Gray Wing lashed his tail at Holly, who’d drawn protectively close to Jagged Peak. “Leave us to talk about this in private,” he snapped.
Holly opened her jaws to retort, then clearly thought better of it. She glanced questioningly at Jagged Peak, who gave a silent nod. After a brief hesitation Holly drew back a few paces and joined Mud Paws and Mouse Ear, who had heard the commotion and were watching from close by.
“I feel dreadful.” Clear Sky’s voice was breaking as he darted glances between Gray Wing and Jagged Peak. “This is all my fault.”
Gray Wing tried in vain to stop his body from trembling, with rage as much as fear for the injured kit. He fixed an icy glance on Jagged Peak. “No,” he told Clear Sky. “It’s not all your fault. Our brother here is just as much to blame as you are.”
Jagged Peak limped forward. “I am sorry, Gray Wing. I should have checked with you. But Sparrow Fur was so insistent,” he mewed defensively.
“If Sparrow Fur insisted she wanted to leap into a swollen river, would you let her do that?”
Gray Wing hissed at him. “If she insisted on eating one of those sick mice, would you encourage her?
You’re so sure that you’re better now, that you deserve to be a father, but you let a young kit leave our camp, alone and unprotected. Now she’s fighting for her life! You don’t deserve to have kits of your own!”
At those words, Holly leaped forward and confronted Gray Wing nose to nose. “Don’t you dare speak to Jagged Peak like that!” she snarled.
Too furious to respond, Gray Wing whirled away from her to face Jagged Peak. “Do you need your mate to stand up for you?” he asked mockingly. “I hope she’s not depending on you for any help when she has her kits.”
Hearing himself, Gray Wing felt his fur bristle with shame, but he was too angry to stop.
Then suddenly a paw came lashing out and caught him hard on the side of the jaw. Jagged Peak is fighting back! As he was wrestled to the ground, Gray Wing could feel hard muscles beneath the young cat’s pelt. Injured leg or not, Jagged Peak had been training recently.
For a moment the brothers tussled together on the ground. Then Gray Wing felt a paw in his side, thrusting him away, and heard Clear Sky’s voice. “Stop it, both of you! Do you think fighting helps?”
As Gray Wing staggered to his paws, he saw Holly watching all three of them, cold fury brewing in her eyes. “Do whatever you have to, but resolve this,” she hissed. “Stop fighting among yourselves.
And don’t you dare take your own pain out on Jagged Peak!” With those harsh words, she spun on her paws and stalked away.
Gray Wing could feel the shame radiating off his pelt as he watched her go.
“She’s right,” Clear Sky mewed. “I didn’t come here to watch you two fight. I came for your help.
Sparrow Fur is in bad shape, and I’m sure she would rather be home. I think she should come back to your camp. One Eye loathes her, for whatever reason, and until I can—”
“You’re not telling me you still welcome One Eye into your camp, after what he did?” Gray Wing asked, astounded.
“No! I told him I never wanted to see his miserable pelt again. But…” Clear Sky’s words dried up and he raked the tough moorland grass with his claws. For a few heartbeats he stared at the ground, looking pained, then cleared his throat and continued. “Until I can get my group settled again, I don’t think Sparrow Fur should be there.”
“You mean her life is in danger?” Gray Wing challenged him. He could feel anger swelling up inside him again. “Because you can’t be certain you can protect her from One Eye?”
Clear Sky’s only response was a helpless shrug.
For the first time in his life, Gray Wing realized, he felt little respect for his brother. He’s been cowed by a dangerous, violent rogue. Unite or die, Gray Wing thought, suppressing a sigh. That’s what the spirit-cats told us. But they didn’t warn us that there were cats in this forest we should never unite with. And now poor Sparrow Fur has paid the price.
Gray Wing pushed his brother aside and stormed past him, heading back into the hollow. “I need to go and rescue my kit,” he snarled over his shoulder. “I helped raise her from a newborn, and in her mother’s memory I won’t allow her to be treated like this.”
Gray Wing headed straight for Wind Runner’s den, where he found Pebble Heart looking after Morning Whisker, still being careful not to touch her sores or breathe her breath. Owl Eyes was looking on, helping to chew up the tansy. Gray Wing beckoned them over with a wave of his tail.
“I have some upsetting news. Sparrow Fur has been hurt,” he explained gently to the two kits.
“She’s in Clear Sky’s camp.”
Seeing the dismayed glance that the two little toms exchanged, Gray Wing knew he wasn’t prepared to tell them that their father was dead. Maybe we can talk about that in private when we’re walking across the moor. “I need to bring her back home,” he went on. “Will you come and help me?
I know that seeing you will make her feel better.”
Owl Eyes nodded eagerly. “Of course I’ll come, Gray Wing. Can we go now?”
Pebble Heart looked anxious, but to Gray Wing’s surprise he said nothing.
“Is something wrong?” Gray Wing asked him.
Pebble Heart cast a glance over his shoulder to where Morning Whisker was lying. “Something is telling me to stay here,” he confessed at last. “Morning Whisker needs me right now.”
“But…” Gray Wing could hardly find the words. “Your own sister is injured and alone.”
“Yes, injured,” Pebble Heart agreed, beginning to sound more confident. “But not alone. Clear Sky’s cats will look after her, and you’ll bring her back to the hollow. But Morning Whisker…” He cast another glance over his shoulder at the sick kit, and lowered his voice. “This is really serious. I feel it in the depths of my belly. It would be wrong for me to leave now.”
Gray Wing frowned, but he knew there was no point in arguing. Pebble Heart had made up his mind. “Okay, if you must,” he responded. “Come on, Owl Eyes, let’s go.”
Clear Sky fell into step with Gray Wing as he and Owl Eyes left the hollow. “I’ll run ahead to let my cats know that you’re coming,” he meowed. “They can start to get Sparrow Fur ready to make the journey back with you.”
Gray Wing gave a curt nod, and felt relieved when Clear Sky raced off. He hoped he could forgive his brother someday, but right now, he wasn’t sure that he even wanted to look at him again.
“Why was Sparrow Fur so keen to visit Tom?” he asked Owl Eyes as they headed across the moor.
Owl Eyes looked uncomfortable. “We’ve always been curious about our father,” he mewed at last. “It’s hard, only knowing about half your kin, especially when your mother is dead and you feel like an orphan.”
Gray Wing felt his heart cracking open like a dead tree in the frost. Doesn’t it count for anything that I did my best to be a father to these kits?
He didn’t need to speak. Owl Eyes glanced at him and seemed to realize his mistake at once. “Oh, but of course we love you, Gray Wing!” His eyes were wide and guilty as he saw the pain in the older cat’s expression. “We will always love you. It’s not… it’s just…”
The words fell like stones, giving Gray Wing no reassurance. “I’m not your father, am I?” he asked, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
“We just want to know… our other father. The father whose blood we carry. Is that too much to ask?” Owl Eyes pleaded.