Lionpaw could hear his Clanmates’ paws thrumming after him. They exploded from the bushes around him as he reached the WindClan cats.
The enemy patrol scattered in panic, but not quickly enough. Ashfur knocked a brown tabby warrior to the ground, while Firestar flung himself at a black tom. Lionpaw charged through two WindClan apprentices, shoving them aside. Behind them Heatherpaw reared up on her hind legs, her blue eyes wide with shock. Lionpaw lunged at her and grasped her scruff between his teeth. She struggled, wailing, as he dragged her through a wall of ferns and flung her to the ground in the small clearing beyond. Enclosed in the pale green cave, he pinned her down, letting his paws prick her skin.
“You told them about the tunnels!” he hissed. “I can’t believe you betrayed me. I thought I could trust you to keep your mouth shut.”
“It wasn’t me!”
Rage surged beneath his pelt. “So why is my forest filled with your Clan?”
Heatherpaw struggled to escape from his grasp, twisting and biting him hard on the foreleg.
“I don’t lie,” she growled. “It wasn’t me! It was Sedgekit!”
“Why would he do that?” Lionpaw couldn’t believe it. “I saved his life!”
“He was boasting to Weaselfur about the tunnels he found, and then every cat in the Clan knew.”
Lionpaw stared down at her, stifling the urge to shred her fur. “I don’t believe you,” he breathed. “You’ve never forgiven me for wanting to be a loyal Clan warrior.” He leaned closer and dug in his claws as she tried to wriggle away from his hot breath. “I’ll never forget this, Heatherpaw. I will be your enemy forever.”
He released her and turned away, swishing through the ferns with his paws trembling with rage. Had he really loved her once? He had been a different cat then. Now he was one of the three, and he walked a path Heatherpaw couldn’t even dream of.
Green eyes flashed in front of him. “Where’s Heatherpaw?” Crowfeather was blocking his path.
“Get out of my way!”
The WindClan warrior peered past Lionpaw. “What have you done with her?”
“Get out of my way!” Lionpaw lunged at Crowfeather. Hooking his claws into the dark gray warrior’s neck, he flung him through the ferns and thumped him onto the ground. Still gripping his throat, he leaped on top, tearing at his flesh in a frenzy.
Suddenly teeth sank into Lionpaw’s shoulder and claws dug into his flank.
Heatherpaw was dragging him off. “Stop it!” she shrieked.
“What are you doing?”
Startled by the terror in her voice, Lionpaw froze. Crowfeather lay among the green ferns by his forepaws, bright red blood bubbling at his throat.
Heatherpaw crouched over her mentor. “Crowfeather!”
“I’m okay.” He lifted his head. Heatherpaw backed away as he staggered, spluttering, to his paws.
Shame seared Lionpaw’s pelt. The warrior code told him he didn’t need to kill a cat to prove the battle was won. If Heatherpaw hadn’t stopped him, he would have left Crowfeather dead.
What have I become?
Suddenly the light changed.
The bright morning air softened into shadow. Dawn seemed to give way to dusk. The birds fell silent. The screeching and wailing of battle ceased. Even the buzz of insects quieted as darkness seeped through the trees.
Lionpaw looked up.
The sun was disappearing, swallowed by a great black disk, darker and more sharply defined than any cloud.
“What’s happening?” Heatherpaw’s terrified mew hissed in Lionpaw’s ear, but he couldn’t answer. His voice was trapped in his throat, and his claws rooted him to the ground. Around him the air chilled. And above, the sun vanished completely, plunging the forest into night.
“StarClan’s killed the sun!” The shriek of a WindClan warrior rang through the forest. Instantly cats began wailing, and the woods shivered as they fled, their paws thrumming through the pitch-black forest.
“We’ve got to get home.” Crowfeather coughed. He dragged at Heatherpaw’s scruff as she stood petrified beside Lionpaw.
“Come on!”
Wild-eyed, Heatherpaw turned to follow her mentor.
“I won’t forget,” Lionpaw hissed in her ear.
As she disappeared into the forest, he watched the sun’s dying rays bleed from the edge of the wide black circle.
Chapter 16
Jaypaw pressed his nose to Sorreltail’s paw. Leafpool had swathed it in damp comfrey leaves, and it seemed cooler already. “How does it feel?”
Sorreltail lifted it. “Much better.” She glanced toward the barrier. “I should get back to the fighting.”
“No.” Leafpool was cleaning up Mousewhisker’s eye beside them, soaking away the blood with wet moss. “ShadowClan are helping us now and, by the sound of it, there are going to be enough injuries to treat without you getting another.”
“But the fighting’s getting closer,” Sorreltail argued.
Leafpool shook water from the moss. “In that case we might need you here.”
Although the camp felt empty, the forest rang with the chilling sounds of battle. Jaypaw pricked his ears to listen more closely. Firestar’s patrol was fighting WindClan just above the hollow. Had they really been driven back that far?
“Shouldn’t we take the injured cats into the den?” he prompted. Spiderleg was already resting there, calmed by poppy seeds, his bleeding stanched by cobwebs. “It’ll be safer.”
If the camp is overrun.
“The light’s better out here now that the sun’s up,” Leafpool meowed. “Besides, I think they like to see us.”
He knew she meant Daisy and the kits. Millie was organizing them on Highledge.
“Now, who can remember what we do if strangers come into the camp?” Millie prompted.
“Take Millie’s kits to the back of Firestar’s cave,” Rosekit squeaked.
“Then what?” Millie was drilling them carefully.
“We stay with them inside in case strangers come in,” Toadkit mewed.
“Where will I be?”
“Just outside the cave, keeping guard with Daisy,” Rosekit mewed.
Mousefur’s pelt brushed the rock beside Millie. “Longtail and I will be defending the top of the rocks, to stop any cat from getting onto Highledge.”
“And I’ll be at the bottom!” Brightheart called up from the clearing.
Graystripe and Whitewing were still on guard outside the thorn tunnel. Icepaw had come inside the camp to practice battle moves with Cinderpaw and Ferncloud.
“You will be careful of your leg, won’t you?” Leafpool warned Cinderpaw. “No heroics.”
“No heroics,” Cinderpaw promised. “But if we’re invaded, I’m not hiding inside the medicine den!”
Fear flashed from Leafpool’s pelt. “We won’t be invaded, I’m sure.”
Would the ThunderClan patrols really be able to hold WindClan and RiverClan at bay?
“Don’t forget ShadowClan are helping us now!” Mousewhisker meowed. “I was fighting beside one of their apprentices when Tawnypelt dragged me away. They’re pretty good fighters. We were about to overpower a WindClan warrior.” His tail swished over the ground.
“Sit still,” Leafpool chided.
Mousewhisker was obviously itching to get back into battle.
Didn’t he understand how serious this was? All four Clans fighting. No warning from StarClan. No clear reason for the battle.
Jaypaw headed for the medicine cats’ den to soak more leaves for Sorreltail’s dressing, but as he neared the entrance, the air grew chilly around him. His fur fluffed, prickling along his spine.
“Why is it getting dark?” Rosekit’s mew echoed around the hollow from above his head.