“But you have skills that you can give these cats to live in peace from now on,” Spottedleaf told her.
“And you and Sharpclaw have fought together as a leader and deputy should,” Cloudstar added, wisdom shining from his pale eyes. “Don’t keep doubting him, Leafstar. He is as loyal to you and to SkyClan as you could wish.”
Leafstar longed to accept their reassurances, but the anxieties of the last moon had sunk into her too deeply, like leaves trapped in the ice of leaf-bare. “It’s been so hard!” she whispered. “I don’t know what our destiny is!”
Cloudstar bent his head toward her. “Your destiny is what you make it, Leafstar.”
Spottedleaf’s sweet scent wreathed around her, stronger than the smell of blood and fury. “I gave you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry,” she murmured. “Use it now, Leafstar.”
Her voice faded as she spoke, and the shapes of the two StarClan cats dissolved into the surrounding woodland until they became no more than a frosty glimmer, and then were gone.
Leafstar’s eyes blinked open and she saw the anxious faces of her Clanmates staring down at her.
“Oh, thank StarClan!” Rockshade’s voice rose to a squeak.
“We hoped you were just losing a life,” Cherrytail meowed. “It was scary, though!”
Leafstar stretched her limbs and managed to sit up. “Is the kit okay?” she croaked.
“Yes,” the tortoiseshell queen replied. “My kits are all safe on the other side of the ditch.”
Leafstar nodded thankfully, then looked around until her gaze met Billystorm’s. The SkyClan warrior’s eyes were full of love and pain; after a couple of heartbeats he turned his head away, his claws kneading the ground.
We will talk later, Leafstar promised him silently.
She became aware of the screeches of battle still coming from the other side of the ditch. Leafstar struggled to her paws. “We must help them,” she wheezed.
Sharpclaw padded up and offered his shoulder for her to lean on. “Wait until your strength comes back,” he meowed.
Before Leafstar could reply, there was a rustle from the trees on the other side of the ditch. Red and Harley appeared from behind a scrubby patch of bramble. Red halted, staring in horror at the battle and the wrecked camp.
“What’s going on?” she gasped.
Leafstar turned to look across the ditch, trying to imagine how Red would see the scene. The camp was in ruins, the flimsy sides of the dens squashed or torn, and smeared with blood. In the midst of the debris, Stick and Dodge still wrestled, with growls of hatred and claws clotted with each other’s blood. It was obvious that the two toms were determined to kill each other.
With barely a glance at the Clan cats, Red leaped across the ditch and raced up to her father, with Harley hard on her paws. Beckoning her Clanmates with a wave of her tail, Leafstar staggered after them.
“What are you doing?” Red shrieked, standing over her father.
Without relaxing his grip on Dodge, Stick looked up; it took him a moment to focus on his daughter. “Freeing you!” he snarled.
“But I’m not a prisoner!”
All around them the other cats stopped fighting, as if they recognized that this was the heart of the battle. Stick and Dodge broke apart; Stick rose to his paws and faced his daughter, while Dodge sat up and started to lick his wounds, glaring resentfully at the cats who had attacked his camp.
“What’s your problem?” Red challenged her father.
“These cats have done nothing but steal since they arrived,” Stick spat back at her. “This was our home first! They have taken our prey, our dens, and now you!”
Red opened her jaws to reply, but Harley padded up close to her side before she could speak.
“No cat stole Red,” the gray-black tom growled. “Do you think so little of her? She came of her own accord.”
“No,” Red meowed, turning her head to gaze at Harley. “I came because of you—because I love you. No cat can make me leave.”
Anger turned Stick’s eyes into black pools. “This isn’t love! You tricked her!” he roared as he sprang at Harley with claws outstretched.
Swift as a snake, Red threw herself in Stick’s way. His claws plunged deep into her throat; at once he tried to throw his weight back, but it was too late. Red crumpled to the ground at his paws, blood welling from the wound he had opened up.
Stick stared down in disbelief, at the blood on his own claws and the gashes in his daughter’s throat. “No… no…” he whispered.
For a heartbeat horror froze Leafstar’s paws to the ground. Then she rushed forward to crouch beside Red. “Quick, bring cobwebs!” she ordered.
The words were scarcely out of her mouth before Cherrytail raced up to her with a pawful of cobwebs, which Leafstar slapped onto Red’s wound. Shrewtooth arrived a moment later, holding out strands of sticky goosegrass from the ditch.
“Here, try this,” he suggested.
Leafstar took the stems, trying to bind them across the pad of cobweb. But Red’s blood kept gushing out. Her fur turned as scarlet as the sunrise behind them, as if her life were bleeding into the sky.
“Red—stay with me.” Harley crouched beside her, opposite Leafstar, covering her ears with frantic licks. “Remember the kits we were going to have… tough little ginger she-cats, just like you? Remember how we planned our life?”
“That would never have happened,” Stick snarled.
Dodge sprang to his paws. “Touch one hair on Harley’s pelt and you’ll answer to me.”
Stick spun around to glare at him. “Then I’ll kill you first.”
As he crouched to spring, Sharpclaw flung himself at Stick’s flank, overbalancing him and standing over him as he scrabbled in the mud. “Enough!” the SkyClan deputy hissed. “Too much blood has been shed already! You asked for our help to drive these cats out, not to kill them.”
Stick stumbled to his paws, narrowing his eyes at the ginger tom. “Anything less is a sign of weakness,” he spat.
Leafstar rose from Red’s side and padded forward to stand beside her deputy. “Then you have learned nothing from the warrior code,” she mewed. Looking around, she saw that all of Dodge’s cats had been overpowered by her warriors. “This battle is over,” she continued. “Dodge, leave these cats alone or we will come back and fight you again. Stick, defend your hunting places—learn from SkyClan and protect your prey as well as your dens. Use those parts of the warrior code that will help you to live without shedding more blood.”
Stick said nothing, breathing hard and fixing Leafstar with a mutinous glare. But behind him Leafstar could see Shorty and Cora exchanging glances and nodding. They have learned something, and they will use that to make their life better.
“What?” Dodge stalked up, a truculent look in his eyes. “You’re not going to get away with this!” he growled at Stick.
Leafstar turned, gesturing with her tail toward Red’s body. The dying she-cat had her glazed eyes fixed on Harley; after a couple more heartbeats she gave a faint quiver and lay still, her paws and tail limp. Harley let out a groan from deep in his throat and buried his face in her fur.
“Do you think Stick can possibly suffer more than this?” Leafstar asked Dodge softly. “There is room here for all of you, if you divide it fairly. Carry on fighting to the death, and you’ll only lose what you love most.”
With the tip of her tail Leafstar signaled to her Clanmates, gathering them around her. All of them bore the marks of the battle, but she saw with a vast rush of relief that they were all there, all standing on their paws.
Sharpclaw padded up close to her side. She exchanged a long look with him, and he nodded solemnly.