Book 12 - The Golden Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

being moon blinked. There was a passion in his tel ing of stories that made the words take on new and deeper meanings. But it wasn't simply a story he would be tel ing Coryn. Soren would be tel ing him of a secret place that only a very few owls in the great tree knew about, only the Band, Otulissa, Ezylryh, and Strix Struma, and, yes, two nest-maid snakes - Octavia and Mrs. Plithiver. They cal ed it the Palace of Mists.
40 CHAPTER SIX
Bess of the Chimes
We had taken off during the milkberry harvest festival - always a good time to sneak out," Soren began. "You know how al those older owls get tipsy on the milkberry wine and berry mead. And then there is al the dancing and singing that can go on for three days or more. We knew that we wouldn't be missed. No one paid much attention to young owls at these times, especial y back then. We had hardly been at the tree a year, maybe thirteen moon
    cycles at the most, when we got this notion of
getting rich. Beating old Trader Mags at her own game, as Gylfle said. Otulissa would have nothing to do with it. It was raining that night as wel she argued. So, why be out when there was so much frolic going on in the great hol ow of the tree?" "Yes, but the winds were terrific," Twilight said. "Rain or no rain, the winds were with us from behind. So we flew fast."
41 53 "As I recal ," Digger offered, "we made Cape Glaux by daybreak."
"But where would you even start looking for a ruin - an undiscovered one?" Coryn asked. Soren blinked and began to speak in his
thoughtful way. "Good question. We were smart enough not to go to Silverveil. We knew Trader Mags had discovered al the ruins there. But the one place that had never real y been explored was part of the Shadow Forest. It's so dense with trees that there was not much space for the Others to build their stone hol ows. We were young and impulsive, and although we had once been attacked by crows,
    we promised ourselves that we would be more
vigilant this time. So we decided to go out and hunt during the morning hours but always together and then at night to go off separately to cover as much of the forest as possible in search of a ruin." Coryn listened with rapt attention. What an adventure! A treasure hunt instead of a battle. Jewels instead of blood. And most of al , friendship. Daring young owls sneaking off from the great tree together on a quest.
"By the end of the second day, we had found nothing and we knew time was getting short. We would have to get back to the tree. But that night we went out once more separately and Gylfie ..." Soren paused. "Weil, Gylfie, you should tel this part." 42 54 Gylfie ran her beak through her primaries before she began her part of the story. "There is a place in the Shadow Forest where, if you fly high enough and are observant, you wil notice the forest seems to dip down into a bowl. If you look closer, you wil see the silvery ropes of a waterfal cascading from a great height into the bowl. I saw
    the fal s sending up great plumes of swirling mist. I
spiraled down and flew closer. Veils of mist were suspended in the air. The entire val ey seemed to be neither quite of land or sky but hanging between the two. I began to see shapes in the mist as one sees shapes in the clouds. But then I slowly realized that these were not mere il usions or figments of my imagination. What I was seeing was real and made of stone. I flew back to the place we were to meet up if we found anything.
"When we al flew there together, the mist was so thick you couldn't see a thing. It was like a curtain hanging across the val ey," Gylfie continued. "The rest of the Band thought I had experienced some sort of gizzard dream. There wasn't a stone visible. But suddenly, a sharp rogue wind tore through the curtain of mist like a knife. Four beautiful stone spires pierced the night. And that's when Soren heard the chimes."
"Chimes!" Coryn exclaimed. It al sounded so mysterious, so beautiful. "What was it?" 43 55 "I thought it was