River Of Fire

CHAPTER 6

Alderheart toiled up the moorland slopes toward the Moonpool. The half-moon appeared fitfully through gaps in the cloud, and there was a tang of frost in the air. Leaf-fall was clearly upon them, and the hungry days of leaf-bare were not far off.

Leafpool and Jayfeather were walking ahead of him, while Puddleshine and Frecklewish, with her apprentice, Fidgetpaw, brought up the rear. So far there was no sign of Kestrelflight from WindClan, or the RiverClan medicine cats, Mothwing and Willowshine.

I don’t think the RiverClan cats will come, Alderheart thought. Not when Mistystar is still keeping the borders closed.

“So how is Twigpaw adjusting?” Leafpool asked Alderheart, dropping back to pad alongside him. “I saw you talking to her earlier, and I thought she looked sad.”

“I know.” Alderheart felt a pang of pain when he thought about the young cat who had been his friend ever since he’d found her as a kit in the tunnel under the Thunderpath. “I think she’s just having trouble fitting back into ThunderClan.”

Leafpool’s ears twitched in surprise. “I hope she’s not thinking of leaving again.”

“I don’t think so.” Alderheart shook his head. “She knows she belongs with us, but she’s missing her kin, and she’s frustrated at having to be an apprentice again. But I haven’t spent as much time with her as I would have liked,” he added. “I’ve been worrying about the prophecy, and what it means now that we’ve lost ShadowClan and RiverClan has shut itself off.”

Jayfeather, just ahead, let out a snort. “Aren’t we all!”

“Well, perhaps we’ll get some guidance when we meet with StarClan at the Moonpool,” Leafpool meowed.

“We’d better,” Jayfeather snapped.

The night grew colder as the cats approached the Moonpool, and by the time they clambered up the final rocky slope beside the stream, a brisk wind had arisen, flattening their fur to their sides. Turning to look back the way they had come, Alderheart spotted the small figure of a cat bounding across the moor.

“There’s Kestrelflight!” he exclaimed.

“Thank StarClan,” Leafpool mewed. “I was beginning to think there must be trouble in WindClan, too. I can’t bear the thought that we might be down to two Clans.”

“Have you seen any sign of Mothwing and Willowshine?” Jayfeather asked Kestrelflight as he scrambled up the rocks and stood panting at the top.

The WindClan medicine cat shook his head. “Not a whisker.”

“Then I suppose they’re not coming,” Frecklewish murmured. “After all, the RiverClan borders are still closed.”

“Maybe we ought to wait a little while,” Puddleshine suggested. “Just in case they show up.”

Jayfeather let out an irritated sigh, but none of the other cats objected. Moment after moment slid past, but the moorland was empty.

“They’re not coming,” Leafpool meowed at last. “We’d better get started.”

Along with his fellow medicine cats, Alderheart pushed his way through the line of bushes that surrounded the Moonpool and followed the spiral path down to the water’s edge. A shiver ran through him as his paws slipped into the paw prints made by other cats so long ago. His worries seemed to fade as he listened to the sound of the water falling into the pool, and watched the shimmer of moon and starlight on its surface.

When every cat had settled around the edge of the pool, Leafpool rose to her paws. “We have an outbreak of belly sickness and vomiting in ThunderClan,” she announced. “Our sick cats are recovering, thank StarClan, but many of our cats are sick.”

“We have it in WindClan, too.” Kestrelflight sounded eager to share information. “Several of our cats—six now—have the sickness. We and ThunderClan have used all the watermint from our border stream and the border with RiverClan.”

“Have you got it in Shad—in SkyClan?” Alderheart asked the other medicine cats.

“No,” Frecklewish replied. “Not yet, at least.”

“Then let’s try to keep it that way,” Leafpool meowed. “I’ll warn our border patrols to stay away from yours, and you should do the same. But enough of this,” she went on briskly. “Kestrelflight, stay in touch with us over the sickness. Now it’s time to think about the prophecy.”

“‘The dark sky must not herald a storm,’” Alderheart murmured, remembering how hard he had struggled to understand the meaning. It was all too obvious now. “We have darkened the sky by going from five Clans to three,” he went on, “at least until RiverClan decides to join us again—if they ever do.”

“Have any of you had another message from StarClan?” Leafpool asked. “Any sign of what we should do next?”

The other medicine cats shook their heads.

“The spirit cats that Tree helped us see told us we must find the missing ShadowClan cats,” Alderheart mewed.

“And I’d like nothing better,” Puddleshine told him. “But we have no idea where they went, so how can we send out a patrol to find them?”

Leafpool blinked thoughtfully. “The loss of ShadowClan concerns me deeply,” she murmured. “I do believe that RiverClan will one day return, but without ShadowClan how can we ever be five Clans? Puddleshine, do you think there’s any hope of your Clan reviving?”

Puddleshine looked down and studied his paws. “No,” he meowed reluctantly. “All our efforts now are to unite around Leafstar. The ShadowClan I knew is gone.”

A heavy silence fell. Alderheart could feel disaster looming, like a storm cloud about to unleash its fury on the Clans.

It was Kestrelflight who spoke next. “Maybe StarClan will have some wisdom for us tonight.”

Leafpool nodded. “Let’s hope so. It is time to speak with them.”

Along with the other medicine cats, Alderheart stretched out his neck and touched his nose to the surface of the Moonpool. At once a deep chill flowed through him, so that he felt like a cat made of ice. Darkness was all around him; he opened his eyes and found himself sitting in dappled shade underneath a tree, with the murmuring sounds of greenleaf all around him.

“Hi there,” a voice behind him said.

Alderheart whipped around to see Needletail standing behind him, a friendly glimmer in her green eyes and starlight dazzling in her fur.

“Needletail!” he gasped, springing to his paws. Relief and joy flooded over him at the sight of the cat who had been his friend ever since she had joined his quest to find SkyClan. “You made it to StarClan!”

Needletail dipped her head. “Yes. Once we had delivered our message, we were able to move on to join StarClan.”

“And are you okay?” Alderheart asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s great here.” Needletail padded forward to touch noses with him. “But I still worry about Twigpaw and Violetshine. You will keep an eye on them, won’t you?”

“You know that Violetshine is in SkyClan now, and she has her father and her kin to look after her,” Alderheart responded. “But I’ll certainly take care of Twigpaw. You can trust me.”

Needletail let out a purr. “Let me down, and I’ll come over to ThunderClan and claw your ears off!”

Alderheart suppressed a small mrrow of laughter, then sobered, remembering the message of the spirit cats. “Needletail, I need to ask you something important. Do you know where the missing ShadowClan cats are?”

Needletail did not reply; her amusement vanishing, she only fixed Alderheart with her intense green gaze. “The shadows are approaching,” she meowed at last, “and must not be dispelled.”

Before Alderheart could ask Needletail what she meant, her starry form began to fade. Darkness swept over him again, and he blinked his eyes open to find himself once more beside the Moonpool. His fellow medicine cats were stirring around him.

As they rose and shook out their fur, Alderheart could not free himself from the sense of frustration that filled him from ears to tail-tip. There were no answers in that vision, he thought, deeply disappointed. I’m even more confused than I was to start with! From their confused looks, none of the other cats seemed to have learned anything, either. His head bowed with dejection, Alderheart prepared to set out on the long journey home.

But before any cat could start to climb the spiral path, Puddleshine suddenly exclaimed, “Dawnpelt came to me!”

At once the other cats gathered around him.

“What did she say?” Jayfeather demanded. “What did you see?”

Puddleshine closed his eyes, as if he was trying to cling to the vision before it faded from his memory.

“She didn’t seem in pain from her death,” he began, sounding relieved. “And she’s in StarClan now.”

“But what did she say?” Jayfeather lashed his tail impatiently.

“She told me that the shadows are approaching, and must not be dispelled,” Puddleshine replied. He and Frecklewish exchanged a concerned glance, as if the words meant something to them that they didn’t mean to the other medicine cats.

Alderheart’s dejection vanished like ice under the strong sun of greenleaf. “I saw Needletail!” he mewed excitedly. “She told me exactly the same.”

“And I saw Lioneye.” Kestrelflight’s eyes were filled with awe as he spoke. “She gave me the same message, too. They came to every Clan!”

“The shadows are approaching . . .” Frecklewish’s voice was thoughtful. “Maybe that means the missing ShadowClan cats are on their way back to us!”

“And ‘they must not be dispelled,’” Kestrelflight added. “Perhaps that means we should be open to the returning cats, and listen to what they have to say.”

Puddleshine glanced around the group of medicine cats, his eyes worried. “This gives me hope,” he mewed. “Perhaps ShadowClan isn’t gone forever. But we’ll have to convince Leafstar. . . .”

“We must take the message back to our Clanmates,” Leafpool declared. “The meeting is over. And may StarClan light our paths, now and always.”

“This is the best news we’ve had from StarClan in a long time,” Kestrelflight declared as he and the other cats climbed the spiral path.

The others murmured their agreement. Alderheart could sense excitement and optimism in the air, as if every cat was eager to return to their Clan and pass on the message.

But as he thrust his way through the bushes and paused beside Leafpool before leaping down the rocks, Alderheart could see that his Clanmate looked troubled. The other cats, even Jayfeather, had gone on ahead, so Alderheart hung back to speak to her alone. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “This is what we’ve been hoping for, isn’t it?”

“I’m just not sure . . . ,” Leafpool murmured. “Fine, ShadowClan cats might be coming back, but which cats are they? Not all of them were good—many of them joined with Darktail, and fought for him against their Clanmates.”

“But not all of them,” Alderheart pointed out. “And some were just scared, and didn’t know what else to do.”

Leafpool let out a worried sigh. “There’s SkyClan, too. They have just returned to us. What effect will this have on them? Leafstar has been very patient with ShadowClan so far. But it’s asking a lot of her, creating one Clan out of two, and then maybe splitting up again when these other cats arrive.”

Alderheart considered what his fellow medicine cat had said. He could understand her worries, and he didn’t know Leafstar well enough to guess how she would react.

“We don’t know that’s what StarClan’s words mean,” Alderheart cautioned Leafpool. “We don’t even know for sure that any ShadowClan cats will return. Perhaps ‘shadows’ means something else.”

“True,” Leafpool admitted, gazing up at the sky as if she could read an answer there. “But I still feel uneasy.”

Alderheart couldn’t think of anything to say that would reassure her. The other medicine cats were already heading out across the moor; Alderheart bunched his muscles to leap down the rocks and follow them. Then his ears twitched as he caught the sound of movement in the bushes. He froze.

“Did you hear that?” he asked Leafpool.

“No—what?”

Alderheart parted his jaws to taste the air, but all he could pick up were the scents of the other medicine cats. He shrugged. “I must have been imagining it. Let’s go.”