The Siege. Kathryn Lasky

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      “Octavia in the library? Why?” Soren asked.

      “Orders from the top, I guess. We were supposed to organise all the books on higher magnetics and flecks.” Soren felt his gizzard lurch. He would never get used to hearing the word ‘flecks’.

      “But Octavia? Why Octavia? What use is a blind snake in the library? No offence, Mrs P,” Otulissa asked as they crowded around Mrs Plithiver, another blind snake.

      “None taken, dear,” the rosy-coloured snake replied.

      For centuries, blind snakes had served as maids in the nests of owls, keeping them free of vermin and pests. In the Great Ga’Hoole Tree, they served in other tasks as well. Among such tasks were providing the dining tables upon which the owls ate. They could easily and quickly extend their bodies to accommodate more diners.

      Answering Otulissa’s question, Gylfie replied, “Why Octavia? Well, she might be blind, but she has served Ezylryb for so long that she knows which books he wants on the special reserve shelf for higher magnetics. And it was too much work for just the book matron. She doesn’t know the collection as well as Octavia – at least not these books. But then, of course, Dewlap came in and started bossing us around.”

      There was a sigh from the owls. Dewlap was the most boring teacher, or ryb, of the Great Ga’Hoole Tree.

      “What’s she doing in the library?” Soren asked. “Higher magnetics has nothing to do with the stuff she teaches.”

      Otulissa plumped up her feathers. “Oh, never mind. I am just so excited about studying higher magnetics, I can’t tell you.”

      “Then don’t,” said Twilight.

      “Yes, spare us, learned one,” Gylfie said under her breath in a barely audible whisper to Soren, who laughed. Otulissa was a very smart owl. No one would deny that. She had been the one to figure out how the Devil’s Triangle worked, and how to destroy it with fire. And she knew of the protective qualities of mu metal that guarded against the hazards of the magnetic flecks. But she wasn’t shy about flaunting her knowledge and sometimes it became boring. Especially now as she began talking about her long list of distinguished relatives who were all scholars, in particular the genius, long gone, great-great-great-aunt of hers, Strix Emerilla, who had written countless scientific books. It was always Strix Emerilla this or Strix Emerilla that. After a little while, the other owls at Mrs P’s table ignored her and went on with their own conversations.

      Gylfie turned to Soren again and whispered in his ear, “You notice that Ezylryb and none of the other parliament members are here?”

      Soren nodded.

      “Well, big doings,” Gylfie said, then blinked with one eye. Soren felt a surge of excitement. Gylfie must be on to something. Soren needed a distraction. Life had been, well, not quite the same since the appalling revelation that his own brother had trapped Ezylryb in the Devil’s Triangle. And his own brother had vowed to kill him. Soren spent entirely too much time remembering those dreadful images of Kludd flying off, his face molten as the hot metal mask melted, screaming, “Death to the Impure! Death to Soren!”

       My own brother. My very own brother is Metal Beak and he wants to kill me.

      After breaklight, the owls departed the dining hollow and made their way back to their respective hollows. Outside the great tree, the blizzard lashed. The gale-force winds had turned the sky white. It had been on a night like this in the thick of a blizzard that Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger had first arrived at the great tree. Now as soon as the four friends and Soren’s sister, Eglantine, were alone Gylfie spoke in a low voice.

      “As I said to Soren at breaklight, something big is going on.”

      “How do you know?” Digger asked.

      “Not one of the parliament members was in the dining hollow. There’s an important meeting taking place.”

      “Getting ready for war, I bet!” Twilight said. “I’ll bet they’ll put us each in charge of a division.”

      “It’s not war, Twilight. Hate to disappoint you,” Gylfie said.

      Twilight was disappointed. He loved fighting, and with his amazing quickness and ferocity, Twilight had proved that he had no equal.

      “No, no war,” repeated Gylfie. “It’s higher magnetics.”

      “Oh, for Glaux’s sake,” Twilight growled. “How boring. As if we don’t get enough of HM, as she now calls it, from Otulissa all the time.”

      “It’s important, Twilight. We have to learn about this stuff,” Digger said.

      “That’s just the problem,” Gylfie said in a low hiss. “This stuff is spronk.”

      “Spronk?” the three other owls said at once.

      “What’s ‘spronk’?” Soren asked.

      “Spronk is forbidden knowledge,” said Gylfie. There was a deep silence in the hollow.

      “Forbidden knowledge? No, Gylfie,” Soren said, “You have to be wrong. Nothing is spronk in the Great Ga’Hoole Tree. That’s just not the Guardians’ way. They would never forbid knowledge. They only want us to learn.”

      “Maybe not forbidden forever, but at least some things are spronk for right now,” she replied.

      “Well, I don’t like it,” Soren said firmly. “I’m completely against things being declared spronk.”

      “Me too,” Twilight said.

      Digger blinked and then in that slow way he had of speaking when he was considering a problem, he said, “Yes, I think it’s awful when they keep knowledge from young owls. Just suppose that Otulissa had not been permitted to read that book about the Devil’s Triangle. We might never have been able to free Ezylryb.”

      “I think we should go and tell them that this is all wrong,” Eglantine spoke up for the first time.

      “Before we do anything,” Soren said now in a firm voice, “I think that we have to find out for sure.”

      “To the roots, Soren?” Gylfie asked.

      “That’s how you found out isn’t it, Gylfie?” Soren asked.

      Gylfie nodded. She was a bit embarrassed, for this was an acknowledgment that she had been engaged in the less-than-admirable activity of eavesdropping on the parliament.

      Thousands of inner passages wound their way through the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and some months before, Gylfie, who often had trouble sleeping and would rise for a wander through the tree, had discovered a place deep in the roots where there was a strange phenomenon. Something happened to the timber at a certain point so that the sounds coming from the owl’s parliament chamber resonated within the roots. Entering the root structure itself was a challenge for the roots were huge and tangled, but Soren and his friends had found an ideal place where they could listen.

      “Oh, I’m so excited!” Eglantine was nearly hopping up and down. “I’ve heard you talk about going to the roots but I’ve never СКАЧАТЬ