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

Although not the cleverest fighters, they were dangerous when unified by strong sympathies. The other division was composed of gadfeathers. They had set aside their usual beads and berries and now, like the kraals, carried short blades in their talons. After the atrocities of the massacre at the Gray Rocks these owls were eager to join the Guardian’s forces and were proud to be led by Madame Plonk. The fame of the singer of the great tree was widespread in the Northern Kingdoms from which she had originally come. She was something of a folk hero. The kraals, always impressed with trappings of beauty, found her alluring, and the gadfeathers were in awe of her voice. That she held a charismatic charm for both groups rather astonished her.
    A new wind was building. Rain and sleet slashed the darkness and, in the Beyond, thunderbolts stabbed the sky as flashes from the volcanoes ripped the night. But in the sheltered inlet, where the Sea of Vastness first broke on the rugged coast of the Beyond, a reunion was taking place.
    Three Great Gray Owls perched on a rocky outcropping, speechless, their gizzards quivering. The two older owls were staring at the face of what was unmistakably the brother they had thought was lost forever. And Twilight blinked in amazement. “I thought I was an only owlet. I thought I was alone.”
    “And we thought you had died…with Mum.”
    “Me, die!” Twilight almost shouted. “But…but I honestly never thought, never dreamed I had a brother—two brothers! I…I…” he stuttered. “I’m not alone.” He shook his head in wonder. Then he lofted himself wildly into the air. “I am not alone! I got me two bros!”
    The world in that moment brimmed with the joy that flowed from the three owls. Once more the brothers recounted how they had met up with Soren and Wensel.
    “You chased off Tarn, that bad-butt Burrowing Owl!” Twilight screeched gleefully.
    “We know him and his ways. We’ve been out in the desert for years.” Tavis turned to Digger. “No offense, but we can excavate as good as any Burrowing Owl.”
    “But they never got us,” Cletus added. Soren, Gylfie, and Digger all blinked. Soren stepped forward.
    “What do you mean they never got you?” Soren asked.
    “The Pure Ones, and that blue owl. They’ve been recruiting troops out there for Glaux knows how long now.”
    “What?” Soren was stunned. “How? Nyra has nothing. What is she promising them?”
    “A new kingdom,” Tavis said matter-of-factly.
    “What?” Gylfie flew right up to the two Great Grays. “A new kingdom? Where? How?”
    “The one they call the Middle Kingdom. The one the blue owl comes from. He promises them a palace filled with jewels, servants, great splendors. And power.”
    “It’s the same tactic that Theo used to get the hagsfiends out of the Hoolian world,” Soren said.
    “But why did we never hear of this until now? Why didn’t our slipgizzle there say anything?”
    “Oh, that Sooty Owl?” Cletus asked.
    “Yes, Kylor. That’s his name. Kylor.”
    “They bought him off,” Tavis replied.
    “How many of them are there?” Soren asked. Thetwo brothers looked at each other and blinked. And cocked their heads this way and that.
    “Just a rough estimate,” Digger said.
    “Oh, nine hundred or so.”
    “What?” the owls gasped and instantly wilfed.
    “Not more than a thousand.”
    “And we’re supposed to find that comforting?” Gylfie gasped. “And what are we—all told—five hundred owls?”
    “And now they are all probably heading toward the Beyond because of the ember!” Twilight exploded.
    “Calm down! Calm down!” Soren said.
    At that moment a messenger arrived. It was Clover. “Finding you was a pain in the gizzard!” The Barn Owl looked weary and the fringes of her primaries were storm-tattered. “I thought you’d be at the Wolf’s Fang, but then I heard some wing beats in this direction.”
    “What’s happening? You have an update?”
    “Let me catch my breath.” Within half a minute Clover had recovered her composure. Gylfie was thoughtfully preening the Barn Owl’s fringes, which seemed to calm her. “All right. Enemy troops are heading toward the Beyond. They should be arriving in two nights. They are streaming out of Kuneer.”
    “Any sign of enemy movement in the Northern Kingdoms?”
    “No, not yet. But our allied forces are definitely mustering,” Clover replied.
    Digger took a step forward. “Why no sign of the enemy if they