“Wait!” Jayfeather dashed after her. “How can I convince them?”
Brambleberry glanced back. “You already know the answer.” Her voice echoed as she reached the edge of the hollow. “Three must become four to save all the Clans.”
Jayfeather stared as her white pelt vanished into the darkness. He glanced back at the Moonpool. It reflected only the starlit sky. Blinking, he tried to wake from his vision, and the hollow disappeared. Relieved, Jayfeather welcomed back his blindness.
Then something flashed at the edge of his vision.
I’m not blind! I’m still dreaming!
Shapes moved around him. Trees towered on every side. Darkness clung to everything.
“You won’t see us coming,” a voice whispered in his ear.
Jayfeather jerked away. A pelt brushed against him from the other side. Terrified, he turned, trying to see who was there. But the shapes kept moving, too dark to make out.
A growl sounded behind him. “Your death will come slowly and painfully.”
Jayfeather spun around, straining his eyes into the trees.
“There is nothing you can do to prevent it.”
I know that voice! He tasted the air, the scent curling his tongue. He’d met this cat before, in the Dark Forest with Yellowfang. “Brokenstar?”
A shadow froze in front of him. Amber eyes gleamed from the darkness. Jayfeather jumped backward.
“Scared yet?” Brokenstar taunted.
Jayfeather lifted his chin. “We’re ready for you!”
“Really?” The eyes blinked. “I think some of your Clanmates are more ready than you know.”
“What do you mean?” Jayfeather stiffened against the shiver that clawed his spine.
“Listen.”
Jayfeather pricked his ears.
“Line up!” Somewhere in the trees, a tom was hissing orders. “Unsheathe your claws and prepare to attack!”
“They’re training,” Brokenstar explained.
“Which attack move do we use?”
Jayfeather’s fur bushed up as he recognized Blossomfall’s mew.
“The throat grip might work.” That was Birchfall!
“Not straight for the throat!” Breezepelt of WindClan snarled. “Death shouldn’t come too quickly. We must terrify our enemies before we kill them.”
“If we shred the cats in front it’ll unnerve those behind,” Tigerheart added.
“First scare them, then scar them.”
“Nice one, Icewing.” Beetlewhisker congratulated his Clanmate.
This was worse than Jayfeather had imagined. We’ve lost so many to the darkness! Jayfeather thought in horror. The Clans must fight as one, more fiercely than ever before, if they were going to defeat the Dark Forest army.
Pelts brushed bushes, fur snagging on thorns. Paws thrummed the ground. They’re coming! Jayfeather unsheathed his claws as he heard cats approaching swiftly through the trees. Hawkfrost broke from the shadows first. Behind him raced ranks of warriors, lean and low to the ground. Jayfeather scanned their faces. He recognized no one. He saw only eyes glittering with cruelty. These were different cats, Dark Forest warriors. They streamed toward him, teeth bared.
Jayfeather tried to run but his paws were frozen. As the first wave flooded around him, buffeting him, growls rumbling from every throat, Jayfeather blinked open his eyes.
He was blind again. The Moonpool lapped at his nose. With relief he felt smooth rock beneath his paws. His pelt was drenched with stinking dew, his breath fast as he struggled to his feet.
A voice startled him. “Jayfeather?”
“Mothwing?” Still struggling to push away his vision, Jayfeather tasted the air. The cold stone tang of the hollow was warmed by the scent of the RiverClan medicine cat.
“Are you all right?” Her whiskers brushed his cheeks as she leaned close.
“I’m fine.” Jayfeather shook his pelt and frowned. Why was Mothwing here? Although she was skilled with herbs and could treat any sickness, she had no connection with StarClan. She’d stopped coming to the half-moon Gatherings ages ago, letting her apprentice, Willowshine, share tongues with RiverClan’s ancestors instead.
“Are you the only one who came?” she meowed.
Jayfeather sat down. “Yes.”
“Willowshine refused.” Mothwing padded to the edge of the pool and Jayfeather heard her sniffing the water. “What is going on with StarClan? Willowshine told me they’d ordered her to stay away from the other medicine cats.” Her paws scuffed the stone as she turned to face Jayfeather. “It doesn’t make sense. Our shared code helps the Clans fight sickness. In the past it’s helped keep the peace.”
Jayfeather fixed his blind gaze on her. “Our code is no longer enough. StarClan is frightened.”
Surprise pulsed from Mothwing. “Of what?”
“The Dark Forest.” Jayfeather wondered whether to share what he knew. If Mothwing didn’t believe her ancestors lived on in the stars, she certainly wouldn’t believe in a forest filled with wicked cats. And yet, perhaps her lack of belief might be helpful. She couldn’t be touched by either StarClan or the Dark Forest warriors.
What if she’s the fourth cat!
Mothwing padded around him. “Willowshine says there will be a battle between StarClan and the Dark Forest.”
“She’s right,” Jayfeather meowed. “But when it comes, it won’t be just in our dreams; it’ll be real. It’ll be fought between living warriors on Clan territory.”
Mothwing halted. “How can that be?”
“The Dark Forest warriors have been training Clan cats as they sleep.” Jayfeather waited for disbelief to cloud Mothwing’s thoughts but, though fear sparked beneath her pelt, her mind was like a wide-open sky.
“Some of my Clanmates have been acting strange,” she murmured. “Restless and argumentative.”
Jayfeather pricked his ears. “Who?”
“Hollowflight, Icewing—”
“What about Beetlewhisker?”
Mothwing shifted her paws. “How did you know?”
Jayfeather ignored her question. There wasn’t time. “We need to unite the Clans.” He began to pace. “The battle won’t be fought over boundaries this time. Our very survival will be at stake.”
Mothwing’s breath quickened. “What can I do to help?”
Her offer sent a rush of hope through Jayfeather, but he knew he had to be honest. “Hawkfrost is involved.”
“My brother?” Mothwing’s tail swished over the rock. “How?”
“He has chosen darkness over light.”
Grief flared from Mothwing but she pushed it away. “I am not my brother,” she declared. “I have always chosen a different path from him. My loyalty is to living Clanmates, not dead littermates.”
“So you’d fight him if you had to?”
“Fight him? He’s already dead!”
“But the living and dead are training together to destroy the Clans!” Jayfeather pictured his Clanmates training in the Dark Forest. They can’t know what they’re doing, surely? No cat could persuade Birchfall or Blossomfall to harm their Clanmates! “They are using our own Clanmates against us.”
Mothwing’s paws scuffed on the stone. “How will we know who to trust?”
Jayfeather let out a slow breath. “We won’t until the battle begins. But if we can stop StarClan from driving the Clans apart, we stand a chance of winning.”
“I can’t help you change what dead cats do,” Mothwing meowed. “But I might be able to help guide the living ones. I’ll try to persuade Willowshine to visit the Moonpool again.”
“Will she listen to you over StarClan?”