One Eye let out a mrrow of harsh laughter. “Did you really think you could get the better of me?” he asked, his voice filled with mockery. “Oh, daughter dear, won’t you show yourself?”
A golden tabby cat broke away from the back of the crowd of rogues. No . . . it can’t be! Star Flower . . . Thunder stared in horror as the beautiful rogue leaped up beside her father.
Her father? I don’t believe it! Thunder felt his mouth go dry and his heart begin to beat faster with shock. He couldn’t even look at Lightning Tail. Guilt crashed over him; his head spun, and for a heartbeat the sky darkened.
“Thunder.” Gray Wing’s voice spoke from somewhere by his side, heavy with sorrow. “You’ve been betrayed.”
CHAPTER 25
Gray Wing could hardly believe that his plans had been so utterly torn apart. How could I have let my cats down so badly? He felt even greater pain at the shattered look on Thunder’s face.
But there was no time to think about that now. The rogue cats were clustering around him and his denmates, hissing and showing their claws. In the lead was a raw-boned tabby tom with one shredded ear. His jaws gaped, showing snaggly teeth, and his claws worked eagerly as he pressed forward. They’re trying to scare us—and they’re succeeding! We’re way outnumbered.
Then a screech came from the branches of the thorn tree, and in a blur of movement Owl Eyes and Sparrow Fur hurled themselves at the crowd of rogues.
No! Panic gripped Gray Wing’s limbs. This is too dangerous for kits!
Then he saw that their brave leap had worked. Startled, the rogues staggered back; the distraction was just enough for Gray Wing and the others to dart away.
“Follow me!” River Ripple yowled with a wave of his tail.
Streaking across the moor, he led the cats toward the river. Gray Wing glanced over his shoulder and saw that the rogues weren’t bothering to follow.
Why should they? he asked himself, tasting the bitterness of defeat. They’ve chased us off.
River Ripple leaped down from the riverbank onto the narrow strip of pebbles where, not long ago, Gray Wing had lain in wait for a vole. Now he shuddered at making his escape so close to the water.
Once all the cats had jumped down, River Ripple halted, giving them a moment to catch their breath. His chest heaving, Gray Wing glanced around to make sure all his cats had made it. The two kits were there, he noticed with relief, and all the others except for Wind Runner and Gorse Fur. And Clear Sky himself, Gray Wing realized, remembering his last glimpse of his brother surrounded by snarling rogues. Oh, please let him be alive.
The cats huddled together on the pebbles, gazing at one another with wide eyes. “What are we going to do?” Jagged Peak asked. “Clear Sky is still out there. We can’t leave him!”
River Ripple shouldered his way through the cluster of cats and headed upstream. “Come on! This way!” he called.
Gray Wing followed, the pebbles feeling cold and wet beneath his paws. The current sucked at the edge, and sometimes the strip of solid ground was only wide enough for the cats to pass in single file. This had better be worth it, he thought as he struggled to keep his balance on the slick stones.
Finally River Ripple paused at the mouth of a tunnel in the bank. “This will take us back onto the moor,” he meowed.
Tall Shadow balked at the entrance, gazing down into the gaping darkness. “There could be anything living down there,” she objected.
“It was a badger set, but the badgers are long gone,” River Ripple responded. “You’ll have to trust me. Do you want to save Clear Sky or not?”
Without waiting for a reply, he headed into the tunnel. Tall Shadow shrugged and followed, with the rest of the cats hard on her paws.
In the first few tail-lengths, Gray Wing could see white tree roots interlacing above his head, holding up the roof of the tunnel, but soon the light from the entrance faded and he padded along in darkness. He could feel damp soil beneath his paws, and smell earth all around him, and the scent of Tall Shadow just ahead of him.
In the lead, River Ripple was moving swiftly, passing a side tunnel with no hesitation. Gray Wing began to feel the familiar ache in his chest as he forced himself to keep up. He began to feel like he had been loping along forever in the darkness. Surely Clear Sky will be dead before we can get to him!
Then he realized that a faint light was filtering into the tunnel from somewhere ahead, and he could make out Tall Shadow and River Ripple in front of him. The light grew until it became a wide circle of daylight. We’re almost there! Gray Wing thought thankfully.
At the tunnel entrance, River Ripple halted. “We need to be careful,” he mewed softly. “Wait here while I see what’s outside.” He pressed himself flat to the ground and crept into the open.
Gray Wing could see him looking around; then he glanced back and beckoned with his tail. “You can come out,” he told the others.
The rest of the cats followed him cautiously. Gray Wing saw that they had emerged in the middle of a gorse thicket. Peering through the branches, he looked around for Clear Sky, then drew in a gasp of horror at what he saw.
One Eye and the rogues had backed Clear Sky against a rock and were surrounding him, caterwauling insults and threats of what they would do to him.
“Mange-pelt! Fox dung–eater!”
“We’ll spread your guts all over the moor!”
Each rogue in turn was padding up to him and aiming fierce kicks at his ribs with their hind legs.
Clear Sky was still on his paws, but just barely so, and Gray Wing feared that each kick might knock him over. Blood from his torn ear matted his pelt, but his eyes still blazed with defiance.
“We have to stop this, before they kill him,” Gray Wing meowed.
A rustle among the branches announced the arrival of Wind Runner and Gorse Fur. “We waited for you,” Wind Runner explained rapidly. “We knew you would come back. One Eye has been too busy torturing Clear Sky to worry about where you went. What should we do now?”
Gray Wing realized that the eyes of every cat had turned toward him. I’d better come up with a really good plan, he thought. The cold sun of leaf-bare was still high in the cloudless sky, shedding its brilliant light down on the moor. The beginnings of an idea stirred in Gray Wing’s mind.
“We can use the sun to help us,” he murmured, thinking aloud. “We need to get high up—maybe in the thorn tree where Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes were hiding.” More confidently as his plan took shape, he went on, “We’ll climb into the tree and call out to One Eye. He’ll come to investigate, peering up with the sun in his eyes. He won’t be able to see that the tree is full of cats. And then we pounce!”
“Great plan!” Shattered Ice meowed warmly.
One by one the cats slid out of the gorse thicket and crept toward the tree, their bellies pressed to the ground as if they were stalking prey. When they reached it they climbed into the branches on the opposite side from One Eye and the rogues. As he clambered up, Gray Wing felt terribly exposed, and wished there were more leaves remaining to conceal the cats. But One Eye and his rogues were having too much fun tormenting Clear Sky to pay much attention to what was going on around them.
From his vantage point in the tree Gray Wing had a good view of Star Flower standing just outside the circle, watching as her father and the rogues attacked Clear Sky. He hoped that Thunder, crouching on the next branch, hadn’t spotted her, but when he glanced at him, the shocked look on his young kin’s face told him that he had seen everything.
“I’m sorry,” Gray Wing murmured.
“It’s fine.” Thunder’s voice was cold. “This just makes me more determined to defeat One Eye.”
“Who’s going to call out?” Wind Runner whispered, when all the cats had made it into the tree. “It needs to be a cat who One Eye hates almost as much as Clear Sky.”
“That would be me,” Sparrow Fur meowed.
“But you’re only a kit,” Dappled Pelt objected. “It’s too dangero
us.”
“One Eye killed my father!” Sparrow Fur bared her teeth. “I’m doing this for Tom. I’ll lure One Eye over here.”
No cat argued any more. Gray Wing watched admiringly as Sparrow Fur bravely scrambled around the trunk of the tree and walked carefully out onto a branch. It trembled under her weight and she had trouble keeping her balance, but she never paused until she was in full view at the outer edge of the tree.
“Hey, One Eye!” she yowled. “Aren’t you going to come and finish what you started? You were so stupid, letting me escape with Clear Sky! You’d like another fight with me, wouldn’t you?” Gray Wing saw One Eye stiffen and slowly turn away from Clear Sky, who by now had slumped to the ground, his body writhing in agony. Yet he still kept trying to get to his paws and face his attackers. Gray Wing felt like his heart would crack in two at the sight of his brother in such pain.
He’s so badly hurt. Even if we win the fight, will he survive?
“You and you!” One Eye snapped, pointing with his tail at a couple of the rogues. “Guard this piece of mangefur. The rest of you, follow me, and surround that tree!”
The rogues obeyed him, racing fluidly over the moor toward the thorn tree. When they were in position, One Eye followed more slowly. “Is that you, Sparrow Fur?” he snarled. “If you want a fight, I’ll give you one you won’t forget—because you’ll be dead.”
“Flea-pelt!” Sparrow Fur spat. Nimbly she leaped up to a higher branch, then one higher still, always moving into the sun.
His hunger for the fight blazing from his baleful eye, One Eye padded closer and closer to the tree, craning his neck upward to spot where Sparrow Fur had gone. He narrowed his eye against the bright rays of the sun.
“Now!” Gray Wing whispered.
On his word of command, the cats in the tree leaped down, pouncing on One Eye and the rogues nearest him. Yowls of shock and alarm rose into the air. Gray Wing saw most of the rogues streaking off across the moor, leaving only one or two to grapple with his cats.
“Cowards!” he snarled, though he was relieved to see so many of their enemies fleeing.
One of the rogues who had stayed was Star Flower. Confronting Thunder, she flashed out an angry paw, though as Thunder jerked backward her claws only riffled through his fur. Thunder raised his paw, claws extended, then froze for a heartbeat before dealing a raking blow down her side. Both cats snarled furiously and leaped at each other to tussle on the ground in a writhing bundle of fur.
Gray Wing couldn’t go on watching; he had other things to worry about. With Lightning Tail and Cloud Spots on either side of him, he launched himself at One Eye. The rogue went limp and fell to the ground, but as soon as Gray Wing landed on top of him he exploded into movement, battering Gray Wing’s belly with his hind paws.
Cloud Spots tried to get a grip on One Eye’s throat, but the rogue twisted his head aside and fastened his teeth in Cloud Spots’s shoulder. When Lightning Tail tried to grab the rogue from the other side, One Eye raked his claws over the young cat’s ear.
It’s like fighting three different cats! Gray Wing thought. He could feel his chest tightening with the effort as he struggled to get a grip on One Eye’s wildly flailing body. He had never known a cat so hard to defeat.
At last Cloud Spots and Lightning Tail darted in from either side and managed to pin One Eye down. Gray Wing stood over him, panting, while One Eye glared up at him with his malevolent yellow eye.
Gray Wing raised a paw to slash One Eye’s throat open and finish the fight. But before he could strike, he heard Thunder’s voice raised in a furious yowl.
“He’s mine!”
Thunder rushed over to One Eye, motioning Cloud Spots and Lightning Tail aside with a fierce gesture of his paw. He even waited for the rogue to regain his paws before launching himself at him. Screeching and snarling, the two cats rolled together on the ground in a flurry of teeth and claws.
A flash of movement alerted Gray Wing and he turned in time to block Star Flower as she threw herself toward the fight. “Get back!” he spat, following up the words with a hard kick to Star Flower’s chest. She cringed back, whimpering.
That was for Thunder, Gray Wing thought with satisfaction.
Certain that Star Flower was no longer a threat, he turned back to the battle. Everything was suddenly quiet. Thunder, Lightning Tail, and Cloud Spots were standing over One Eye’s unmoving body. His head lay at an awkward angle, his neck clearly broken.
“He’s dead,” Thunder meowed.
Star Flower let out a moan of grief and dragged herself across the ground to touch her nose to her father’s. Watching her, Gray Wing’s heart was almost touched. Almost.
“Get her away from there,” Thunder ordered, his voice cold. “She doesn’t deserve to grieve. Drive her out!”
CHAPTER 26
Thunder watched in silence as Star Flower padded over to him, her brilliant green gaze pleading. “Thunder, he’s my father,” she mewed. “Please let me say good-bye.”
Thunder felt as if everything in him was frozen, like the icy peaks Gray Wing had told him about. “How interesting that you never mentioned that when we were together.” He let out a snort of disgusted laughter. “But then, we were never ‘together,’ were we? It was all a lie.”
Hurt flashed into Star Flower’s eyes. But it’s for her father, not for me, Thunder told himself. I feel so stupid, he thought, embarrassment flooding through him at the memory. And worst of all, he still felt something when he looked at her. It was a struggle to pretend that he no longer cared, though knowing how she had used him made it easier.
“Please listen to me, Thunder,” Star Flower went on, taking another pace toward him, so that her sweet scent wreathed around him. “I did like you, truly. Meeting you by the four trees, and calling out to you on the moor. Taking you to the secret garden . . . that was all my idea.”
“Like I’d believe that!” Thunder scoffed.
“It was. It was only after my father found out that I’d been spending time with you that he suggested I should use our closeness to find out what the other cats were doing.” She looked down and studied her paws. “When I left you at the secret garden, One Eye was waiting for me. He’d been listening to us, and he sent me to follow you. I hid outside your camp and listened to what you were planning.”
Thunder winced. I even heard paw steps; I thought some cat was following me! “So that’s how One Eye came to be waiting for us beside the Thunderpath,” he meowed. “And then you showed me a plant that was nothing like the Blazing Star. It was a trick to pump me for information.”
Star Flower hung her head. “That’s true. But I told you the truth when I said that the Blazing Star is a healing herb. You have to believe that.”
“I believed every word you said,” Thunder told her. “I was . . . I was . . .”
“What?” Star Flower asked encouragingly, looking up at him again.
“Tricked,” Thunder replied, letting all the bitterness he felt seep into the one word. “And I won’t let it happen again.”
He turned his back on Star Flower, ignoring her as he saw Tall Shadow stepping forward with a commanding whisk of her tail. “Why are we standing here doing nothing?” she asked. “Now that One Eye has been defeated, we need to get the Blazing Star.”
“You’re right,” Thunder agreed. I do believe Star Flower when she says the Blazing Star heals. She has nothing to gain by lying now.
“I’ll lead an expedition to go across the Thunderpath to fetch it,” Tall Shadow announced briskly.
By now River Ripple and Wind Runner had padded over to where Clear Sky still lay bleeding on the grass. Cloud Spots and Dappled Pelt were bending over him, while Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes dashed up with pawfuls of cobwebs and bunches of herbs in their jaws.
Gray Wing nodded at them, and then turned back to Tall Shadow. “And I’ll come with you,” Gray Wing added, padding up to her side.
“What about One Eye’s rogues?” Shattered Ice asked.
“They could still be lurking in the forest.”
Tall Shadow swiveled her head, her gaze raking the moorland. None of the strangers One Eye had brought with him were in sight. “I doubt it,” she meowed in reply to Shattered Ice. “They ran away pretty quickly when we ambushed their leader. It’s my guess that we won’t see so much as a tail-tip. And if I’m wrong . . .” She slid out her claws. “We’ll deal with them.”
“We’ll come with you,” Mouse Ear meowed, beckoning with his tail to Mud Paws. “Just in case. It’ll feel good to do something for Holly.”
Tall Shadow dipped her head to the big tabby tom. “Thank you,” she responded, before setting off across the moor at the head of the patrol.
As she and Gray Wing headed toward the forest, Thunder felt a sudden panic at being left in charge. What am I supposed to do now? Desperately he ran after them. “Gray Wing, I need to know—” he began.
Gray Wing halted and turned toward him. “Do as your heart tells you, Thunder,” he mewed calmly. He stretched out his neck to touch noses with Thunder, his eyes warm and affectionate. “I trust you,” he added, before hurrying after Tall Shadow.
Thunder watched the older cat—almost his father—walk away. He felt a twinge of sadness at the realization that Gray Wing didn’t want to advise him anymore. But at the same time Gray Wing’s faith in him had sent new energy flowing through his body.
Thunder turned back toward Clear Sky as Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes ran over to him with even more cobwebs. Reassured that his injured father was receiving the best care possible, Thunder took a deep breath and turned back to where Star Flower was crouching over One Eye’s body. A soft keening sound came from her. How did something so beautiful come from something so ugly? he asked himself, looking at the grotesquely sprawled limbs of the dead rogue. One Eye was ugly inside and out. But Star Flower . . .
Thunder paced slowly up to the golden tabby she-cat and stood beside her. “It’s time for you to leave,” he meowed quietly. “You’re not welcome among any of our groups, and if you won’t leave by yourself we’ll have to make you.”