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

looking up from the coded message. “And there is one more thing. Aslink melf is being dispatched by Coryn to the Ice Talons.”
    “A slink melf?” Twilight said. “You mean an assassination squadron?”
    “Yes, to finish off the eggs.”
    “Who makes up the slink melf?” Twilight asked.
    “The message doesn’t say. It just says it’s being ordered by Coryn. But it’s obviously not us. We are to report to the volcanoes of the Sacred Ring immediately.”
    “All right, but we have to go by way of the inlet,” Soren said.
    “But that’s out of the way, and what with this wind, it will slow us down,” Gylfie protested.
    “No, I insist. I think ultimately it will help our cause,” Soren replied, thinking of the two Great Grays. Tavis and Cletus were incredibly cunning fliers, agile and quick just like their brother Twilight. The Guardians could use such help.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
An Old Friend
    I n a lava cave not far from the Sacred Ring of volcanoes, Coryn perched on a black outcropping and spoke to the first friend he had ever made in the desolate country known as Beyond the Beyond. Hamish, the once-lame gnaw wolf, had been listening attentively.
    “So who composes this slink melf, Coryn?” Hamish asked. As all gnaw wolves of the MacDuncan clan, he had gone into training and become a member of the Watch at the Sacred Ring of volcanoes. When Coryn had retrieved the Ember of Hoole from H’rathghar, Hamish, as had been mystically prophesied in the time of Hoole, was cured of his lameness and allowed to return to normal life. Now these two old friends met again.
    “I’ve just come from Gyllbane’s clan cave. You must know what she learned from the polar bear.”
    Hamish nodded.
    “So you know of the conspiracy between the Striga and Nyra.”
    He nodded again.
    “The eggs I just told you about—that is the slink melf’s mission: to destroy them and any owls that are brooding them.”
    “I certainly didn’t know about the eggs, at least not what you are now telling me. Gyllbane, or rather, Namara, as she now should be called, is the best choice for the slink melf. And you say she is on her way?”
    “Yes,” Coryn replied.
    Hamish looked at Coryn carefully. “But you seem to have something more on your mind.”
    Coryn sighed. He tipped his head down and studied his talons. He could not bring himself to say what he must say while looking into the green eyes of the gnaw wolf he had met on his very first night in the Beyond.
    “Hamish, dear friend.” He paused. “Dearest wolf friend. We know each other so well that sometimes words are not needed.”
    “Like now,” Hamish said quietly.
    “You know what I am about to ask.”
    “You want to return the ember to the volcanoes,” Hamish said steadily.
    Coryn raised his head and the two friends peered into the each other’s eyes. In Hamish’s eyes, Coryn saw that green light, the same green that flickered near the center of the ember. He blinked and closed his eyes tight. “And when I return the ember, you become lame again. I am asking you to give up all hope of a normal life. Of finding a mate or rearing young.”
    “You are also delivering the world from nachtmagen, Coryn,” Hamish said quietly. “You forget, Coryn, that when you retrieved the ember, not only were our twisted limbs repaired but we were given a choice. And we all chose to remain as wolves so that we could continue to serve.” The words of Fengo, the head gnaw wolf of the Sacred Watch, came back like a dim echo in his brain. We have all chosen to remain as wolves, to serve you, King Coryn, but we have also chosen to regain what we had lost in order to serve the Sacred Ring. Our twisted limbs have been straightened. Our eyes restored, our tails made whole once more. But we shall always be prepared to serve you, good King Coryn, always. That is our pledge.
    “So, Hamish. You agree to this?”
    “We all do, Coryn. We are the Watch.”
    “Tell no one yet. None of the Guardians know that I mean to return the ember, not even the Band. AndHamish…” Coryn stopped and churred softly to himself.
    “What is it?”
    “I just had the oddest thought.”
    “What is that, Coryn?”
    “I was thinking that if it were put to me what I would choose to be in my life, and I could be any creature, I would not choose to be an owl.” He now peered down into the drip bowl in Hamish’s cave, where water collected from the seeping cracks in the rock when it rained. He studied the