Fierce got to her paws and dipped her head to Tigerheart. “We will miss you.”
Dovewing sat behind him. He could hear Pouncekit, Lightkit, and Shadowkit fidgeting beside her. The kits had been fizzing with excitement since Tigerheart and Dovewing had told them that they were going back to the lake.
“We’re going to be warriors!” Lightkit had squeaked.
“Can we ride real badgers when we get to the forest?” Pouncekit had asked eagerly.
Shadowkit’s gray pelt had rippled nervously. “Will we see a Thundersnake?”
Tigerheart and Dovewing had answered as many questions as they could, but as the kits grew noisier, Tigerheart knew he’d have to break the news to Fierce before the guardian cats overheard them. Telling Pouncekit, Shadowkit, and Lightkit to sit quietly, he’d crossed the floor to share their news with Fierce.
The tortoiseshell beckoned the other guardian cats closer now with a flick of her tail. Cobweb and Rascal left the scraps they were sharing. Mittens, Ant, and Cinnamon padded from the strip of sunshine they had been bathing in. Spire and Blaze left Feather and Scowl watching from their nests. Dotty, Pipsqueak, Peanut, and Bracken fanned out around Tigerheart and Dovewing, while Boots watched from beneath the wooden ledge near the entrance.
Fierce lifted her chin. “Tigerheart and Dovewing have to leave us,” she announced.
Dotty frowned. “Where are you going?”
“Have you found a new den?” Mittens asked.
“We’re going back to the lake,” Tigerheart told them. “My Clan needs me.”
Cinnamon padded closer, her eyes sharp with interest. “How do you know?”
“I think a StarClan cat spoke to me through Spire.” Tigerheart decided that it was easier to be honest, even if the cats didn’t believe him. “ShadowClan is in trouble.”
Blaze glanced at Spire in surprise. “How did it talk through you? Did it come to visit?”
Spire met the young tom’s gaze. “I heard a voice in a vision.”
“And that’s why you’re leaving?” Mittens’s eyes widened.
“That’s crazy!” Rascal spluttered. “Spire’s always having visions. We don’t act on them.”
Cinnamon had narrowed her eyes. “You forget that where Tigerheart and Dovewing come from, cats take dreams seriously.” Her gaze drifted toward Dovewing. “Isn’t that what brought you here in the first place?”
“Yes.” Dovewing wrapped her tail around Shadowkit, who huddled closer as the guardian cats stared. “And now a dream is taking us home. Our hearts tell us it’s the right thing to do.”
Mittens sniffed. “It seems like a weird way to make decisions.”
Spire blinked slowly at the tabby tom. “You listen to your belly when it’s hungry and your throat when it’s thirsty. Why not be guided by your heart when it speaks to you?”
Fierce padded forward and touched her muzzle to Tigerheart’s cheek, then to Dovewing’s. “We are glad you came. You have taught us a lot, and we’ll miss you when you’re gone. But I guessed you wouldn’t stay forever.” She looked fondly at Pouncekit and Lightkit. “The call of home is strongest when you have kits.” She purred at Shadowkit. “I’m glad they will be raised among their own kind as warriors.”
“I want to be a warrior!” Blaze’s mew took Tigerheart by surprise. The kit was beginning to lose his kit fluff, but he still wasn’t old enough to become a ’paw.
“You’re too young,” he answered.
“They’re not!” Blaze pointed his nose as Pouncekit and Lightkit.
“They’ll have to train for many moons,” Tigerheart explained.
“I could train too.” Blaze stared at him boldly. “Let me come. I can help you scavenge and take care of the kits.”
Dovewing shifted her paws uneasily. “You’re still a kit yourself.”
Spire padded to Blaze’s side. “Let him join you,” he mewed softly. “It would make my decision easier.”
Dovewing tipped her head. Tigerheart blinked at the skinny tom in surprise. “What decision?” he asked.
“I’m traveling with you,” Spire told him.
I will not live beside the widewater. Tigerheart remembered their conversation. Spire had wanted Blaze to go, but he hadn’t wanted to come with them. “I’ll take Blaze. If he’s prepared to train hard, then he might make a great warrior one day. But you said you didn’t belong beside the lake.”
“It is not important that I belong,” Spire mewed softly. “It is only important that I make the journey.”
Cinnamon swished her tail. “I want to come too.”
“So do I.” Ant hurried to the she-cat’s side.
They stared hopefully at Tigerheart.
Taken aback, Tigerheart looked at Dovewing. Suddenly their small party had become a patrol. He guided Dovewing to the side of the den. “What do you think?” he whispered.
“I think that we are traveling with young kits.” Dovewing looked past him to where Cinnamon and Ant were watching hopefully. “They would be safer if we had company.”
“But what will ShadowClan say if I return with strangers?” Would they turn them away? Tigerheart wouldn’t blame them. “They will remember what happened when they took in rogues.”
“These cats aren’t rogues,” Dovewing reminded him. “We have seen them fight to protect their denmates, and scavenge for others. They take care of their sick like Clan cats.” She looked at Tigerheart defiantly. “If ShadowClan won’t take them in, then ThunderClan will.”
He saw a flash of pride in her green gaze. Unease prickled beneath his pelt. Here, among the guardian cats, it had been easy to forget she was a ThunderClan cat. She was clearly still fiercely proud of her Clan and shared their values. Could she ever learn to live as a ShadowClan cat? He pushed the thought away. They were both warriors. That was enough for now. “Okay.” He turned to Cinnamon and Ant. “You can come.”
Cinnamon’s eyes shone.
Ant looked at Fierce. “We’re sorry to leave.”
“Others will come,” Fierce reassured him. “Ice-chill is here. Your nests won’t be wasted.”
“When are we leaving?” Blaze asked excitedly.
Tigerheart glanced through a clear stretch of wall. It was sunhigh and the weather was fine. The cold would be hard on the kits, but rain would be worse. “We leave now.”
Cinnamon hurried quickly toward Mittens and Rascal, touching them each on the cheek with her muzzle. Tigerheart pressed against Dovewing as they watched the guardian cats say good-bye to their denmates. Then Ant jumped toward the den entrance. Cinnamon, Spire, and Blaze followed and waited on the wooden ledge for Tigerheart, Dovewing, and the kits.
Pouncekit rushed ahead, leaping nimbly onto the ledge. Lightkit jumped after her and turned as Shadowkit leaped up. His forepaws reached the ledge and clung on, his hind legs dangling. Tigerheart felt Dovewing stiffen beside him. He guessed what she was thinking. If Shadowkit couldn’t make such an easy jump, how would he manage the long journey to the lake? Then Lightkit ducked down and nipped Shadowkit’s scruff between her teeth. Pouncekit reached a paw under his tail and helped heave him up. Hope flickered in Tigerheart’s belly. That’s how. We’ll take care of one another.
Blaze glanced down at him. “How do we get out of the city?”
Tigerheart returned the young tom’s gaze. He’d thought about this night after night. There was only one way he could be sure that they’d find their way home. “We head for the station. We have to find the Silverpath that led me here.”
CHAPTER 28
Cinnamon helped Tigerheart retrace the path he’d followed from the station, on his way here, a few moons ago. She’d lived in this part of the city before she joined the guardian cats, so she knew it very well. Tigerheart hadn’t walked this way since he’d first found the thorn den. But as soon as he followed her around the final corner, he recognized the tall, wide Thundersnake camp.
He glanced over his shoulder at Dovewing and the kits. The walk here had been slow. Cross
ing the Thunderpaths had been easier than he’d expected. They’d used the green Twoleg lights to find gaps in the traffic, and carried the kits over by their scruffs. But the bustling walkways had been harder to negotiate. Dovewing and Ant had flanked Pouncekit, Lightkit, and Shadowkit; Blaze had walked behind with Spire as Tigerheart and Cinnamon led the way. Twolegs hardly ever seemed to look where they were walking, so steering the kits between their legs had proved tricky. In the end, Dovewing, Spire, and Ant had scooped them up, ducking into alleys whenever Twolegs seemed to take an interest in the strange patrol.
Crowds of Twolegs flocked at the entrance to the station. Monsters crawled outside, stopping to let out or pick up Twolegs. Tigerheart took the lead. He knew where he was going now. He skirted the thickest part of the crowd, heading toward the alley that led to the rot piles Dash had shown him.
Relief washed his pelt as he ducked clear of the thronging Twolegs and into the quiet of the deserted alley. He waited while Dovewing, Cinnamon, Ant, Blaze, and Spire caught up. “You can put the kits down now,” he told them. “There aren’t any Twolegs here.”
Dovewing placed Pouncekit on the stone path as Ant and Spire put Lightkit and Shadowkit down. Her gaze darted around warily as she gathered Shadowkit and Lightkit closer to Pouncekit with a swish of her tail. “Where now?” she asked Tigerheart.
“We need to get inside.” Tigerheart nodded down the alley. “There’s an entrance along here.”
He knew Dovewing hadn’t been here before. She’d found her own way into the city, avoiding the long tunnel that had swallowed the Thundersnake at its outskirts. Instead she’d padded along countless streets, wandering for days before she’d found the thorn den. What would she think when she saw inside the Thundersnake nest? Tigerheart shuddered, remembering the terrifying Thundersnakes, each with its own Silverpath. They needed to find the right one. If they chose the wrong track, only StarClan knew where it might lead.
Tigerheart pushed back the fear pressing in his chest and headed down the alley. The three-pawed monster was still sleeping at the side. He tasted the air as he approached the rot piles, pleased to find only Dash’s scent lingering there. Mae, Floyd, and Scrap had clearly found new territory to scavenge. Past the rot piles, he found the loose mesh where he and Dash had squeezed out. Lifting it with a paw, he let the others inside. “Keep going until you reach the next mesh,” he called, his mew echoing along the narrow tunnel. He followed them in, his belly tightening as the rush of scents washed over him. For a moment, terror gripped him as he remembered arriving. The shock of the sounds and scents had overwhelmed him. They threatened to overwhelm him now. But he had to be brave. Dovewing and the kits were depending on him. “Have you found the mesh?” he called as he saw her shape silhouetted against the harsh light streaming in at the far end.
“I think so.” Dovewing’s ear flicked nervously.
He hurried toward her, squeezing past Ant, Spire, Cinnamon, Blaze, and the kits. Their fear-scent filled the space. He pushed against the mesh at the far end and let them into the big bright tunnel beyond.
A pair of Twolegs clip-clopped past them, heading toward the wider space. Tigerheart faced the group. “We have to stay bunched tight,” he warned them. “There are a lot of Twolegs here. And the lights and scents and movement will be disorienting. Don’t lose sight of one another. I’m going to lead us to Dash. He helped me when I first arrived. He can help us find the right Silverpath out of here.”
“I’m not scared.” Pouncekit puffed her chest out. But her pelt was bushed. So was Lightkit’s. Shadowkit cowered against Dovewing’s legs, his eyes wide with alarm.
“Let’s carry the kits.” He scooped up Shadowkit, worried at how cold his pelt felt. Tucking in his chin to hold the kit close, Tigerheart headed along the tunnel.
He retraced the steps he’d followed with Dash, eventually leading the cats into the great arching space where he’d first scented the station cat. Glancing past the Twolegs hurrying in every direction, he recognized the brightly lit Twoleg den at the side of Dash’s nest and hurried toward it, hoping that Dash would be there.
The station cat’s scent touched his nose. Hope flashed beneath Tigerheart’s pelt. Picking up his pace, he headed for the gap in the wall where he’d first met Dash. He dropped Shadowkit inside as soon as he reached it. “Dash,” he called into the darkness.
Yellow eyes blinked ahead of him, and Dash’s scent filled Tigerheart’s nose as the black-and-white tom scrambled to his paws.
“Tigerheart?” Dash looked alarmed as his gaze slid past Tigerheart and rested on Dovewing and the others crowding behind him. “What are you doing here?”
“I found my friend,” Tigerheart told him quickly. He didn’t want to scare the station cat. “We need your help.”
Dash slunk from the shadow and squeezed out past Tigerheart. He stared in surprise at Shadowkit, Pouncekit, and Shadowkit. His ears twitched. “Are these yours?”
“Yes.” He nodded to Dovewing. “This is Dovewing, my mate. We’re taking them home.”
“To the forest?” Dash narrowed his eyes as he looked at Spire, Blaze, Ant, and Cinnamon. “Are they going with you?”
“Yes.”
Dash tipped his head. “City cats in the forest?” He sounded unconvinced.
Cinnamon flattened her ears. “We just need your help, okay? We don’t need your opinion.”
Ant glanced at the Twolegs swarming her. “Let’s be polite,” he warned Cinnamon.
Dash was looking at the kits. “Do you want me to show you which train to get on?”
Dovewing bristled. “We’re not taking our kits into the belly of a Thundersnake.”
“Then how will you get home?” Dash looked confused.
“We’ll walk,” Dovewing told him firmly.
“There’s nowhere to walk,” Dash argued.
Tigerheart shifted his paws. He didn’t like lingering here. A strange Twoleg yowl was echoing around the den. “We’ll walk on the paths the Thundersnakes use.”
Dash’s eyes widened. “You want to go into the tunnels?”
“They lead out of the city, don’t they?” Tigerheart blinked at him.
“It’s dangerous!”
“I’ve been in tunnels before,” Tigerheart meowed breezily. “When Thundersnakes came, I just crouched at the edge. Thundersnakes never leave their path. It’s easy to keep out of their way.” Please, StarClan. Protect us. His heart seemed to beat in his throat. He hoped no one guessed how scared he was.
Dash narrowed his eyes doubtfully.
“I just need you to help me find the Silverpath that brought me here,” Tigerheart told him firmly.
Dash looked thoughtful. “I didn’t see which train you came out of, but if you lead me to the ledge where you got out, I can take you into its tunnel.”
Tigerheart frowned. “Have you been in the tunnels before?”
“I hunt for rats there,” Dash told him.
Dovewing’s ears twitched suspiciously. “You told us the tunnels were dangerous.”
“I’m used to them,” Dash told her. “I’d never take kits or strays in there!”
Cinnamon flattened her ears. “Who are you calling a stray?”
Ant shifted his paws. “He’s just worried about us,” he reassured Cinnamon.
Cinnamon huffed. “Well he doesn’t have to be rude about it.”
Dash dipped his head to the orange she-cat. “I’m sorry. But there’s a difference between a loner hunting the tunnels when the trains are sleeping and a group of cats and kits trying to find their way out of the city. It’s a long way.” He looked at Tigerheart. “Are you sure you want to walk? Hiding in the belly of a train would be quicker.”
Tigerheart looked at the kits, remembering the flurry of Twoleg paws as they crowded in and out of the Thundersnake. It would be too easy to lose them. He shuddered. “We want to walk.”
“Okay.” Dash padded into the Twoleg bustle. Tigerheart caught Dovewing’s eye questioningly. “Ready?” Do
vewing nodded.
Tigerheart picked up Shadowkit while Cinnamon and Dovewing grabbed Lightkit and Pouncekit. Then they hurried after Dash.
The skinny black-and-white tom led them to the large cavern where Thundersnakes dozed between ledges.
Tigerheart scanned them, trying to remember which direction he had run after leaving the Thundersnake that had brought him here. He recognized the gaudy Twoleg clutter—Twoleg shells and furs—lining the middle of one ledge. That was the one. He hurried ahead of Dash and led him toward the gap where the Thundersnake had stopped. It was empty now. Tigerheart peered over the edge and saw the Silverpath a few tail-lengths below. It led away between the ledges and disappeared into a tunnel at the end.
“Is this the one?” Dash asked, following his gaze.
Tigerheart nodded, Shadowkit swinging from his jaws.
“Follow me.” Dash looked around at the cats. “Follow me exactly. Only put your paws where mine have been. I’ve seen rats get burned on the tracks here if they touch the wrong one.”
Twolegs began to gather along the ledge. Were they waiting for a Thundersnake to arrive? Tigerheart’s breath quickened with fear. He had to trust Dash. Dash would keep them safe. He followed the black-and-white tom as he led them along the ledge to where the tunnel opened.
Dash jumped down, landing neatly between the tracks of the Silverpath. He waited, looking up. “Follow me,” he ordered. “One at a time.”
Cinnamon jumped down first, Lightkit swinging in her jaws. Lightkit squealed as they fell, whimpering as Cinnamon landed with a thump and staggered to find her footing. Ant followed. Dash waved them quickly toward the wall of the tunnel. “Remember, don’t touch the tracks,” he warned.
Blaze peered over the edge. “It’s a long way down.” His voice was small, frightened—the young tom was not much bigger than Tigerheart’s own kits, after all.
“Jump toward me,” Dash called. “I’ll help break your fall.”
Tigerheart saw Blaze swallow as he crouched at the edge, his tail trembling. Then he launched himself toward Dash.
The station cat reared and wrapped his paws around Blaze as he fell. Deftly he swung him down between the tracks, then nudged him toward Ant and Cinnamon. Spire followed while Dovewing teetered at the edge.