Dovepaw lifted her head, feeling very proud of her leader. Around her, the cats began to drift across the clearing. Apprentices mingled, sharing training gossip, and warriors gathered in knots while elders swapped their own news.
Blossompaw and Briarpaw were heading for a cluster of ShadowClan and RiverClan apprentices.
“Are you coming?” Briarpaw called.
Dovepaw blinked. She’d been looking for Tigerheart. “In a while,” she promised.
Where had he gone? Snowbird and Redwillow were gossiping with two WindClan warriors. Tigerheart was nowhere to be seen. She breathed deeply, trying to make sense of the jumble of scents on her tongue.
There!
She tasted his scent at last. Her gaze darted toward a bramble bush at the far side of the clearing. He was crouching in the shadows beneath.
“Hiding?” she mewed, trotting up to him.
He sat up. “What from?”
“Me.” Dovepaw stared boldly at him. “You promised you’d explain what you were doing in our territory.”
Tigerheart’s eyes grew wide. “Keep your voice down!” He glanced nervously around. “Follow me.” Creeping away, ears and tail lowered, he led her through the bramble thicket and into a small dip behind a cracked willow tree. Dovepaw blinked, her eyes adjusting to the shadows. The willow blocked out the moon and half of Silverpelt.
“Look,” Tigerheart whispered. “I can’t tell you exactly what I was doing, but we’re not planning an invasion, I promise.”
Dovepaw cocked her head. The young warrior was definitely up to something. “You were on my territory,” she reminded him. “I have a right to know why. And if you don’t tell me, I’m going to report you to Firestar!”
Tigerheart dropped his gaze. “You do have a right to know.” His mew was soft, apologetic. “But, please, I need you to trust me.” He raised his eyes and gazed into hers. They were round, almost black, and glittering with worry.
Dovepaw felt a rush of sympathy. The young tom was clearly torn. Something was bothering him. She nodded, distracted for a moment by the soft fur edging his face. He seemed desperate for her to understand. She curled her tail to touch the tip of his. He stiffened at her touch, but didn’t draw his tail away; instead, he leaned forward and rested his nose against her ear fur.
“Thank you.”
The warmth of his breath on her ear made her shiver. It smelled sweet, for a ShadowClan cat’s breath.
“Okay.” She made an effort to focus on the reason she’d wanted to talk to him. “But if something is threatening the forest, I need to know.”
“Nothing’s threatening the forest,” Tigerheart promised. “I would tell you if something were.” His eyes grew rounder until Dovepaw felt his gaze reaching into hers. “On the journey upstream, we were almost…friends.”
Dovepaw found herself nodding vigorously.
He sighed. “If we were in the same Clan it would be so easy…”
No! Dovepaw drew back, suddenly aware that she was leaning far too close to this handsome young ShadowClan warrior. She had to change the subject! “H-how did you get those scratches?” She stared at the fur on his shoulder, still clotted with blood. “That one looks nasty.”
Tigerheart sat back and shrugged. “Battle training.”
Dovepaw shuddered. Did ShadowClan warriors train with teeth and claws bared? “Has Littlecloud treated it? It may get infected.”
Tigerheart turned away so that his shoulder was hidden in shadow. “It’s not that bad, honest. It only hurts when I—” He broke off.
The bramble bush rustled.
Tigerheart crouched and flattened his ears. Dovepaw drew back into the deeply shadowed cleft between the roots of the willow tree.
“Blasted prickers.” It was an old mew, croaking with irritation. Dovepaw sniffed and smelled WindClan. It must be an elder looking for a quiet spot to make dirt.
Tigerheart scooted backward. “Got to go,” he murmured, and disappeared over the roots.
Dovepaw stared after him. Why was he acting so odd? Puzzled, she hopped out of the dip and onto a thick root. “It’s quiet over there!” she called to the grumbling WindClan elder, pointing with her tail to a clear spot a few tail-lengths farther into the woods.
The old cat dragged himself free of the brambles. “Now you tell me!” he rasped. “Once my ears have been shredded and half my pelt is hanging in this fox-toothed bush.”
Whiskers twitching, Dovepaw scooted back to join her Clan. Sandstorm saw her and nudged Whitewing.
“Dovepaw?” The white warrior was calling for her anxiously. “There you are!”
“I wasn’t far away.” Dovepaw weaved past Thornclaw and Graystripe, while Firestar circled his Clan, his shoulders rippling with tension. “What’s going on?”
“Blossompaw! Briarpaw! I’ve found her!” Whitewing called back the two apprentices who had been scooting around the edge of the clearing, sniffing the bushes. “Where were you?”
“Over there.” Dovepaw nodded vaguely toward the cracked willow. “Why isn’t anyone sharing tongues anymore?”
The Clans had separated and were eyeing one another warily.
Sandstorm flicked her tail. “WindClan and ShadowClan started fussing over boundaries again,” she huffed.
Ratscar paced around his Clanmates, his eyes burning in the moonlight as he glared at ThunderClan.
Breezepelt sat bolt upright, eyes slitted, his tail sweeping the ground behind him. “Borders are borders,” he growled at Lionblaze, who was staring back at the furious warrior.
“You share a mission with ThunderClan and they think they own the whole lake!” Crowfrost hissed.
Foxleap clawed at the ground. “But we saved the lake!”
“We all saved the lake!” Onestar hissed. “Cats from every Clan. So why are you crossing borders like you own us now?”
Darkness slid over the clearing. Dovepaw looked up. The clouds that had been bubbling on the horizon had begun to drift across the moon. Pale light still filtered through, but the wind was picking up and the thickening clouds were swallowing Silverpelt star by star.
Firestar lashed his tail. “Let’s leave before StarClan calls a halt to this Gathering altogether.” He shot an angry look at Onestar and Blackstar. “ThunderClan is not making trouble and you know it.”
Dovepaw felt herself swept along by her Clanmates as they headed for the edge of the clearing. Blossompaw nudged her forward, while Millie, Brightheart, and Brackenfur jostled behind her.
Firestar held his ground a moment longer. “Think carefully,” he warned the WindClan and ShadowClan leaders, “before you accuse us of something we didn’t do!” He turned, curling his lip, and followed his Clan into the trees.
Chapter 10
Bright flowers nodded around the apprentice as she weaved, slender as a pine martin, through the grass. She sneezed as pollen dusted her soft muzzle. Then, relishing the sun on her back, she lifted her forepaws and peered over the curving stems. Wide-eyed, she gazed at the broad green pasture and breathed the soft scent of the shimmering grass.
A huge gray mare ambled past, its wide hooves thumping the earth and tearing trails through the grass. The she-cat scooted backward and sheltered beneath the lush leaves of a dock. Butterflies whirled up as the horse sauntered away. The apprentice scampered and leaped after them, swiping the air as they jerked on the breeze and scattered like windblown petals into the blue sky.
The air was heavy with greenleaf scent and, as the cat tasted the breeze, she caught the musky tang of prey. Nostrils flaring, she followed the scent, tail down, ears flat. She tracked it through dark green clover and around a clump of bobbing white flowers before catching sight of a tiny flicker of movement.