“Sandstorm might know. But I never heard of herbs to keep cats awake.”
“A real medicine cat would know.” There was a trace of bitterness in Echosong’s voice.
Firestar couldn’t help remembering the last time she had stood on the Skyrock in the light of the full moon, brimming with confidence as she was given her Clan name. Her confidence had waned with the moon, until it was no more than the tiny curved claw that shone above their heads.
“Try to sleep,” he suggested. “See if StarClan will speak to you here.”
Obediently the silver-gray tabby curled up in the shelter of one of the boulders. Soon her light, regular breathing told Firestar she was asleep. He sat beside her, watching the stars, while his ears were pricked and he kept tasting the air for the first signs of approaching rats.
The moon crept across the sky. There were no sounds except for the distant ripple of the river and the soft hissing of the wind. At last Echosong stirred, blinking and looking up at Firestar. He didn’t need to ask what her dreams had been; the desolation in her eyes told him enough.
“I think the starry cats have left me forever,” she mewed.
Firestar reached down to give the top of her head a comforting lick. “Did you dream at all?”
“Yes, I thought I was standing on a stretch of moorland.
There was mist all around me. I couldn’t see anything, but I could sense cats nearby, and I knew they were terribly frightened. And I knew one cat was calling out to me, but I couldn’t hear what he wanted to say. He was always out of reach.”
Firestar felt his neck fur bristle. “I think you dreamed of the first SkyClan fleeing the forest,” he explained. “I’ve had dreams like that too. The cat who was trying to call to you might have been their leader.”
Echosong brightened momentarily, but then the hope faded from her eyes. “It wasn’t a proper medicine cat dream, then.”
“All dreams can be medicine cat dreams,” Firestar told her.
“I’m not sure anymore that I’m meant to be a medicine cat.” Echosong shook her head, sighing. “Maybe it’s because I was born a kittypet.”
“I was born a kittypet too.” Echosong looked at him in astonishment, and he went on. “But StarClan still chose me to save my Clan and become its leader. Besides, all cats were wild once, even the ancestors of kittypets.”
“Truly?”
“Once there were three Clans of giant cats.” Firestar remembered the legends that he had learned when he first became an apprentice in ThunderClan. “LionClan, TigerClan, and LeopardClan. They roamed the forest freely and they were never owned by Twolegs. And a little of their wildness lives on in the heart of every cat.”
“Even in kittypets?”
“In every cat,” Firestar repeated. “Echosong, don’t give up.
You dreamed of SkyClan’s warrior ancestors before, and you’ll dream of them again. Dreams can’t be summoned.
They’re sent, and you’ll just have to be patient. SkyClan’s ancestors will come to you when they have something to say.”
Echosong murmured agreement, but Firestar wasn’t sure he had convinced her. Giving her a last reassuring lick, he rose to his paws and went to wake Rainfur for the next watch.
On the next night, for all his weariness, Firestar found it hard to sleep. After shifting around in his nest for what felt like several moons, he padded out of the warriors’ cave to sit on the ledge outside and watch pale dawn light growing over the gorge.
After a little while he smelled Sandstorm’s sweet scent and felt her tongue rasping warmly over his ear. “I couldn’t sleep either,” she murmured.
Firestar turned his head to gaze into her eyes. “If we’re going to attack the rats it has to be soon,” he mewed. “But is that the right thing to do? Was I right to tell SkyClan that this is their home and they should fight for it?”
Sandstorm’s whiskers twitched in surprise. “What else are they going to do? Scatter and live as rogues and kittypets again?”
“There is another alternative.” Firestar took a deep breath.
“We could take them back to the forest.”
“What, after everything we’ve done to help them make a home here?”
“Why not? The ancestors of the forest Clans drove them out, and we know how wrong that was. Maybe now we’re supposed to bring them back.”
Sandstorm turned her head to smooth a piece of fur sticking up on her shoulder. “I suppose it could work,” she meowed. “They would have to split up and join the other four Clans, though. Now that the Twolegplace has been built, there isn’t room in the forest for a fifth Clan—that’s what caused all the trouble in the first place.”
“They won’t want to split up now,” Firestar warned.
“Somehow we would have to find a way of dividing the territory along new boundary lines.”
Sandstorm’s tail lashed. “There isn’t a way. You saw that for yourself when Scourge tried to move in with BloodClan.
SkyClan’s territory was lost when the Twolegs built their Twolegplace. The forest won’t support an extra Clan now.”
Firestar knew she was right, but guilt filled him up like rain filling an upturned leaf. Was he agreeing just because in his heart he didn’t want to give up any of his Clan’s territory?
Did that make him as bad as the original Clans who had driven SkyClan into exile?
Sandstorm pressed her muzzle against his. “There’s no point working yourself up,” she mewed. “SkyClan don’t want to go back to the forest. This is where they feel at home. You know,” she added, with a flick of her tail, “you’re only saying this because you’re afraid of leading them to their deaths. You need to trust their warrior ancestor who told you to come here and rebuild the Clan. He won’t let the rats wipe SkyClan out.”
“I suppose—” Firestar stopped talking, distracted by movement in the shadowy gorge below. Gazing down, he spotted Echosong climbing to the top of the Rockpile and making her way across to the other side of the river.
“Where is she going?” he wondered out loud.
He set off after her, but by the time he reached the bottom of the gorge, Echosong had disappeared. He tracked her by her scent across the Rockpile as far as the path that led beneath the rocks to the Whispering Cave. Quietly he slipped in after her, along the narrow ledge with the water gliding along just below his paws. Dawn light gleamed on the surface, fading behind him as he went further underground.
He found Echosong sitting by the water’s edge in the Whispering Cave, her paws tucked under her and her gaze fixed on the river as it silently slid by, green-black in the eerie half-light. At the sound of his approach she looked up. The pale light of the moss glimmered on her pelt and was reflected in her beautiful eyes.
“Echosong… ,” Firestar began.
“Tinykit just told me about hearing the voices,” she explained. Her eyes sparkled. “And it’s true, Firestar! I can hear them, too quiet to make out what they’re speaking, but they are all around me, welcoming me. Our warrior ancestors are here, just out of reach. When they are ready, they will come to me.”
Chapter 31
“Rats! Rats!”
Firestar struggled awake as the terrified yowl split the silence of the night. Darkness filled the warriors’ den, and for a few heartbeats he couldn’t work out where the entrance was. Guided by the movement of air against his whiskers, he headed outside, only to blunder over another warrior.
“Fox dung!” the other cat spat; Firestar identified Sharpclaw’s scent. “Get out of the way.”
He scrambled past Firestar and out of the cave. Firestar followed; in the entrance he brushed against another cat’s pelt, and Sandstorm’s scent wreathed around him. The yowling was drawing closer, and now Firestar could recognize Cherrypaw’s voice.