Guardians of Ga'Hoole: To Be A King Read Online Free PDF

learned how to fly yet!
    “Can I punish my parents? Make Pleek and Ygryk suffer?”
    Oh, thought Kreeth, I’ve made a good one here. Some, Kreeth realized, might think it was a waste of energy to seek such petty revenge. Pleek and Ygryk hardly seemed worth it. Still, vengeance had its uses. Vengeance could feed the fire that burned within this creature. Vengeance was like a flint stone on which Lutta might sharpen her talons.
    “Of course, dear. But believe me, there are greater prey than those two. Right now we must get to the business of flying. How would you like to learn to fly? As a Barn Owl? A Snowy? Northern Hawk Owl? Great Gray?”
    “Great Gray,” Lutta replied.
    “Nice choice. Lovely fliers, with all that fluffy plumage. Now begin to concentrate on what you have experienced so far during one of your transformations into a Great Gray.”
    The transformations were sometimes so fleeting that it was difficult for Lutta to remember everything and she hesitated.
    “Start with the head, Lutta. Always start with the head,” Kreeth counseled. Lutta snapped her beak shut and began to feel the bottom of her face expand. Her head was becoming larger and rounder. Her face expanded to nearly twice its size. Her plumage grew denser and silvery.
    “Come with me, dearie. Our flight lessons begin!”

CHAPTER SEVEN
Strix Strumajen Yearning
    A cry was heard. “He’s sighted! Joss is sighted!” Then Cuthbert, commander of the second watch, flew into Hoole’s hollow. “Begging your pardon, Your Grace, but we done caught a glimpse of him in the dawn. It’s Joss, all right. He’s back!” Hoole was instantly alert. “So sorry to interrupt your sleep, what with tween time hardly passed.”
    “Don’t go apologizing, Commander. This couldn’t have happened soon enough.”
    Within seconds, Hoole was at the top of the great tree, peering into the rose-colored dawn. “Bless my gizzard and thank Glaux, he’s back.” Before anyone could blink, Hoole launched himself onto a rising thermal and flew out to greet the faithful messenger, the Whiskered Screech, Joss.
    “Let him catch his breath, lad, let him catch his breath,” Grank called from below.
    “No need, sir,” Joss replied. “There is much to tell and no time to be wasted.”
    “Sorry, sorry,” Hoole apologized. “Here, come to the hollow and rest first.”
    “May I begin, sir?” Joss asked as he settled onto a perch in Hoole’s hollow.
    “Please. What is the news?”
    “You did a right good deal of damage to Lord Arrin, no doubt about it, Your Majesty.”
    Hoole interrupted. “Joss, please do not call me Your Majesty. It’s just the three of us here.” Hoole nodded at Grank.
    “Oh, certainly…well…sir, many have broken with Lord Arrin. Lost faith, I guess you’d say. But, at the same time, new alliances are being formed. Of that you can be sure.”
    “Yes, I feared that. There was always that possibility. But so soon?”
    “Apparently.”
    “Do you know the nature of these alliances?”
    “Well, we know for sure that Ullryck has deserted.”
    “Ullryck! Ullryck was Lord Arrin’s best assassin, wasn’t she, Grank?” Hoole turned to look at his counselor.
    “Indeed,” Grank replied gravely.
    “It’s rumored that she has started her own division of hagsfiends.”
    “Just hagsfiends? Nothing else?” Hoole asked.
    “Just hagsfiends,” Joss replied.
    Hoole and Grank exchanged looks and blinked. This had always been their worst fear. An army of just hagsfiends. And then they both had the same unspoken thought. Though they were both flame readers, the fires had rarely rendered clear images of hagsfiends. It was as if the hags-fiends’ magic in some way inhibited the clarity of the flames. Images became garbled, almost nonsensical, and certainly not trustworthy. But, Hoole wondered, was the answer to turn to the magic of the ember? Was this when he must fight magic with magic? He did not like the notion.
    “Tell us more,” Grank