Mrs. P. was a natural sliptween. And Soren now blinked as he saw a pink streak pass through the strings of the harp and a beautiful sound drifted into the air. It was Mrs. P. Then, in a flash, she was back in her original position, weaving bass notes. It was lovely to watch. Not only was the music magnificent but the snakes themselves, in their varying hues of rosy pinks, wove a continually shifting pattern as they shuttled through the strings of the harp.
They were now playing an old forest cantata. And Madame Plonk’s voice blended perfectly with the sounds of the harp.
Soren looked at Eglantine. She had a relaxed, dreamy look in her eyes. All of the rescued owlets seemed different now. There was not one clack of a babbling beak. The owls were silent and happy.
Boron had been watching them all from a higher perch. He was deeply perplexed. Happy, of course, that all the owls they had rescued had stopped their babbling. But mystified as to how it had happened. Beyond Hoole, he sensed that there was a danger lurking that was worse than the owls of St. Aggie’s. And why had Ezylryb not returned yet? Barran had come back during the harp practice, but she was surprised that Ezylryb was not yet back. She thought he had a head start on her. “Don’t worry, dear. He’ll show up.”
Soren looked at Boron and Barran. Despite their words, they did seem worried. And Soren himself had a funny feeling in his gizzard. Gylfie suddenly turned to him.
“I think they’re worried about Ezylryb.”
Soren blinked. “Maybe tomorrow we should go out and take a look.”
Twilight and Digger alighted at that moment next to them on the branch.
“Take a look?” Digger asked. “A look for what?”
“Ezylryb,” Twilight said. “I heard them talking, too.”
There was a sudden pulsing of light in the sky and then a gasp from all the owls as a radiance swept the black night.
“What is it? What is it?”
“Oh, great Glaux, we are blessed!” hooted Barran.
“It is the Aurora Glaucora,” Boron sang out.
Soren, Gylfie, Digger, Twilight, and Eglantine all looked at one another. They had no idea what Barran and Boron were talking about. But the sky seemed rinsed with colors, colors that streamed like banners through the night. Suddenly, Madame Plonk abandoned her perch by the harp and flew out into the brilliance of the night. Still singing, she swept through the long lances of light, her white body reflecting the colors. It was irresistible. Soren remembered that morning months ago when he and Madame Plonk had flown through the rainbow. But the rainbow was pale next to these pulsing banners of light that draped the sky. His worries about Ezylryb grew dimmer as the colors grew brighter. The sky beckoned, the shimmering light drew them. But there was a strangeness to it all. He felt a shudder deep in his gizzard. Behind those banners of throbbing light he knew there was blackness. Ezylryb was still missing, St. Aggie’s was still a threat, and now there was the almost unthinkable, the nearly unspeakable “you only wish.” Yes, Eglantine was back, but was she really back? Was it the same dear Eglantine? Soren felt as if he could no longer trust. For the world on this night had suddenly become too strange. It was as if everything had been turned inside out and the thing that owls called heaven, glaumora, had come down to Earth and swallowed the night. But this was not quite right, Soren thought. Just at that moment Eglantine swept in beside her brother.
“Isn’t it beautiful, Soren? Isn’t it just beautiful?”
“Just beautiful,” Soren said absently.
But even as he spoke, he felt a strange dread in his gizzard. Well, he finally thought, Eglantine and I are together at last, and we need no colors, for just flying with her at my side is as good as glaumora on Earth. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, I shall search for Ezylryb. Soren recalled the amber squint of the old Whiskered Screech’s injured eye that indeed sparkled with the glint of deepest knowledge. But tonight…Soren and Eglantine tipped their white faces to the tinted sky and flew off into the painted night just as the GoldenTalons began to rise.
And yet the talons were no longer golden, just as the sky was no longer black.
THE OWLS and others from
GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE
The Journey
SOREN: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, from the kingdom of the Forest of Tyto; snatched when he was three weeks old by St. Aegolius patrols; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphan Owls
His family:
KLUDD: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, older brother
EGLANTINE: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, younger sister
NOCTUS: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, father
MARELLA: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, mother
His family’s nest-maid:
MRS. PLITHIVER, blind snake
GYLFIE: Elf Owl, Micrathene whitneyi, from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; snatched when she was three weeks old by St. Aegolius patrols; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphan Owls; Soren’s best friend
TWILIGHT: Great Gray Owl, Strix nebulosa, free flyer, orphaned within hours of hatching
DIGGER: Burrowing Owl, Speotyto cunicularius, from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; lost in desert after attack in which his brother was killed and eaten by owls from St. Aegolius
BORON: Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, the king of Hoole
BARRAN: Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, the queen of Hoole
MATRON: Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus, the motherly caretaker at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
STRIX STRUMA: Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis, the dignified navigation ryb (teacher) at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
ELVAN: Great Gray Owl, Strix nebulosa, the colliering ryb (teacher) at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
EZYLRYB: Whiskered Screech Owl, Otus trichopsis, the wise weather-interpretation ryb (teacher) at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree; Soren’s mentor
POOT: Boreal Owl, Aegolius funerus, Ezylryb’s assistant
BUBO: Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus, the blacksmith of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
MADAME PLONK: Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, the elegant singer of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
OCTAVIA: Madame Plonk’s blind nest-maid snake
TRADER MAGS: Magpie, a traveling merchant
OTULISSA: Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis, a student of prestigious lineage at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
PRIMROSE: Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium gnoma, rescued from a forest fire and brought to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree the night of Soren and his friends’ arrival
MARTIN: Northern Saw-whet Owl, Aegolius acadicus, rescued and brought to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree the same night as Primrose
RUBY: Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus; lost her family under mysterious circumstances and was brought to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree
A peek at
THE GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE
Book Three: The Rescue
The dawn bled into night, faying the darkness, turning the black red, and Soren, with Digger by his side, flew through it.
“Strange isn’t it, Soren, how even at night the comet makes this color?”
“I know. And look at those sparks from the tail just below the moon. Great Glaux, even the moon is beginning to look red.” Digger’s voice was quavery with worry.
“I told you about Octavia. How she thinks it’s an omen, or at least I think she thinks it is, even though she won’t really admit it.”
“Why won’t she admit it?” Digger asked.
“I think she’s sensitive about coming from the great North Waters. She says everyone there is very superstitious, but I don’t know, I guess she just thinks the owls here will laugh at her or something. I’m not sure.”
Suddenly, Soren was experiencing a tight, uncomfortable feeling as he flew. He had never felt uncomfortable flying, even when he was diving into the fringes of forest fires to gather coals on colliering missions. But, indeed, he could almost feel the sparks from that comet’s tail. It was as if they were hot sizzling points pinging off his wings, singeing his flight feathers as the infernos of burning forests never had. He carved a great downward arc in the night to
try to escape it. Was he becoming like Octavia? Could he actually feel the comet? Impossible! The comet was hundreds of thousands, millions of leagues away. Now, suddenly, those sparks were turning to glints, sparkling silvery-gray glints. “Flecks! Flecks! Flecks!” he screeched.
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
Book One: The Capture
Book Two: The Journey
Book Three: The Rescue
Book Four: The Siege
Book Five: The Shattering
Book Six: The Burning
Book Seven: The Hatchling
Book Eight: The Outcast
Book Nine: The First Collier
Book Ten: The Coming of Hoole
Book Eleven: To Be a King
Book Twelve: The Golden Tree
Book Thirteen: The River of Wind
Book Fourteen: Exile
Book Fifteen: The War of the Ember
A Guide Book to the Great Tree
Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole
About the Author
Kathryn Lasky has had a long fascination with owls. Several years ago, she began doing extensive research about these birds and their behaviors. She thought that she would someday write a nonfiction book about owls illustrated with photographs by her husband, Christopher Knight. She realized, though, that this would indeed be difficult since owls are shy, nocturnal creatures. So she decided to write a fantasy about a world of owls. Even though it is an imaginary world in which owls can speak, think, and dream, she wanted to include as much of their natural history as she could.
Kathryn Lasky has written many books, both fiction and nonfiction, including Sugaring Time, for which she won a Newbery Honor. Among her fiction books are The Night Journey, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and Beyond the Burning Time, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, as well as the Daughters of the Sea and Wolves of the Beyond series. She has also received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Washington Post Children’s Book Guild Award for her contribution to nonfiction.
Lasky and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Copyright
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Text copyright © 2003 by Kathryn Lasky.
Cover art by Richard Cowdrey
Cover design by Steve Scott
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, September 2003
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
E-ISBN: 978-0-545-28333-5
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Maps
Illustration
CHAPTER ONE A Mobbing of Crows
CHAPTER TWO In the Company of Sooty Owls
CHAPTER THREE Twilight Shows Off
CHAPTER FIVE The Mirror Lakes
CHAPTER SIX The Ice Narrows
CHAPTER SEVEN This Side of Yonder
CHAPTER EIGHT First Night to First Light
CHAPTER NINE A Parliament of Owls
CHAPTER TEN Twilight on the Brink
CHAPTER ELEVEN The Golden Talons
CHAPTER TWELVE Hukla, Hukla and Hope
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Books of the Yonder
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Night Flight
CHAPTER FIFTEEN A Visit to Bubo
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Voices in the Roots
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Weather Chaw
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Mrs. Plithiver’s Dilemma
CHAPTER NINETEEN A Visit to Madame Plonk
CHAPTER TWENTY Fire!
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE “A Coal in My Beak!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Owlets Down!
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE At Last!
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Trader Mags
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE In the Folds of the Night
THE OWLS and others from GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE The Journey
A peek at THE GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE Book Three: The Rescue
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
About the Author
Copyright