He had to grab Leaf, too, and shove him away. Finally, his order sank in and the enraged cats backed off. They stood in a circle around Snake, who struggled to his paws, spitting out dirt and debris. Blood was trickling from a scratch on his forehead and he had lost several clumps of fur.
Clear Sky paced forward to face him. “You can accept me as leader,” he meowed, “or leave the forest.”
“Then I’ll leave,” Snake snapped.
With a grim nod, Clear Sky motioned for the other cats to move back, to leave Snake an open passage out of the clearing. Snake turned and stalked off into the undergrowth.
As the sound of his departure died away, the rest of the cats encircled Clear Sky, each touching noses with him in turn. Gratitude shone in their eyes.
“It’s good to have you back,” Acorn Fur murmured.
“Thank you.” Clear Sky blinked happily at his cats, and gave Sparrow Fur a swift lick around the ears. “You are without doubt the most flea-brained kit I’ve ever come across,” he meowed. “And the bravest. Thank you, too.”
Before Sparrow Fur could reply, Clear Sky heard the sound of a cat pushing its way through the bracken toward the clearing. He whirled around, half expecting to see Snake returning for another attack. Instead it was Tall Shadow who emerged into the open. Relief flooded through Clear Sky as he saw the bundle of yellow flowers and spiky leaves that she carried in her mouth.
“You brought the Blazing Star!” he exclaimed. “Where’s Gray Wing?”
“Back in the hollow,” Tall Shadow replied, dropping the herbs at Clear Sky’s paws. “Shattered Ice said you needed this.”
Clear Sky nodded. “Petal died of the sickness,” he told her, “and the kits are very ill. Cloud Spots is with them.”
“Where?” Tall Shadow asked, glancing around the camp. “I must see him.”
“I’ll show you.” Clear Sky picked up the stems of Blazing Star and limped off in the direction of the small clearing where the kits were lying.
“You’ll need to go faster than that,” Tall Shadow meowed.
“Sorry, but I’m doing the best I can,” Clear Sky mumbled around his mouthful of herbs. “The kits are that way,” he added, pointing with his tail. “A few extra seconds won’t make a difference, will they?”
“We just left the hollow,” Tall Shadow replied, “and Holly is responding well to the Blazing Star. But that’s not all—her kits are coming early!”
CHAPTER 28
The sun was going down, casting long shadows across the hollow. A raw, damp breeze ruffled the tough moorland grass and stirred the branches of the gorse bushes. Thunder yawned and arched his back in a long stretch, trying to ease the aches in his muscles. The demands of the day had exhausted him. And it’s not over yet.
He settled down again on the grass at the foot of the lookout rock and cast a glance at Tall Shadow, who was sitting beside him. She had finished grooming her black pelt; now she looked neat and composed, her tail wrapped over her forepaws. Her gaze was fixed intently on the nest where Holly was giving birth to her kits.
This was the first time Thunder had been able to draw breath since he had led the attack on One Eye and his rogues. At least the malignant cat wouldn’t trouble them any further, and nor would his deceitful, treacherous daughter, Star Flower.
Best not to think about her. . . .
Once River Ripple had set off back to the river with his cats, and Wind Runner and Gorse Fur returned to their kits, Thunder had raced across the moor after Gray Wing and the other cats who had set out to gather the Blazing Star, and caught up with them at the edge of the Thunderpath.
“What are you doing here?” Tall Shadow asked, adding anxiously, “Is there trouble back at camp?”
Thunder shook his head. “No, everything’s fine. I just felt restless,” he confessed. “And I wanted to make sure you were okay, and that One Eye’s rogues weren’t around.”
“Huh!” Mouse Ear kneaded the grass with his claws. “We’ve smelled plenty of their reek, but we haven’t seen a hair of their miserable pelts.”
They had crossed the Thunderpath without any trouble, but as they searched the marshes for the Blazing Star Thunder had noticed how Tall Shadow gazed across the reed-filled pools with longing in her eyes, and turned back with reluctant paw steps once they had collected as much of the plant as they could carry.
Now as he examined her calm profile, Thunder had to ask himself how far the black she-cat’s fascination with the marshes would carry her.
“Would you have come back?” he asked her, with a flutter of anxiety in his belly as he dared to put words to his uncertainty. “If we hadn’t needed you to help carry the Blazing Star, would you have stayed over there in the marshes?”
Tall Shadow didn’t shift her gaze from Holly’s den, where they could just make out the group of cats a tail-length back from the entrance. Pebble Heart was tending to Holly, smoothing her fur with one paw and licking her ears. Cloud Spots stood beside him, supervising; he had only just returned from treating Petal’s kits in the forest. Jagged Peak was crouching beside Holly, too, murmuring words of encouragement into her ear. Though she was responding to the Blazing Star, Thunder knew it was still very dangerous for her to be giving birth so soon.
For several heartbeats Tall Shadow did not speak, and when she did, it was not in reply to Thunder. “Who would have thought Jagged Peak would have ended up being such a wonderful mate and father?” she mewed.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Thunder retorted.
Before Tall Shadow could respond, a high-pitched wailing came from Holly, a sound that made every hair on Thunder’s pelt prickle with anticipation.
Tall Shadow leaped to her paws. “The kits are coming!”
All Thunder’s instincts told him to race across to Holly’s nest and see what was happening. But he knew that too many cats crowding around would be bad for Holly and her kits. Tall Shadow seemed to feel the same, and she paced impatiently in tight circles.
The next moments were the longest of Thunder’s life, but at last Cloud Spots broke away from the cluster of cats in the mouth of the den, and bounded over to them.
“Holly’s kits are here!” he announced triumphantly. “Three of them—all well, and Holly is fine too! This is as good as we could possibly have hoped for.”
Thunder felt a loud purr rising in his throat, but Tall Shadow twitched her tail anxiously. “But how is Holly really?” she asked. “I’ve seen illness before, and it doesn’t just vanish in a couple of heartbeats. Will she make it through the night?”
“We’ve given her another dose of the Blazing Star,” Cloud Spots replied, his elation fading. “Now all we can do is watch and wait.”
By now the last of the sunlight had vanished and twilight covered the moor. Thunder stifled another massive yawn and said good night to Tall Shadow and Cloud Spots before withdrawing to his den.
Sleep? I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to rest my bones!
Some cat had renewed the moss and bracken in his nest, and Thunder sank into the soft bedding with a weary sigh. He began grooming his pelt, running his tongue over the scratches he had received in the battle with One Eye. But his tongue moved more and more slowly, and his eyelids were growing heavy.
I’ll just sleep for a bit. . . .
Thunder felt a paw on his shoulder, gently shaking him. He opened his eyes and made out the figure of Gray Wing, his gray pelt turned to silver by the moonlight that shone through the entrance to the den.
“It’s time,” Gray Wing mewed.
Thunder stifled a yawn, feeling utterly confused. “Time for what?” he mumbled.
“To go to the four trees,” Gray Wing replied. “Can’t you feel it?”
Struggling back to full wakefulness, Thunder turned his attention inward. Waves of energy were surging through his body, growing stronger with every heartbeat. He could hear faint voices calling in the distance, and he realized that he recognized them.
Rainsw
ept Flower . . . and Turtle Tail!
Thunder locked his gaze with Gray Wing’s and spotted a flutter of grief in his kin’s face at the sound of his dead mate’s voice. He rose to his paws. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
Taking the lead out of the camp, Thunder almost tripped over Mouse Ear, who was sleeping in the open, curled up in the shadow of a rock. But the tabby tom didn’t stir. Thunder drew a breath of relief. We don’t want any cat asking us where we’re going.
Thunder and Gray Wing were silent as they headed for the clearing with the four great oaks. The air was mild, not at all like a night on the edge of leaf-bare. Thunder could hardly feel the long grasses brushing against his pelt, and the speed of his own movement surprised him. It was almost as though they were floating, not walking at all.
When they arrived in the clearing Thunder saw that more cats were already assembled there, sitting in a ragged half circle in front of the rock: Tall Shadow, River Ripple, Wind Runner, and Clear Sky. They acknowledged the newcomers by dipping their heads, but no cat spoke.
Thunder looked around for Turtle Tail and Rainswept Flower, and spotted them on top of the rock. Their pelts glimmered with starlight and frosty sparkles shone from their eyes. They too dipped their heads in greeting.
“You heard us call to you,” Rainswept Flower meowed. “You came.”
At the sight of the two beautiful she-cats, Thunder felt himself choking with emotion, his throat so tight that he could scarcely breathe. Why were they taken from us? Why did we have to be parted in the first place?
“Because now we can see everything you see, and more.” Turtle Tail responded as if she was reading his thoughts. “Because we can help you. Are we really parted, when we can send you messages in your dreams?”
Thunder’s eyes stretched wide in shock. This is a dream! Now I understand! That’s why I never disturbed Mouse Ear, and why we seemed to float over here, and why I don’t feel the night cold.
Glancing at Gray Wing, he saw that the older cat shared his astonishment. “We’re sharing the same dream!” he whispered. His breathing sounded easy, without the problems that had plagued him ever since the forest fire.
“And so are we,” River Ripple added. His eyes were full of wonder, so different from his usual amused detachment. “All the leaders.”
“Don’t get too excited,” Turtle Tail warned them. “Now—think. Can you remember what we told you when we last spoke with you?”
Thunder nodded. “You said we had to unite or die, and you were right. We united against One Eye and defeated him. And we shared the Blazing Star to fight off the sickness.” He paused, and when neither of the spirit-cats spoke, he continued. “What now?” For the first time he realized that he didn’t know what the future held. “Why did you summon us in our sleep?”
Rainswept Flower’s blue eyes shone with star-fire as she gazed down at him. “What else did we tell you?” she asked.
Almost overwhelmed by the strangeness of what was happening to him, Thunder struggled to remember. It was Gray Wing who spoke up. “That to survive we must grow and spread like the Blazing Star.”
Rainswept Flower gave him a nod of approval. “That’s right. You cannot forget those words. They will help you in the coming seasons.”
Thunder exchanged a bewildered glance with Gray Wing, then shrugged. Why can’t these star cats ever tell us something so we can understand it?
“Can you give us any more of a clue as to what that means?” Tall Shadow asked.
“Yes.” Wind Runner flicked her tail, sounding irritated. “Why bring us here and then speak to us in riddles?”
Turtle Tail held up her paw, the pads facing the living cats, and extended her claws. “The Blazing Star has five petals, just as a cat’s paw has five claws.”
It’s like she’s teaching kits, Thunder thought, frustrated. “Yes, but so what?”
“Grow and spread . . . grow and spread . . .” Turtle Tail and Rainswept Flower spoke in chorus, repeating the same phrase over and over.
As Thunder gazed up at them, still bewildered, the starry forms of the spirit-cats began to fade. Their voices grew fainter, too, as if they were calling out from an immense distance.
“No!” Thunder yowled. “Don’t leave us! Stay and explain!”
But it was too late. Turtle Tail and Rainswept Flower seemed to dissolve until they were no more than wisps of mist above the rock; then they were gone.
Thunder threw back his head and let out another long caterwaul to the stars that blazed down from an empty sky. Then before his eyes the stars seemed to shift, blotted out as darkness swirled in front of his eyes. He lashed out with one paw and felt the soft touch of moss against his pads. His eyes flew open and he realized that he was back in his own den.
Thunder’s heart was racing, and shivers ran through him as if he had just struggled out of icy water. He lay still in his nest for several heartbeats, going over in his mind what the spirit-cats had said.
After a few moments the moonlight that washed into his den was suddenly cut off as another cat slipped through the entrance. Gray Wing’s scent wreathed around him.
“Well done,” Gray Wing muttered, sounding unusually irritable. “You called the dream to a halt.”
“They were leaving anyway,” Thunder retorted, sitting up and shaking scraps of moss from his pelt.
Gray Wing padded farther into the den, letting the light flow back, and sat down beside Thunder. “We have to work out what the message means,” he meowed.
Thunder rolled his eyes. “Good luck with that.” He was still frustrated by the spirit-cats’ riddling talk, and by the way they had vanished instead of explaining themselves.
“I have an idea,” Gray Wing continued, sounding more like his calm self. “But we need to discuss it with the others.”
Thankful to have something he could do, Thunder leaped to his paws. “Do you want me to fetch Clear Sky, River Ripple, and Wind Runner?”
“Wait.” Gray Wing stretched out a paw to stop Thunder from leaving the den. “Let’s talk to Tall Shadow first just to see whether she had the dream too.”
Thunder nodded. “Good plan!”
Gray Wing rose to his paws and padded out of the den. When Thunder followed him into the open he saw that the moon had already set. The stars were fading and pink streaks stretched across the sky where the sun would rise. The air was damp and misty, with dew clinging to every rock and blade of grass.
The rest of the cats were beginning to stir. Tiny squeaks came from the den where Holly and Jagged Peak were caring for their kits, and as Thunder watched, Pebble Heart emerged from his own den and slipped in to join them. The sound of their cheerful greetings told Thunder that Holly was doing well.
Shattered Ice slid out of the tunnel where he slept and sat down to scratch one ear vigorously with his hind paw, while Dappled Pelt sat at the mouth of her den, giving herself a thorough grooming.
His glance sweeping across the camp, Thunder spotted the small, dark shape of Tall Shadow sitting at the foot of the lookout rock. As soon as she saw Gray Wing and Thunder she leaped up and bounded across the hollow toward them.
“Did you have a dream?” she demanded when she reached them.
Gray Wing dipped his head. “So you had it too?”
“Yes,” Tall Shadow confirmed. “What are we going to do about it?”
“We need to discuss it with the other leaders,” Thunder meowed. “I’ll go fetch them.”
“Wait.” Once again Gray Wing stretched out a paw. “I can feel a kind of tingling in my pads. It reminds me of what the spirit-cats said. . . . I think we should go back to the four trees.”
Tall Shadow twitched her ears in surprise. “If that’s what you want.”
With Gray Wing in the lead, the three cats left the hollow and set out across the moor. Mist still wreathed around them, but above their heads the sky was clear. Thunder enjoyed the cool touch of the dewy grass on his paws, reviving him from his interrupted sleep and sendi
ng new energy through his limbs.
By the time they crossed into the forest the sun was peering over the horizon; every drop of moisture glittered in its rays, though ragged scraps of mist still remained under the shadow of the trees.
When they reached the top of the slope that led down into the clearing, Thunder spotted Clear Sky, Wind Runner, and River Ripple perched among the bare branches of one of the great oaks.
“There you are!” River Ripple called out to them, leaping down to join them as they bounded rapidly down the slope. “I wondered how long it would take the three of you to turn up.”
“You were expecting us?” Gray Wing asked, as Clear Sky and Wind Runner also jumped down and padded up to them.
For answer, River Ripple simply dipped his head.
“Did you see the same thing, then?” Clear Sky asked, tearing at the ground in agitation. “The meeting with the spirit-cats? What did you make of their message?”
“We all saw it,” Wind Runner responded. “And my encounters with death have colored everything for me. ‘Unite or die,’ they told us. All I can take from that is that we have to face more death and grief.”
“But I think their message tonight was more hopeful than that,” River Ripple told her quietly, brushing his plumy tail sympathetically against Wind Runner’s shoulder. “Besides, shouldn’t we all feel grateful? How lucky we are, to be . . .” He paused, struggling to find the right word.
“The chosen ones?” Thunder asked.
River Ripple tilted his head, looking both surprised and impressed. “Yes, maybe that’s what we are. We’re lucky that the spirit-cats want to speak with all of us and allow us to meet with them in our dreams.” His habitual amusement glimmered in his eyes. “Think how terrifying it would be if you received these messages and you were the only one.”
“We’ve been told to grow and spread. But are we still being told to unite or die?” Thunder asked, remembering what he had said in the dream. “I think we would all have died if we hadn’t united against One Eye. So is that part of the message over and done with now?”