“Sparrowpelt! Cherrytail . . . and Waspwhisker!” Shorty’s voice was warm, as if he was meeting again with old friends. “And this hulking great creature is little Rabbitkit?”
“Rabbitleap now,” the warrior mewed proudly. “And this is Plumwillow.”
“But what are you all doing here?” Shorty asked, when the excitement had died down. “Leafstar, this must be almost all of your Clan.”
“This is all my Clan,” Leafstar responded, her tone bleak once more. “Rogues attacked us in the gorge and drove us out. Many cats were killed or scattered, and the rest of us have been forced to look for a new place to live.”
For a moment, Shorty was silent in shock. “That’s terrible news,” he murmured at last. “You must let us help you.”
“How can you do that?” Leafstar asked.
“Well, at least we can offer you somewhere to spend the night,” Shorty replied. “It’s getting dark, and this is no place to be wandering around, not if you don’t know where you are.”
While they had been talking the last traces of sunlight had vanished from the sky, and the alleyway ahead was plunged in gloom. Hawkwing didn’t like the idea of setting one paw step into those ominous shadows.
“I wanted to move on quickly,” Leafstar meowed. “But perhaps you’re right, Shorty.”
“But only for one night,” Echosong put in, stepping up to her Clan leader’s side. “This is not where StarClan wants us to be.”
Leafstar dipped her head. “Of course. Lead on, Shorty.”
The brown tom’s amber eyes gleamed in the gathering darkness. “Great!” he exclaimed. “I’ll show you the best way out in the morning. And you’ll meet some more old friends,” he added, giving his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks. “I’m with Cora now. We have kits.”
“That’s wonderful news,” Leafstar purred. “I’d love to see Cora again.”
Shorty gave a wave of his stumpy tail. “Follow me, then.”
He led the SkyClan cats across the open space and down a narrow Thunderpath at the far side.
“Do you think Leafstar is right to trust this cat?” Pebbleshine murmured to Hawkwing as they followed. “He might be leading us into a trap.”
“He sounds friendly enough,” Hawkwing responded.
“It’s easy to sound friendly. But there were cats watching us on the way in, and they didn’t feel friendly at all.”
“They could have been the other group,” Hawkwing pointed out. “Dodge’s cats.”
Pebbleshine’s tail-tip twitched uneasily. “Maybe.”
Shorty led the way along the Thunderpath until it came to an end and the cats emerged into another open space. Here the ground was covered in coarse grass with a few scrubby bushes here and there, and even one or two stunted trees. Hawkwing had stopped expecting to see anything green and growing, but the open ground was still washed with the acrid scents of Twolegs and monsters.
“Do you think this is their camp?” he whispered to Pebbleshine.
Shorty raised his voice in a loud yowl. “Stick! Coal! Look who’s here!”
Hawkwing stiffened, forcing his shoulder fur to lie flat as more cats emerged from the shelter of the bushes, fluid shadows in the twilight. As they drew closer he made out a skinny brown tom with a torn ear, and a more powerful black tom.
Leafstar nodded to the newcomers. “Stick. Coal.”
“Greetings,” the skinny tom, Stick, responded. “What brings you here, Leafstar?”
Hawkwing had just enough time to notice the chilly nature of the exchange before Shorty burst in with a reply. “This is all of SkyClan, Stick! Rogues have driven them out of the gorge.”
Stick’s whiskers twitched in surprise. “Really?”
“That’s just terrible!” A new voice broke in, a graceful white she-cat who came bounding up with a plump tabby tom just behind her. “You remember me, don’t you—Snowy? And this is Percy.”
“I remember you both.” Now there was more warmth in Leafstar’s tone. “It’s good to see you again.”
The plump tabby dipped his head. Scars around one of his eyes gave him a fearsome look, but his voice was friendly as he meowed, “Welcome.”
While they were talking, Shorty had dashed off, and now he returned with a slender black she-cat. Three kits—two tabby toms and a black-and-white she-cat—frisked around their paws.
“Cora!” Leafstar exclaimed. “How are you?”
“Fine, thank you.” Cora stretched forward to touch noses with the Clan leader. “Shorty says that you’ve been driven out of your territory. That’s terrible!”
Leafstar let out a sigh. “Yes, but StarClan is guiding us to a new home.” Hawkwing guessed that she didn’t want to talk about her Clan’s troubles with these Twolegplace cats. “So these are your kits?”
“Yes.” Cora’s eyes shone proudly. “The two tabbies are Branch and Stone, and the she-cat is Night. Kits, come and meet Leafstar.”
The three kits, who had been happily play-fighting, straightened up and dipped their heads to Leafstar, gazing at her with wide eyes.
“Shorty and I have told them all about you and your Clan,” Cora meowed. “But we never expected to see you here. Are you planning to stay?”
“Just for the night, with your permission,” Leafstar replied. “I know there are a lot of us, but we can help you hunt.”
“Good idea.” Stick waved his tail, beckoning more cats forward until they stood in a ragged half-circle behind him. To Hawkwing they looked younger—more like his own age and Pebbleshine’s—and he guessed they hadn’t yet been born when Leafstar and the others had visited the Twolegplace to fight against Dodge.
Stick moved among them, rapidly giving orders and splitting the cats into patrols, mixing his own cats with SkyClan. Hawkwing found himself with Pebbleshine and a couple of strangers.
“Where’s Curlypaw?” he asked, glancing around as the patrols began to move off.
“I saw her going with Fidgetpaw and Bellaleaf,” Pebbleshine replied.
“Mouse dung! I wanted her with me.” Hawkwing’s pads prickled with anxiety at the thought of his apprentice wandering off by herself in this dark and unfamiliar place. Then he reminded himself that she wasn’t alone; she had two Clanmates with her, and Twolegplace cats who knew their way around.
She’ll be fine, he told himself, though he wasn’t entirely convinced.
“Hi, I’m Foggy,” one of the strange cats mewed. He was a long-furred gray tom; jerking his head toward the other, a small tortoiseshell, he added, “This is Suzy.”
“Hi,” Pebbleshine responded.
“Are you ready?” Suzy asked briskly. “We’ll show you some good places to hunt.”
Hawkwing realized for the first time how hungry he was. “That sounds good to me,” he replied. “Lead the way.”
“I’ve never hunted in a Twolegplace before,” Hawkwing mumbled around the rat that he was carrying by the scruff. “It’s so weird.”
Pebbleshine was dangling two mice by their tails. “We did all right, I suppose,” she meowed. “I never thought we’d find any prey. But it’s still not as good as hunting in a forest.”
Hawkwing yearned for the feeling of grass underneath his paws and the rustle of wind in the trees above his head. “At least this is only for one night,” he pointed out. “We’ll manage . . . Just as long as no cat expects me to eat this rat. It tastes foul.”
“I’ll take it off your paws,” Foggy put in, glancing over his shoulder from where he and Suzy were padding ahead. He had caught a mouse, and Suzy had a blackbird. “There’s good eating on one of those.”
Yuck! Hawkwing thought.
When he and his patrol returned to the stretch of empty ground where the Twolegplace cats had their camp, more of the cats were gathering around one of the twisted trees in the center. Hawkwing spotted Leafstar and Stick with Sparrowpelt, Shorty, and the black tom called Coal. He padded over to join them, depositing his prey on a nearby heap for the cats to share.
r /> “How are things here with you?” Leafstar was asking Stick as Hawkwing came into earshot.
Stick shrugged. “Dodge kept to his side of the border at first, but we’ve had a few skirmishes lately. I’m afraid he’s up to his old tricks.”
“Things are getting really bad, just like before,” Shorty agreed. “Cora and I are scared for our kits.”
“You need to scent-mark the border,” Leafstar told him. “And make sure that cats who cross it learn not to do it again.”
“We’re not a Clan!” Stick’s eyes flashed at her.
Hawkwing blinked in surprise at Stick’s hostile tone, then turned away as Pebbleshine offered him one of her mice. The two cats settled down close to Sparrowpelt to eat.
“Why don’t Leafstar and Stick like each other?” Hawkwing asked the senior warrior in a low voice.
Sparrowpelt swallowed a mouthful of thrush. “When we defeated Dodge, Stick wanted Leafstar to kill him. Leafstar wouldn’t do that. Stick was furious, and she was angry with him because he didn’t know how to treat a defeated enemy. She warned Dodge to stay on his own side of the border, and we left.”
“It doesn’t sound as if Dodge is doing that anymore,” Pebbleshine commented.
Sparrowpelt shrugged. “That’s Stick’s problem.”
Finishing his mouse, Hawkwing glanced around to see that most of the hunting patrols had returned. But he didn’t see Curlypaw.
“I’m getting worried,” he murmured to Pebbleshine. “Where is she?”
His mate rose to her paws and gave the assembled cats a careful scrutiny. “Well, Bellaleaf and Fidgetpaw aren’t here either,” she meowed. “Maybe they—”
She broke off as a screech split the night. Bellaleaf raced out of an alleyway on the far side of the barren ground. Her fur was bushed up, and her eyes were wild; blood was trickling from a scratch above her eye. Fidgetpaw followed her more slowly, limping on three legs.
“Leafstar! Leafstar!” Bellaleaf yowled.
The Clan leader sprang up and wove her way rapidly out of the group of cats to meet Bellaleaf. “What’s happened?” she demanded.
“Oh, Leafstar, it’s terrible!” Bellaleaf gasped. “They took Curlypaw!”
CHAPTER 22
“Who? Where?” Leafstar’s voice was urgent.
“Other cats . . . They jumped down on us from the top of a wall,” Bellaleaf replied. “There were so many of them! I managed to get Fidgetpaw away, but I couldn’t help Curlypaw.”
“What about Stick’s cats?” Leafstar asked. “Where are they?”
“They ran away.” Bellaleaf’s mew was bitter. “Cowards!”
By now Hawkwing and the others had leaped to their paws and were crowding around Leafstar and Bellaleaf. Echosong hurried up to Fidgetpaw and began examining his injured paw with careful sniffs.
“We have to do something!” Hawkwing exclaimed. “If they’ve hurt Curlypaw, I’ll—”
“We must stay calm,” Leafstar interrupted sharply. “Bellaleaf, can you take us back to where this ambush happened? We can try to follow the scent trail and find out where these cats took Curlypaw.”
“I wouldn’t bother.” Stick padded up to join the Clan leader. “They must have been Dodge’s cats, and if Dodge has your friend there’s nothing you can do to help her.”
Leafstar whirled around to face Stick, a blaze of fury in her amber eyes. “We don’t abandon our friends,” she hissed. “We’re Clan cats!”
Stick shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“Stick, you should be ashamed of yourself!” Shorty exclaimed, bounding up to the group with more of Stick’s cats behind him. “Have you forgotten how SkyClan helped us? I’ll come with you, Leafstar.”
“So will I,” Snowy added.
“Thank you,” Leafstar meowed. “Let’s go. I’ll take Bellaleaf, of course, and Rabbitleap, Harrybrook, Sagenose, and Tinycloud. Waspwhisker, you’re in charge here.”
“What about me?” Hawkwing asked, his fur beginning to bristle in anger at being left out. “Curlypaw is my apprentice.”
Leafstar fixed him with a hard gaze. “Can I trust you to follow orders and not lose your temper?”
Hawkwing swallowed. “Yes, Leafstar.” Underneath his anger was fear, fear that Curlypaw might be in real danger.
“Then you can come. But . . .”
Leafstar’s voice trailed off as she gazed past the twisted trees, toward the alley where Bellaleaf had appeared. Another cat had emerged, and was pacing slowly toward them. As he drew closer, Hawkwing could see that he was a powerful gray-and-brown tabby tom. Muscles rippled under his pelt as he padded up to the group and halted a tail-length away.
Stick was glaring at him, his shoulder fur bristling and his eyes narrowed. “Harley!” he snarled. “You’re not welcome here!”
Hawkwing thought that Harley looked no happier to be there than Stick was to have him, but his voice was even as he responded. “I’ve brought a message from Dodge. Not for you, Stick, but for Leafstar.”
This must be another one of the cats Leafstar met when SkyClan was here before, Hawkwing thought.
“What message?” Leafstar asked calmly.
“Dodge has your cat,” Harley replied. “He wants you to meet him and discuss the situation. All of you,” he added, sweeping his tail around to include the whole Clan.
“You must think they’re all flea-brained,” Stick sneered. “Walk into Dodge’s territory, just like that? No way!”
Harley ignored him. Dipping his head respectfully to Leafstar, he meowed, “I give you my word that none of you will be harmed until the meeting is over.”
“And what is your word worth?” Stick challenged him.
“That’s not your affair,” Harley replied. “I’m not offering it to you. If you or any of your cats set paw in Dodge’s territory, you can expect trouble.”
“Like I don’t know that!” Stick snorted.
Leafstar gave Stick a sidelong glance. “I have to trust Harley,” she stated. “We cannot abandon Curlypaw.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Waspwhisker asked, in the midst of uneasy murmuring from the rest of the Clan.
“Then I’m wrong,” Leafstar replied. “But I believe StarClan will be with us if we do what is right.” To Harley she added, “Show us the way.”
As the Clan moved off, Hawkwing heard a low mutter from some cat behind him. “Why can’t StarClan ever just say what they want us to do?”
Harley headed back toward the alley, with the whole of SkyClan hard on his paws. Hawkwing padded at Leafstar’s shoulder, with Pebbleshine next to him. Apprehension swelled inside him with every paw step. Part of him would have liked to run and run until he left this terrible place behind him, but first he and his Clanmates had to rescue Curlypaw. So he kept padding steadily onward, grateful for the touch of Pebbleshine’s pelt against his own.
Complete darkness had fallen. As Harley led the Clan deeper into the Twolegplace, the only light was pale and fitful as the moon appeared now and again through gaps in the clouds that surged across the sky. They followed a twisting path down alleys, over walls, and once through a tunnel beneath a Thunderpath, and Hawkwing thought that the only way they would be able to find their way back to Stick’s camp would be by following their own scent trail.
That’s if any of us come back at all.
Finally Harley drew to a halt outside a tumbledown Twoleg den. Two of the walls had almost completely crumbled away, the red square-cut stones lying scattered on the ground. The other two walls met at an angle across a stretch of muddy, broken ground where the uncertain moonlight reflected from puddles covered with rainbow-colored scum. In the center of the ruined den the ground fell away into a pit.
Everywhere Hawkwing looked, cats were sitting on top of the tottering walls, or perched in the gaps where stones had fallen away. He almost felt as though their unblinking gazes were scorching his pelt.
At the edge of the pit a dark brown tabby tom was sitting with his paws tucked under
him. He rose as Leafstar padded forward across the broken ground, and took a pace forward to face her.
Hawkwing drew in a sharp breath at the size of him and the powerful muscles of his shoulders and hindquarters. Slitted yellow eyes stared out from a flat face seamed with scars. One of his ears was shredded and there was another deep scar running from his neck to halfway down his flank.
“That’s Dodge?” Pebbleshine whispered into Hawkwing’s ear. “Great StarClan, he looks dangerous!”
As Leafstar halted in front of him with her Clan clustering around her, the tabby tom dipped his head, mockingly polite. “Welcome to my camp,” he meowed.
Leafstar gave him a curt nod. “Where is our apprentice?” she asked.
Before Dodge could reply, a desperate wail came up from the depths of the pit. “Leafstar, is that you?”
At the sound of Curlypaw’s voice, Hawkwing thrust his way through his Clanmates to stand at the edge of the pit. Its sides were lined with more of the red Twoleg stone, and a jagged slope led downward from one corner. Curlypaw crouched at the bottom, with two hulking toms keeping guard over her.
“I’m here, Curlypaw!” Hawkwing called. “Don’t be scared!”
“Hawkwing! Thank StarClan!” Curlypaw yowled. She leaped to her paws, but one of the toms guarding her gave her a hard cuff over one ear, and she sank back down to the ground.
“Stay there!” Hawkwing told her. To his relief she didn’t look badly hurt. “We’ll get you out!”
Turning away from the edge of the pit, he padded back to where Leafstar and Dodge still stood facing each other.
“I was expecting a visit from you,” Dodge meowed.
Leafstar’s whiskers twitched suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“Last time we met,” Dodge replied, “you told me to keep to my own side of the border, or you would come back and fight me again.”
“And now you’ve broken that agreement,” Waspwhisker broke in. “But we didn’t know that. That’s not why we’re here.”
Dodge licked one paw and drew it slowly over his uninjured ear. “Oh, I know why you’re here,” he purred.