Guardians of Ga'Hoole 13 - The River of Wind

day? Why aren’t you asleep?”
    “I might ask the same of you.”
    “Yes, well…with Pelli and the young’uns gone, I rattle around in here like a loose milkberry. It’s hard to sleep, you know.”
    “Well, I’m afraid my news will not help,” Otulissa said matter-of-factly.
    “Oh, Glaux, what is it now?”
    “It’s not bad news—no, not at all.” She hesitated. “It’s just…rather astonishing.”
    A perplexed light flashed deep within Soren’s black eyes. “What is it?”
    “It’s rather unbelievable, really.”
    Soren had never seen Otulissa so tentative. Almost at a loss for words, although that was unimaginable. The Spotted Owl was always so talkative. “Soren, I have had word from Bess,” she finally said.
    “Written in the usual code?”
    “Yes, of course. We always use the code.” Otulissa exhaled with a great whoosh. “Soren, Bess thinks there is a sixth owl kingdom.”
    “Whhhhhhaaaat?” Soren staggered on his perch.
    “She thinks there is another kingdom of owls.”
    “She thinks ? Does she know ? Where? How?”
    “I think she knows,” Otulissa replied.
    “You think she knows ? What in hagsmire does that mean?”
    “Well, I know she knows. She didn’t want to elaborate on it in the letter—even in code. I had to destroy it as soon as I read it. But she has evidence.”
    “Evidence? What kind of evidence?” Soren blinked rapidly.
    “Fragments of documents, apparently. Just let me recite the letter to you.”
    Soren looked around nervously. “Come to the back of the hollow and keep your voice low.”
    Soren listened quietly and then asked her to repeat it. “Now say that part about the star maps again.”
    “These star maps,” Otulissa reiterated, “were not created by the Others, but by owls. There is in fact a sixth kingdom of owls. It is called the Middle Kingdom…About a year ago, I discovered…fragments of writings, badly damaged and barely decipherable, but nonetheless, I could tell immediately that they were not the writings of the Others. It was not handwriting, but bore the distinct marks of a talon, perhaps more than one talon,” she recited a bit more.
    Soren ran a talon through his port wing feathers, a habit of his when thinking deeply. “She can really tell that there was more than one owl who wrote this stuff, eh?”
    “Yes, she’s very good at that sort of thing,” Otulissa replied softly.
    “Bess is good at a lot of things. She thinks that theseowls might have been some sort of scholars trading in information the way Trader Mags trades in goods?”
    Otulissa sniffed haughtily. “Well, it’s hard to use the words ‘Trader Mags’ and ‘scholars’ in the same sentence—but basically, yes.”
    “Curious idea, isn’t it? Itinerant scholar-owls,” Soren mused.
    “Strictly hypothetical, of course. I mean, she couches her supposition in all sorts of very conditional language.” Otulissa was back to her old academic self. Big words, convoluted, scholarly surmises, and interpretations. It was enough to drive one yoicks.
    “Otulissa!” Soren said somewhat sharply. “Here’s something that’s not so hypothetical. Sometime in the past owls from a sixth kingdom have come here. Therefore, I would say that they were more advanced than we are. I mean, our ancestors didn’t even know of its existence, much less go there. And who knows what was involved crossing a sea so vast that we have never even bothered to name it. For centuries, owls of the Five Kingdoms have called it the Unnamed Sea.”
    Otulissa blinked. There was no owl like Soren for cutting so directly to the chase, she thought.
    “Well, we need to tell the Band and Coryn,” Soren said, his black eyes sparkling now.
    “But does Coryn know about Bess and the Palace of Mists?”
    “Well…” Soren began somewhat sheepishly. “You know when we went on that trip before all that emberworship nonsense? We were hollowed up with bad weather in Silverveil. You know how you can get stuck there. We began telling stories.”
    “Yes, I remember. A male-bonding thing no doubt,” Otulissa huffed.
    Soren suddenly swelled up. “Male bonding, my talon! How can you say that! Gylfie was there.” He stomped on his perch. “Anyway, that’s when we told Coryn about Bess and the palace. He was fascinated.”
    “Who wouldn’t be?” Otulissa said in a somewhat more conciliatory tone. “All right, it makes sense that he should go. If there is a sixth kingdom…well, it’s logical that