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

closely clipped except for the single blue feather that stood straight up. This was the identifying mark of all spiritual guides, the pikyus in the owlery. The feather quivered with his rage.
    “No, honorable Gup Theosang. Enlighten me.” “An alert page from the Dragon Court has just discovered that a score of owls has fled.”
    “What?” Tengshu felt a quaking deep in his gizzard.
    “They used the same strategy as the perfidious Orlando.” The H’ryth’s voice, which was usually smooth, was rasping.
    “Self de-featheration?”
    “Yes, and undoubtedly there were some accomplices. Two, possibly three, lower-echelon servants have gone with them.”
    Tengshu was aghast. He closed his eyes. “I am deeply sorry. I should not have abandoned my post at the Wind’s Gates.”
    Gup Theosang’s wings sagged a bit as he perched on the branch of petrified wood in the hollow at the very highest point in the Mountain of Time, a place known as the Hollow of Supreme Concentration. “It is not your fault. They would have found some other route to the River of Wind.”
    “Perhaps, but my qui lines might have detected their track, some remnant feather from their flight.”
    Gup Theosang was an owl of great empathy. “I do not need you wallowing in remorse. I need your brain, Tengshu. You are a sage. These owls undoubtedly will join Orlando, who now calls himself ‘the Striga’ as I understand. There is no telling what they will do. But eventually they will come back here and wreak havoc. We must prepare. I knew it was a bad thing when theGuardians came here. For more than a thousand years we had lived untouched by owls from any other worlds, kingdoms. Splendid isolation!”
    He calls it “splendid,” this isolation, Tengshu thought. But one cannot live like that forever. It was too late now. They had a responsibility to help the Hoolian owls. They could no longer indulge in this so-called “splendid isolation.” Although for years, Tengshu, who was also known as the Sage of the River’s End, had led a hermetic life, he was more cognizant and versed in the wider flow of life than one might imagine. He was wise, but he was also politic. With subtlety, he could steer owls not toward his own purposes, but better purposes. He intended to do that now with Gup Theosang, the H’ryth. But unlike the Striga, he did not manipulate through falseness or flattery but directed through clarity and honesty.
    “Gup Theosang, you are right. The Ember of Hoole has no place in here. It will put us at great risk. It will put in greater jeopardy any hope for isolation of our Middle Kingdom, an isolation that we have valued for centuries.”
    “I am glad you see my reason.” The H’ryth nodded.
    “I do. I do indeed. But I also see that the seal of our kingdom has been broken. For almost one thousand years, the Hoolian world did not know that we existed.Although by the grace of our first H’ryth, Theo, we knew of them.”
    “He knew that if they knew of us, ultimately there would be fighting. He taught us the Way of Gentleness because he so hated the weapons that he had made as a…what do they call them? I cannot even remember the dreadful term.”
    “Blacksmith.”
    “Yes, blacksmith. And already we have seen a battle using these vile weapons in our own air, our own sky.”
    But what the H’ryth does not understand, Tengshu thought, is that there is no such thing as “our own sky,” or “our own air.” The sky is the very thing, the entity, the reality that connects us all, no matter if we are Hoolian or Jouzhen owls.
    Tengshu continued. “And there could be more fighting, Gup Theosang. The tyrannical owls, who called themselves the Pure Ones, chased the Guardians here. But we know from Theo and the Theo Papers that the Guardians are good owls, noble owls. Now you must realize that Orlando and the Dragon Court owls who have fled to the Hoolian kingdoms will join forces with these so-called Pure Ones. You see, it is the Pure Ones who want the ember, and so does Orlando. If that ember falls into the wrong talons, it will be catastrophic for allowls no matter where they live—here or in the Hoolian world.”
    “You cannot be sure the dragon owls who just fled will join Orlando and these Pure Ones. Or, for that matter, if Orlando will join the Pure Ones.” There was a note of desperation in the H’ryth’s voice.
    “Gup Theosang, Orlando already has joined the Pure Ones.”
    “What?” The H’ryth staggered on his