Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book 10: The Coming of Hoole

The Coming of Hoole is the tenth novel in the Guardians of Ga'hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.

Plot summary
The story is about a young owl named Hoole. King H’rath and Queen Siv laid an egg. King H’rath was soon killed by Lord Arrin, with his troop of hagsfiends (evil, crowlike owls with magic). Queen Siv runs away to a secret ice palace to hide from Lord Arrin. Grank, a faithful friend of Queen Siv's, comes to the palace. While he is there, Lord Arrin and his hagsfiends attack. Queen Siv gives the egg to Grank, telling him to keep it safe and raise the chick when it hatches. While Grank sneaks away with the egg, Queen Siv charges the army of hagsfiends. Surprisingly, she lives.

Grank takes the egg to a remote island up in the Northern Kingdoms, which are constantly frozen, and when it hatches, he names the chick Hoole.

Hoole does not know that he is actually a prince. His father is dead and he has never met his mother. He is hiding on an island with his foster father Grank. Grank is teaching Hoole the noble ways of a king, how to hunt, and how to fly, meanwhile discovering that Hoole has "firesight". Hoole can see things that are happening, will happen, or have happened in fires and coals. Grank's apprentice Theo, who is a blacksmith teaches him how to use battle claws and how to fight. Theo is a "gizzard resister", meaning he hates wars and will not fight but Grank finally convinced him to make battle claws. Eventually Hoole becomes stronger and when he does, the killer of his father, Lord Arrin, finds out about his existence and becomes determined to kill him.

Soon Lord Arrin finds Hoole and sends a hagsfiend and an owl (mate) to kill him. But the hagsfiend and owl want a chick of their own, but are unable to have one, so they plan on kidnapping Hoole and transforming him into a hagsfiend. At the same time, Queen Siv has found Hoole and is talking with him, convincing him that she is a stranger. She aches to tell him that she is his mother, but it would be to dangerous. So when the female hagsfiend dived down and pinned Hoole to the ground, Queen Siv shot off her perch and severely injured the hagsfiend. With the help of Siv's friend Snow Rose, and Grank and Theo, they drive off the pair and Hoole is still fine. Queen Siv has already flown away. Now they know it is time to go.

So Grank, Theo, and Hoole set off for Beyond the Beyond, a bare wasteland filled with volcanoes. When they get there, they stay with Grank's old friend, the wolf Fengo and his pack. Hoole learns the way of the wolves and comes to be respected by them. When Lord Arrin finally finds them, sending a huge army of hagsfiends, Queen Siv has rounded up a huge army of loyal owls and a huge battle takes place. In the middle of it, to Hoole one of the volcanoes becomes transparent and he sees the sacred ember, diving into the volcano to get it and coming back out without even a singed feather. When the battle is over, he is hailed as King Hoole, who has retrieved the great magical ember. But his mother, Queen Siv, has been grievously injured. She soon dies, content with her son by her side.