But I’ve got plenty to say, too, he thought, pushing aside the doubts Whitestorm had raised. When I’ve finished, no cat in the forest—not even his own Clan—will trust Tigerstar again.
Chapter 12
Firestar paused at the top of the hollow before leading his cats down to the Gathering. The night was still. Clouds were building up on the horizon, so that Firestar had begun to wonder if StarClan was going to hide the moon to show that it was not their will for the Gathering to take place.
But for now the moon rose high above the clouds, and the scent of cats drifted up to Firestar from the hollow below.
“Only WindClan so far,” murmured Graystripe, who was crouched at Firestar’s shoulder. “What’s keeping the others?”
Firestar shrugged. “StarClan knows. Personally, I wouldn’t care if Tigerstar never showed up.”
He signaled with his tail and led his warriors as they raced down through the bushes and into the clearing at the center of the hollow. As Graystripe had said, only WindClan cats were there. Firestar spotted their leader, Tallstar, seated with his deputy, Deadfoot, near the base of the Great Rock.
“Greetings, Firestar,” Tallstar mewed, dipping his head courteously as Firestar approached. “Tornear told me he met you on your way to Highstones. We grieve for Bluestar.”
“So do her own Clan,” Firestar responded, bowing his head in turn. “She was a noble leader.”
“But you will be a worthy successor,” meowed the black-and-white tom, surprising Firestar by the warmth of his tone. “You’ve served your Clan well.”
“I-I hope to serve it even better in future,” Firestar stammered.
Tallstar nodded once more in response, and sprang up to the top of the rock. Before following him, Firestar glanced around at his own cats. They were already circling am o n g the WindClan warriors and beginning to exchange their news. Firestar was pleased to see that the two Clans seem e d friendly toward each other, in spite of the recent clash over missing prey. Worried as he was about ShadowClan and RiverClan, it was good to think that he might find allies in WindClan.
Waving with his tail toward Onewhisker and his apprentice, Gorsepaw, who were settling down to talk with Sandstorm, Firestar jumped up to stand beside Tallstar on the top of the Great Rock.
He had stood here once before, when he took Bluestar’s place while she was ill after the fire, but he was still not used to looking down on his cats from such a great height, nor seeing their eyes gleam pale from reflected moonlight as they stared up at him. Firestar’s tension increased as he thought about what was to come, and the confrontation with Tigerstar that would surely happen before moonset.
“ShadowClan and RiverClan are late,” he remarked.
Tallstar twitched his ears in agreement. “Clouds threaten the moon,” he pointed out. A trace of anxiety crossed his face. “Perhaps StarClan is angry.”
Looking up, Firestar saw that the clouds he had noticed earlier were spreading farther across the sky.
The air tasted damp, and his fur prickled with expectation. What would it mean, Firestar wondered, if StarClan veiled the moon and Tigerstar was left to plot in secret until the next Gathering?
“Tallstar,” he began, deciding that the time had come to confide in the WindClan leader and ask for his advice. “I’m worried about what Tigerstar might be planning—”
He never finished. A triumphant yowling from the top of the hollow interrupted him, and a heartbeat later more cats raced into the clearing as ShadowClan and RiverClan arrived together, their cats fanning out below him. Tigerstar reached the top of the Great Rock in a single bound, and Leopardstar scrambled up beside him.
“Cats of all Clans!” Tigerstar declared, not waiting to greet Tallstar and Firestar or discuss which of the leaders should speak first. “I have news for you. Listen well, for great change is coming to the forest.”
Firestar stared at the ShadowClan leader in confusion. When Tigerstar first mentioned news, he had thought for a moment he was referring to Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s half-Clan heritage. Yet that would not merit such a spectacular arrival or make Tigerstar talk about great change.
Below them in the clearing there was dead silence. Al l the cats stared up at the Great Rock, their eyes wide as they waited for Tigerstar to explain. Every hair on Firestar’s pelt began to bristle, and he did not know whether it was due to the tension of the assembled warriors or the threatening rain clouds.
“Great change,” Tigerstar repeated. “And StarClan has shown me that it is ShadowClan’s task to prepare every cat in the forest to meet it.”
“Every cat?” Firestar heard the quiet mutter from Tallstar. The WindClan leader took a step forward. “Tigerstar—”
“ShadowClan has the favor of StarClan,” Tigerstar swept on, ignoring the interruption. “We are blessed because we survived the sickness, and I have received the blessing of our warrior ancestors most of all because it was my task to restore the Clan and make it great again.”
Oh, yes? Firestar thought. He refused to believe that StarClan were showing favor to Tigerstar after all that he had done to his birth Clan. Glancing down into the clearing, he looked for Runningnose. The ShadowClan medicine cat had done his best to support his Clan during Nightstar’s ill-fated leadership, and Firestar had an idea that he was not entirely happy with Tigerstar as the old tom’s replacement. He wondered what Runningnose thought of the announcement Tigerstar had just made, but though his gaze searched the clearing carefully he could see no sign of the medicine cat.
Left at home, Firestar asked himself, so he can’t deny what Ti g e r s tar claims?
At the same time, he couldn’t help noticing that Stonefur was also missing, and he wondered if the RiverClan deputy was in more trouble because of his half-Clan parentage, and what he thought about his leader’s decision to ally her Clan with Tigerstar.
One cat Firestar did spot in the clearing below was Darkstripe. The former ThunderClan warrior was sitting beside Blackfoot, the ShadowClan deputy, and his eyes shone with admiration as he looked up at Tigerstar. It was clear that he had gone straight to his old ally after being driven out of ThunderClan.
“All of you know,” Tigerstar went on, “that changes have already come to us—unwelcome changes beyond our control. Last leaf-bare much of the forest was covered by floods. A fire swept through ThunderClan territory.” As he mentioned the fire he flashed a look at Firestar, who would have liked to claw the arrogance off his enemy’s battle-scarred face. “Twolegs are moving into our territory in ever greater numbers. Life is growing harder, and as the forest changes around us, we must change to meet the crisis.”
Yowls of support rose from below, though Firestar noticed that they came only from ShadowClan and RiverClan cats. The warriors of ThunderClan and WindClan were exchanging stunned glances, as if they couldn’t work out what Tigerstar was trying to say. Firestar felt just as shocked. He had been so certain that Tigerstar would reveal Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s secret at this Gathering, and demand his own kits, Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw, from ThunderClan. Firestar had braced himself, but now he was left to face a completely different challenge.
“StarClan have shown me the way,” Tigerstar meowed with a glance at the sky, where the storm clouds were massing more thickly still. “To survive the hardship ahead of us, we must join together. As four Clans, we waste our energies in striving against each other. As one, we would be strong. We must unite!”