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

a lull in the fighting. All eyes were trained on the horizon to the far west. No one noticed Coryn flying over the volcano save one: Hamish, who scampered from a wolf hole dug near the front lines and walked almost casually in the direction Coryn was flying. He did not want to attract attention. But almost as soon as Coryn had taken the ember, Hamish had sensed it, for he had been a member of the Watch. It was like a distant call, a summoning. He felt his leg begin to grow crooked again and the limp return. But he felt his body grow stronger, as was the way with gnaw wolves of the Sacred Watch. His muscles and sinews swelled. Despite his limp, a litheness suffused his body. He was the new Fengo of the Sacred Watch. The keenest, most alert, most powerful wolf became the Fengo. He raised his snout. The she-winds, those winds unique to the Sacred Ring, had begun to blow. He climbed to the top of one of the towering mounds of gnaw bones. These mounds, or cairns, encircled the volcanoes of the Sacred Ring. When the ember lay buried in a volcano, atop each cairn a gnaw wolf sat its watch.Hamish looked. He saw his old teacher, Banquo, returning to the mound next to his, and then came Fleance, and Donalbain. They know! thought Hamish. Banquo gave him a slight nod as if to say, “‘Tis back.” His tilted green eyes sparkled as the moon emerged from earth’s shade. One minute passed, then another, then an hour, and yet there was nary a sign of a hagsfiend. But then in the glare of the full-shine moon, an alarm went out. Wolves, but not those of the Sacred Watch, began to howl.
    Hamish was suddenly alert. His ears pricked forward. He tipped his head toward the sky, which was streaked with moonlight. But still no hagsfiends.
    “Who is the traitor?” someone roared. Then the MacNamara clan stormed in. Namara had Cato MacHeath by the throat. She threw his body down. “They are coming. The Pure Ones. Hecate showed them the old caribou pass, round back of the yondos. They come now. See them.”
    “But no hagsfiends?” Coryn had landed beside the wolf.
    “No.” Namara immediately prostrated herself before her commander, in the position of submission. “There are no hagsfiends. Nor will there be. Eggs destroyed. Mission accomplished, Your Majesty.” Alighting next toher were two owls, Braithe, a Whiskered Screech from Ambala, and his mate, Fiona. Braithe now stepped forward. “The wolves of Namara fought splendidly, sir.”
    The world resolved itself into a velvety darkness. The she-winds died to a whisper and all that could be heard was the crackling of lava bubbles in the volcanoes’ craters. There was a sudden beating of wings. And a shrill cry from Nyra, “Two thousand strong we are now. Surrender the ember and we shall go in peace.”
    “Never!” Coryn shouted back.
    Why doesn’t he say that the ember is gone? That it is deep in the crater? Hamish wondered. What is he trying to do? And then it struck Hamish. Coryn wanted to use it as the lure. The ember might be buried, but Coryn had unfinished business. And this was, in a sense, the ember’s last glow. And, Hamish thought as the reality dawned on him, Coryn will never rest until he knows Nyra is dead.
    “Lay down the ember!” Nyra cried out.
    And this time he replied, “Come and get it.”
    Coryn quickly seized a bonk coal. Where it came from, Hamish was not sure. Perhaps he had been carrying it all along. Hamish slid his green eyes toward the other gnaw wolves of the watch. They know, he thought. They know. Coryn might be able to fool Nyra, fool allthe animals who had gathered, but not the wolves of the Watch. They knew that this ember that Coryn now held in his talon was not the Ember of Hoole.
    “The moon shines bright! There are no hagsfiends. Dispatch the ice phalanx.” Coryn whispered the command. In the meantime, there were the gusty sounds of the lethal Breaths of Qui as the first Danyar legions began their rout of entire squads of Pure Ones.
    There was a small blur as Gylfie whizzed through the air and took up her position. “We shall capture the moon!” she cried out. There was a roar of approval as the flying phalanx took wing and suddenly the night was bright as the overlapping ice shields caught the light from the moon and flung it back into the eyes of the assaulting troops.
    Ice missiles sliced the dark while the seagulls led by Doc Finebeak strafed the air just above the Pure Ones with round after round of splat. The enemy was confused