Total silence met his words. Firestar could hear a faint breeze stirring the leafless branches of the four oak trees, and in the distance a mutter of thunder. He gaped at Tigerstar. A single Clan in the forest? When StarClan had always decreed that there should be four?
“Leopardstar has already agreed to join RiverClan with ShadowClan,” Tigerstar told them. “We shall be joint leaders of a greater Clan, to be known as TigerClan.”
Joint leaders? Firestar didn’t believe that for a moment. Tigerstar would never share his leadership with any cat.
Now Tigerstar turned to Firestar and Tallstar. “We have come to invite you to join the new Clan,” he meowed, his amber eyes glittering. “Let us rule the forest together in friendship and peace.”
Before he had finished speaking, Tallstar stepped forward, his fur bristling aggressively. But it was not to Tigerstar that he spoke; instead he addressed all the cats in the clearing below.
“TigerClan was the name of one of the great Clans of ancient times.” Tallstar’s voice rang out as strong and clear as if he were still a young cat. “Tigerstar has no right to use it now. Nor does he have the right to change the number of Clans in the forest. We have lived as four Clans for innumerable seasons, following the warrior code laid down for us by StarClan. To throw aside our ancient ways would bring disaster.” Turning to Tigerstar, he hissed, “I’ll die before I join my Clan to yours!”
Tigerstar blinked slowly. Firestar could see a dangerous gleam in his eyes, but his voice was calm as he replied, “Tallstar, I understand. These are important matters, and an older cat like yourself will need time to see that what I’m suggesting is for the good of all our Clans.”
“I’m not so old that I’ve lost my wits, you piece of fox dung!” Tallstar snarled.
Tigerstar flattened his ears, but he kept his temper. “And what does the new leader of ThunderClan think?” he sneered. All the hatred he had ever felt toward the flam e-colored warrior was contained in those words, and even the air felt scorched.
Firestar’s veins throbbed as though they were filled with ice as he imagined the future. His territory and Tallstar’s lay between Tigerstar’s and Leopardstar’s. With ShadowClan and RiverClan in alliance, the two remaining Clans could be crushed between them.
Glancing down, Firestar saw unease spread among the ThunderClan and WindClan warriors. Sandstorm was on her paws, yowling, “Never, Firestar, never!” but some of the WindClan cats were talking urgently to each other, as if they were considering Tigerstar’s proposition. The dark tabby warrior had been clever, Firestar realized. Much of what he had said was true—times were growing harder, for all the reasons he had given. Maybe some cats would believe their problems could be solved by joining together as one Clan. But Firestar was convinced that the cats of the forest could fulfill their destiny only if there were four Clans. And even if he had considered for one moment the idea of joining together as one, he would have rejected it if Tigerstar was to be the new Clan’s leader.
“Well, Firestar,” Tigerstar rumbled, with another swift glance at the storm-dark sky. “Have you lost your tongue?”
Firestar took a couple of paces that brought him to Tallstar’s side. “I’ll never let you take over my Clan,” he spat at Tigerstar.
“Make us,” Tallstar invited. “If you can.”
“Make you?” Tigerstar’s amber eyes widened; for a heartbeat he looked almost genuinely hurt. “I came here in peace with a plan to help us all. Tallstar, Firestar, I want you to recognize that this is the right decision and come to me willingly. But don’t delay too long,” he added, a hint of menace in his voice. “StarClan will not wait forever.”
Fury blazed up in Firestar. How dared Tigerstar claim that his attempt to take over the whole forest was the will of StarClan?
Spinning around, he turned his back on the ShadowClan leader and paced to the front of the rock, where he could look down on all the assembled cats. The time had come for him to speak. When he had finished, Tigerstar would be revealed for what he was—a murderer who would wade through the blood of countless cats to get what he wanted. Let Leopardstar see the kind of cat she had trusted!
“Cats of WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan!” Firestar yowled. “I can stay silent no longer. You cannot trust Tigerstar any more than you would trust a cornered badger.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a swift movement from Tigerstar, a bunching of muscles under the rippling tabby pelt, but then the ShadowClan leader glanced at the sky again, controlled himself, and went on listening with a look of deliberate indifference.
“I know many of you must have wondered why Tigerstar left ThunderClan,” Firestar went on. “You want to know the truth? This cat is power-hungry and dangerous, and he is willing to murder other cats to get what he wants.”
He broke off as lightning stabbed down from the sky, a blazing claw of white fire that raked the forest. Thunder crashed overhead, drowning Firestar’s words; it sounded as if the Great Rock itself were being torn up.
“A sign! A sign!” Tigerstar yowled. He gazed up at the sky, his yellow eyes glowing in the light of the moon that still shone between the gathering clouds. “I thank you, StarClan, for showing us your will. This Gathering is over.”
Calling a command to his cats to follow him, he bunched his muscles to leap down from the Great Rock. Before he sprang he turned his head, eyes narrowed with hatred. “Bad luck, kittypet,” he spat. “Think about my offer. It’s your last chance to save those miserable cats.”
Before Firestar had the chance to respond, the ShadowClan leader launched himself from the Great Rock and disappear e d into the bushes that lined the hollow. ShadowClan cats poured after him. Leopard star jumped down in her turn and gathered the warriors of RiverClan.
Firestar and Tallstar faced each other, shocked and bewildered, as lightning stabbed down again. A gust of wind buffeted the rock, almost carrying Firestar off his paws, and rain poured from the sky as the storm broke.
Almost blinded by the lashing rain, Firestar half jumped, half slithered down the side of the rock and streaked across the open ground to the shelter of the bushes, calling to his warriors as he went. Moments later he found himself crouching beneath a hawthorn bush with Graystripe and Sandstorm huddled close to him. Shaking rain from his pelt, he looked around for Tallstar, but the WindClan leader had not followed him.
The rain was striking the ground so hard that the drops scattered into a mist of spray. The four oaks thrashed and groaned in the wind. Grasses and ferns were flattened in the fury of the storm. But the chaos in the clearing was no worse than the chaos in Firestar’s mind.
“I can’t believe this!” he meowed, raising his voice above the howling wind. “I didn’t think even Tigerstar would dare to claim power over all the forest.”
“But what can we do about it?” asked Graystripe. “You didn’t get to tell the truth about Tigerstar.”
“It’s not Firestar’s fault that the storm broke,” Sandstorm pointed out, her hackles rising.
“Too late to worry about it,” Firestar told them. “That prey’s killed and ea t en now. We have to decide what we do next.”
“What is there to decide?” snarled Sandstorm. The light of battle shone in her green eyes. “We fight, of course—until we’ve driven that piece of crowfood out of the forest for good.”
Firestar nodded. Though he said nothing, he couldn’t help thinking of Bluestar’s prophecy during his dream at the Moonstone.
Four will become two. Lion and Tiger will meet in battle.
“Tiger” must mean the new TigerClan, but who or what is “Lion”? Firestar pushed the question aside as he remembered Bluestar’s ominous parting words.