Guardians of Ga'Hoole 15 - The War of the Ember

have even noticed.
    Taya had detected this strange energy perhaps two or three moon cycles previously. At first, she thought it was her imagination. But now she began to wonder again when she saw two azure-colored owls whispering with a new brightness in their eyes. She watched carefully as they were towed side by side through the Hollow of Benevolence and Forgiveness in the wake of the Empress Dowager. The empress seemed as dull-eyed as ever. Taya sensed an impatience in the two azure owls, as if they wanted to move faster. This was unheard of. Taya also observed that their feathers seemed somehow different. She decided she had to discuss her concerns with the steward. A pompous old owl, he was only the third steward since the creation of the Panqua Palace nearly one thousand years before by Theosang, the first H’ryth. Taya was not looking forward to this meeting but it needed to be done. She proceeded toward his office, the Jasper Chamber directly off the Hollow of Perpetual Beauty, where the dragon owls indulged in endless preening.
    “Permission to see the steward.” Taya addressed a tiny cerulean-blue owl, who resembled an Elf Owl except for his color.
    “Do you have an appointment?”
    “No, but this is important.”
    “That’s what they all say.” He had mastered the cultivated weariness of the steward’s many sycophants. They all tried to lord their position over the other owls who served in the Panqua Palace. One had to play their game, had to toady up to them the way they toadied to the steward. The cerulean owl named Pingong would take a bit of work.
    “Come on, Ping. You know I hardly ever ask for an audience with the steward,” Taya said. Pingong gave Taya a look of disdain which was not easy since she towered over him. How does an owl who is one-third my height manage to look down at me? Taya wondered. She was becoming tired of this game. What she had to talk to the steward about was important and she was getting very irritated. “Look,” Taya said. “The last secretary to the steward was let go because the head page complained. That was maybe fifty years ago, and guess what? I’m the head page now. If you consult the Panqua Scroll of Peerage, in the staffing section for the palace, you will find that Iactually outrank you.” The little owl wilfed a bit and became slightly smaller. “So let’s be reasonable.”
    “Oh, all right. He’s in there now, going over the menus.”
    The steward was a jade-blue with dashes of a softer blue in his coverts. He was bent over some charts. “Yes,” he said, but did not look up.
    “High Steward,” Taya began. No one was ever allowed to address the steward by anything but his title, never his name. “I have recently become aware of a stirring, a suspicious energy in the palace.”
    The steward still did not look up. This was part of his game. It did not disturb Taya in the least. She was about to go on when he said, “Are you aware, Taya, that this new source of yak butter I found for the preening has not only increased the dragon owls’ feather growth, but since we have incorporated it into their diet, it seems to be making them even fatter and slower. They delight in it.”
    Yak butter was the fuel used for fire in the Middle Kingdom. Every hollow had its yak butter lamps. It was rarely used for feather conditioner. And, thought Taya, I am sure you’re getting a kickback.
    The high steward could be absolutely maddening.“Look,” Taya said impatiently. “With all due respect, I did not come here to talk about yak butter.”
    Now the jade-blue owl looked up from his scroll. “I don’t care for your tone, Taya,” he said slowly.
    Taya ignored the comment and barged ahead. “I’m worried. I am detecting unrest.”
    “You have a very active imagination.”
    “Before Orlando left…”
    The high steward cut her off immediately. “We don’t speak of that. It was a freakish anomaly.”
    “Indeed!” Taya said pointedly, and glared at the high steward, her contempt barely concealed. “When was the last time we took a census?”
    “A census? You mean, actually counting all the owls in the Panqua Palace?”
    “Yes, this used to be done on a regular basis.”
    “It was found to be a waste of time and effort. There are more than a thousand owls here.”
    “Are there?” Taya said softly. The jade-blue owl puffed up his feathers. He narrowed his eyes. As if to say, You dare challenge me? But instead, he returned to his study of the fat