HarperCollins Children’s Books
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First published in the USA by Scholastic Inc 2004
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2006
Text copyright © Kathryn Lasky 2004
Kathryn Lasky asserts the moral right to be identified as the author
of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007215195
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008226817
Version: 2016-12-05
… soon the walls of the castle ruins rose in the dawn mist …
CONTENTS
Chapter Two: Flecks in the night!
Chapter Four: The Spirit Woods
Chapter Six: Eglantine’s Dilemma
Chapter Seven: The Harvest festival
Chapter Eight: Into a Night Stained Red
Chapter Nine: The Rogue Smith of Silverveil
Chapter Ten: The Story of the Rogue Smith
Chapter Thirteen: Octavia Speaks
Chapter Fourteen: Eglantine’s Dream
Chapter Fifteen: The Chaw of Chaws
Chapter Sixteen: The Empty Shrine
Chapter Seventeen: A Muddled Owl
Chapter Eighteen: A Nightmare Revisited
Chapter Nineteen: Into the Devil’s Triangle
Chapter Twenty-One: Good Light
The tail of the comet slashed the dawn and in the red light of the rising sun, for a brief instant, it seemed as if the comet was bleeding across the sky. Every other owl had already tucked into their hollows in the Great Ga’Hoole Tree for the day’s sleep. Every owl, that is, except for Soren, who perched on the highest limb of this tallest Ga’Hoole tree on earth. He scoured the horizon for a sign, any sign of his beloved teacher, Ezylryb.
Ezylryb had disappeared almost two months before. The old Whiskered Screech, indeed the oldest teacher, or ‘ryb’ as they were called, of the great tree had flown out on a mission that late summer night to help rescue owlets from what was now referred to as the Great Downing. Scores of young orphan owlets had mysteriously been found scattered on the ground, some mortally wounded, others stunned and incoherent. None of them had been found anywhere near their nests, but in an open field that for the most part could boast no trees with hollows. It was a complete mystery as to how these young owlets, most of whom could barely fly, had got there. It was as if they had simply dropped out of the night sky. And one of those owlets had been Soren’s sister Eglantine.
After Soren himself had been shoved from his nest by his brother Kludd nearly a year before, and subsequently captured by the violent and depraved owls of St Aggie’s, he had lost all hope of ever seeing his sister or his parents again. Even after he had escaped from St Aggie’s with his best friend Gylfie, a little Elf Owl who had also been captured, he had still not dared to really hope. But then Eglantine had been found by two other dear friends: Twilight the Great Grey and Digger the Burrowing Owl, both of whom had flown out with others on the night of the Great Downing on countless search-and-rescue missions.