Guardians of Ga'Hoole 13 - The River of Wind

Coryn.”
    “What is that, Mrs. P.?” Coryn had a profound respect for Mrs. P. He had secretly been thrilled when Soren had raised the question of her coming with them.
    “I think we should leave the battle claws behind.”
    “What?” Twilight yelped. “You can’t be serious!”
    “I am perfectly serious,” Mrs. P. said. She had coiled up taller and swiveled her head toward Twilight. “I just have a feeling that we should not bring them. I have a sense about these owls. We shall look very poor to them if wearrive rattling battle claws. As Digger said, we can conclude that they came here sometime in the past. They flew among us, observed us. No one, apparently, knew they were here. If they had arrived armed to the beak, someone would have noticed. And I, for one, would have thought it very bad form.”
    “I think Mrs. P. is right,” Soren said. “I can remember one of Ezylryb’s finest speeches, in which he said that although boldness of action is always called for, it must be tempered by wisdom and restraint, and too often it is not. And that we had nothing to fear except fear itself.”
    Coryn blinked and his eyes blazed. “Fear itself! It is a terrible thing. You are absolutely right.” He nodded at Soren and then Mrs. Plithiver. “During that horrid time of the Golden Tree when the milkberries never changed their color and those owls became fixated on the ember, they were seized with superstition about the ember’s powers. Superstition is closely linked to fear. It was that, I feel, not respect for the ember that led them to build a prison. Owls were systematically deprived of their rights, their dignity. Otulissa was locked up, and then Madame Plonk, and then Primrose! What could have been more contrary to the entire meaning of the great tree?” Never had the owls seen Coryn as passionate. “Mrs. Plithiver isabsolutely right. We must leave our weapons behind. We must come in peace. This is my command as monarch of the tree.”
    Coryn rarely issued absolute commands. The owls were silent for several seconds. Even Twilight did not raise a protest but appeared impressed by the force of Coryn’s argument. The construction of a barred hollow and the imprisonment of owls had been, of all the bad things that happened during those awful days of the Golden Tree, the most shocking violation to the code and the honor of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole. There was no one who could look back without shame on those terrible moon cycles when the great tree had appeared to flourish, but the gizzards of some of its owls had hardened and withered.
    “Now,” Coryn continued, “there are other practical matters to think about. If we do successfully negotiate these windkins and find the current of streaming air, how long will it take us? And if not weapons, what should we take—food? Can we eat on the wing?”
    Otulissa had been looking hard at Bess, but now turned to address Coryn. “There are two sun symbols on the key and only two newing moon symbols, one slightly more shaded. I would think that means that the flight is aday, a night, another day, and part of another night, for the shading of the moon has barely increased on the second night.”
    “That’s so short!” Gylfie gasped in astonishment.
    “About the same time as flying from the great tree to the northernmost reaches of the Northern Kingdoms,” Otulissa said.
    “But still, there’s no place to stop in between. No islands. No Ice Narrows with cliffs,” Martin whispered.
    “Yes, but if this stream is what I think it is, we’ll barely burn any energy getting there.”
    “It seems amazing that no one has discovered this before now,” Ruby wondered aloud.
    “Well, as I said, it’s high-altitude flying, and you have to negotiate these wind ladders and the dangers of the tumblebones,” Otulissa replied.
    “So, are you saying we don’t need to take much?” Soren asked. “What about this key? Should we bring it? We will probably need it.”
    “I don’t think we need that much. Except perhaps time, right now. Time to study more. This key is not hard to memorize. I think we should all try to commit at least a piece of it to memory. I will try to memorize all of it.”
    “What about gifts?” Gylfie said. “If we brought something, you know, a present, it might show that we come in good faith and good gizzard.”
    “That’s a lovely idea, Gylfie,” Mrs. P. said. “But whatever could we bring?”
    “Maybe something simple,” Soren