Wow, it's the second-to-last chapter! Are you excited? Disclaimer stuff: I don't own Silverwing, the characters, or the names. Kenneth Oppel does.
Chapter Ten
Lura tried to duck out of sight behind Oreste's feathers as he flew towards his father, but King Boreal had already spied her gray fur among Oreste's lighter feathers, and he screeched in shock. Lura's ears twitched in alarm and pain, and she tried even harder to press her small body into his feathers. "Orestes!! What are you doing with bats?!"
"Father, wait. I'd be grateful if you'd let me speak." Clearly fuming, but having fallen silent, Orestes took these signs from his father as a way of him saying 'you may continue'.
"This has a great deal of importance with the events happening now. We cannot go to war with the bats." He explained hopefully, seeing how these words would affect his father. An alarming series of hoots, jeers, and disapproving head shakes from the other owls greeted his statement. "Your son needs to know when to hold his tongue," an owl hooted angrily, but quieted when King Boreal glared at him, his head twisting around so much it appeared it had turned completely around. Lura felt like she was going to be sick, but tried to hold it down for Orestes' sake.
"Why have you said this, Orestes?" The young owl didn't turn away from his father's condescending gaze. "Shade Silverwing saved my life. Twice, in fact, he and his friends saved my life the second time. The first time, he hardly knew me, and although we have killed bats and declared war on them, he risked his life to save mine. The murderers of owls are not the Northern Bats. They are monstrous jungle bats from the south that have been killing bats and rats, not just owls."
"We expected these lies. And as for the bat saving your life...that was a strange act of bravery, but has nothing to do with the task at wing." King Boreal sniffed and tossed his head, as if flicking away a bug, but his son shot his wings open so fast and hard that Lura had to cling for dear life to stay on. "They are not lies," he growled, "The cannibal bats were taking owls and bats to their human cities to help them fight their war." No angry outbursts or jeers came from the owls this time, only shocked exclamations and disbelieving faces. "I can't say everything just yet. But father, the south is home to thousands of cannibals, who were taking owls prisoner, including me. All of us would have been killed by these monsters if Shade hadn't found it in his heart to help us. We're here now because of Shade Silverwing."
"Why should that make us put a stop to the war?" Somewhere in the middle of the throng of bats, Shade's voice yelled out boldly, "Because we don't want war!" Lura saw Halo Freetail snarl at Shade, lifting his lips to show his teeth, and she felt a spark of anger. "You have waged war on us before, Silverwing, and I assume you've heard of it from your elders! Fifteen years ago you waged war on the owls!" It was Achilles that spoke this time, snarling angrily at the owl King.
"It's true that we waged war, but not for the sake of violence or power, we wanted the sun back, and be free of your tyranny, King Boreal, even at the risk of death!"
"You have lost the sun," the King of the owls said, shrugging off the elderly Graywing's outburst, "for your treachery in the Battle of the Birds and the Beasts!"
"Because we didn't take sides!" Achilles snapped back, sheer anger smoldering in his eyes.
"You switched sides, bat!" King Boreal hooted loudly, causing a few bats including Lura, and even a few of his own squadron, to stare at him in fear. "No, King Boreal," Achilles put in, "you are mistaken, and you have been for millions of years." The owl looked at Achilles Graywing haughtily. "It is pitiful that you believe your own tales of deceit." Lura saw that Shade was at his boiling point. He flew closer and hissed angrily, some of his fur bristling, "What does it matter?"
"Silence!" Halo chastised Shade, raising a wing as if to cuff him. "You don't have place to speak here."
"Why not?" Orestes challenged Halo, meeting the bat's eyes steadily. "Because he knows nothing," King Boreal said, for a rare moment joining with a bat to silence the impudent youths, "like you," he finished scathingly. Achilles flew softly up behind Shade, and patted him with a wing. "Let him speak, King Boreal, Halo," he said calmly, "Frieda Silverwing has much faith and confidence in this young bat." All eyes swung around to stare straight through Shade. Lura held her breath: What would he tell them all?
"It...happened too long ago," The young Silverwing started, faltering only a little bit, but breaking up with nervousness inside, "and it's over, even if no one knows what the truth is anymore."
"The truth is everything," King Boreal stated, glaring at Shade, though there was a strange glint in his eyes. "I thought so too, I thought the sun was stolen from us and I wanted to get it back." He glanced guiltily at Marina and Lura, then back to King Boreal. "I thought the humans would help us somehow, that they'd help us against the owls. I thought we'd beat the owls, I really did," he said, then halted, and Lura winced too. That wouldn't go over to well with the owls, but she couldn't get up in front of everyone, owls, bats, rats, and speak at all. So she threw that thought away quickly. "I thought that was the truth, but it wasn't. The Humans didn't help us fight a war, they just used us to fight their war. That's how I met Orestes, in the owl part of the Human Forest. He wanted to kill me, and I guess that I wanted to kill him too." King Boreal gave a short laugh, causing Shade's body to twitch in anger, but he kept speaking.
"There was something else, though, that wanted to kill us," Shade began again, and Orestes elaborated, "The cannibal bat." Shade nodded, agreeing, then pressed forward with his clumsy speech, "I guess, after it attacked Orestes, I just thought that it was too cruel to just watch him be killed. Then Orestes helped me, helped all of us." He raised a wing and swept it back and forth at their group of bats and rats: Lura, Chinook, Ariel, Marina, and Cortez, whose large conflagration of rats were waiting under the bridge. "That was more important that a battle that happened a million years ago..."
Every group was silent for a few painful moments, and Lura was preparing to fly, useless as her wings were, if it came to a full-blown war right then and there.
"I find all this youthful naïveté trying," an owl sighed, glaring at Shade and Orestes as he said it. Achilles raised his eyes skyward. "It would be wise to heed them more carefully."
Then, he said it—Lura couldn't believe he said it—"Perhaps so." King Boreal's eyes became softer, and his wings relaxed slightly, drooping his shoulders; even powerful, important figures like King Boreal got tired of things, Lura wondered in amazement. The owl's strong wing muscles flexed as he flew over to Orestes. Lura tensed and squeezed her eyes shut. Although the two short words he'd just spoken gave her a tiny light of hope, he was still a frightening figure. Owls had murdered her whole Colony, after all.
"I had given you up for lost, Orestes," the owl King murmured, "and I missed you dearly."
"Me too," the owl prince replied, and Lura felt him moving through the air. Cracking her eyelids open, the Graywing finally slid from Orestes' back and flapped her wings, wincing as she coasted over to Shade and the others. In a louder tone, King Boreal addressed all the parties, "My appetite for war is dulled. Let us agree to a truce, if that is acceptable. Let's meet in the summer to speak more of this, so we can understand each other better."
"Yes, we will do that, King Boreal," Halo Freetail agreed, and the king spread his feathered wings out as far as they'd go. "The night skies are yours again, and you may fly in peace again."
"The sun," Shade fumbled the words out, and everyone waited to see how King Boreal would react to this. "So, are the nights not enough for you, Silverwing?" The Graywing glanced carefully over at her friend, who was shaking his head, acting like he'd forgotten how to use words. "We will have to discuss that this summer, also," the owl ruler replied, tilting his head to the side, "but until then, I give my consent to an interim measure."
Bwa? Lura thought, flabbergasted, her eyes wide and her jaw agape. Maybe those were words only owls used...she had no clue what they could possibly mean, but it sounded good. "You've returned my son to me, Shade Silverwing," King Boreal boomed, finally using Shade's name instead of hatefully spitting out the word 'bat' or 'Silverwing', "So, in exchange; I will return the sun to you." Shade was quaking so much Lura wondered if someone would have to carry him back to Frieda. She jolted back a few inches and Shade narrowed his eyes at her. "There's something...you should know Shade," Marina told him softly, as if reading Lura's mind. He had to know. "What?" He questioned, anxiously looking between the two females. Marina and Lura gestured towards the bridge, then without waiting, flew off and left him to follow.
What is it?! Well, you can guess probably. You've all read the book right? Yeah. Or else a lot was given away.