“He seems to have taken over your Clan,” Runningnose put in, “but he will pass and be forgotten in the brightness that follows. Brightness that will shine on ShadowClan for countless moons.”
“I…I hear you,” Blackfoot stammered. “I’ll do as you say.”
Littlecloud dipped his head as respectfully as he could with twigs clutching at his pelt. “ShadowClan will return to our warrior ancestors,” he promised, and added, “What have you done with our apprentice?”
“He is safe,” Raggedstar replied.
The gaze of the StarClan warriors swept around to rest on Hollyleaf, Jaypaw, and finally Lionblaze, who forced himself not to flinch. Would these starry cats be angry at what he and his littermates had done?
The StarClan cats did not speak, just bent their heads in a dignified nod. Their glimmering forms began to fade until they were no more than wisps of starlight above the marsh. Then they were gone. Lionblaze let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Blackfoot broke through the branches that held him without much trouble; Littlecloud followed him through the gap he had made, and both cats scrambled onto dry ground at the edge of the marsh. Their pelts were clumped with mud and bits of twigs and debris, and blood was trickling from one of Blackfoot’s ears.
“StarClan hasn’t abandoned us!” Littlecloud’s voice was shaken, but ecstatic.
Blackfoot shook his head. “They spoke to us,” he murmured. “You were right, Littlecloud. We can’t ignore the spirits of our warrior ancestors. Not when they’re still watching over us.”
“What will you do now?” Littlecloud asked.
“Get rid of Sol, to begin with.” Blackfoot flexed his claws until the tips disappeared into the wet ground. “I can’t believe I let myself listen to that mange-ridden trickster. He told me StarClan didn’t care what happened to us! But they brought us here, made the trees fall so that we had to hear them. I’ll make sure that no ShadowClan cat is led astray by Sol again. You don’t think I’ve left it too long?” he added anxiously.
“I know you haven’t,” Littlecloud reassured him, touching his leader’s shoulder with the tip of his tail. “The warrior code lives within every one of the cats born in ShadowClan. One cat alone cannot quench that flame.”
“Then let’s go,” Blackfoot meowed, turning toward the ShadowClan camp.
Littlecloud hesitated. “Tigerpaw, are you there?”
Lionblaze saw the apprentice clamber out of his hiding place under the trunk and splash his way through the mud to his Clanmates.
“Are you okay?” Littlecloud asked. “Did you see what happened?”
“Yes.” Tigerpaw’s amber eyes were shining. “I never thought I’d get to see real StarClan warriors!”
Nor did I, Lionblaze thought.
Tigerpaw dipped his head to Blackfoot. “Can we come back now?”
Blackfoot nodded. “Of course. ShadowClan needs you.”
Tigerpaw straightened proudly. “Then I’ll go and find Flamepaw and Dawnpaw.”
“Get back to camp as soon as you can,” Blackfoot ordered. Waving his tail to Littlecloud, he added, “Let’s go. I can’t wait to tell our Clan they can look to their warrior ancestors again.”
“I know they’ll all be glad to hear it, Blackfoot,” Littlecloud meowed.
The white cat drew himself to his full height, his muscles rippling beneath his ruffled pelt. “Blackstar,” he corrected. “My name is Blackstar.”
Raising his tail, the ShadowClan leader stalked off into the forest, with his medicine cat padding behind him.
From the moment when the StarClan warriors started to speak, Toadfoot had lain still as a stone under Lionblaze’s paws. When Lionblaze and Flamepaw let him get up, he sat staring at the marsh as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. “Were those really cats from StarClan?” he whispered.
“Yes, they were,” Flamepaw replied solemnly. “Our warrior ancestors are still watching over us. They want the warrior code to be preserved.”
Toadfoot blinked, still stunned.
“What are you going to do now?” Lionblaze asked him. If Blackstar knew what they had done, would he still want his Clan to look to their warrior ancestors?
Toadfoot’s glance flicked from Lionblaze to Flamepaw and back again, a low growl beginning to build in his throat. “You faked that sign!”
“Only to start with.” Flamepaw faced his Clanmate. “We made the trees fall and brought Blackstar here. But we didn’t make the StarClan cats appear. They came of their own accord, and that made it a real sign after all.”
Toadfoot shook bits of bracken off his dark brown pelt, his eyes still indecisive. “You’re lucky they did come,” he muttered. “Otherwise ShadowClan would have torn ThunderClan apart for interfering and lying.”
“You could try,” Lionblaze meowed, his fur bristling.
“But StarClan really did come,” Flamepaw persisted. “They proved that they are still watching over us, that we should still listen to them and live by the warrior code. They have the Clan’s best interests at heart; we have to believe what they say for our own sake.”
“Isn’t that what you want?” Lionblaze demanded.
Toadfoot paused, then nodded. “I suppose I should thank you,” he meowed grudgingly.
“No,” Lionblaze replied, “it’s StarClan you should thank.”
Hollyleaf padded up, mud dripping from her pelt, and gave Toadfoot a disapproving sniff. “What are we going to do about him?” she asked Lionblaze.
It was Toadfoot who answered. “I promise I won’t tell any cat what I saw.”
Hollyleaf’s ears flicked up. “Can we trust him?”
“It’s trust him or kill him.” Jaypaw joined them and sat down with a gusty sigh. “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t go through all this to start killing ShadowClan cats.”
“Then we have to trust you.” Lionblaze turned to Toadfoot. “Swear by StarClan that you’ll keep the secret.”
“Of course I will, mouse-brain.” Toadfoot lashed his tail. “I swear it. Unless keeping your secret will harm my Clan,” he added instantly.
“Which it won’t.” Lionblaze gave Toadfoot a brusque nod. “You can go.”
Toadfoot turned and stalked away, with a last fearful glance at the marsh where the two StarClan warriors had appeared.
“Come on.” Tigerpaw waved his tail at his two littermates. “We’ve got to get back, too.”
The apprentices dipped their heads to the ThunderClan cats.
“We’ll never be able to thank you enough,” Flamepaw mewed.
“We did this for ThunderClan, too. And we couldn’t have done it without you,” Lionblaze replied.
“What are we going to do about our mother?” Dawnpaw asked her brother and sister.
Tigerpaw and Flamepaw looked blankly at each other.
“Don’t worry about that now,” Lionblaze assured them. “We’ll tell Tawnypelt what happened. You need to get back to your camp right away, and we need to get off your territory.”
“Yeah.” Tigerpaw’s eyes gleamed. “Don’t you dare cross our borders once we renew the scent marks!”
The apprentices bounded off through the trees. Lionblaze watched them until they were out of sight, then headed back toward his own territory with Hollyleaf and Jaypaw at his side.
“I can’t believe our fake sign turned into a real message from StarClan!” Hollyleaf exclaimed. “Jaypaw, do you think that StarClan needed us to set the trap before they could appear?”
Jaypaw shrugged. “I don’t know, but I doubt it.”
“I think they wanted the apprentices to show them how desperate they were to save their Clan,” Lionblaze suggested. “Tigerpaw and the others wouldn’t have gone through all that if they didn’t want to bring ShadowClan back to StarClan and the warrior code.”
“We were desperate, too.” Hollyleaf lashed her tail. “Nothing matters more than preserving the warrior code.”
“And what in the name of Star
Clan are we going to tell Tawnypelt?” Jaypaw asked. “The truth would be a really bad idea—I can feel it in my pelt.”
“I don’t know.” Hollyleaf sounded worried. “I don’t want Firestar to know what we did, either. He would put me and Lionblaze back on apprentice duties before you could say ‘mouse.’”
Lionblaze drew ahead a few paw steps, his mind drifting from the conversation behind him. His paws were itching to know what Sol would do after Blackstar told him to leave ShadowClan.
Will he keep his promise? he wondered. Will he come to mentor the three of us to our true destiny?
CHAPTER 10
Hollyleaf leaped, sinking her claws into the vole and dispatching it with a quick nip to the neck. Straightening up with her prey in her jaws, she spotted Lionblaze approaching through the bracken, dragging the limp body of a rabbit.
“Hey, great catch!” she mumbled around the vole.
Twilight had fallen, and deep shadows lay on the forest floor. Hollyleaf and Lionblaze had stopped near the dead tree to hunt on their way back to camp, while Jaypaw looked for fresh herbs.
“Let’s get back,” he meowed, padding up with a bunch of tansy. “I’m worried about the sick cats. Leafpool can’t do everything, and if I’m any later she’ll have my pelt for bedding.”
“Okay.” Hollyleaf retrieved the mouse she had killed earlier and led the way back to camp, carrying her prey.
Every hair on her pelt was tingling with relief that they had been able to save ShadowClan. Only one problem remained: What were they going to tell Tawnypelt?
Lionblaze pushed through the thorn tunnel ahead of her, the hind legs of his rabbit leaving faint scars in the dust. As she emerged into the camp, Hollyleaf could see that the clearing was almost empty. Many cats would already be in their dens. She spotted Sandstorm and Squirrelflight sharing a thrush beside the fresh-kill pile, while Poppyfrost was padding toward the dirtplace tunnel.
“Hey, Poppyfrost!” Lionblaze bounded forward, letting his rabbit fall. “Have you seen Tawnypelt?”
Poppyfrost nodded. “She’s in Firestar’s den with Brambleclaw.”
“Hang on,” Hollyleaf meowed to her brother as he padded back to her. “We haven’t decided what to tell her yet.”
“We can’t talk now,” Jaypaw stated. “I have to check in with Leafpool. I’ll find you later.” Without waiting for a reply he bounded over to the medicine cats’ den and disappeared behind the brambles.
Lionblaze yawned and arched his back in a long stretch. “I’m worn out. Let’s drop off this prey and go to our den for a rest. We don’t need to worry about Tawnypelt right now; she’s busy.”
“Okay.”
The two young warriors picked up their prey and carried it over to the fresh-kill pile.
“You’ve been hunting,” Squirrelflight mewed approvingly. “Well done.”
“How did you get that mud all over you?” Sandstorm narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Were you hunting for frogs?”
“It’s just a bit wet out there,” Lionblaze mumbled, not looking at the older she-cat.
Amusement glimmered in Sandstorm’s green eyes; she opened her mouth to reply, only to be distracted by the sound of cats pushing their way through the barrier. Birchfall emerged; Hollyleaf’s fur tingled with surprise when she saw that Littlecloud was following him, with Whitewing and Icepaw bringing up the rear.
Sandstorm leaped to her paws. “What’s this?” She bounded across the clearing to confront the ShadowClan medicine cat.
Squirrelflight rose more slowly. “I’d better let Firestar know,” she murmured, and headed for the tumbled rocks that led to the Highledge.
Hollyleaf and Lionblaze followed Sandstorm across the clearing. More cats were appearing from the warriors’ den, Cloudtail loudly proclaiming that he would know ShadowClan scent anywhere. He and Brightheart joined the group around Littlecloud, followed by Berrynose, Hazeltail, and Mousewhisker. Mousefur poked her head out of the elders’ den but stayed where she was, her whiskers twitching in disapproval.
“What’s another ShadowClan cat doing in our camp?” Berrynose demanded.
No cat answered him, though his littermate Hazeltail gave him a sharp nudge with her shoulder, nearly knocking him off his paws.
“Greetings.” Sandstorm gave Littlecloud a curt nod. “Birchfall, what’s going on here?”
Hollyleaf thought that Birchfall seemed embarrassed. “We were patrolling the ShadowClan border,” he began.
“I spotted Littlecloud,” Icepaw broke in. “Birchfall and Whitewing were too busy gossiping.”
“That’s enough.” Whitewing scolded her apprentice; she looked flustered. “Littlecloud says he needs to talk to Tawnypelt.”
Littlecloud dipped his head respectfully to Sandstorm. “With Firestar’s permission. Things have happened in ShadowClan that she needs to know.”
Before Sandstorm could reply, Hollyleaf saw Firestar, Brambleclaw, and Tawnypelt appearing on the Highledge, with Squirrelflight just behind. Sandstorm waved her tail, inviting Littlecloud to follow her; she led him across the clearing to stand at the foot of the stones. Hollyleaf and Lionblaze padded after them with the rest of the ThunderClan cats; more were emerging from their dens and gathering around to listen. Rosekit and Toadkit frisked across the clearing from the nursery, their ears pricked curiously, while Daisy followed more slowly.
“Greetings, Littlecloud,” Firestar meowed. “Welcome to our camp. How can we help you?”
“Thank you, Firestar,” the medicine cat replied. “It’s Tawnypelt I need to speak to.”
The tortoiseshell warrior’s ears flicked up in surprise. “I’ve nothing to say to ShadowClan anymore.” There was the hint of a snarl in her voice. “They are not my Clan.”
“I’m sorry you feel like that.” Littlecloud blinked sympathetically. “But I think you might change your mind when you hear what I’ve come to tell you.”
“Go on, then.” Tawnypelt still sounded hostile.
“Blackstar wants you to come back,” the medicine cat went on. “Your three kits have already returned—”
“What!” Tawnypelt’s jaws gaped wide in shock. Hollyleaf could see she wanted to spill out a whole cascade of questions, but her gaze flickered around the listening ThunderClan cats, and she clamped her jaws shut again.
“Blackstar wants me to tell you that no cat will blame you for leaving.” Littlecloud gazed up at his Clanmate. “ShadowClan is returning to the warrior code, and to their faith in their warrior ancestors.”
Tawnypelt drew in a long breath. “If that’s true…what about Sol?”
“Sol has decided to leave ShadowClan,” Littlecloud replied.
“Decided?” Lionblaze whispered into Hollyleaf’s ear. “Look out for flying hedgehogs.”
“His place is not with us,” Littlecloud continued. “Blackstar bears him no ill will, but he is not a Clan cat.”
“This is good news,” Brambleclaw meowed to his sister. “I’d welcome you as my Clanmate again, but I know you’ll always be a loyal ShadowClan cat in your heart.”
Tawnypelt touched her nose to Brambleclaw’s ear, then nodded. “Okay, Littlecloud. I’ll come. But you’d better be telling me the truth.”
“A medicine cat doesn’t lie,” Littlecloud replied.
Tawnypelt turned to Firestar. “Thank you for everything, Firestar.”
“I’m just glad it’s ended so well,” Firestar meowed. “Good-bye, and good luck.”
The tortoiseshell warrior pressed her pelt against Brambleclaw’s, then leaped down the rocks to join Littlecloud. Together the two ShadowClan cats padded across the clearing and disappeared into the thorn barrier.
“I never thought that would happen!” Cloudtail burst out as soon as they were gone. “Do you think Blackstar really changed his mind just like that?”
Hollyleaf deliberately didn’t look at her brother.
“I’d bet a month of dawn patrols those apprentices had something to do with it,” Birchfall meowed.
“Why else would they disappear back to ShadowClan without their mother?”
Dustpelt let out a snort of amusement. “I can just picture those three holding Blackstar down until he agreed.”
“Maybe losing them made Blackstar realize what he was doing to his Clan,” Hollyleaf suggested carefully.
Hazeltail nodded. “You could be right.”
“Well, whatever changed Blackstar’s mind, it’s a good thing for the rest of the Clans,” Sandstorm mewed. “No cat wants a Clan on their borders that doesn’t follow the warrior code.”
“True,” Ferncloud purred, brushing against the ginger she-cat’s side. “There should always be four Clans around the lake, all following the warrior code.”
“I just hope Tawnypelt won’t tell Blackstar too much about our camp,” Daisy murmured, with an anxious look at her kits.
Hollyleaf began to bristle at the suggestion that her kin would betray the Clan who had helped her, especially when it was her brother’s Clan. Before she could speak, Sandstorm touched her nose to Daisy’s ear. “I’m sure you don’t need to worry. Tawnypelt would never do that.”
“And what about Sol, that’s what I’d like to know.” Mousefur stalked up to join the group of cats. “Where will he go now?”
“Who cares?” Berrynose mewed.
“Because he might start causing more trouble, mouse-brain,” Dustpelt pointed out. “I just hope he’ll leave the Clans alone now.”
“He’d better.” Hollyleaf clawed fiercely at the ground. Even the thought of Sol made her pelt bristle. “He has no place here if he tries to destroy the warrior code.”
Lionblaze opened his jaws as if he was about to protest, then closed them again. Hollyleaf didn’t like the doubtful look in his eyes. Surely he wasn’t going to defend Sol, after what the loner had done to ShadowClan?
Hollyleaf jerked her head to draw her brother away from the excited cats. “You don’t still believe in that crow-food-eating menace, do you?” she hissed.
Lionblaze shrugged. “He’s not as bad as all that. I was hoping he’d come back to mentor us.”
Hollyleaf stared at him in disbelief. “Why should he help us? Why do you even want him to? Look at what he did to ShadowClan. He persuaded them to give up the warrior code!”