Reedwhisker raised his head, breaking the tense silence. “Leave us,” he meowed to Mistystar. “It’s not worth another terrible fight. We’ll be okay.”
Mistystar hesitated a few heartbeats more, then seemed to realize that she had no choice. “Very well,” she mewed. “But none of you should worry. We’ll come back for you—I promise you that. Meanwhile… Darktail, you should at least let us take the bodies of our Clanmates for burial.”
Darktail’s mouth twisted in mockery. “That carrion? Forget it, flea-pelt.”
A growl rumbled from Mistystar’s throat as her neck fur fluffed out. Violetpaw thought that she was within a heartbeat of launching herself at the rogue leader.
Oh, StarClan, no!
Before Mistystar could move, the elder Mosspelt stepped forward, thrusting herself between Darktail and her leader. “Don’t,” she mewed, her voice low and urgent. “That’s what he wants.”
“But we can’t leave our Clanmates here as if they were pieces of crow-food!” Mistystar protested.
“Our Clanmates are not here,” Mosspelt persisted. “We can sit vigil for them tonight wherever we happen to be. Not even Darktail can stop their spirits from traveling to StarClan.”
Mistystar hesitated for a moment, then bowed her head in acquiescence. “You’re right,” she whispered. “But it breaks my heart.”
Darktail let out a snort, watching with a gloating expression on his face as the defeated RiverClan cats limped off toward the lake. “Feel free to cross my territory on your way to ThunderClan,” he sneered. “They’re weak and tenderhearted; they’re bound to take you in.”
Mistystar did not respond, but she did lead her cats away along the lakeshore, through what had once been ShadowClan territory, on the way to ThunderClan. Violetpaw watched them go, half wishing she could go with them but knowing it was impossible.
“Good riddance,” Darktail growled, a look of triumph in his eyes. Turning to his followers, he added, “Gather up the prisoners. Gather them up, and find a place to hold them.”
Chapter 10
“Are you sure that Bramblestar will be okay with this?” Mothwing asked as she and Alderheart slipped through the undergrowth on their way to the lake. Two days had passed since Darktail’s group had attacked RiverClan and RiverClan had taken refuge in ThunderClan’s camp.
Alderheart felt uncomfortably tense, his ears pricked for the first sounds of a ThunderClan patrol that might stop him and the RiverClan medicine cat and ask awkward questions.
“I’m sure he won’t,” he replied, knowing the huge risk he and Mothwing were taking, “and that’s why I didn’t ask him.”
The golden tabby paused for a moment and turned her amber gaze on Alderheart. “Will you be in trouble?” she asked.
“Probably.” Alderheart shrugged. “But it’ll be okay. Bramblestar knows that medicine cats sometimes have to make their own decisions about what’s right.”
Mothwing nodded, then set off again. “I’m so grateful to you, Alderheart,” she mewed. “We have to know what’s going on in the RiverClan camp. But Willowshine is busy with our injured warriors, and I don’t think I could do this alone.”
Alderheart wasn’t surprised. News of the battle had shocked him from ears to tail-tip. Darktail had driven Rowanstar and the others from ShadowClan’s territory, but that felt different, because so many ShadowClan cats had stayed and taken his side. Now Darktail was attacking Clans who had nothing to do with him? Where would it end? It made Alderheart feel that danger could be lurking behind every rock.
He admired Mothwing for having the courage to set paw on RiverClan territory, now that it was occupied by the rogue leader and his followers. I must have bees in my brain for agreeing to go with her, he thought ruefully.
The two medicine cats emerged from the undergrowth and padded down the strip of pebbles that led to the edge of the lake. Mothwing halted again, staring out across the water to the distant trees and bushes of RiverClan territory. Alderheart couldn’t believe how tranquil the scene looked, the surface of the lake glittering under the morning sun, when all around, the Clans’ territories were in turmoil.
“Which way now?” he asked, standing beside Mothwing. “Through ShadowClan or WindClan?” Both routes are dangerous, he reflected. WindClan has closed its borders, and Darktail’s rogues are still patrolling ShadowClan.
“WindClan,” Mothwing replied. “If we go through ShadowClan we’re bound to meet the rogues long before we get to RiverClan. A WindClan patrol might give us a hard time, but the rogues will claw our pelts off if they catch us.”
“Works for me,” Alderheart commented.
“Besides,” Mothwing added, “WindClan let Mistystar and her patrol pass yesterday.”
“Mistystar went back to RiverClan?” Alderheart felt surprise prickling every hair of his pelt. Since the RiverClan warriors had arrived, he had been too busy patching up injuries in the medicine cats’ den to know much about what was happening elsewhere.
“Yes,” Mothwing meowed. “She took a patrol over to RiverClan to try to free the prisoners and collect the bodies of our Clanmates for burial, but some of the rogues spotted them when they tried to cross the border. There was a skirmish, and…” Her voice was shaking, and she paused to steady it. “Mistystar and our warriors lost. Raven—she was leading the rogues’ patrol—let them go, but she told Mistystar that if there was another attempt to steal back the territory, the rogues would kill the RiverClan prisoners.”
“That’s outrageous!” Alderheart exclaimed, digging his claws into the soft sand of the lake’s edge.
“It is.” Mothwing blinked unhappily. “But we can’t just leave them there and do nothing!”
With a determined flick of her tail, she set off again along the water’s edge in the direction of the WindClan border.
“So what’s the plan?” Alderheart asked as he padded along beside her.
“Willowshine and I built up a good store of herbs in our den,” Mothwing told him. “I thought if I went there and told the rogues I had come to collect them, they might let me into the camp.”
“It’s worth a try,” Alderheart responded. He remembered his quest, when he had discovered Darktail and his rogues in the gorge where SkyClan used to live. Back then, Darktail had seemed fascinated by all the things that medicine cats knew. I hope that means he’ll respect medicine-cat ways now, even though his rogues aren’t Clan cats.
“Of course, I don’t care if they let us take the herbs or not,” Mothwing went on. “We can always gather more. But once we’re in the camp, we might be able to find out how the prisoners are doing, and where they’re being kept. If we get really lucky, we might be able to speak to them.”
Approaching the stream that marked the border with WindClan, Alderheart opened his jaws to taste the air, and he picked up the powerful fresh scent of WindClan cats. At first he couldn’t see any movement on the hillside, but as he and Mothwing splashed through the water and climbed out on the opposite bank, a WindClan patrol rose up out of a clump of reeds and bounded forward to block their way.
“What do you want?” Sedgewhisker, who was in the lead, raked her gaze over both medicine cats. “I hope you’re not expecting to visit Onestar. We made it clear enough yesterday that he doesn’t want to see any other cats.”