Guardians of Ga'Hoole 11 - To Be a King

Great Tree
    Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole

A peek at THE G UARDIANS of G A ’H OOLE Book Twelve: The Golden Tree
    “ Y ou are worried that kings shouldn’t just have fun?” Soren blinked at his nephew.
    “Well, I don’t want to be thought of as…” He hesitated.
    “A sporting king?”
    “I suppose so, yes.”
    “But,” Soren said eagerly now, “even a king must be curious about how the hard-won peace lies on the land. These are exciting times.”
    “It is a good plan, Uncle!” Coryn spoke now with genuine enthusiasm. “But we should meet with the Band to discuss it first, don’t you think?”
    “Yes, of course,” Soren agreed. “We’ll speak with them immediately and the parliament must be consulted on the morrow. First Black.”
    “And Otulissa, will she come as well?” Coryn asked. Otulissa, although considered by many a prickly sort with a confidence bordering on arrogance, was a favorite of Coryn’s. Otulissa was the first Guardian of Ga’Hoole that Coryn had met. Through some scroomish vision, an odd phenomenon in itself for an owl who was so dedicated to rational thought, Otulissa had been inspired to go to the Beyond. It was there she encountered Coryn and seemed instantly to sense his destiny and that she was part of it. It was Otulissa, the prodigiously talented and knowledgeable Spotted Owl, who first taught Coryn to dive for coals. She claimed no credit, however, for Coryn had a remarkable genius for colliering and in no time had learned to pluck the most challenging of coals from the volcanoes’ spume—the bonk ones that many colliers never learned to retrieve.
    “I doubt if Otulissa, with her additional responsibilities, will be able to accompany us,” Soren said. “But I shall certainly ask her.”
    Otulissa, an esteemed teacher of the tree, had recently been appointed chief ryb, as her expertise extended over so many of the disciplines—from the literature of the legends to the sciences, including weather interpretation and metals. She hardly had a moment to spare. Nonetheless Soren would go to the hollow where she resided with her old nest-maid snake, Audrey, to ask if she would travel with them. But first he would meet with Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger. And, of course, he would have to explain to Pelli. No doubt Basha, Blythe, and Bell would beg Soren to wait until they had fledged their flight feathers so they might go, too. But they were at least a moon cycle away from fledging, and this was not a trip for young’uns.
    Soren was just about to leave the hollow, immensely pleased with himself for coming up with this idea, when Coryn suddenly said, “Uncle?”
    “Yes?”
    “What about the ember?”
    “The ember? What about it?” Soren asked, slightly bewildered.
    “Will it be safe here?”
    “I can’t imagine a safer place than here in the great tree. We certainly don’t want to carry it around with us.” He paused and looked steadily at the ember. In a low voice he said, “We do not want to become slaves to the ember. If the legends taught us anything, it was that.”
    “You are right, Uncle. We are free owls!”

Copyright
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    Text copyright © 2006 by Kathryn Lasky.
    Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
    First printing, October 2006
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    E-ISBN 978-0-545-28342-7
    Cover art by Richard Cowdrey
    Cover design by Steve Scott