Leafdapple trembled as the pain ebbed away, but she stayed on her paws. “Firestar”—she gasped—“do I have to do that eight more times?”
“It’s okay,” Firestar comforted her. “Not all the lives will feel the same.”
The she-cat had a dazed look in her eyes, and a touch of resentment in her voice as she mewed, “You never said it would be like this.” She shook her head in mingled astonishment and wonder. Firestar guessed that no cat could go through what she had just endured and still doubt that the experience was real. “I wish we could just get it over with.”
“It won’t be long,” Firestar promised.
“Look!” Echosong exclaimed, whirling around. “Leafdapple, can you see?”
“I-I think so,” the tabby she-cat mewed.
A row of cats was appearing faintly through the mist. They encircled the three living cats and the SkyClan ancestor, their outlines indistinct in the drifting clouds. Then one of them strode forward: Skywatcher. Not the scrawny elder who had died in the gorge, but as Firestar had last seen him in his dream, a strong and powerful warrior.
Leafdapple’s eyes stretched wide. “Skywatcher,” she whispered. “Is that you?”
Skywatcher touched noses with her. “Welcome, Leafdapple.
I give you a life for hope,” he meowed. “Use it well to guide your Clan through the darkest days.”
Once more Leafdapple tensed as the life surged through her. Firestar could see that the pain was not so great this time, or perhaps she knew what to expect and had braced herself against it. She recovered more quickly, dipping her head to Skywatcher. “Thank you,” she murmured. “Thank you for all you have done for my Clan.”
Skywatcher stepped back noiselessly to stand with the ranks of misty warriors.
Leafdapple gazed with expectation at the circle of cats whose shapes were gradually becoming more distinct. “I’m ready,” she mewed.
The third cat to appear was a tabby she-cat so like Leafdapple that Firestar could hardly tell them apart. She bounded forward and touched noses with Leafdapple: a gesture of pure affection, not the giving of a life.
“My mother!” Leafdapple exclaimed. “But you died… I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Nothing is lost forever, dear one,” her mother replied.
Once again she touched noses with her daughter. “With this life I give you love. Use it well for all the cats who look to you for protection.”
Leafdapple had stretched forward eagerly to receive this life, and Firestar could see she was unprepared for the piercing agony that came with it. Her limbs went rigid and she dug her claws into the ground, clenching her teeth on a screech of pain. He had experienced the same anguish when Brindleface had given him a life; he had not realized how fierce was a mother’s love for her kits, how willing a she-cat was to die to protect her children.
As Leafdapple’s pain ebbed, her mother covered her face and ears with loving licks.
“Don’t go,” Leafdapple whispered.
“Don’t be afraid, dear one,” her mother reassured her. “I will walk with you many times in dreams, I promise.”
As she stepped back, a fourth cat was already walking forward. Firestar caught his breath at a familiar scent, but one he had never expected to smell here. The shape of the cat’s head reminded him of the SkyClan ancestor. Then as she emerged fully from the mist he recognized the slender tortoiseshell.
“Spottedleaf!”
She bounded forward and touched noses with him.
“Thank you, Firestar,” she mewed. “I’m so proud of you! SkyClan owes everything to you. I never told you how much it means to me to see the Clan restored.”
Firestar breathed in her sweet scent. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Spottedleaf.”
The medicine cat dipped her head to him. “I have been given the privilege to walk these skies to give Leafdapple her fourth life.” Approaching the tabby she-cat, she went on. “I give you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry.
Use it well for all cats troubled in spirit.”
This time Firestar could see that there was no pain as the life flowed into Leafdapple. The she-cat let out a blissful purr, her eyes narrowed; for a few heartbeats she looked like a kit in the nursery, safe inside the curve of her mother’s paws and belly.
“Thank you, Spottedleaf,” she mewed when it was over.
“Firestar has told me so much about you. I’m honored to meet you at last.”
The medicine cat brushed her tail softly along Leafdapple’s pelt, then withdrew once more to the edge of the circle.
Firestar could see that the mist was growing thinner. More of the moorland was opening up, and the moonlight grew stronger, though the moon itself remained hidden. More and more cats were revealed, stretching into the distance. A shiver ran through Firestar, as if his paws splashed into icy water.
As if she felt it too, Echosong pressed against him for a moment. “They’re coming home,” she whispered. “All the ancestors of SkyClan. I can hear them.”
Before Firestar could reply, the cats in the front rank parted to allow four new cats into the center of the circle. He gazed at them, puzzled. They looked vaguely familiar, yet they didn’t remind him of SkyClan. They looked nothing like any of the other cats who had given lives. They walked with head and tail high, with all the authority of leaders, yet he had never seen them before, and didn’t understand why they should come now to give a life to Leafdapple.
Instead of approaching the she-cat, the newcomers padded over to the SkyClan ancestor, who was staring at them with wide eyes. As the first cat, a muscular bracken-colored tom, drew closer, he gasped. “Redstar!”
To Firestar’s astonishment, the bracken-colored cat stood in front of the SkyClan ancestor with his head bowed. “I was wrong all those moons ago,” he meowed. “All of ThunderClan joins with me to tell you we’re sorry for what we did.”
Firestar stared: this cat must have been the ThunderClan leader when SkyClan was driven out of the forest.
The next cat, a brown tabby she-cat, crouched beside Redstar. She reminded Firestar of the RiverClan warrior Heavystep, and she had the look of Clovertail too.
“Birchstar?” The SkyClan ancestor’s voice was guarded.
“RiverClan says the same. We should never have driven you out. I felt compassion for you, but I did nothing—and that makes my actions worse. I am sorry.”
The third cat, an older tom with a gray-black pelt and a long, twitching tail, remained on his paws, but he bowed his head as he meowed, “I am Swiftstar of WindClan, and when I walked the forest I never told any cat I was sorry. But I say it to you now: what we did was wrong.”
The fourth cat’s creamy brown fur glimmered in the moonlight as she slipped up beside Swiftstar and fixed brilliant green eyes on the SkyClan leader. “ShadowClan is sorry too,” she mewed. “We had good reasons for what we did, but I regret that we caused so much suffering to you and your Clanmates.”
“Thank you, Dawnstar,” the SkyClan cat replied. “Thank you, all of you.”
“Nothing can make up for what we did,” Redstar went on.
“But we have each come here to give a life to the new leader of SkyClan, if we may.”
The gray-and-white cat dipped his head, giving his permission.
Redstar stepped forward to touch noses with Leafdapple.
“With this life I give you wisdom. Use it well when you have the hardest decisions of all to make.”
Leafdapple quivered as the fifth life flowed into her.
Firestar remembered how he had felt as the number of his lives mounted up: as though he were a hollowed-out rock, filling up with rainwater that soon would spill over the edges and be lost.
The next cat to approach Leafdapple was Birchstar, the RiverClan leader. “I give you a life for sympathy and understanding,” she murmured. “Use it well for the weakest in your Clan, and for all others who need your help and protection.”