are difficult to keep. And—” Hoole paused and looked deeply into the tilting green eyes of Namara “—we need to learn to think like wolves.”
    Namara seemed to relax now. “This is good, my friend. You are right. You must teach them the way of the byrrgis. And if it is colliers and smiths that you need, well, there are more each day. They are learning quickly how to pick up coals, not from the mouth of the volcanoes as you did, mind you, but the ones that are flung down to the base. And now I even see them heading out for forest fires.”
    “Really?” Hoole was amazed.
    Namara nodded and continued, “There is even a smith with a forge near here. They are all very devoted to you, Hoole, and I think they would not hesitate to help.”
    “And yourself, Namara, will you help?”
    “Of course, dear friend. It is the least I can do for theonly creature on earth who believed in me and knew I was not a traitor. We can set out for the Beyond at First Black, as you owls call it. Fengo will help me raise the pack. Don’t worry. Now help yourself to some of this caribou.”
    “Oh, no. It is a scrawny thing. You eat the rest. I’m sure there are rats and voles scrambling around here someplace.”
    “As you like, Hoole, as you like. But come share my den when you have fed. It is right over there by that old scrub oak. I’ve made a burrow at its roots. It will do fine for a wolf and a Spotted Owl.”
    That day, well fed, the owl and the wolf shared a den.
    Hoole hadn’t dreamed of the lovely Spotted Owl since that first time. It seemed as if each time he nearly entered a dream about her, something would drag him from it,