Kathryn Lasky - The Siege

COPYRIGHT

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 2007

Text copyright © Kathryn Lasky 2007

Kathryn Lasky assert 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: 9780007215201

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008226824

Version: 2016-12-05

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of England during World War II. For months, citizens of London were subjected to ceaseless bombings by the Nazis. It was called the Battle of Britain and the courage of the men, women and children was remarkable during this terrifying time. Churchill’s radio addresses helped rally an exhausted and frightened nation. It was said that Winston Churchill was the man who mobilised the English language. I would like to acknowledge a great debt to Churchill, for I very closely modelled many of Ezylryb’s speeches in chapters Eighteen, Twenty and Twenty-two after some of Mr Churchill’s most stirring addresses.

When I was a child, a popular reply to a bully was: Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Now that I am an adult, I think this is not true. Words can hurt. But I never would have dreamed back then when I was a child that words like Mr Churchill’s could give such courage, strength, stamina and valour to the citizens who were facing the most horrific circumstances of war.

As Dewlap lashed out in futile desperation against the wind and water, the book she had left on the rock tumbled end over end into the sea …

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Author’s Note

Prologue

Chapter One: The Pilgrim

Chapter Two: The Watcher in the woods

Chapter Three: At the Great GaHoole Tree

Chapter Four: Sprink on Your Spronk!

Chapter Five: A Mission Most Dreadful

Chapter Six: Learning by Heart and by Gizzard

Chapter Seven: A Special Flint Mop

Chapter Eight: Across the Sea and to the St Aegolius Canyons

Chapter Nine: The Most Dreadful Place on Earth

Chapter Ten: To Fear the Moon

Chapter Eleven: Flecks in the Nest

Chapter Twelve: The World According to Otulissa

Chapter Thirteen: A Rogue Smith Is Called

Chapter Fourteen: Escape

Chapter Fifteen: An Old Friend Discovered

Chapter Sixteen: Let Us Fly, Mates! Let Us Fly!

Chapter Seventeen: A Sodden Book

Chapter Eighteen: The Great Tree Prepares

Chapter Nineteen: At War

Chapter Twenty: The News Is Not Good

Chapter Twenty-One: Besieged

Chapter Twenty-Two: Coo-Coo-Coo-Roo

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Last Battle

Chapter Twenty-Four: A New Constellation Rises

Keep Reading

About the Author

Other Books By

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

Sparks flew off his beak as the owl, mad with rage, careened through the night sky.

“I must find water! I must find water! This mask will melt my eyes. Glaux blood on my brother’s gizzard!” the Barn Owl screeched as his glowing beak sliced the blackness of the night. The curse, the worst that an owl could say, seemed to relieve Kludd of the terrible feelings that stormed within him. But hate still fed him, fed his flight, fed his desperate search for a cool pond in which to plunge his mask of molten metal, his singed feathers set aflame by his brother Soren in a battle that had gone wrong. All wrong!

Below, he spotted the glint of the moon off a smooth liquid surface. Water! The huge Barn Owl banked and began to spiral downwards. Soon, cool water. He had lost his beak in one battle. He had lost all of his face feathers in another. His ear slits had been scarred this time but he still had one eye and, most important, he still had his hatred. Kludd fed and coddled his hatred as a mother owl fed and coddled her baby chicks.

Thank Glaux he still could hate!

CHAPTER ONE

The Pilgrim

The Brown Fish Owl looked up and blinked. The red comet had passed by for the last time nearly three months before. What could this glowing point in the sky be? It was hurtling towards the lake at an alarming speed. Great Glaux, it was screeching the most horrid, foulest oaths imaginable!

The Brown Fish Owl stepped further out on the sycamore branch that extended over the lake. If this were not a Fish Owl, it would need rescuing. Most species of owls, save for Fish Owls and Eagle Owls, were completely helpless in the water. The Brown Fish Owl began to spread his wings and was ready to flap them quickly for a power take-off. Within the silver of a second before he heard the splash, he was off.

There was a sizzling sound as the owl hit the water, and then there were wisps of steam. Simon, the Brown Fish Owl, had never seen anything like this – an owl glowing like a coal from a forest fire, plunging into the pond. Was it a collier owl? But colliers would know better. Remarkable as it seemed, a collier owl could do its work without ever getting burned. The Brown Fish Owl grabbed the mysterious owl with his talons just in time. But his gizzard went cold as he saw the owl’s face – a mangled deformity of molten metal and feathers. What was this?

Well, better not worry now. At least it was alive, and as a pilgrim owl of the Glauxian Brothers of the Northern Kingdoms, Simon’s duty was not to question, nor convert, nor preach, but simply to help; to give solace, peace and love. This owl seemed sorely in need of all. And this was precisely why the brothers took seasons away from their retreat and study; to go out into the world and fulfil their sacred obligation. The Brother Superior often said, “To study too much in retreat can become an inexcusable indulgence. It behooves us to share what we have learned, to practise in administering to others what we have gathered from our experience with books.”

This was Pilgrim Simon’s first season of pilgrimming and this seemed to be his first big challenge. The burned owl would need tending. No doubt about it. Restoring fallen owlets to nests, making peace between warring factions of crows – the Glauxian Brothers were among the few owls who could speak sense to crows – all that was nothing compared to this. It would take all of Simon’s medicinal and herbal knowledge to fix up this poor owl.