history. "Fire In the sky! Volcanoes! Dead ahead!" Twilight shouted back.
The Band blinked as they perched atop a ridge. It was a strange and wonderful place. the Beyond. A trio of wolves approached them.. The noble Gyl bane and her son, Cody, and. the faithful Hamish, Coryn's best friend from his time in the Beyond. Hamish, born with a crippling deformity, had qualified for the Sacred Watch in which he had briefly served. But one of the true blessings of the ember was that once it was recovered, the wolves of the Watch were restored. What was broken in their bodies was mended. What was deformed was made to grow straight. What was crippled gained strength. When Coryn saw his dear friend Hamish come bounding up the rocky escarpment, sleek and powerful, he experienced an unspeakable thril . And
though he was far from the ember he felt a
shimmering within him, a glow at the very core of his gizzard that he knew could only be that of the ember. It was strange, but for the first time he began to get a glimmering that one did not need to have the ember to possess it. Fie realized this as Hamish stepped closer
124 136 and he touched his beak to Harnish's wet nose in greeting. Coryn saw the deep burnish of green in his wolf eyes, the same flickering green found in what they had come to think of as the gizzard of the Ember of Hoole. That glimpse of green in the wolf's eyes seemed to kindle a sympathetic response, a shimmering heat within Coryn.
Soren, although he had read about the wolf clans in the legends and heard from Coryn about their peculiar and elaborate codes of conduct, was nonetheless astonished. Despite Coryn's protests, the three wolves scraped the rough ground as they kneeled, then crouched and sunk to their bel ies, twisting their necks in al sorts of odd contortions, then flattened their ears and flashing the whites of their eyes. This was the conduct required of a
their eyes. This was the conduct required of a
creature of low rank when approaching one of high rank. Coryn was a king and not for one minute would these wolves let him forget it.
After the introductions were made and the greetings exchanged, Gyl bane, one of the most beautiful wolves imaginable, turned to Coryn and said, "So, friend, what brings you here, so far from your island in the middle of the sea?" Coryn turned his head toward the circle of the five volcanoes that made what was cal ed the Sacred Ring. It
125 137 al looked so different now. Col iers stil plunged in steep dives to harvest the coal slopes that spil ed from the volcanoes' craters, and there was the usual traffic on the fringes of the circle between the col iers and Rogue smiths as they haggled over the price of coals and whether one was truly bonk or not. But the immense piles of gnaw bones surrounding the five volcanoes seemed bare without the wolves of the watch keeping their vigil from the tops.
Final y, Coryn answered. "I began this journey for
the most selfish of reasons. I feared that I bore the
traces of a vile heritage. I could not put my obsession with my mother, Nyra, to rest." Gyl bane blinked. In her own way, she understood this. She had met Nyra and knew her power, and she herself had once been a victim of ruthlessness. It had been hard for her to forget Mac Heath and his abuse of her and her pup.
"And now?" Hamish asked. "Why have you come, old friend? Have you found out what you want to know?"
"Not real y, but I have found out that she stil lives and that in her possession is a book that is very dangerous. You've heard of hagsfiends?" The three wolves exchanged glances. Although it was fairly clear that the word was unfamiliar to them, they seemed disturbed. The hackles
126 138 on the backs of their necks suddenly were erect, their eyes narrowed to green slits. "Let us not talk out here. Fol ow me to my cave." The cave shook with the thunderous eruptions of
the volcanoes, and outside the night flinched with
the red light of flames that scoured the sky. "And you say,"
The Band blinked as they perched atop a ridge. It was a strange and wonderful place. the Beyond. A trio of wolves approached them.. The noble Gyl bane and her son, Cody, and. the faithful Hamish, Coryn's best friend from his time in the Beyond. Hamish, born with a crippling deformity, had qualified for the Sacred Watch in which he had briefly served. But one of the true blessings of the ember was that once it was recovered, the wolves of the Watch were restored. What was broken in their bodies was mended. What was deformed was made to grow straight. What was crippled gained strength. When Coryn saw his dear friend Hamish come bounding up the rocky escarpment, sleek and powerful, he experienced an unspeakable thril . And
though he was far from the ember he felt a
shimmering within him, a glow at the very core of his gizzard that he knew could only be that of the ember. It was strange, but for the first time he began to get a glimmering that one did not need to have the ember to possess it. Fie realized this as Hamish stepped closer
124 136 and he touched his beak to Harnish's wet nose in greeting. Coryn saw the deep burnish of green in his wolf eyes, the same flickering green found in what they had come to think of as the gizzard of the Ember of Hoole. That glimpse of green in the wolf's eyes seemed to kindle a sympathetic response, a shimmering heat within Coryn.
Soren, although he had read about the wolf clans in the legends and heard from Coryn about their peculiar and elaborate codes of conduct, was nonetheless astonished. Despite Coryn's protests, the three wolves scraped the rough ground as they kneeled, then crouched and sunk to their bel ies, twisting their necks in al sorts of odd contortions, then flattened their ears and flashing the whites of their eyes. This was the conduct required of a
their eyes. This was the conduct required of a
creature of low rank when approaching one of high rank. Coryn was a king and not for one minute would these wolves let him forget it.
After the introductions were made and the greetings exchanged, Gyl bane, one of the most beautiful wolves imaginable, turned to Coryn and said, "So, friend, what brings you here, so far from your island in the middle of the sea?" Coryn turned his head toward the circle of the five volcanoes that made what was cal ed the Sacred Ring. It
125 137 al looked so different now. Col iers stil plunged in steep dives to harvest the coal slopes that spil ed from the volcanoes' craters, and there was the usual traffic on the fringes of the circle between the col iers and Rogue smiths as they haggled over the price of coals and whether one was truly bonk or not. But the immense piles of gnaw bones surrounding the five volcanoes seemed bare without the wolves of the watch keeping their vigil from the tops.
Final y, Coryn answered. "I began this journey for
the most selfish of reasons. I feared that I bore the
traces of a vile heritage. I could not put my obsession with my mother, Nyra, to rest." Gyl bane blinked. In her own way, she understood this. She had met Nyra and knew her power, and she herself had once been a victim of ruthlessness. It had been hard for her to forget Mac Heath and his abuse of her and her pup.
"And now?" Hamish asked. "Why have you come, old friend? Have you found out what you want to know?"
"Not real y, but I have found out that she stil lives and that in her possession is a book that is very dangerous. You've heard of hagsfiends?" The three wolves exchanged glances. Although it was fairly clear that the word was unfamiliar to them, they seemed disturbed. The hackles
126 138 on the backs of their necks suddenly were erect, their eyes narrowed to green slits. "Let us not talk out here. Fol ow me to my cave." The cave shook with the thunderous eruptions of
the volcanoes, and outside the night flinched with
the red light of flames that scoured the sky. "And you say,"
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