Guardians of Ga'Hoole 11 - To Be a King

hope and glory, thought Hoole. And perhaps love, as well.
    And indeed the days and the years that followed were ones of hope and glory and love. Emerilla and Hoole found happiness together as mates. They had owlets, one of whom, H’rathruyan, became the regent of the Ice Palace of the N’yrthghar. But no one called it the N’yrthghar any longer. It became known as the Northern Kingdoms as the S’yrthghar was known only as the Southern Kingdoms. And the southern sea became the Sea of Hoolemere and the island became the Island of Hoole. And it was in the Great Ga’Hoole Tree that the king lived with his queen, Emerilla, and together they grew old.
    Then one day, King Hoole said to Emerilla, “I have something to tell you.”
    “I know, Hoole,” she said quietly.
    “You know? How is that, my dear? What do you know?”
    “I know it is time to take the ember back to Beyond the Beyond.”
    “Yes. I promised Grank I would do this when he lay on his deathbed, but I would have done it, anyway. The magic is too powerful even for our own sons and daughters, who are strong and noble of gizzard. It is simply too dangerous to leave in this world. It must be buried in one of the volcanoes.”
    And so, telling no one, the two elderly Spotted Owls who now were almost as white as Snowies flew without ceremony or escort from the island across the Sea of Hoolemere to Beyond the Beyond. And when they got there, an ancient wolf was waiting.
    “Namara!” Hoole hooted.
    “Yes, Hoole.” Beside her stood the offspring of those wolves who had fought at the Battle of the Ice Palace. “Many of these wolves are MacDuncans, pups of those who fought so valiantly in the Battle of the Ice Palace and kin of Duncan who killed Kreeth. They will keep watch on the ring of the volcanoes, to guard the ember for that owl whose destiny it is to retrieve. Among themselves they have decided to call the chief of their watch Fengo.”
    Hoole blinked, and in that blink so many memoriesflooded back to him—his earliest days on the island in the Bitter Sea, Grank’s passionate care for him, the lessons he learned from Fengo, his friends—Phineas, Theo, the Snow Rose, whose great-granddaughter now sang for the tree. What a life he had led.
    Hoole spread his wings and lofted into the air. He carried the ember—not in the teardrop container that Theo had made for him—but in his talons as he first had carried it when he retrieved it from the volcano of H’rathmore. All the volcanoes began to erupt in a fury, and the sky was scorched with their flames and, in the flames, images began to emerge. Hoole could see a patch of white and two coal-black eyes. A Barn Owl? Yes, definitely a Barn Owl. But hundreds of years, maybe a thousand years from now. He let the ember drop into the flaming mouth of a volcano. He watched as the ember, with its lick of blue at the center surrounded by the green of a wolf’s eyes, sparkled, then winked and was gone, swallowed by the bubbling lava.
    But a Barn Owl will come…
    Or so we believe, but by that time I who have told this tale shall be long gone to glaumora.

Epilogue
    S oren closed the final book of legends. There was silence among the six owls. The ember in the latticed iron box glowed as fiercely as ever.
    “He returned it to the volcano,” Coryn whispered in disbelief, and then turned to his uncle Soren. “And so must I.”
    “Not yet. Your work is not done,” Soren replied. “Indeed, it is only just begun.”
    “But it is so dangerous.” Coryn opened his eyes wide, stared at the ember, and then blinked rapidly as if he could not quite believe how dangerous this thing was that glowed in its lattice box.
    “Coryn, you’re the Barn Owl that Hoole saw in the flames of the volcano,” Digger spoke firmly. “It is your destiny.”
    “You must fight for it, Coryn,” Twilight added.
    “It is not only a question of power,” Gylfie said. “It is also one of character. You have the character, Coryn, toresist the bad influences of the ember—the nachtmagen—and use it for good things.”
    “And the nachtmagen must be gone now,” Twilight added. “It died with the last hagsfiend—centuries ago.”
    Coryn felt a deep and awful tremor seize his gizzard. An almost palpable anxiety stirred the air.
    “What is it, Coryn?” Otulissa came over and gently began to preen his flight feathers.
    “Nothing…nothing,” Coryn said, and cast a quick glance at Soren. But there was something. Between the uncle