(GoG Book 07) The Hatchling (19 page)

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

The Band

SOREN: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
from the Forest Kingdom of Tyto; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

GYLFIE: Elf Owl,
Micranthene whitneyi,
from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; Soren’s best friend; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

TWILIGHT: Great Gray Owl,
Strix nebulosa,
free flier, orphaned within hours of hatching; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

DIGGER: Burrowing Owl,
Speotyto cunicularius,
from the desert kingdom of Kuneer; lost in the desert after attack
in which his brother was killed by owls from St. Aegolius; a Guardian at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

The Leaders of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

BORON: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca,
the King of Hoole

BARRAN: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca,
the Queen of Hoole

EZYLRYB: Whiskered Screech Owl,
Otus trichopsis,
the wise weather-interpretation and colliering ryb (teacher) at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree; Soren’s mentor (also known as LYZE OF KIEL)

STRIX STRUMA: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
the dignified navigation ryb at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree; killed in the battle against the Pure Ones

SYLVANA: Burrowing Owl,
Speotyto cunicularius,
a young ryb at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

Others at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

OTULISSA: Spotted Owl,
Strix occidentalis,
a student of prestigious lineage at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree, ryb of Ga’Hoolology

MARTIN: Northern Saw-whet Owl,
Aegolius acadicus,
in Ezylryb’s chaw with Soren

RUBY: Short-eared Owl,
Asio flammeus,
in Ezylryb’s chaw with Soren

EGLANTINE: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
Soren’s younger sister

MADAME PLONK: Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca,
the elegant singer of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

BUBO: Great Horned Owl,
Bubo virginianus,
the blacksmith of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

MRS. PLITHIVER: Blind snake, formerly the nest-maid for Soren’s family; now a member of the harp guild at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree

OCTAVIA: Kielian snake, nest-maid for Madame Plonk and Ezylryb (also known as BRIGID)

The Pure Ones

KLUDD: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
Soren’s older brother; slain leader of the Pure Ones (also known as METAL BEAK and HIGH TYTO)

NYRA: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
Kludd’s mate, leader of the Pure Ones after Kludd’s death

NYROC: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
son born to Nyra and Kludd after Kludd’s death, in training to become High Tyto, leader of the Pure Ones

DUSTYTUFT: Greater Sooty Owl,
Tyto tenebricosa,
low-caste owl in the Pure Ones, friend of Nyroc since his hatching (also known as PHILLIP)

WORTMORE: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
a Pure One lieutenant

UGLAMORE: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
a Pure One sub-lieutenant under Nyra

STRYKER: Barn Owl,
Tyto alba,
a Pure One commander under Nyra

Other Characters

GWYNDOR: Masked Owl,
Tyto novaehollandiae,
a Rogue smith summoned by the Pure Ones for the Marking ceremony over Kludd’s bones

N
yroc had the eerie sensation of someone watching him, following him perhaps. He now realized he had felt this since first arriving at the sycamore tree. And when he had been by the lakeside, almost swallowed by despair, in the back of his tattered gizzard he had sensed this presence watching. But he had been too distraught to care.

Now, as Nyroc approached the sycamore, he noticed a curious green glow emanating from the hollow. Cautiously, he poked his head in, then gasped in disbelief. Two luminous, bright green snakes were suspended by their tails from a ridge in the hollow.
Nest-maids?
No, these are not the nest-maid snakes he’d heard civilized owls often had.
They can’t be.

The snakes’ eyes glittered turquoise. Their fangs were long.
Nest-maids would never have such fangs!
Nyroc thought. Their tongues flicked about as if tasting the air, and they were the strangest tongues imaginable. They were forked like most snakes’ tongues, but one side was pale ivory and the other was crimson. It suddenly dawned on Nyroc! He knew what kind of snakes these were. His mother had spoken of them. He had heard her talking about them to her top lieutenant, Stryker. She had wanted to recruit these snakes for a special elite unit in the Pure Ones. These were the flying snakes of Ambala. The most venomous snakes in the world!

“She sent you, didn’t she?” Nyroc asked.

“Yesssssss,” one hissed.

“I knew she would find me one way or the other,” Nyroc whispered. “Here.” He stepped into the hollow and thrust his chest out. “Just do it now. Do it quickly.”

“Do what now?” the other one said. The words seemed to slither off the snake’s tongue.

“Just kill me, quickly. Here, right to the heart.” He nodded his head and with his beak poked the feathers on his chest.

“What issssss he talking about?” said the first snake to his companion.

“We didn’t come here to kill you,” said the other snake.

“But I’m not going back with you. I will never go back to her, to the Pure Ones.”

There was a flash as both snakes, in one quick green fluid motion, slipped from their perches to the floor of the hollow where they arranged themselves into neat coils. With their heads waving hypnotically they spoke in unison:

“We are not emisssssssssaries from the Pure Ones. We detesssst the Pure Ones.”

“You do?” Nyroc blinked in amazement.

“We do,” answered the first snake. “My name is Slynella and this is my mate, Stingyll.”

“But you said that she sent for me?”

Both snakes nodded, looping their heads into figure eights and then resting them in a knot on top of their coiled bodies. It was rather dizzying to watch.

“So who is ‘she’?” Nyroc asked.

“She is Misssssst,” Slynella replied.

“She is the watcher in the woods,” said Stingyll. “She has been watching you ssssince you arrived in Ambala.”

“She has?”

Both snakes once more went through the elaborate nodding procedure, unknotting their heads from the figure eights and then knotting them again.

“But who is she? Why does she care about me?” Nyroc asked.

“She is a very ssssssspecial owl.”

“Oh, she is an owl?”

“Mosssst definitely,” Stingyll answered.

“She often ssssends us on misssssions. The lassst time, I came to save a Barn Owl by the name of Ssssssssoren.”

“Soren!” Nyroc couldn’t believe his ear slits. “You helped save Soren?”

“Yesssss, that was some years back. He had been badly wounded. His wound became ‘gamby,’ as we ssssay. My venom ssssaved him.”

“Your venom saved him? I thought your venom killed.”

“It does that, too.” And both snakes now laughed, making a strange, slurred hissing sound.

“So who exactly is this Mist?”

“You shall sssssee. She lives with the eagles. Sssssome call her Hortensssse.”

“Wait a minute! Wait just one little minute. I have already met one Hortense, that Great Gray, very young and very rude. I didn’t like him a bit.”

“There are many named Hortensssse in the foresssst of Ambala. It is an honor to be named Hortensssse, no matter if you are born female or male. But Missst is the original Hortenssse, a hero beyond compare. They ssssay a hero is known by only one name in Ambala—Hortensssse. But there is truly only one Hortensssse, and she now calls herself Misssst and she lives apart from the other owls. She lives with the eagles.”

“With eagles?”

Once more they nodded, but Slynella and Stingyll must have gotten tired, for this time they did only half a figure eight.

“And she really wants to meet me?”

“She does. She does, indeed.”

“Does she know who I am?”

But by this time the snakes were slithering out of the hollow and casting themselves onto the breeze that stirred with the new day. Nyroc hesitated not out of fear, but astonishment.
Flying snakes! Incredible. But I am seeing them
, he thought.

“Follow usssss,” Stingyll said, twisting his head around. “Follow usss!” Both snakes flattened themselves into ribbons that rippled in slow, undulating motions over the waves and billows of windy air.

Higher and higher they flew until they were far above the forest. Soon Nyroc spied a rocky promontory. Scraped by wind and scoured by endless winter storms, the rock had been worn to a smooth finish, and atop the promontory was the most enormous nest Nyroc had ever seen. Its circumference was at least the size of the crown of a very large tree. He had heard about eagles’ nests but he had never seen one. No mere twigs were used in its construction. The nest was built from long, sturdy branches woven together in a seemingly haphazard fashion. And perched on its edge were two immense eagles. Between them was a figure that Nyroc could not quite make out. He was flying into a rising sun, which was difficult enough, and his day vision could not compare to his night vision. He was not quite sure exactly what he was seeing. But it seemed to him that a patch of speckled fog hovered between the two eagles. Or perhaps not fog, but Mist!