The Owl Keeper Read Online Free

grandmother and him.
    Gran knew where to find dryad beetles and turtle eggs and a fungus that glowed in the dark. They searched for silver owls,
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    though they never found one. Silver owls were a rare breed of warrior owl, Gran explained, and they possessed a fierce and terrifying magic, called OwlSong.
    As a little boy, Max would clutch his blanket and stuffed toy owl and Gran would sit on the bed next to him, telling him his favorite story before he fell asleep, the tale of the Owl Keeper. It began in the ancient city of Silvern, high on a wintry plateau, with a strong-willed, independent girl named Fuchsia who lived in a tower and tended bees.
    In Fuchsia's twelfth year, the evil group Alazarin Oro invaded the country, overthrowing the benevolent Circle of Sages. The Sages fled, braving snowstorms and hiding in the forests, until they reached Silvern. There they met Fuchsia, who offered them refuge in her tower. Inside they discovered hundreds of stone owls carved into the walls, which the Sages recognized at once as silver owls (Max's favorite part of the story), turned to stone by the Alazarin Oro. The Sages unlocked the dark spell, earning the owls' undying loyalty, and Fuchsia became the first Owl Keeper.
    Once freed, the silver owls emitted their powerful OwlSong-- not so much a song, explained Gran, as a vibration, rippling across the land, creating an energy force that shifted the balance away from evil, restoring peace once again.
    But, as centuries went by, the dark forces gained momentum. Sages and owls were scattered and Silvern fell to ruins. Yet there was a prophecy, written in the Silver Scrolls: in times of darkness an Owl Keeper would appear, to unite silver owls and Sages
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    against the powers of evil. The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.
    As he approached the owl tree, Max saw the outline of the girl: mammoth black coat, beaky nose, hair flaming around her head. Beyond her, in the distance, he could see the dark haunted waterway that was the river, and the forest on the other side.
    He balked when he saw Rose's tough-girl stance. Her aggressive style intimidated him. Rose was a reckless type, Max could tell, and that made him nervous. He liked his life orderly, with everything in its place and nothing left to chance. Artemis Rose Eccles was just the opposite. She was messy and impulsive, a risk taker who scrambled everything up.
    "I guess you're not scared of the dark," he said, walking over to her as if he weren't afraid.
    Rose stood on her toes, reaching for a branch. "Obviously you weren't listening." Her voice was high and know-it-all. "Scared isn't in my vocabulary. I'm not afraid of anything, and that includes the dark." She hoisted herself up. "And the Misshapens."
    "You don't have to worry about them," said Max irritably. "We're safe here because they hate open spaces."
    "I know that." Her smug voice drifted down.
    Max had heard rumors about the Misshapens all his life. They were the government's botched experiments: laboratory-made creatures cast off by the High Echelon and set free to roam the forests. Some nights he sat in the owl tree, looking across the river, and saw their eyes glowing through the trees. Gran said
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    the Misshapens would never cross over because they'd been programmed to stay in the forest.
    Max heard Rose giggle. She was making faces at the silver owl from her perch on a branch. The owl puffed up her feathers, basking in the extra attention. Then she hopped from limb to limb, nursing her crooked wing, trying to get closer to Rose.
    Max caught the owl as she tumbled off a low branch. Sometimes her timing was a little off. The owl clung to his sleeve with sharp claws, carefully trundling up to his shoulder. She seemed to know he would be in trouble if his jacket got torn.
    He turned his head sideways and the owl swiveled her head right around. They blinked at each other and the owl nuzzled her head against his cheek. Max was always surprised at how