Guardians of Ga'Hoole 13 - The River of Wind

hoot was heard and Tengshu alighted. “The Dowager Empress’s qui bearers are coming. She wants to meet with you. She’s in a very agitated state. You can’t imagine. She rarely leaves the Hollow of Benevolence and Forgiveness. She will be here any second.”
    The owls of Ga’Hoole came out of the hollow into the wide passage that was lined with rich purple crystals ofjasper. It was a stunning sight to see this immense owl towed by a qui. Her wings and tail feathers spread across a frame suspended from the superstructure of silk cloth and paper. There were perhaps a half-dozen bearers, normally feathered owls handling the strings. Various instructions were being called out that guided the operations of the strings to control the qui. She did not really fly, but hovered a few inches above the floor of the palace. As the strings were reeled in, the qui floated down and so did the empress. Her body was heaving with sobs. She called Tengshu to her side and began speaking rapidly. He held up a talon to halt this rush of words, then turned to Coryn.
    “I must translate for the empress. She urgently wants you to understand this unfortunate, nay, tragic situation that has occurred with the defection of the owl known as Orlando.” There was another rush of words from the empress. “She feels that this defection has twisted the phonqua of the dragon owls of the Panqua Palace.” Tengshu began to stammer a bit and it was apparent that he was reluctant to go on. He and the Dowager Empress exchanged glances. There were some desperate whisperings between them. Tengshu then turned to the owls of Ga’Hoole. “There are some things that, though shared between our cultures, have diverged and taken different paths. These things cannot really be explained.”
    Cannot or will not? Soren wondered.
    “The dragon owls here in the Panqua Palace are servants…”
    Servants! The word exploded silently in the heads of all of the owls of Ga’Hoole. These owls served nothing. They existed only to be served. They could not even fly on their own. The notion of them serving others was absolutely preposterous.
    “But what are we supposed to do?” Digger asked.
    “How can we help?” Coryn stepped forward. “You speak of twisting the phonqua, but we hardly understand the meaning of this word, let alone what your phonqua is.”
    “You must go to the owlery. A messenger has already been sent to the first master of the pikyus, requesting an audience for you with the H’ryth.”
    Otulissa blinked. “What did you say?”
    “The H’ryth,” Tengshu repeated. “It is the holy one of the owlery. That is what we call him, the H’ryth. He must be consulted on all matters of phonqua.”
    “Yes, of course,” said Otulissa, and clamped her beak shut. The owls of Ga’Hoole swiveled their heads toward her. This sudden silence was not normal behavior for Otulissa. She was usually more than ready to share her thoughts, her opinions. Digger looked at her thoughtfully. What is she not saying?
    The Dowager Empress was departing now with her cadre of bearers. The wind in the amethyst corridor stirred as she was borne back a few inches above the palace floor on her qui to the Hollow of Benevolence and Forgiveness, but within this wind, Mrs. Plithiver detected a tinier riffle of a breeze. It was as if the wings of a butterfly had stirred the air. The universe was about to be disturbed.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Desert Healer
    F ar away in the Desert of Kuneer, an Elf Owl poked his head from the cavity in the cactus. He saw the moonfaced owl and a small division of her followers flying overhead in a westerly direction. Good! he thought. They’re gone. Now I can get to work. Eglantine and Primrose had not been the only owls listening that night to the voices that had filtered up though Nyra’s burrow. Cuffyn the desert healer had also been listening, but from another place.
    The Elf Owl was prodigiously intelligent. Not only was he a fine and esteemed herbalist and healer, he had learned the ways of the Burrowing Owls, who were numerous in the Desert of Kuneer, and despite his small size, he had become an excellent excavator and digger of tunnels, very small tunnels that were nearly undetectable. He had become deeply suspect of these Barn Owls who had arrived in Kuneer and seemed to be growing in numbers with each passing cycle of the moon. He harbored aparticular resentment for the one called Stryker. That brute had roughed him up to obtain some of