His last few words were almost drowned out by enthusiastic yowling from Owl Eyes and Jagged Peak.
“We’ve got to go and fetch some!”
“I’ll go!”
Clear Sky waved his tail in a hopeless bid for silence, then raised his voice to ring out over the young cats’ clamor. “Okay, okay, but that’s enough! What about One Eye? We have to deal with him too.”
“That’s right,” Tall Shadow agreed. “And don’t forget that in order to cross the Thunderpath to where the Blazing Star grows, we have to go through the forest. I don’t think One Eye will let us do that without a fight. He’ll have his rogues guarding the boundaries for sure.”
“Let’s discuss this as a group,” Thunder suggested. “Clear Sky, we need to know exactly what’s going on in the forest, and then we might be able to come up with some ideas.”
He bounded off to join Tall Shadow, who leaped up onto the lookout rock and called the rest of the group to gather around it. Gray Wing and the others with him padded over, while Dappled Pelt emerged yawning from her den. Lightning Tail and Shattered Ice, who were sharing a rabbit at the other side of the hollow, left their prey and hurried across, tongues swiping over their whiskers. Mud
Paws and Mouse Ear followed, breaking off their training session with a final pounce on their imaginary prey.
Pebble Heart was the only cat not to answer the summons. Clear Sky spotted him slipping into
Holly’s den, and realized the kit must be taking care of her.
By now the last streaks of sunset had faded from the horizon, and darkness had gathered. The first stars showed frostily in a sky streaked with cloud. Clear Sky looked up at them and wondered if the spirit-cats knew what was happening in the forest. We can’t expect any help from them, he thought.
“Well, Clear Sky,” Tall Shadow began when the group was assembled. “What do you want from us?”
Clear Sky stood at the foot of the rock and faced the other cats. “First, to thank you all for allowing me to come back to the hollow,” he meowed. “I feel—”
“Never mind how you feel,” Jagged Peak interrupted sharply. “We need to know what we’re dealing with. Tell us everything you know about One Eye.”
Clear Sky had to pause for a moment before answering. Whenever he thought about the vicious rogue he became so full of rage that he found it hard to speak. “He’s a bully and a murderer,” he spat out at last. “He’s a rogue with fierce battle skills, and he’s hungry for power. He knows this area very well; he claimed to know about the sickness—”
“Then he won’t be easy to defeat,” Shattered Ice mewed thoughtfully. “We’ll need to come up with a really good plan.”
Clear Sky turned to the one cat he knew he could trust with his life: Gray Wing. “What do you think we should do?” he asked.
Gray Wing blinked thoughtfully. While waiting for his reply, Clear Sky noticed that Thunder was watching Gray Wing closely, too.
Please tell us what to do. Clear Sky had never had to beg his brother out loud before. Would this be the first time?
“It’s too soon to launch an attack on One Eye,” Gray Wing meowed. Then he raised his tail to silence Jagged Peak, who was opening his jaws to interrupt. “No—listen to me. One Eye knows that Clear Sky has fled the forest.”
Clear Sky nodded, inwardly wincing to hear his retreat described like that.
“So he’ll be able to guess that you’ve gone for help,” Gray Wing continued, gazing around at the assembled cats. “Don’t you think he’ll be ready for us? With all those rogue cats he has at his command now? We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Just try us,” Mud Paws growled.
“Mouse-brain!” Mouse Ear flicked Mud Paws’s ear with his tail-tip. “What do you suggest instead?” he asked Gray Wing.
“We need to be patient,” Gray Wing replied. “It will take courage to do what I’m about to suggest. Are you in?” He looked each of his denmates in the eye, one by one.
Yowls of enthusiasm rose up from every cat, splitting the peaceful night as if they rose as far as the shivering stars above. Warm admiration flooded over Clear Sky.
Gray Wing really knows how to get cats on his side! If only I could do that. If only I hadn’t relied so much on drawing boundaries, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position now.
Then Clear Sky gave his pelt a shake, hoping to clear his mind of regret as he cleared his fur of dirt and fluff. It was too late to be thinking about what he could, or should, have done.
“This is what I think we should do.” The other cats drew more closely around him as Gray Wing continued. “We should go after the Blazing Star. The samples we brought back before all dried up before we could figure out how to use it. Holly needs it badly, and if we have it we can heal any other cats who fall ill. That means we’ll be in a stronger position if—and I mean if—we do decide to take on One Eye.”
“But the Blazing Star is on the other side of the Thunderpath,” Owl Eyes protested, his eyes stretching wide with apprehension.
Gray Wing cast him a pitying glance. “Are you giving up already?”
“No!” Owl Eyes meowed indignantly. “I just think we should be careful. Cats have been killed on the Thunderpath.” His voice shook as he added, “I don’t want any more cats to die.”
Sparrow Fur stretched out a paw and brushed it comfortingly along her littermate’s side.
“It’s true that cats have died,” Gray Wing agreed. “But there are many of us who have crossed Thunderpaths and survived. And some of us have been to where the Blazing Star grows and survived.
It’s vital that we fetch the Blazing Star. If we can’t cure this illness, then sooner or later, we will all die. It’s as simple as that.”
“You’re right, Gray Wing.” Lightning Tail rose to his paws from where he had been sitting at the back of the group. “It’s a risk worth taking, but only if we’re sure about the Blazing Star. How do we know it’s a healing herb?”
“Star Flower told me,” Thunder replied.
“That cat!” Every hair on Lightning Tail’s pelt began to bristle. “And you believe her?”
“I do!” Thunder sprang to his paws and faced the young black tom. “I believe every word she said.”
“Then you’re even more mouse-brained than I thought,” Lightning Tail retorted.
“You don’t even know her!” Thunder meowed angrily. “You don’t like her based on what? A
random feeling that you can’t explain?”
Clear Sky listened in surprise to the young toms’ hostile words. I thought those two were friends.
Now tension was thrilling between them, and more cats were turning to one another, muttering in low voices, as if they were as reluctant as Lightning Tail to trust Star Flower.
I don’t know this cat, Clear Sky thought. But she certainly rouses some strong feelings!
“That’s enough!” Gray Wing’s voice was full of authority. “Lightning Tail, you’re right that we have no reason to trust Star Flower—but we have no reason to distrust her, either. And if we don’t do something soon, Holly will die.”
His words silenced all protests. Lightning Tail gave an uneasy shrug and sat down again.
“I’ll lead the expedition,” Thunder stated, taking a pace forward to stand beside Gray Wing. He blinked in surprise as Gray Wing shook his head.
“We need cats to guard the hollow,” Gray Wing explained. “We still have no idea what One Eye may have planned.”
Reluctantly, Thunder nodded.
“Jagged Peak,” Gray Wing began, turning to the gray tabby tom, “will you lead the party across the Thunderpath?”