Instead he heard the weird, desolate cry of an owl to his left, and then the equally lone and desolate cry of another to his right.

But the warriors still lay quiet.

They had heard owls often and were not afraid of them.
Then the cry came from the north, and now it was repeated from the south.

There was a surfeit of owls, very much too many of them, and they called to one another too much.

Tandakora did not like it.