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for she thought her father had abandoned them al . So we explained how he didn't want to stay with the St. Aggie's owls but they threatened to kil her and her mum and the rest of her brothers and sisters if he did not remain."
"Bess blinked," Soren said. His own eyes misted with the memory. "And two big tears rol ed from her bright yel ow eyes. 'That explains it,' she said. 'We thought he had vanished. That we were nothing to him.*"
Soren shut his eyes tight now and began to speak forceful y, as if he were trying to remember something very exactly. "But we told her that her father had courage in a place that bred cowards. That he had a nobility as
    47 great as any Guardian of Ga'Hoole's. And when we asked her how his bones had come to be in this place, she told us that the eagles Streak and Zan had brought them to the family. But that she had brought them to this place for she believed in the old tales her father had told."
Digger now spoke. "The rest of her family had warned her that she would have to go as far as Silverveil to find a bel tower. But she had found this place. And she liked it because it was so hidden in the val ey, and the roar of the waterfal s was like a kind of music to her. She said that in many ways it made her think that this was what glaumora must be like and that is why she sang every day to her father. She said that she hoped he was in glaumora and that his business on Earth was finished so that he would not haunt the Earth and the lower air as a scroom."
"But," Soren said, "even though her father had long gone to glaumora, it was almost as if Bess was a scroom, as if her business was not finished."
    Coryn felt a chil pass through his gizzard. Was his
own mother, Nyra, stil alive, or was she a scroom? And if she was a scroom, what business had she left unfinished?
48 CHAPTER SEVEN
The Palace of Mists
But what was this place where Bess mourned?" Coryn. asked. "A castle? Was there gold and silver and the kinds of things that Trader Mags looks for?" "There was certainly some of that but there was something much more valuable"Soren answered. "What?" Coryn. asked.
"Books and maps." Digger's eyes began to sparkle. "Not just one library but many. Bess said these stone, hol ows were a university, a place of learning. But she cal ed it a palace. The Palace of Mists."
Digger, like many Burrowing Owls, was a great
    appreciator of built spaces. As his species name
suggested, he was expert in excavating
underground tunnels and hol ows and creating nests where other birds might not dream of living. He admired the way the stones of the university had been hewn to fit together perfectly and how the entire structure was tucked neatly behind the scrim of mist from the waterfal .
49 61 "The Palace of Mists," Coryn repeated the words dreamily.
"Yes, and just imagine, Coryn!" Excitement stirred Digger's normal y even, slow speech. "The face of the waterfal formed the rear wal of this palace. And there were four spires, each a bel tower but not one of the four bel s had a clapper."
"I bet Bubo could have made one," Coryn said. "Bess didn't want one," Soren replied, "We were the first owls who ever came there, and she said she liked her secret place and that she needed no clapper to sing her da to glaumora. I'l never forget her words. She said, 'I am the chimes. I am the clapper. And I do believe had there been no bel she
    would have become that as wel . She is an
extraordinary owl, one of vast intel igence.' "Is?" Coryn blurted out. "She stil lives?" "Oh, most definitely." Soren paused and lowered his voice. "You must understand, Coryn, Bess is the best-kept secret in the owl kingdom. When we left Bess that first time, we vowed to tel only three other owls: Otulissa, Ezylryb, and Strix Struma." "And it was hard enough getting her to agree to that! Believe me!" Twilight said. "But tel Coryn about the stone Others."
Coryn was speechless, his eyes wide.
50 62 "Ah, yes, the stone Others," Soren replied. "Bess asked us if we