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

said.
    “Indeed, Madame General. I have already alerted our forces in the Kuneer to commence invasion maneuvers.”
    “But you had no authority to do that!” Nyra barked.
    “But General, you were not there. We cannot afford to lose any time.”
    Nyra had swelled to twice her normal size.
    “Tarn did the right thing!” the Striga hissed.
    “Are you both turning on me?” Nyra raged.
    “Calm yourself, Madame General.” The Striga spoke urgently. Sometimes he wondered how this owl had become the leader she was. She acted purely on herimpulses for power without ever reflecting on strategy. No wonder she had been defeated in every encounter with the Guardians, even those when she had enjoyed the advantage of superior forces. “This is no time to argue about silly protocols of command. If this war comes earlier, we must be prepared. If the ember is in the Beyond and if there is the threat of it being removed, we need to be able to act quickly.”
    “But what are we to do? These eggs are close but not close enough to hatching. We were counting on a hags force to help us seize the ember.”
    “They will hatch. Not as quickly as we might like, but when they do, they will come. This war is not going to be over in one night. But we must be ready with the forces that we can muster right now.” The Striga said calmly.
    He turned to the broodies. “Can you do double shifts? In other words, can we count on some of you to join us now in this fight? Elab, you are large, could you sit two ice nests at a time?”
    “Oh, I think I could sit three if need be.”
    “Good. If we can cut our broody force in half that gives us eighteen more owls to fly with us in the Striga Force!” His pale eyes glittered brightly like translucent suns.
    It galled Nyra no end—this “Striga Force” business. But she had decided not to argue with him over the name. They were only a part of the Pure Ones, and the Pure Ones were her army. Nyra might be impulsive, but she had learned how to pick her battles.
    “Yes, yes, I see what you mean,” Nyra said slowly. Her gizzard was twitching madly. The ember so near! And in a sense, so safe, for it was far from the water. The dragon owls need not fear the salt water, and when the hagsfiends finally hatched and were ready, they, too, would be safe. She imagined the horror in the Guardians’ eyes when the sky above the volcanoes would suddenly darken as scores upon scores of hagsfiends flew over. “You’re right. We must leave now, immediately. I shall send a message to Kuneer to begin advancing toward our mustering point, where I will meet them and resume my command of the Tytonic Union of Pure Ones.” Nyra said these last five words in a measured voice and looked steadily at the Striga. Now that is the name of an army, she thought. “And from there to the Beyond, to the front.”
    “To the front,” echoed the Striga.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A Slink Melf Swims On
    T hey were heading to the Ice Palace, Namara in the lead. She had led two dozen wolves of her clan as far as possible over the land route from Broken Talon Point. At the edge of the Bitter Sea, she plunged in, striking out straight across it until she and her followers had climbed out on the other shore where the H’rathghar glacier commenced. One more water passage, across the Bay of Fangs, and they would have almost arrived at their destination: the Ice Talons, where she would home in on the target. She reflected now on all that had occurred since the polar bear Sveep had visited her. The news then had been alarming: Nyra, in collusion with this strange blue owl, the one called the Striga, of whom the wolves of the Beyond had only heard ominous rumors and who, for a brief time, had gained such power over Coryn. So it was with great relief when Coryn himself had sought her out a moon cycle after the visit from Sveep. By that time, she had already met with the otherwolves of the Beyond to alert them that trouble might be brewing in the owl kingdom. The wolf clans all had a deep, abiding hatred of Nyra. Twice they had had confrontations with her. The first time was at the Sacred Ring, when Coryn had retrieved the ember and Nyra had made a desperate attempt to wrest it from him. But Namara (who was then known as Gyllbane) with the help of Hamish, had managed to prevent her succeeding. The second encounter was at the end of the Tunnel of Despair in the canyonlands at the Battle of the Book, the battle in which the she-wolf had lost