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

nightwhen most birds would be thoroughly confused. Soren, however, was relieved to know that the others had already arrived at the Wolf’s Fang because he could hear the brush of the wind through their feathers.
    He was full of hope now. Surely Tengshu would have gotten permission from the H’ryth for the passage of the ember. But uppermost in his mind at this moment before landing on the Wolf’s Fang was how to tell Twilight the unbelievable news that he had two brothers who were very much alive. He had asked Tavis and Cletus not to accompany them to the Wolf’s Fang, but rather to remain at the remote inlet where the Sea of Vastness furrowed in along a desolate stretch of the coastline. He needed to prepare Twilight for the meeting. But he was not sure how to do this. Tavis and Cletus had agreed to hang back but they were more than eager, indeed, almost feverish to meet their long-lost younger brother.
    When Soren, Gylfie, and Wensel arrived, they were surprised to see not only Ruby, Martin, Fritha, and Digger, but Tengshu as well. Almost immediately, Soren sensed the despair that swirled as thickly as the fog around the rock.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    Tengshu shook his head slowly.
    “You mean we can’t take it there?”
    Tengshu sighed. “Correct. Theosang will not accept the ember. And that is not all. There’s another problem, Soren.”
    “It’s awful,” Martin muttered.
    “What is it? Tell me!” Soren was almost hopping up and down. His gizzard twitched madly.
    “There have been more defections from the Dragon Court,” Tengshu said quietly.
    “What?” Soren blinked. “What are you talking about?”
    Tengshu quickly explained. Soren listened and nodded as each dreadful piece of information was revealed. He was beginning to learn what Otulissa, Cleve, and Coryn already knew. Finally, he spoke when Tengshu had finished. “So what you are telling me is that not only do we have no hope of sequestering this ember far away in a safe refuge in the Middle Kingdom, but by every indication these Dragon Court owls have been recruited by the Striga who has, as we know, joined forces with Nyra?”
    The owls nodded.
    Soren sighed. “What could be worse?”
    And it was only seconds later that Primrose dropped out of the sky with a message clasped in her beak. “It’s urgent,” she said, giving it to Soren.
    “It’s in code. Gylfie, you’re more fluent with the code than I am.”
    They unfurled the scroll and with Twilight anchoring one end and Digger the other, Gylfie hunched over the message.
    “It’s direct from Coryn. Well, the good news is that Coryn, for his own reasons, feels we should not under any circumstances take the ember to the Mountain of Time in the Middle Kingdom but…” She stopped translating abruptly.
    “But what?” Twilight asked. Gylfie’s eyes, normally bright sunny as a day, darkened. “There are hagsfiends aborning—it will happen on the night of the lunar eclipse. To stop it we must use the ember as a lure, so the eggs will be left unguarded and can then be destroyed.”
    “Of course!” Tengshu exclaimed. “That’s why the Dragon Court owls are here.” Tengshu paused. No one said a word. “You see, these Dragon Court owls are poor fighters, but they can be used for something much more dangerous.”
    “What’s that?” Soren whispered.
    “Broodies,” Tengshu said hoarsely. “Broodies to hatch hagsfiends, to bring back nachtmagen. It was all there in the second section of the Theo Papers, called The Obscura. Perhaps not stated directly, for that is the nature of the writings in the ‘Obscura.’ Reading the material is similar to conversing with scrooms—incomplete, many possible meanings. But there was an intimation that there could be a time when hagsfiends might return. Within the flabby gizzards of those Dragon Court owls are the seeds long dormant of…of…of…”
    “Hagsfiends,” Digger said. “The Dragon Court owls were, you think, in earlier generations the hagsfiends from the Kingdom of N’yrthghar, the ones we read about in the legends?”
    “No one knows for sure,” Tengshu replied.
    “Theo did,” Digger said.
    “Perhaps,” Tengshu replied quietly.
    “He used the lure of the promise of everlasting power, splendor, and riches to lure them to the Dragon Court. And now we are to use the lure of the ember to prevent the rise of hagsfiends,” Soren said.
    “So it seems.” Tengshu nodded.
    “So it says, right here,” Gylfie said,