The Rise of a Legend by Kathryn Lasky

Author:Kathryn Lasky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Our new hollow was in a stand of stout blue spruce. I could imagine that in the winter when the snow stayed fast on the ground, it would be lovely. This type of spruce, as its name indicates, has a bluish tinge, and the shadow it casts would fall like a blue filigree net on the white snow. By the time I arrived, my new brother, Ifghar, had hatched. Like many owlets that hatch at this time of year, he was advanced. Summer chicks tend to be that way. The hunting is good, so they grow faster. He was fledging out nicely, but all right, I’ll admit it right here: He did not capture my heart the way Lysa had. But he was a good little fellow and he worshipped me.

Mum and Da seemed fine. One morning toward twixt time, I remembered something very clever and funny that Lysa had said about the sun just as it was rising.

“Mum, Da,” I said. “Once at twixt time, Lysa peeked out the hollow and said that the sun reminded her of a —” But the words died on my beak because both my parents swiveled their heads toward me and glared.

“Never mind,” I whispered. It was clear that I was not ever to mention Lysa, the old hollow, or even Gundesfyrr again. Lingering emotions were considered a sign of weakness among seasoned soldiers of the Kielian League. There had been a period of mourning, and they believed that prolonging it served no purpose. It was as if that part of our lives had been sealed off forever.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t until I had been there for nearly an entire day and night that I thought of Gilda. I was shocked that I had not noticed her absence. Perhaps I, too, had begun to seal off those memories. Before I could stop myself, a question slid out.

“Mum, what happened to Gilda?”

“Oh, I let her go.”

“Let her go! How could you? She saved my life.”

“Well, she wasn’t a very good housekeeper. I felt I could do it better. She was very distractible. I think nest-maiding wasn’t really in her … how should I put it … her skill set?”

I nearly exploded. I wanted to say, You’re darned right, it wasn’t. Gilda was a fighter, a warrior if I ever saw one.

My mum continued, “I felt I could take care of this new hollow as well as any nest-maid snake.”

My mother was betraying a sudden streak of domesticity that was completely unlike her. The first thing she had announced upon my arrival was that she’d had no broody for Ifghar. She seemed enormously proud of having brooded him herself. I dared not ask if she was contemplating retirement.

My father was not considering any such thing. Indeed, he was called back to the front on the eve of Ifghar’s First-Meat-on-Bones ceremony. At dawn before he left, Da and I went out to hunt for rockmunks, which were at their tenderest this time of year and perfect for Ifghar.

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