“And you.” Thunder turned toward Clear Sky. “You’re becoming a familiar face around here,” he added wryly.
As soon as he had spoken, he realized how serious every cat was looking. Clearly this wasn’t the right time for humor.
“Where have you been?” his father demanded. “Lightning Tail said you’d gone off with some rogue she-cat. We have a crisis here. One Eye has taken over my camp!”
Thunder gaped at him. “That’s not possible!” he gasped. “Why would your cats let him do that?”
“They had no choice,” Clear Sky retorted bitterly. “One Eye has brought in a whole bunch of rogues. I don’t know where he found them, but they’re mean and fierce.”
Now Gray Wing looked at Thunder. “And there’s even worse news,” he said, rising to his paws and leading Thunder down into the hollow, toward the nest that Jagged Peak shared with Holly. Before they reached it, Thunder could hear a familiar moaning. He felt as though all the blood in his veins had turned to ice.
Jagged Peak was crouching outside the nest, and sprang to his paws as Thunder and the others approached. “It’s Holly!” he exclaimed. “She has the sickness!”
CHAPTER 18
Clear Sky stood back and let Gray Wing and Thunder go into the hollow ahead of him. It felt strange to be following in the paw steps of his brother and son, but he knew that was the way it had to be now. Not only because of the promises they had made to the spirit-cats, but because of his deep sense of his own humiliation.
How can I lead any cat, when One Eye has so utterly defeated me?
Just before they reached Holly’s den, Thunder paused beside a gorse bush where Sparrow Fur was sitting, while Cloud Spots checked over her injuries. Owl Eyes and Pebble Heart crouched a fox-length away, their worried gazes burning into her pelt.
“Sparrow Fur, you’re back,” Thunder mewed, his voice full of relief. “Are you okay?”
Cloud Spots answered for the kit as he stroked a clump of fur back into place. “Her wounds are healing well. She’ll do.” Turning to Clear Sky, he dipped his head stiffly and continued, “Thank you for taking care of her while she was in the forest.”
Clear Sky returned the nod politely, though he suspected that the black-and-white tom’s thanks were not entirely sincere. He was sure of it a moment later when Cloud Spots muttered, “But it’s better that she’s back in her rightful home.”
Sparrow Fur pulled away from him, her fur fluffing up in indignation. “Clear Sky was good to me,” she insisted. “He let me rest, and then he rescued me from a trap.”
“Trap?” Thunder’s voice was sharp, and he exchanged a glance with Gray Wing. “What trap?”
Sparrow Fur gave her chest fur a couple of licks, clearly reluctant to go into details. “One Eye shoved me into a hollow tree,” she admitted, “and then blocked the hole.”
Clear Sky felt himself bristle as the other cats all turned identical glares on him.
“How could you let that happen?” Gray Wing asked.
“It wasn’t my fault!” he protested, struggling to meet the accusing gazes. “I wasn’t even there!” For a long moment he was silent, then let his shoulders slump. “Can we just find a way to sort out this mess? One Eye is out of control—that much is clear—and now the sickness is spreading worse than ever.”
“Yes!” Jagged Peak spoke up, drawing closer. “We must do something—anything! I can’t bear to see Holly like this.”
“I can help!” Thunder announced, excitement pulsing through him again as he remembered what Star Flower had told him. “I just found out that the Blazing Star is a healing herb.”
“That’s it!” Cloud Spots sprang to his paws. “Remember what the spirit-cats said? ‘The claw still blights the forest,’ and, ‘Only the Blazing Star can blunt the claw!’ Suppose that the sickness is the claw, and the Blazing Star can heal it. Maybe it can cure Holly. We’ve tried everything else. . . .”
His last few words were almost drowned out by enthusiastic yowling from Owl Eyes and Jagged Peak.
“We’ve got to go and fetch some!”
“I’ll go!”
Clear Sky waved his tail in a hopeless bid for silence, then raised his voice to ring out over the young cats’ clamor. “Okay, okay, but that’s enough! What about One Eye? We have to deal with him too.”
“That’s right,” Tall Shadow agreed. “And don’t forget that in order to cross the Thunderpath to where the Blazing Star grows, we have to go through the forest. I don’t think One Eye will let us do that without a fight. He’ll have his rogues guarding the boundaries for sure.”
“Let’s discuss this as a group,” Thunder suggested. “Clear Sky, we need to know exactly what’s going on in the forest, and then we might be able to come up with some ideas.”
He bounded off to join Tall Shadow, who leaped up onto the lookout rock and called the rest of the group to gather around it. Gray Wing and the others with him padded over, while Dappled Pelt emerged yawning from her den. Lightning Tail and Shattered Ice, who were sharing a rabbit at the other side of the hollow, left their prey and hurried across, tongues swiping over their whiskers. Mud Paws and Mouse Ear followed, breaking off their training session with a final pounce on their imaginary prey.
Pebble Heart was the only cat not to answer the summons. Clear Sky spotted him slipping into Holly’s den, and realized the kit must be taking care of her.
By now the last streaks of sunset had faded from the horizon, and darkness had gathered. The first stars showed frostily in a sky streaked with cloud. Clear Sky looked up at them and wondered if the spirit-cats knew what was happening in the forest. We can’t expect any help from them, he thought.
“Well, Clear Sky,” Tall Shadow began when the group was assembled. “What do you want from us?”
Clear Sky stood at the foot of the rock and faced the other cats. “First, to thank you all for allowing me to come back to the hollow,” he meowed. “I feel—”
“Never mind how you feel,” Jagged Peak interrupted sharply. “We need to know what we’re dealing with. Tell us everything you know about One Eye.”
Clear Sky had to pause for a moment before answering. Whenever he thought about the vicious rogue he became so full of rage that he found it hard to speak. “He’s a bully and a murderer,” he spat out at last. “He’s a rogue with fierce battle skills, and he’s hungry for power. He knows this area very well; he claimed to know about the sickness—”
“Then he won’t be easy to defeat,” Shattered Ice mewed thoughtfully. “We’ll need to come up with a really good plan.”
Clear Sky turned to the one cat he knew he could trust with his life: Gray Wing. “What do you think we should do?” he asked.
Gray Wing blinked thoughtfully. While waiting for his reply, Clear Sky noticed that Thunder was watching Gray Wing closely, too.
Please tell us what to do. Clear Sky had never had to beg his brother out loud before. Would this be the first time?
“It’s too soon to launch an attack on One Eye,” Gray Wing meowed. Then he raised his tail to silence Jagged Peak, who was opening his jaws to interrupt. “No—listen to me. One Eye knows that Clear Sky has fled the forest.”
Clear Sky nodded, inwardly wincing to hear his retreat described like that.
“So he’ll be able to guess that you’ve gone for help,” Gray Wing continued, gazing around at the assembled cats. “Don’t you think he’ll be ready for us? With all those rogue cats he has at his command now? We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Just try us,” Mud Paws growled.
“Mouse-brain!” Mouse Ear flicked Mud Paws’s ear with his tail-tip. “What do you suggest instead?” he asked Gray Wing.
“We need to be patient,” Gray Wing replied. “It will take courage to do what I’m about to suggest. Are you in?” He looked each of his denmates in the eye, one by one.
Yowls of enthusiasm rose up from every cat, splitting the peaceful night as if they rose as far as the shivering stars above. W
arm admiration flooded over Clear Sky.
Gray Wing really knows how to get cats on his side! If only I could do that. If only I hadn’t relied so much on drawing boundaries, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position now.
Then Clear Sky gave his pelt a shake, hoping to clear his mind of regret as he cleared his fur of dirt and fluff. It was too late to be thinking about what he could, or should, have done.
“This is what I think we should do.” The other cats drew more closely around him as Gray Wing continued. “We should go after the Blazing Star. The samples we brought back before all dried up before we could figure out how to use it. Holly needs it badly, and if we have it we can heal any other cats who fall ill. That means we’ll be in a stronger position if—and I mean if—we do decide to take on One Eye.”
“But the Blazing Star is on the other side of the Thunderpath,” Owl Eyes protested, his eyes stretching wide with apprehension.
Gray Wing cast him a pitying glance. “Are you giving up already?”
“No!” Owl Eyes meowed indignantly. “I just think we should be careful. Cats have been killed on the Thunderpath.” His voice shook as he added, “I don’t want any more cats to die.”
Sparrow Fur stretched out a paw and brushed it comfortingly along her littermate’s side.
“It’s true that cats have died,” Gray Wing agreed. “But there are many of us who have crossed Thunderpaths and survived. And some of us have been to where the Blazing Star grows and survived. It’s vital that we fetch the Blazing Star. If we can’t cure this illness, then sooner or later, we will all die. It’s as simple as that.”
“You’re right, Gray Wing.” Lightning Tail rose to his paws from where he had been sitting at the back of the group. “It’s a risk worth taking, but only if we’re sure about the Blazing Star. How do we know it’s a healing herb?”
“Star Flower told me,” Thunder replied.
“That cat!” Every hair on Lightning Tail’s pelt began to bristle. “And you believe her?”
“I do!” Thunder sprang to his paws and faced the young black tom. “I believe every word she said.”
“Then you’re even more mouse-brained than I thought,” Lightning Tail retorted.
“You don’t even know her!” Thunder meowed angrily. “You don’t like her based on what? A random feeling that you can’t explain?”
Clear Sky listened in surprise to the young toms’ hostile words. I thought those two were friends. Now tension was thrilling between them, and more cats were turning to one another, muttering in low voices, as if they were as reluctant as Lightning Tail to trust Star Flower.
I don’t know this cat, Clear Sky thought. But she certainly rouses some strong feelings!
“That’s enough!” Gray Wing’s voice was full of authority. “Lightning Tail, you’re right that we have no reason to trust Star Flower—but we have no reason to distrust her, either. And if we don’t do something soon, Holly will die.”
His words silenced all protests. Lightning Tail gave an uneasy shrug and sat down again.
“I’ll lead the expedition,” Thunder stated, taking a pace forward to stand beside Gray Wing. He blinked in surprise as Gray Wing shook his head.
“We need cats to guard the hollow,” Gray Wing explained. “We still have no idea what One Eye may have planned.”
Reluctantly, Thunder nodded.
“Jagged Peak,” Gray Wing began, turning to the gray tabby tom, “will you lead the party across the Thunderpath?”
Jagged Peak gaped. “Me?”
Clear Sky’s belly cramped with a mixture of compassion and guilt as he gazed at his young brother. I thought he would be no good to any cat after his fall from the tree. And now he believes it himself.
“I’m sure you’ll manage just fine,” Gray Wing assured Jagged Peak. “Will you do it?”
“I—I want to, Gray Wing,” Jagged Peak stammered. “But I can’t leave Holly.”
“Mouse droppings!” a hoarse voice called out from the other side of the camp.
Clear Sky turned his head to see that Holly had dragged herself to the entrance to her den, and was listening to the discussion.
“Of course you can do it, Jagged Peak,” she went on. “It’s about time you took your proper place as a leader of cats.”
“But what if . . .” Jagged Peak began to protest, but his voice trailed off; he couldn’t put words to his worst fear.
Holly snorted. “I’m not going anywhere. Now get across that Thunderpath and fetch me some Blazing Star!”
“So . . . are you willing to go?” Gray Wing asked.
Jagged Peak turned back to him, his eyes brimming with emotion. “I will,” he choked out.
Gray Wing wasted no more time. “We have to act tonight,” he mewed. “Jagged Peak, you and the cats you take with you had better rest for a while before you set off. You should reach the Thunderpath as the sun starts rising. Once it has, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing.”
Jagged Peak nodded. “Who is going with me, Gray Wing?”
“You’d better have Lightning Tail,” Gray Wing replied after a moment’s thought.
Lightning Tail looked surprised, and Clear Sky could understand why. Choosing the one cat who really doesn’t trust Star Flower? But then he realized how clever Gray Wing was being. Of all cats, Lightning Tail would be expecting trouble, which meant that he would be alert for the first signs of it.
Now the young black tom gave a curt nod. “Okay.”
Gray Wing hesitated, as if he was thinking of choosing a third cat. Before he spoke, Clear Sky slid up to his side. “I want to go,” he meowed. “I’ve been there before, so I know where to find the Blazing Star.”
Gray Wing faced him, looking deep into his eyes. “Okay,” he responded at last, though there was a trace of reluctance in his tone. Lowering his voice, he continued, “Just make sure you don’t try to take over. This is a mission I’ve given our younger brother, and I want him to have the chance to prove himself. Can you accept that?”
Clear Sky swallowed hard before he replied. “Sure I can.” But only if everything goes smoothly, he added silently to himself.
Glancing around, he saw Thunder moving among the other cats, setting guards on the camp, while the cats chosen for the expedition headed for their dens for a brief rest.
It’s good that we’re pulling together, Clear Sky thought. Then the doubts crept in, as he wondered if the cats were walking to their deaths.
Will One Eye be lying in wait for us?
CHAPTER 19
Gray Wing shared his den with Clear Sky for what remained of the night, but Clear Sky slept uneasily. When Gray Wing prodded him in the side and mewed, “It’s time,” he was instantly alert.
A chilly breeze flowed into the den; beyond the entrance the darkness was beginning to lift. When Clear Sky emerged into the open, he could just make out Tall Shadow on the lookout rock, while Thunder stood guard at the top of the slope. Mud Paws, Shattered Ice, and Dappled Pelt were there, too, spaced at intervals around the hollow.
Lightning Tail was already waiting, standing at the foot of the rock. At first Clear Sky couldn’t see Jagged Peak; then he spotted his brother as he appeared just outside the den he’d shared with Holly until she fell ill.
The sick she-cat was just behind him, standing unsteadily on her paws. “Take care, Jagged Peak,” she rasped. “You’ll be brilliant; I know it.”
“I’m doing it for you,” Jagged Peak replied. “I’ll bring back the Blazing Star to make you well again.”
As the two cats looked deeply into each other’s eyes, Clear Sky turned away, embarrassed. He bounded across the hollow toward Lightning Tail. A couple of heartbeats later, Jagged Peak had joined them, meowing briskly, “Right. Let’s go.” He led the way to the top of the hollow and the other cats followed, crowding around to see them on their way.
“Good luck!” Dappled Pelt called. “Bring back lots of the herb!”
“And watch out for One Eye!” Shat
tered Ice added.
Jagged Peak raised his head proudly. “He’d better not mess with us!”
Clear Sky couldn’t help thinking that his younger brother had no idea how much danger they would be in if One Eye learned that they were venturing through the forest, but he said nothing.
“Clear Sky, you’ll take the lead as soon as we get to the Thunderpath,” Jagged Peak instructed his cats as they trekked across the moor toward the forest. “Then you and Lightning Tail gather as much of the herb as you can carry—huge bunches of it. I’ll keep watch while you do that. Then I’ll lead on the way back. Lightning Tail, you bring up the rear and warn us if there’s trouble.” His gaze flicked across each of the cats in turn. “Is that clear to every cat?”
“That’s fine,” Lightning Tail responded, while Clear Sky nodded.
Clear Sky found it hard to hide his amusement. He wasn’t sure they needed to be told all this in such detail, but at the same time it was good to see Jagged Peak relishing his role. Maybe there’s a leader in him yet.
Suiting his pace to his brother’s limping gait, Clear Sky padded alongside Jagged Peak. “How do you feel about becoming a father?” he asked.
He expected Jagged Peak to be excited, and pathetically grateful to Holly for carrying their kits, but his brother’s response was quite different.
“I’ve been helping Holly prepare our nest,” he mewed. “And I’ve been hunting extra-hard to bring her more prey. She needs to keep her strength up. And I’ve had practice, of course . . . helping out with Turtle Tail’s litter when they were younger.”
Clear Sky was surprised at how practical he sounded. “But how do you feel?” he asked again.
Jagged Peak hesitated, casting a glance over his shoulder to see that Lightning Tail had dropped a couple of fox-lengths behind. “Am I allowed to admit . . . terrified?” he asked. “I mean, I’ve never done this before!”
Clear Sky let out a snort of laughter, and a heartbeat later Jagged Peak joined him.