“No!” Firestar repeated in an agonized whisper. “We’ll be slaughtered if we show ourselves now. We won’t leave your kits, Graystripe, I promise we won’t, but we’ve got to wait for the right moment to rescue them.”
Graystripe went on struggling for a moment longer, then subsided with a grunt of agreement. Firestar let him go, nodding to Ravenpaw to do the same.
“Listen,” he murmured. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”
While they had been holding Graystripe down, Tigerstar had begun to speak, his voice drowning the noise of their scuffle among the reeds.
“Cats of TigerClan,” he began, “you all know the hardships that we have to face. The cold of leaf-bare threatens us. Twolegs threaten us. The other two Clans in the forest, who have not yet realized the wisdom of joining with TigerClan, are a threat to us.”
Firestar’s tail-tip twitched in anger and he flashed a look at Graystripe. Tigerstar was the threat! All that ThunderClan and WindClan wanted was to get on with their lives in peace, according to the ancient traditions of StarClan and the warrior code.
But Graystripe’s burning gaze was fixed on his two kits, cowering at the base of the Bonehill; he was unaware of Firestar’s glance.
“Surrounded as we are by enemies,” Tigerstar went on, “we must be sure of the loyalty of our own warriors. There is no room in TigerClan for the halfhearted. No room for cats who might waver in battle, or worse still, turn on their own Clan mates. TigerClan will not tolerate traitors!”
Except the traitor who leads it, Firestar thought. Or Darkstripe,
who would have watched his own Clan be devoured by dogs.
The cats in the clearing broke out into yowls of agreement. Tigerstar allowed the clamor to continue for a moment before signaling with his tail for silence. The noise died and he began to speak again.
“Especially we will not tolerate the abomination of half-Clan cats. No loyal warrior would ever take a mate from another Clan, diluting the pure blood that our warrior ancestors decreed for us. Bluestar and Graystripe of ThunderClan both flouted the warrior code when they took mates from RiverClan. The kits of such a union, like the ones you see in front of you now, can never be trusted.”
He paused, and his deputy Blackfoot yowled out, “Filth! Filth!”
Darkstripe took up the cry, and a chorus of yowls and screeches echoed his words. This time Tigerstar let them fall quiet in their own time, gazing out over the cats below him with a look of calm satisfaction.
He and Blackfoot must have rehearsed all this, Firestar realized in horror.
He noticed that it was the ShadowClan warriors who yowled the loudest. The RiverClan cats joined in less enthusiastically; Firestar guessed they might not all fully agree with the ShadowClan leader, but they did not dare stay silent.
The two half-Clan apprentices flattened themselves close to the ground, as if they were afraid of being swept away in the gale of the Clan’s fury. Stonefur crouched over them as if he could protect them, gazing around with defiance in his eyes.
Where is Mistyfoot? Firestar wondered. Tigerstar knows she’s half-Clan too. What has he done with her?
Tigerstar spoke again. “Half-Clan cats have been tolerated until now, but the time for tolerance has passed. There is no place in TigerClan for warriors who owe allegiance to two Clans. How can we trust them not to betray our secrets, or even turn on us and kill us? Can we expect StarClan to fight on our side if we allow those who are not pure in heart and blood to walk freely among us?”
“No!” Darkstripe screeched, flexing his claws and lashing his tail from side to side.
“No, my friends. We must get rid of the abominations in our midst! Then our Clan will be clean again and we can be sure of the favor of StarClan.”
Stonefur sprang to his paws. He was so weak that he stumbled and almost fell, but he managed to stay upright and face Tigerstar.
“No cat has ever questioned my loyalty,” he snarled. “Come down here and tell me to my face that I’m a traitor!”
Firestar wanted to wail aloud at the blue-gray warrior’s hopeless courage. Tigerstar could have swatted him aside with one paw, and yet Stonefur still remained defiant.
“Mistyfoot and I never even knew that Bluestar was our mother until a couple of moons ago,” Stonefur insisted. “We have been loyal RiverClan warriors all our lives. Let any cat who thinks different come out here and prove it!”
Tigerstar angrily swept his tail toward Leopardstar. “You showed poor judgment when you chose this cat as your deputy,” he growled. “RiverClan is choked by the weeds of treachery, and we must root them out.”
To Firestar’s dismay, Leopardstar bowed her head. The gesture showed just how far Tigerstar’s power extended, that the once-formidable RiverClan leader was unable or unwilling to protect her own deputy.
Yet the dark tabby’s words gave Firestar hope. It sounded as if Tigerstar was about to banish Stonefur and the two apprentices. If he did, then Firestar and his friends could wait for them at the border, ready to take them back to ThunderClan, where they would be safe.
When Tigerstar spoke again, his voice was measured and cold. “Stonefur, I will give you a chance to show your loyalty to TigerClan. Kill these two half-Clan apprentices.”
An eerie silence spread through the clearing, broken only by Graystripe’s gasp of outrage. Luckily the TigerClan warriors were so intent on the scene in front of them that no cat heard him.
“Firestar!” Graystripe whispered. “We must do something!” His claws dug into the ground and his muscles bunched, ready to spring, yet his eyes were fixed on Firestar as if he would not attack without his leader’s order.
Ravenpaw’s eyes, bright with distress, turned to Firestar. “We can’t just watch them die!”
Firestar could feel his fur prickling with tension. He knew he could not stay crouching here in hiding while Graystripe’s kits were slaughtered a few foxlengths away. If all else failed, he was ready to give up his life in a battle to save them.
“Wait just a moment,” he murmured. “Let’s see what Stonefur does.”
The blue-gray warrior had turned to face Leopardstar. “I take orders from you,” he growled. “You must know this is wrong. What do you want me to do?”
For a heartbeat Leopardstar looked uncertain, and again Firestar began to hope that she would take a stand against Tigerstar and stop the destruction of her Clan. But he had underestimated the strength of her ambition, and her misguided faith that Tigerstar offered an invincible future. “These are difficult times,” she meowed at last. “As we fight for survival we must be able to count on every one of our Clan mates. There is no room for divided loyalties. Do as Tigerstar tells you.”
Stonefur held her gaze for a moment more, a moment that to Firestar seemed to last for several moons. Then he faced the two apprentices and they shrank away from him, their eyes glazed with terror.
Stormpaw gave his sister a comforting lick. “We’ll fight him,” he promised. “I won’t let him kill us.”
Brave words, Firestar thought desperately. Stonefur was a skilled, experienced warrior, and even in his weakened state he was a formidable threat to two half-trained apprentices who had obviously been ill-treated and imprisoned as well.
The RiverClan warrior gave a little nod to Stormpaw, just like any mentor approving of his apprentice’s courage. Then he turned to look up at Tigerstar again.
“You’ll have to kill me first, Tigerstar!” he spat.
Narrowing his eyes, Tigerstar flicked his tail at Darkstripe. “Very well. Kill him,” he ordered.