Gray Wing caught his eye and beckoned him aside. “When did Morning Whisker become ill?” he asked.
“Just after moonhigh,” Thunder replied. “You were sleeping soundly, Gray Wing, so no cat woke you. But listen,” he added, looking troubled. “Cloud Spots has never seen this sickness before. We have no cure for it. And I’m so worried about Wind Runner—she’s still grieving for the first kit she lost. What do you think I should do?”
Just give her time. Gray Wing was opening his jaws to reply when he realized that this was all wrong. Thunder should be working out what he wanted to do, not asking another cat for advice. “Uh . . . I’m probably the last cat you should ask,” he stammered. “I’m still grieving, too.”
Thunder brushed his tail along Gray Wing’s flank. “I miss Turtle Tail,” he murmured, then padded off to check on Morning Whisker.
Gray Wing watched him go, his pelt prickling like a whole nest of ants was crawling through it. If I stay in Thunder’s camp, and if I’m always here for Thunder to consult, will I be holding him back as a leader?
Gray Wing sighed and turned away from the group of cats clustered once more around Wind Runner’s den. He knew there was nothing he could do to help Morning Whisker, and he wanted to stay out of the grieving family’s way. After a moment he began padding up the slope out of the hollow, wondering whether to go hunting.
But at the edge of the camp, Gray Wing halted. In the distance he spotted a cat heading straight toward him, racing across the moor with his belly brushing the grass and his tail streaming out behind him. As Gray Wing watched, he stumbled over a tussock of grass, rolled over, then kept running. Clearly some huge need was driving him.
Only Wind Runner has that speed . . . but it’s not Wind Runner.
As the cat drew nearer, Gray Wing could see how dirty and disheveled he was, his fur clumped and stained. And for all his speed, he was limping on one paw, as if he had been in a fight.
Then recognition burst over Gray Wing like a shock of icy water.
Clear Sky!
CHAPTER 12
Gray Wing sprang a few paces across the moor to meet his brother, who collapsed at his paws, panting. There were scratches across his face, his fur spiky where blood had dried. As Clear Sky struggled for breath, Gray Wing reflected on how strange it felt that he, who had suffered so much with his breathing since the forest fire, should be waiting for his strong, fit brother to be able to speak.
What happened to him?
Clear Sky looked up at Gray Wing, his eyes full of misery. “I’ve made a dreadful mistake!” he gasped. “I should never . . . I can’t believe . . .”
“Just get it out!” Some cat snapped out these words from behind Gray Wing, surprising him. He turned to see that Jagged Peak had emerged from the hollow, with Holly just behind him. “What are you trying to tell us?”
A terrible sense of foreboding settled over Gray Wing, like a storm cloud heavy with rain. He could still hear Wind Runner’s soft wailing from the other side of the camp.
“What’s that?” Clear Sky asked, sitting up and angling his ears in that direction. “What’s happened?”
“It’s Wind Runner,” Gray Wing explained. “Her kit Morning Whisker is very sick.”
Clear Sky’s shoulders sagged. “Then what I’m about to say will be even more difficult to hear. You have troubles enough without it.”
Gray Wing’s apprehension grew and he dug his claws into the ground. “Just tell me,” he rasped.
“It’s Sparrow Fur,” Clear Sky began, as if he had to force each word out. Gray Wing felt his heart clench. What’s happened to my kit? “One Eye attacked her, and when Tom tried to intervene, One Eye killed him.” He shook his head helplessly. “I thought One Eye would help my group, teaching us his fighting moves, giving us a different way to see things—but now I realize there’s something very wrong with him. He not only attacked a kit; he killed the cat who was supposed to be his friend.”
Gray Wing could barely speak. “Sparrow Fur . . .” he choked out. “Is she dead?”
Clear Sky shook his head. “No. But she was very badly wounded.”
Gray Wing immediately turned to look at Jagged Peak. He could see pain in his eyes, but it wasn’t enough. Gray Wing wanted to hurt Jagged Peak the same way Clear Sky’s news was hurting him.
Gray Wing lashed his tail at Holly, who’d drawn protectively close to Jagged Peak. “Leave us to talk about this in private,” he snapped.
Holly opened her jaws to retort, then clearly thought better of it. She glanced questioningly at Jagged Peak, who gave a silent nod. After a brief hesitation Holly drew back a few paces and joined Mud Paws and Mouse Ear, who had heard the commotion and were watching from close by.
“I feel dreadful.” Clear Sky’s voice was breaking as he darted glances between Gray Wing and Jagged Peak. “This is all my fault.”
Gray Wing tried in vain to stop his body from trembling, with rage as much as fear for the injured kit. He fixed an icy glance on Jagged Peak. “No,” he told Clear Sky. “It’s not all your fault. Our brother here is just as much to blame as you are.”
Jagged Peak limped forward. “I am sorry, Gray Wing. I should have checked with you. But Sparrow Fur was so insistent,” he mewed defensively.
“If Sparrow Fur insisted she wanted to leap into a swollen river, would you let her do that?” Gray Wing hissed at him. “If she insisted on eating one of those sick mice, would you encourage her? You’re so sure that you’re better now, that you deserve to be a father, but you let a young kit leave our camp, alone and unprotected. Now she’s fighting for her life! You don’t deserve to have kits of your own!”
At those words, Holly leaped forward and confronted Gray Wing nose to nose. “Don’t you dare speak to Jagged Peak like that!” she snarled.
Too furious to respond, Gray Wing whirled away from her to face Jagged Peak. “Do you need your mate to stand up for you?” he asked mockingly. “I hope she’s not depending on you for any help when she has her kits.”
Hearing himself, Gray Wing felt his fur bristle with shame, but he was too angry to stop.
Then suddenly a paw came lashing out and caught him hard on the side of the jaw. Jagged Peak is fighting back! As he was wrestled to the ground, Gray Wing could feel hard muscles beneath the young cat’s pelt. Injured leg or not, Jagged Peak had been training recently.
For a moment the brothers tussled together on the ground. Then Gray Wing felt a paw in his side, thrusting him away, and heard Clear Sky’s voice. “Stop it, both of you! Do you think fighting helps?”
As Gray Wing staggered to his paws, he saw Holly watching all three of them, cold fury brewing in her eyes. “Do whatever you have to, but resolve this,” she hissed. “Stop fighting among yourselves. And don’t you dare take your own pain out on Jagged Peak!” With those harsh words, she spun on her paws and stalked away.
Gray Wing could feel the shame radiating off his pelt as he watched her go.
“She’s right,” Clear Sky mewed. “I didn’t come here to watch you two fight. I came for your help. Sparrow Fur is in bad shape, and I’m sure she would rather be home. I think she should come back to your camp. One Eye loathes her, for whatever reason, and until I can—”
“You’re not telling me you still welcome One Eye into your camp, after what he did?” Gray Wing asked, astounded.
“No! I told him I never wanted to see his miserable pelt again. But . . .” Clear Sky’s words dried up and he raked the tough moorland grass with his claws. For a few heartbeats he stared at the ground, looking pained, then cleared his throat and continued. “Until I can get my group settled again, I don’t think Sparrow Fur should be there.”
“You mean her life is in danger?” Gray Wing challenged him. He could feel anger swelling up inside him again. “Because you can’t be certain you can protect her from One Eye?”
Clear Sky’s only response was a helpless shrug.
For the first time in his life, Gray Wing realized, he f
elt little respect for his brother. He’s been cowed by a dangerous, violent rogue. Unite or die, Gray Wing thought, suppressing a sigh. That’s what the spirit-cats told us. But they didn’t warn us that there were cats in this forest we should never unite with. And now poor Sparrow Fur has paid the price.
Gray Wing pushed his brother aside and stormed past him, heading back into the hollow. “I need to go and rescue my kit,” he snarled over his shoulder. “I helped raise her from a newborn, and in her mother’s memory I won’t allow her to be treated like this.”
Gray Wing headed straight for Wind Runner’s den, where he found Pebble Heart looking after Morning Whisker, still being careful not to touch her sores or breathe her breath. Owl Eyes was looking on, helping to chew up the tansy. Gray Wing beckoned them over with a wave of his tail.
“I have some upsetting news. Sparrow Fur has been hurt,” he explained gently to the two kits. “She’s in Clear Sky’s camp.”
Seeing the dismayed glance that the two little toms exchanged, Gray Wing knew he wasn’t prepared to tell them that their father was dead. Maybe we can talk about that in private when we’re walking across the moor. “I need to bring her back home,” he went on. “Will you come and help me? I know that seeing you will make her feel better.”
Owl Eyes nodded eagerly. “Of course I’ll come, Gray Wing. Can we go now?”
Pebble Heart looked anxious, but to Gray Wing’s surprise he said nothing.
“Is something wrong?” Gray Wing asked him.
Pebble Heart cast a glance over his shoulder to where Morning Whisker was lying. “Something is telling me to stay here,” he confessed at last. “Morning Whisker needs me right now.”
“But . . .” Gray Wing could hardly find the words. “Your own sister is injured and alone.”
“Yes, injured,” Pebble Heart agreed, beginning to sound more confident. “But not alone. Clear Sky’s cats will look after her, and you’ll bring her back to the hollow. But Morning Whisker . . .” He cast another glance over his shoulder at the sick kit, and lowered his voice. “This is really serious. I feel it in the depths of my belly. It would be wrong for me to leave now.”
Gray Wing frowned, but he knew there was no point in arguing. Pebble Heart had made up his mind. “Okay, if you must,” he responded. “Come on, Owl Eyes, let’s go.”
Clear Sky fell into step with Gray Wing as he and Owl Eyes left the hollow. “I’ll run ahead to let my cats know that you’re coming,” he meowed. “They can start to get Sparrow Fur ready to make the journey back with you.”
Gray Wing gave a curt nod, and felt relieved when Clear Sky raced off. He hoped he could forgive his brother someday, but right now, he wasn’t sure that he even wanted to look at him again.
“Why was Sparrow Fur so keen to visit Tom?” he asked Owl Eyes as they headed across the moor.
Owl Eyes looked uncomfortable. “We’ve always been curious about our father,” he mewed at last. “It’s hard, only knowing about half your kin, especially when your mother is dead and you feel like an orphan.”
Gray Wing felt his heart cracking open like a dead tree in the frost. Doesn’t it count for anything that I did my best to be a father to these kits?
He didn’t need to speak. Owl Eyes glanced at him and seemed to realize his mistake at once. “Oh, but of course we love you, Gray Wing!” His eyes were wide and guilty as he saw the pain in the older cat’s expression. “We will always love you. It’s not . . . it’s just . . .”
The words fell like stones, giving Gray Wing no reassurance. “I’m not your father, am I?” he asked, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
“We just want to know . . . our other father. The father whose blood we carry. Is that too much to ask?” Owl Eyes pleaded.
Sadly it is. Gray Wing halted, realizing now that he couldn’t keep the truth from this sensitive kit. “Owl Eyes, let’s stop for a moment. There’s something I need to tell you. Your father, Tom, is dead.”
Owl Eyes stared up at Gray Wing, his eyes dark with horror. “No! But—but how?” he stammered.
“Sparrow Fur was hurt because One Eye attacked her. Tom saved her, and One Eye killed him.” Gray Wing rested his tail across the kit’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
Owl Eyes’s head drooped. “I can’t come with you.”
Gray Wing felt like he’d been hit in his chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
The little tom didn’t look up, and his voice shook as he went on, “I have to go back to camp. I can’t face Clear Sky after he allowed that cat into his group.”
When the young cat finally met his gaze, Gray Wing could see the mixture of grief and anger in his expression, and his heart almost broke to think of what these kits had faced in their short lives.
“I understand,” he mewed.
Owl Eyes turned away and headed back toward the hollow, his shoulders hunched and his tail trailing along the ground. Gradually he picked up the pace until he was racing along, as if he could outrun the news of his father’s death.
With a heavy heart, Gray Wing turned his paw steps toward the forest. As he passed under the outlying trees, hearing the dead leaves crunching under his paws, he braced himself for what he might find in Clear Sky’s camp.
Sparrow Fur was so small . . . and One Eye’s claws are so cruel. . . .
When Gray Wing finally reached the clearing where Clear Sky and his cats lived, he found Clear Sky waiting for him at the edge of the camp. His brother led him to a sheltered spot underneath an oak tree where Sparrow Fur was sitting up and nibbling on a mouse. There were scratches down her pelt and places where her fur had been torn out. One spot was still covered by a thick poultice of cobwebs. But her eyes were bright and she tried to struggle to her paws when she saw Gray Wing.
“You stay where you are,” Petal told her firmly, pressing her back with a gentle paw into a nest of moss and fern. “You need to look after those wounds.”
“That’s right,” Quick Water agreed. She was chewing up some marigold leaves, and began to trickle the juice onto Sparrow Fur’s scratches. “Keep still and let this soak in,” she told the kit. “Dappled Pelt says it’s good to stop infection.”
“Thank you for taking such good care of her,” Gray Wing told the she-cats as he bent over to touch noses with Sparrow Fur.
Petal ducked her head, looking faintly embarrassed. “I don’t know much about healing herbs,” she meowed. “But I do know how to survive, after so many seasons living on my own.”
The little tom kit, Birch, pattered up with a bundle of dripping moss in his jaws. “There you go,” he told Sparrow Fur, dropping it in front of her. “Now you can have a good drink.”
Sparrow Fur looked up at him, blinking gratefully. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Me and Alder like having another young cat in the camp,” Birch added to Gray Wing.
Though he was impressed by kindness all these cats were showing Sparrow Fur, Gray Wing still didn’t want to spend too long in Clear Sky’s camp. He glanced around him, peering among the trees, wondering if he would catch a glimpse of One Eye lurking there. Clear Sky was obviously afraid that the rogue might come sneaking back, or he never would have called Gray Wing here to collect his kit.
“Come on, Sparrow Fur,” Clear Sky urged her now. “It’s time for you to go home. Owl Eyes and Pebble Heart are waiting for you, and there’s good news to share—Jagged Peak is going to be a father.”
But Sparrow Fur didn’t pay any attention to the news about Jagged Peak. Not moving from her nest, she glanced at Birch. “I’d rather stay here for now,” she mewed.
Gray Wing twitched an ear. What? But Clear Sky spoke his thoughts before Gray Wing could gather his wits.
“Don’t you want to be with your brothers and your own group?” Clear Sky asked, clearly as surprised as Gray Wing.
“It would be nice to see them, but I like it here,” Sparrow Fur retorted. “I think I’m just fine where I am.”
; “In the very place you were attacked!” Gray Wing exclaimed, his pads tingling with alarm.
“She wasn’t attacked here,” Clear Sky pointed out. “And assuming you let her stay, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Gray Wing shot his brother a skeptical glance. You were the cat who came dashing across the moor to see me, terrified that One Eye would hurt her again! But as he opened his mouth to protest, he was interrupted by a small mewl of pain as Sparrow Fur shifted on her haunches.
Instantly Birch bent over her, stirring up the moss and fern in her nest to make it more comfortable. Her eyelids were drooping with fatigue and she stretched her jaws wide in a yawn.
She’s still weak, Gray Wing realized. As much as he wanted her home, the kit was in no state to be trekking across the moor. “Very well. I can see she needs to stay put for now,” he meowed reluctantly. “But I want her home soon.”
“Would you like to stay with her?” Clear Sky offered. “You’re welcome here.”
“Yes, stay,” Quick Water urged. “I’ll make a nest for you.”
For a moment Gray Wing was tempted. But as much as he wanted to watch over the kit, his pelt prickled at the thought of staying in Clear Sky’s camp. He didn’t belong in the forest. And as much as he doubted his judgment where One Eye was concerned, Gray Wing knew that his brother had only good intentions toward Sparrow Fur, and would make sure she was well cared for. “No, I have to go,” he sighed.
“It might be best,” Petal murmured gently. “I know your denmates need you. We’ll let you know when Sparrow Fur is ready to travel.”
Meanwhile Clear Sky had beckoned some of his other cats, including Acorn Fur, who gave a nervous nod to Gray Wing. “Acorn Fur, I’ll put you in charge of making sure Sparrow Fur always has enough prey,” Clear Sky instructed. “And Quick Water, see if you can find some more marigold leaves to put on her wounds when she wakes up. And all of you, keep your eyes open,” he finished. “You know what for.”
Gray Wing realized that Sparrow Fur was in good paws. There was no need for him to stay there any longer. He backed up and slipped away through the trees, trying not to feel hurt when no cat called after him.