Deep down, she wasn’t sure that was entirely true. She was doubtful about turning up to challenge the others with a Twolegplace cat by her side. It would draw too much attention to the split in SkyClan, in spite of all her efforts to heal it.
“I see,” Billystorm murmured, in a tone that suggested he understood Leafstar’s concerns only too well. He lifted his head, his ears erect and his jaws parted to taste the air. “They went that way,” he meowed after a moment, pointing with his tail.
“Thank you.” Leafstar was grateful for her Clanmate’s familiarity with the sounds and scents of the Twolegplace. She wished she could tell him how much she wanted him to go with her. But it would cause only more trouble. “I’ll see you in camp tomorrow.”
Billystorm didn’t respond, but watched Leafstar as she leaped down from the roof. Before she headed across the grass in the direction he had shown her, she glanced over her shoulder to see him looking down at her. His eyes glowed with the harsh orange light that filled the Twolegplace. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Does he really think I don’t need him?
Trying to push Billystorm out of her mind, Leafstar raced through the next fence, scrambling through dense shrubbery until she popped out at the edge of a path covered with sharp white stones. A moment later she slid back into hiding as a gray-and-white kittypet padded slowly along the edge of the path and disappeared through a small flap at the bottom of the door to the den.
The next enclosed space was filled with a strong scent of dog. With nowhere to hide, Leafstar slunk along the bottom of the fence on the tips of her paws in case she alerted the animal. Thankfully she spotted a gate, and squeezed through into another alley. Her heart was pounding and she halted for a moment to catch her breath in the shelter of a big green Twoleg thing with round black paws.
Snookthorn’s housefolk had one of these, she remembered, wrinkling her nose with disgust. That stank of crow-food, too.
“Water won’t do you any harm.” Leafstar stiffened as she heard Stick’s voice coming from somewhere up ahead. “Just roll in it. It will hide your scent.”
“I don’t want to hide my scent!” Rockshade’s voice was horrified. “In the forest, SkyClan scent is something to be proud of. It’s part of defending our territory.”
“But you’re not in your territory now, are you?” Shorty pointed out quietly.
Peering out from behind the Twoleg thing, Leafstar spotted the patrol at the corner of the alley where it joined a small Thunderpath. Harsh orange light spilled down from another of the stone trees, gleaming on the surface of a puddle. The acrid stench reached Leafstar, even drowning the scent of crow-food.
“Just roll,” Sharpclaw growled. “You’re keeping us all waiting.”
Leafstar heard the sounds of splashing as Rockshade lowered himself into the puddle and rolled over. Anger surged up inside her. She leaped out from her hiding place and stalked up to the patrol.
“What in StarClan’s name is going on?”
Concentrating on Rockshade, none of the patrol had heard or scented her approach. They spun around to face her; behind them, Rockshade scrambled up out of the puddle, shaking himself to try to get rid of the water. His black pelt was clumped and messy. His eyes were clouded with guilt; Sparrowpelt and Cherrytail looked uncomfortable, too, but the Twolegplace cats were quite calm.
Sharpclaw was the first to speak. “What does it look like?” he meowed. “We’re exploring Twoleg territory in case we ever need to fight here.”
His confident reply took Leafstar by surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’ve been too busy,” Sharpclaw replied.
Meeting his calm green gaze, Leafstar barely managed to stop herself from raking her claws over his ears. Words exploded from her, fierce as a greenleaf storm. “Not too busy to know that my warriors are leaving the gorge at night! And why do we need to know how to fight in the Twolegplace? What are you planning?”
The cool look Sharpclaw gave her made Leafstar feel as if she were some crazy elder with burrs in her pelt. “We’re planning nothing,” he meowed, as if that should have been obvious. “We’re preparing for the future, which cannot be seen. Stick brought knowledge that we don’t have, and I thought it would make us even stronger.”
Leafstar took a deep breath; with a massive effort she made herself calm down. Sharpclaw was undermining her in front of her Clanmates, and widening the rift between these cats and the daylight-warriors, but screeching and fighting was not the answer.
“Don’t you think you’re endangering our regular hunting and border patrols, if our cats are tired after being out all night?” she queried evenly.
“That’s why we bring only two or three cats at a time,” Sharpclaw explained, his voice as patient as if he was telling a new apprentice how to stalk a mouse.
Leafstar could tell he thought she was making an antheap out of a single grain of dirt. Desperately she held on to her resolve to be calm, but it was growing harder with every breath she took. “You mean you do this regularly? I can’t believe you’d go behind my back like this!” She heard her voice growing shrill, and forced herself to lower it. “I am the leader of SkyClan. Does the warrior code mean nothing to you?”
Sharpclaw blinked. “It means everything. Which is why I want to learn how I can fight wherever I need to, so that I can protect my Clanmates.”
Tension burning through her pelt, Leafstar took a paw step forward, so that she stood nose to nose with her deputy. “You should have told me what you were doing,” she hissed. “You can’t give one half of the Clan extra training and ignore the others.”
“You mean the kitty-warriors? It’s not my problem if they aren’t here for night training.”
“That’s not the issue, and you know it!” Leafstar crouched, lashing her tail; a red mist was filling her vision. I can’t believe Sharpclaw brings everything back to this!
She was about to spring, when Cora’s quiet voice broke through her fury. “Leafstar, wait.” The black she-cat turned to Stick and addressed him. “Stick, please. It’s time to tell them the truth.”
The long-legged brown tom glared at her, bristling. “I’ll decide when it’s time,” he snapped.
Shorty padded up to him and gave him a nudge on the shoulder. “Cora’s right,” he mewed. “The SkyClan cats deserve to know.”
Stick hesitated a heartbeat longer, glancing at Sharpclaw, then nodded. “It was my idea to train your cats to fight in a Twolegplace,” he told Leafstar. “We didn’t come here to join your Clan. We came because we need your help.”
Chapter 31
Stick jumped onto the top of the wall and looked down into the Twoleg yard. His pelt prickled with uneasiness. The place should have been familiar, but it had been a long time since he had come this way, and he was unsettled by how much had changed.
That bush has grown much bigger, he thought, jumping at the unexpected throaty bark of a dog from the next garden. And that dog was a yapping little puppy.
Stick parted his jaws to taste the air and realized regretfully that the clump of catmint that once grew beside the door of the Twoleg nest had vanished. It was the catmint that brought me here in the first place. He had followed the scent and jumped down from the rough stone wall to bury his nose in the leaves. And a voice, quiet and wary, had spoken behind him…
“Why have you come here?” It was the same voice, but harsher than Stick remembered. A sleek, gray-furred she-cat had emerged from the nest and stood looking up at him, every hair on her pelt oozing hostility, her lips drawn back in a snarl.