Breezepelt’s tail was lashing. “I will make them all pay for what they have done.” No heat fired his gaze, only cold hatred. “I will have vengeance on each and every one of them.”
Brokenstar pushed forward. “You are a noble warrior, Breezepelt. You cannot live a life spawned on lies. Loyalty to the warrior code runs too strong in your blood.”
“Not like those weaklings,” Breezepelt agreed.
Hawkfrost was on his paws. “More practice?” he suggested.
Tigerstar shook his head. “There is something else you must do.” He swung his broad head around to face the warrior.
Hawkfrost narrowed his eyes to icy slits. “What?”
“There’s another apprentice,” Tigerstar told him. “She has great power. She must join us to make the battle even.”
“You want me to visit her?” Menace edged Hawkfrost’s mew.
Tigerstar nodded. “Walk in her dreams. Teach her that our battle is her destiny.” He flicked the tip of his long, dark tail. “Go.”
As the broad-shouldered warrior turned away and padded into the mist, Tigerstar growled after him, “You should have no trouble. She is ready.”
Chapter 1
Dovepaw trembled in her sleep.
“Dovepaw! Dovepaw!” Voices wailed around her as she struggled in the current, dragging at her fur, swirling her through darkness. “Dovepaw!” The cries were jagged with fear. Trees and branches tumbled past her, sweeping away downstream. Darkness yawned below, stretching so far beneath her that horror caught in her throat.
“Dovepaw!” Rippletail’s desperate, lonely whimper rang in her ears.
With a start, she blinked open her eyes.
Her sister, Ivypaw, stirred beside her. “Were you dreaming?” The silver-and-white tabby raised her head and gazed anxiously at Dovepaw. “You were twitching like a mouse.”
“Bad dream.” Dovepaw fought to keep her mew steady. Her heart was pounding and Rippletail’s cry echoed in her mind. She stretched forward and licked Ivypaw’s head. “It’s gone now,” she lied.
As Ivypaw’s sleepy eyes began to close, Dovepaw breathed in the soft scent of her sister. I’m home, she reminded herself.
Everything’s okay. Yet her heart still pounded. She stretched in her nest, a shiver running to the tip of her tail, and clambered to her paws. Padding carefully between the nests, she headed out of the den.
Moonlight bathed the deserted clearing, and above the rock walls that encircled the camp, the horizon was milky with dawn light. The mewls of Poppyfrost’s newborn kits drifted from the nursery, and snores rumbled from the dens. The air felt strange, cool and wet on her muzzle. For many moons, Dovepaw had known nothing but the parched wind of drought, dry on her tongue. But now she could taste the green freshness of the forest, heady and mouthwatering.
Thin clouds drifted across the star-speckled sky, draping Silverpelt like cobwebs. She wondered if Rippletail was watching from among her starry ancestors.
I’m sorry. The words echoed in her mind like the lonely call of an owl.
Even though the long journey upstream was a quarter moon ago, the memory still ached in her muscles. Dovepaw had traveled with Lionblaze and two cats from each of the other Clans to track down the beavers that had blocked the stream and starved the lake of water. Together they had destroyed the dam and unleashed the torrent that had filled the lake once more. And now life was returning to the territories. She felt it in the rustling of the forest, heard it in the stirrings of prey beyond the edges of the camp.
Pride coursed through her. She had been the one to sense the beavers as they worked to block the stream. She had helped break their dam to pieces and now all the Clans would survive. But the memory was bittersweet, like yarrow on her tongue. The RiverClan warrior Rippletail had died fighting the large brown creatures, their heavy bodies stronger than foxes, their snapping yellow teeth deadlier than claws.
Memories of the journey had thronged in Dovepaw’s mind since she’d returned, and Rippletail’s death haunted her dreams. Did Lionblaze feel the same? She didn’t dare ask. Nor could she confide in Jayfeather about how much the journey still clung to her thoughts. They might think she was weak. She had a great destiny ahead of her.
How could she ever live up to the prophecy that had been given to Firestar many moons ago? There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.
Dovepaw was one of the Three, along with Lionblaze and Jayfeather. The realization still shocked her. She’d been an apprentice less than a moon and now she carried more responsibility than a senior warrior on her shoulders. What could she do but hone the power she’d been given, the power that made her one of the Three? She practiced each day, reaching out with her senses as deep into the forest as she could, listening, tasting, feeling for sounds and movements even Jayfeather could not detect.
Dovepaw crouched outside the den, her pelt ruffling in the damp air, and closed her eyes. She let the sensation of earth beneath her paws slide away, reached beyond the sound of Poppyfrost’s kits fidgeting in the nursery, and let her senses roam. The forest trembled with life, filling her senses with smells and sounds: birds shaking out their feathers before they began their morning song, an early ShadowClan patrol padding sleepily out of camp, their paws clumsy on the slippery, needle-strewn ground. The sharp scent of catmint growing beside the abandoned Twoleg nest bathed her tongue. The sound of water chattering over the rock-cluttered stream on the WindClan border stirred her ear fur.
Wait!
Why were two cats slinking beside the lake at this time of day?
Anxiety pricked at Dovepaw’s pelt. She blinked open her eyes. She should tell someone. But how could she explain without giving away her secret power? Lionblaze? No. She couldn’t go to her mentor. He’d be asleep in the warriors’ den and it would be impossible to wake him without disturbing his denmates.
Jayfeather? Of course! He slept alone in the medicine den since Leafpool had joined the warriors. Dovepaw hurried across the clearing and pushed through the lichen that draped the entrance to the shadowy cave.
“Jayfeather!” She opened her eyes wide, trying to adjust to the gloom. Hurrying to his nest, she nudged him with her nose.
His gray tabby pelt was ruffled by sleep, his nose tucked tightly under his paw. “Go away,” he grumbled.
“It’s important,” Dovepaw hissed.
The medicine cat lifted his chin and blinked open his sightless blue eyes. “I was dreaming!” he snapped.
Dovepaw tensed. Had she disturbed a message from StarClan?
“I was about to catch a mouse.” Jayfeather held his paws a whisker apart. “It was this far away.”
Dovepaw stifled a purr. It was comforting to know that Jayfeather had regular mouse-chasing dreams like any other cat. “Sorry.”
“It’s not funny!” Jayfeather stood and shook out his fur.
Dovepaw ducked out of the way as he sprang from his nest and landed lightly beside her.
“What’s the matter?” Jayfeather licked a paw and drew it along his whiskers.
“Two cats are walking around the lake.”
Jayfeather let his paw drop and met her gaze. Dovepaw blinked. She still wasn’t used to the way Jayfeather acted like he could see even though he was blind.
“Are they heading for ThunderClan territory?”
Dovepaw nodded. She was relieved that he hadn’t asked her if she was sure. He just believed her. He trusted her completely. He had faith in her power. She really was one of the Three.