“Get something to eat.” Tall Shadow nodded toward the prey heap beside the rock. “You must be hungry.”
“I guess.” He’d rather search the moor for Turtle Tail than eat. But Tall Shadow was right. His belly was growling like a bad-tempered badger. He padded toward the pile. A fat blackbird was balanced on top of a mound of mice and shrews. Clearly the other cats had been busy hunting while he’d been recovering in his nest.
Shattered Ice lay a tail-length away, chewing hungrily on a thrush. “There’s a vole near the bottom if you dig for it.”
Gray Wing nodded gratefully, touched that the tom remembered how much he enjoyed sweeter flesh. He pawed through the prey until he found the vole, then carried it to Shattered Ice and settled beside him. “Do you mind if I eat here?”
“Of course not.” Shattered Ice tore a mouthful of flesh from the thrush and chewed it noisily.
Gray Wing gnawed at his vole.
“We followed their trail to the river,” Shattered Ice mumbled through his mouthful. “Me and Hawk Swoop.” He swallowed. “It smells like Tom crossed with the kits, and then Turtle Tail, Thunder and Lightning Tail followed.”
“They crossed the river?” Fear sparked through Gray Wing’s fur. What if they’d drowned?
“They seem to have made it over safely,” Shattered Ice told him, as though reading his thoughts. “We found crossing stones running from one shore to the other and we could smell cat scent all over them. Just you wait. They’ll be back before sunset, full of stories about their exciting adventure.”
Gray Wing blinked at the gray-and-white tom, relieved to see his green eyes shining happily. He imagined Owl Eyes strutting around the clearing, telling everyone how he crossed a river. “They’ll be boasting about it for days.”
Tall Shadow padded to join them. “Have you thought about your meeting with Clear Sky?” She gazed at the round, pale moon. It was just starting to show as the sun began to set, transparent against the purple sky.
Shattered Ice grunted. “Just tell him if he moves his borders again, we’ll shred him.”
Tall Shadow shot him a piercing look. “I understand your frustration, Shattered Ice. But talk like that will provoke war. We want peace.”
“We don’t want to be pushed around season after season,” Shattered Ice growled.
Gray Wing’s pelt rippled along his spine. “Perhaps if I can get him to explain why he needs so much territory, we can come to an understanding.”
“He’s just greedy,” Shattered Ice muttered.
Gray Wing gazed at the ground. “He was never greedy.” Memories of playing with him in the snowy peaks sent pangs of sadness through him. “It must be something else that’s driving him.”
Tall Shadow met his gaze. “Two things drive all creatures,” she murmured. “Fear and greed. If it’s not greed, it must be fear.”
Shattered Ice snorted. “What’s he scared of?”
“Us?” Hope twitched in Gray Wing’s paws. “If I can persuade him he has nothing to fear from us—that we just want to live in peace on the moor—then he might back down.”
Tall Shadow nodded slowly. “But what if it’s something else he’s scared of?”
“He’s a coward,” Shattered Ice commented.
“Clear Sky’s no coward,” Gray Wing snapped.
“Then why’s he scared?” Shattered Ice hooked a feather from his mouth with a claw.
Gray Wing remembered all the losses his brother had suffered. Fluttering Bird, Bright Stream, and Storm. Even Thunder. Perhaps the thought of losing anyone else was more than Clear Sky could bear. He just needs reassurance. Gray Wing jumped to his paws, a plan flashing in his mind.
“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Tall Shadow gazed in surprise at the half-chewed vole.
“When we get back.”
“Back from where?” She blinked at him.
“I know what I’m going to say to Clear Sky,” Gray Wing told her. “But he won’t listen unless he feels at ease.”
“So?” Tall Shadow frowned.
“Come with me to the four trees.” Gray Wing flicked his tail. “Let’s check out the valley. I want to know every tail-length. I want to feel comfortable when I meet him and I want to find somewhere Clear Sky will feel safe. Somewhere he will listen. Somewhere he’ll feel at home.”
Shattered Ice stood and stretched. “I think you’re wasting your time,” he muttered. “Sitting under the right tree isn’t going to change Clear Sky.”
Gray Wing met the tom’s gaze. “We don’t have to change him, don’t you see? We just have to help him remember who he was.” He headed for the gap in the heather, pausing as he passed Acorn Fur. “Will you send someone to find me when Turtle Tail gets back with the kits?”
She nodded, eyes round. “I hope they’re okay.”
Lightning Tail’s with them. “Your brother will be fine,” he promised, heading out of the hollow.
“Where will you be?” Acorn Fur called after him.
“At the four trees.” Gray Wing broke into a run.
Tall Shadow caught up and fell in beside him. “Is your breathing okay?”
“Fine.” His chest felt clear and strong and a prickle of frustration jabbed his belly. Why had the sickness struck when Turtle Tail had needed him most?
He pushed the thought away. He had to concentrate on the four trees. Every cat in the hollow needed the meeting to be a success.
He ran across the moor, veering past heather, ducking gorse, following the slope up to where it met the rim of the hollow where the four trees stood.
The sun dipped from sight as he reached the top of the valley. Moonlight silvered the four great oaks standing at the bottom. Ferns rustled along its slopes as a light wind washed down from the moor.
Tall Shadow stopped beside him and shivered as she gazed at the branches below. “I’ll never get used to trees,” she murmured. “They hide the sky and stop the wind. They’re unnatural.”
Gray Wing glanced at her. “Perhaps I should tell that to Clear Sky. He might stop worrying about us trying to steal his forest.”
She purred. “If only it were that simple.”
Springing forward, she plunged down the slope. Gray Wing bounded after her. The grass here was long and brambles trailed between swaths of ferns. Trees sprouted so that Gray Wing had to swerve one way, then another, as he raced after Tall Shadow.
He slowed as he neared the bottom. A clearing opened before him, one oak at each corner and a great rock towering at one end. Tall Shadow padded toward it, craning to see its top. “It looks like it grew here,” she commented as Gray Wing caught up.
“I wonder if we could climb it?” Gray Wing padded around it, scanning its smooth sides until he caught sight of a ledge halfway up. He leaped, reaching it easily, then bounded onto the gently rounded summit.
The clearing spread ahead of him. “It’s like being back in the mountains up here!” As he called down to Tall Shadow, his thoughts whirled. He could suggest Clear Sky climb the rock with him. They could talk as they’d done on the mountain crags when they were younger. Perhaps then, Clear Sky would remember the cat he’d once been.
Claws scraped rock as Tall Shadow landed beside him. She circled him, staring out at the clearing. Overhead, leaves rustled and branches creaked.
Gray Wing stiffened, a thought sparking in his mind. “He’ll smell our scent and know we’ve been here!” It would make him suspicious.
“The meeting’s not until tomorrow night,” Tall Shadow soothed. “The wind and dew will have washed our scent clear.” She stared up through the leaves. Thin clouds scudded across the sky. “It might even have rained.”
Still, Gray Wing felt uncomfortably aware of his paws leaking scent into the rock. He scrambled down to the ledge and leaped to the ground. As Tall Shadow joined him, he turned, studying the slopes. “Every side’s covered with bushes except that one.” He padded toward one side of the hollow, clear of trees and brambles. Grass coated the slope from top to bottom, rippling like water in the moonlight. “That’s the approach I will use. Clear Sky won’t be alarmed if he can see me arrive.”