Guardians of Ga'Hoole 13 - The River of Wind

course.”
    “Mrs. P.? You’ve got to be kidding. Are you yoicks?” Twilight asked.
    “She knew all about it?” Otulissa asked, more than dismayed.
    “Actually, she said,” Soren replied, “that when you kicked Twilight, it all came together for her.”
    “That’ll show you, Otulissa. You shouldn’t have kicked me,” Twilight muttered.
    “I wouldn’t have kicked you if you hadn’t nearly blurted the whole thing out.”
    “Quit arguing,” Coryn said. Sometimes the Band, who were all older and supposedly more mature than himself, sounded like a bunch of squabbling children. He turned to Digger, the Burrowing Owl. “Digger, I want to hear what you have to say.”
    Digger shut his eyes for a long time. “Well, there are two parts to this. Will she go with us to the Palace of Mists? And then if we go on, will she accompany us to the Middle Kingdom, as it is called?”
    “I don’t mind her going to the Palace of Mists, but all the way to the Middle Kingdom?” Gylfie scratched her head with her minuscule talon and began to equivocate. “I mean, it just seems a bit much.”
    Digger continued. “It’s an interesting proposition. Think of it this way, Gylfie: When we fly on an expedition, especially one that involves something unknown or risky, we take you as navigator, Twilight for his fighting skills, and Soren and Otulissa for weather interpretation and coal harvesting. We take our battle claws just in case. In other words, we fly well equipped. We have already decided to include the Chaw of Chaws.” He looked at Martin and Ruby. “This was suggested by Bess herself.”
    “What are you getting at?” Twilight said.
    “I am merely saying that Mrs. P. would be a terrificaddition to our—how shall I put it—arsenal? Tool kit? Call it what you may,” Digger concluded.
    All the owls blinked. This was a peculiar notion. A nest-maid as part of the Chaw of Chaws. But then again, hadn’t Mrs. P. flown with the Band long ago when they first came to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree? Hadn’t she been the one to perceive the deadly enchantment that the Mirror Lakes in The Beaks could cast on young owls?
    “I think it’s a very good idea,” Coryn said. “I can’t tell you what to do. After all, I am…” he churred, “merely a king and not an official member of the Chaw of Chaws, but I think we would be foolish to leave Mrs. Plithiver behind for any part of this mission.”
    And so it was decided the nest-maid snake would accompany them to the Palace of Mists and beyond, if indeed they decided to journey to this sixth kingdom.

CHAPTER FOUR
Chawlets in Training
    T he chawlets were assembled, but rowdy. Eglantine and Primrose were waiting for them to settle down. The two friends were discussing the revelation from Soren of the Palace of Mists, and the even greater revelation of a sixth owl kingdom. They were pleased that Soren had entrusted them with this information. Eglantine turned and addressed the restless chawlets: “Now, you have all heard of the Chaw of Chaws,” Eglantine said as she perched on a limb in front of the young owls who had only been flying for a little more than a moon cycle.
    “Of course!” they all cried.
    “Our da is in it,” Bash, one of Soren and Pelli’s triplet daughters, yelled out.
    “Yeah, he’s a collier,” said Blythe.
    “But he does weather, too,” Bell, the littlest of the three B’s, said very seriously.
    “Yes, but Soren is not the only owl in the Chaw of Chaws,” Eglantine, who was the three B’s’ aunt, said. “Whocan tell me the other members of this distinguished chaw?”
    Talons from a half dozen little owls rose in the air. “My auntie almost made it,” said one little Pygmy Owl. “My auntie had the yarpie barbies the other night and couldn’t go colliering and missed a really good forest fire.”
    “My auntie’s friend got arrested and put in prison during the bad times,” said another. Eglantine shot Pelli a frantic glance. She was perched nearby. Eglantine had forgotten how distractible young’uns could be.
    Pelli stepped forward. “I have an accomplished aunt, too, but now is not the time for me to tell you about her. This is training time. We have come here to Silverveil, where there has been a small forest fire that we can learn from. Now, who knows what kind of coal this is and where you can find it in the coal beds?” She held up a glowing orange ember pinched between the two front talons of her right foot.
    “Orange is my