“Certainly not!” Tree hissed. “I’m not going to run and leave you to fight by yourselves.”
There was no time to argue. Violetshine headed after Sandynose, thankful for the thick covering of pine needles that silenced her paw steps, and the breeze still carrying their scent away from the camp and the intruders. Tree padded alongside her.
When they reached the rocky slope that led up to the ShadowClan camp, Sandynose raised his tail to halt the others. “From now on, absolute silence,” he whispered, with a hard look at Tree. “And Violetshine, if there is trouble, I want you to run back to camp and fetch help. You’re the fastest,” he added, as Violetshine opened her jaws to protest.
“Okay, Sandynose.”
Together the three cats crept up the slope until they reached the top and could look down into the shallow dip that had been the ShadowClan camp. The scent of cats was even stronger here, and Violetshine felt more than ever that she ought to recognize it.
As they watched, a golden-furred she-cat appeared at the far side of the hollow, a mouse dangling from her jaws. She bounded down into the camp and disappeared into the bramble thicket that had once been the nursery.
“Sleekwhisker!” Violetshine breathed out. “She was a ShadowClan cat, but she joined Darktail.” She suppressed a shudder as she remembered how viciously Sleekwhisker had supported the rogue leader. “She helped kill Needletail.”
“Not a cat we want around, then,” Sandynose responded. “Let’s go and deal with her.”
He led the way, paw step by careful paw step, down into the hollow and across to the bramble thicket. A narrow tunnel led inside; Sandynose plunged into it and Violetshine followed, with Tree bringing up the rear.
“Watch our backs,” Violetshine instructed him. “There might be more of them.”
Before she finished speaking, she heard a yowl of alarm from up ahead. Pressing forward, she emerged into the old nursery and halted in amazement at what she saw. Sleekwhisker was there, and so was Yarrowleaf, another former ShadowClan cat who had been part of Darktail’s Kin, stretched out in a nest of moss. Her rounded belly showed that she was close to having kits.
Sandynose stood over them. His claws were out and his tail lashing, but he was obviously reluctant to attack a cat so near to kitting. Sleekwhisker crouched between him and Yarrowleaf, her fur bristling and her lips drawn back as she hissed defiance.
“Violetpaw!” Yarrowleaf exclaimed, her yellow eyes wide and frightened. “What’s happening? Where is ShadowClan?”
“Are these both ShadowClan cats?” Sandynose asked Violetshine.
“Yes. This is Yarrowleaf.”
Uneasiness stirred in Violetshine’s belly. Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf were two of the cats who had been closest to Darktail. What do they want here? she asked herself.
Sandynose still didn’t sheathe his claws. “That’s all well and good,” he meowed, “but they’ve still crossed our borders without permission.”
“But you’re not going to attack a pregnant queen, are you?” Tree asked; his eyes were warm with sympathy for Yarrowleaf, who looked so scared and confused.
Sandynose hesitated for a moment, then relaxed with a sigh. “No, I can’t do that. But don’t expect me to welcome them. Not if they’re the ShadowClan warriors who betrayed Rowanclaw.”
“Not only that,” Violetshine told him, “but they were both really loyal to Darktail when he made them part of his Kin. They helped drown cats.” She shivered, remembering how Sleekwhisker had flung herself at Needletail, trying to force her underwater. Needletail was one of the first friends I ever had.
“We’ve left Darktail,” Sleekwhisker told them. “We realized what a mistake we’d made, and we came back looking for ShadowClan, to come home again. Where is ShadowClan?”
“The ShadowClan cats have a different camp now,” Sandynose said shortly. “And you aren’t part of their Clan anymore.”
“Oh, please let us stay,” Yarrowleaf begged. “We just want to be ShadowClan cats again.”
“You were fine letting your Clanmates die when Darktail was in charge,” Violetshine accused Yarrowleaf. “Is it because you’re expecting kits that now, all of a sudden, you see the value in a Clan?”
Yarrowleaf cringed away from her. “It’s not like that,” she protested. “Sleekwhisker and I have been living with the remains of Darktail’s group, but it bothered us more and more, the way that none of the cats seem to care about one another.”
“That’s right,” Sleekwhisker growled, her muscles still tensed to spring as she glared up at Sandynose. “Now that Darktail is gone, they don’t even have the idea of Kin anymore. It’s every cat for themselves.”
“Spikefur died.” Yarrowleaf’s voice was shaking. “He was sick. We tried to help him, but the other cats wouldn’t forage for herbs, or . . .” She gave way altogether, and buried her nose in her forepaws, her whole body shaking.
“No cat would help treat him, or fetch him fresh-kill,” Sleekwhisker went on. “I did my best, but I couldn’t look after him and Yarrowleaf as well. So he died,” she finished bleakly.
“I took Nettle as a mate,” Yarrowleaf began again, clearly making a massive effort to control herself. “These are his kits, but I was so scared about the idea of raising my kits among the rogues. I kept remembering what it was like when I was a kit, here in the nursery, safe and surrounded by cats who cared about me. I want that for my kits. I want ShadowClan.”
For a moment none of the SkyClan cats responded, gazing warily at one another. Violetshine didn’t know how to find the words, to break the news to Yarrowleaf that what she wanted didn’t exist anymore. She noticed, too, that Tree looked deeply disturbed, as if he had begun to realize how serious the loss of ShadowClan was.
The silence seemed to stretch out for moons, until Sleekwhisker sat up, flattening her bristling fur, a look of concern in her eyes. “Violetpaw, what did he mean”—she glanced at Sandynose—“when he said Rowanclaw? He meant Rowanstar, surely?”
“I’m Violetshine now,” she replied. She glanced at Sandynose, but his gaze was fixed on his paws; she was obviously not going to get any help from him in explaining. “SkyClan has returned to the lake,” Violetshine went on, “and ShadowClan . . . Rowanstar decided he couldn’t go on leading a Clan that hardly existed anymore. So now he’s Rowanclaw again, and what’s left of ShadowClan has joined SkyClan.”
Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf exchanged a stunned glance. “But—but how can ShadowClan not exist anymore?” Yarrowleaf stammered.
Violetshine couldn’t think of any way to answer that.
“You both need to think long and hard about what you want to do now,” Sandynose meowed sternly. “Leafstar, the leader of SkyClan, is in charge, and I’m not sure what she’ll say about allowing you into the Clan. If it was ShadowClan you wanted . . . perhaps you should think again.”
Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker were silent for a moment, looking deeply troubled. “Then we want to join SkyClan,” Yarrowleaf declared at last.
“Yes, we’ve been through a horrible time since we left,” Sleekwhisker mewed. “We had no idea that things would turn out like this. We’re not here to cause trouble.”
Her voice was so fervent that Violetshine was almost convinced, yet she found it hard to forget what Sleekwhisker had done when she was one of Darktail’s Kin.
“Any Clan is a Clan,” Sleekwhisker continued. “That’s the only kind of life we want.”
“That’s right,” Yarrowleaf agreed. “I’m so sorry for turning my back on ShadowClan. I know now this is where I need to be.”
Violetshine was doubtful about whether they ought to trust either of these cats. I can’t believe that Yarrowleaf is having a rogue’s kits. Should we really be bringing half rogues into Clan territory?