“Let’s hurry.” He avoided Blaze’s question and scrambled to the top of the slope. He crossed the summit quickly and gazed into the valley below. A Thunderpath ran along the bottom. It was wide where the ground flattened between the hills. A lone monster was heading into the distance, its blazing eyes the only Twoleg light in the landscape.
He scanned the grass on the slope below, searching for movement. “Can you see him?” he asked Blaze.
“No.” Blaze’s fur ruffled in the breeze.
“What’s that?” Dovewing’s mew made Tigerheart stiffen. Had she spotted the tom on the hillside? He followed her gaze to a shape looming beside the Thunderpath. It looked small from up here, but he guessed that it was as big as the side of a Twoleg nest—a tall, flat, solitary wall, facing the Thunderpath. Dovewing narrowed her eyes. “Why did Twolegs build a wall there? Is it a signal for the monsters?”
Blaze was staring at it. “It has shapes on it, like the shapes Spire used to draw in dirt sometimes to show me what his visions looked like.”
Tigerheart strained to see. The flat surface of the wall was shaded with color that he couldn’t make out in the moonlight.
Blaze hurried suddenly forward. “Spire’s scent!”
Tigerheart followed the young tom as he raced down the hill. The coarse grass felt slippery beneath his paws as Blaze led him zigzagging between rocks and heather. He was out of breath by the time they reached the side of the Thunderpath.
Dovewing pulled up behind him, panting. She scanned the valley. “Did he follow the Thunderpath or cross it?”
Blaze ducked and sniffed the grass, following a trail over the grass. He stopped and lifted his tail. “He crossed here.” The young tom stood opposite the Twoleg wall, which loomed on the other side.
Tigerheart blinked at the colors that stained the wall, frowning as he tried to make out a picture. In the moonlight, the stains looked gray, but he realized, with a jolt, that the shapes were familiar. The great Twoleg wall had been stained to look like a city skyline, and above the jagged roofs Tigerheart saw the shape of a big, round sun. He stared at it, surprise bristling through his fur. Could this be the orange sun Spire had meant?
Blaze was already crossing the deserted Thunderpath. The young tom stopped beneath the wall and gazed up at it. “This must be his vision!” He spun around, searching. “Spire’s scent is here.”
Dovewing blinked at Tigerheart. “I guess he’s been right all along.” Was that relief in her gaze?
“Come on.” Tigerheart led the way across the Thunderpath. It sparkled where frost was beginning to creep over the smooth stone. He stopped below the stained wall. Blaze was sniffing the bottom eagerly.
Tigerheart pricked his ears. He could hear cats talking nearby. He stiffened, alarm sparking in his belly. “There are cats behind the wall,” he hissed to Blaze.
Blaze lifted his muzzle, pausing as he listened. “It’s Spire,” he mewed. “He’s talking to some cat.”
“Who would be out here?” Dovewing stared at the young tom.
As she spoke, Tigerheart’s pelt prickled. An unexpected jab of longing made him stiffen as scents that he hadn’t smelled in moons touched his nose. His heart quickened as he followed Blaze around the wall. On the moonlit grass behind, he saw Spire with two cats. Blaze stopped and stared at his friend. The healer seemed to be trying to beckon the strange cats away from a dip in the grass where they’d made a nest.
“You don’t have to stay here,” Spire called. “I can take you to my friends.”
Tigerheart looked past Spire and saw a familiar pelt. “Rippletail?” The tom’s white pelt looked nearly blue in the moonlight.
Rippletail jerked his gaze toward Tigerheart, his eyes widening with shock. “Tigerheart?”
“You’re alive!” Tigerheart hadn’t seen Rippletail since the battle with Darktail. Rippletail had stayed in ShadowClan when Darktail’s rogues had taken over. After the battle, he’d disappeared along with several other members of ShadowClan. Tigerheart had assumed they must be dead. What else would have kept a warrior from his Clan? What else? Tigerheart stiffened, fear hollowing his belly.
Dovewing stopped beside Tigerheart, her pelt bristling. “Is that Rippletail?” She paused as her gaze flicked to a second figure in the shadowy dip behind Rippletail—his sister, Berryheart.
Tigerheart couldn’t believe his eyes. He padded closer until he could make out the she-cat’s black-and-white pelt. His former Clanmate was clearly thriving, because she’d grown fat since leaving ShadowClan. He froze. She isn’t fat—she’s expecting kits! Which meant maybe Sparrowtail was with them too!
He narrowed his eyes as a thought crept into his mind. Why hadn’t these cats returned to their Clan? He fixed Rippletail with an icy stare. “Are you… rogues now?”
Chapter 30
Rippletail stared back. “Rogues? No!” Shock edged his mew. “Is that what ShadowClan thinks?”
“Our Clanmates think you’re dead.” Anger hardened Tigerheart’s mew. “Why have you let them grieve for so long?” His gaze flitted from Rippletail to Berryheart. “You are Snowbird and Scorchfur’s kits. Can you imagine their pain?”
Berryheart pressed close to her brother, her gaze shimmering with hope. “They still have Yarrowleaf, don’t they?”
“We think she went with the rogues after the battle with Darktail.” A bone-chilling wind swept down the hillside and bit through Tigerheart’s pelt.
Berryheart blinked in disbelief. “We thought she’d returned to the Clan!”
“Like you did?” Tigerheart curled his lip.
Rippletail stepped forward, shielding his sister. Alarm glittered in his eyes. “We meant to, eventually, but—”
“You betrayed your Clan!”
As Tigerheart bristled, Dovewing brushed against him. “Be gentle,” she murmured. “We don’t know what they’ve suffered.”
Guilt jabbed Tigerheart’s belly. Dovewing was right. Moons had passed since these warriors had left their Clan. And hadn’t he left ShadowClan too? Perhaps they had their reasons for staying away, like he had. He dipped his head to Berryheart and Rippletail. “I’m sorry. You’re not responsible for your littermate’s decision. But ShadowClan has lost so many. Mistcloud, Lioneye and Spikefur…” Berryheart’s eyes widened with horror as Tigerheart went on. “Please tell me Sparrowtail’s with you, at least.”
Rippletail pricked his ears. “Sparrowtail and Cloverfoot are with us!”
“They are?” Tigerheart breath caught in his throat.
Rippletail nodded toward a shadow on the hillside. “We’ve been living up there. In an abandoned Twoleg nest.”
“Are Sparrowtail and Cloverfoot there now?” Tigerheart could hardly believe his ears. He’d found four of ShadowClan’s missing warriors.
“They’re hunting,” Rippletail told him. “We were getting ready to go out ourselves when this cat found us.” He nodded to Spire. The healer was gazing blankly toward the abandoned Twoleg den.
Blaze stood beside him, staring at Rippletail and Berryheart with wide moonlit eyes. “Are these warriors too?”
“They were Clanmates once,” Tigerheart told him. Were they Clanmates now?
Rippletail went on. “Sparrowtail is the father of Berryheart’s kits.”
Dovewing padded forward and blinked kindly at the queen. “When are they due?”
“Soon.” Berryheart shifted her paws nervously.
Rippletail narrowed his eyes as he stared at Tigerheart. “What are you doing here? Why are you traveling with them?” He looked suspiciously at Dovewing, Blaze, and Spire.