Warriors: Power Of Three 5 - Long Shadows

Wind swept across bleak moorland, carrying with it flurries of rain.

The tough grass was sodden and water had burst the banks of a stream, spreading out in a wide pool; its surface bubbled as raindrops splashed into it.

At the edge of the pool a badger crouched, apparently oblivious to the icy wind and rain. For a long time she gazed into the water as if she could see something there, beyond the broken reflection of gray cloud; then she raised her head and looked around.

“I have come,” she announced.

A black she-cat emerged from behind an outcrop of rocks.

She was barely more than a shadow; starlight f lickered at her paws. She was followed by a silvery gray tom whose green eyes stretched wide as he approached the badger. The starlight that shone around him made him seem a cat formed out of rain.

“Why are we here?” The silver tom’s voice was hoarse, as if he hadn’t used it for a long time. “On a day like this we should be curled up in a warm den.”

“True, River,” the black she-cat meowed. “Whose idea was it to drag us out here in weather not even fit for foxes?”

“Mine.” A third cat appeared from behind a gorse bush, a broad-shouldered ginger tom with white paws. Starlight gleamed in his amber eyes, yet he seemed as insubstantial as a flame. “As you know very well, Shadow. We have to meet.”

Shadow snorted. “I don’t have to do anything you tell me, Thunder.”

Thunder dipped his head. “Of course not. But we have been summoned by the danger to our Clans. They are on the brink of being lost forever—and it’s your fault, Midnight.” His voice sharpened.

Before Midnight could reply, R iver spoke. “Where is Wind? We can’t discuss this without her.”

“I’m here.” The voice came from farther up the stream. The wiry brown she-cat was barely visible against the drenched moorland grass; only the shimmer of silvery light around her revealed her outline. She sprang down the slope toward the pool, her paws scarcely touching the ground. “Why are you all huddling here like lost kits?” she asked, a hint of mockery in her tone. “It’s only a bit of rain and wind.”

Shadow opened her jaws, but Thunder interrupted her.

“We’re not all used to living in the open, Wind. But that doesn’t matter now. We need to know why Midnight has revealed the secrets of the Clans.”

“But why us?” River complained, shivering. “There are younger cats than us in StarClan. Why call us back from the very beginning?”

Wind nodded. “Haven’t we done enough? We formed the Clans and guided them through their first seasons. They have owed us a debt in all the moons since we walked the forest.”

“We must still watch over our Clans,” Thunder murmured. “This is a danger like none they have ever faced before.” He turned to the badger. “Midnight, why did you tell our secrets?”

“Yes, and tell them to that mange-ridden, crow-food-eating loner?” Shadow spat, tearing at the grass with her claws.

“My Clan have abandoned their warrior ancestors since he forced his way among them.”

“On sandy cliffs I met Sol,” Midnight began calmly. “First time of meeting, that was.”

“And do you give away secrets to every stranger who happens to pad by?” Wind growled.

“Can’t you see that you gave him power over the Clans when you told him so much about us?” Thunder pressed.

“Knowledge not always power,” Midnight replied. “Clans not need secrecy to protect themselves. Rogues and loners stay away; they know Clan life is not for them.”

“This loner didn’t stay away,” River pointed out.

“Clans not need to hide,” Midnight insisted. “If did, not strong enough to meet challenges from outside.”

“My warriors can meet any challenge,” Wind snapped.

“Challenges not always from teeth and sharpened claws,”

the badger commented.

Wind let out a hiss. Her neck fur bristled as she unsheathed her claws. “Don’t talk to me as if I’m stupid! You’re only trying to avoid admitting that you made a huge mistake. The warriors of StarClan revealed their secrets to you, and you told them to a stranger! There wouldn’t be any trouble in ShadowClan right now if it wasn’t for you.”

Midnight rose to her paws. “Sheathe your claws, small warrior.” Her voice was a rumbling growl. “Stupid is to pick a fight with someone not your enemy.”

For a few heartbeats, Wind stood her ground, only stepping back and sheathing her claws when Thunder rested his tail on her shoulder.

“Quarreling won’t help,” the first-ever ThunderClan leader meowed. “The secrets are out. We have to decide what we can do now to help our Clans.”

River shook his head. “Well, I don’t know.”

“Nor do I.” Shadow lashed her tail in frustration. “I’d like to rip the throat out of this ungrateful badger, but it’s too late to change anything.”

“We don’t understand,” Thunder meowed, meeting Midnight’s gaze. “We shared our secrets with you, and you have done so much for our Clans. Why would you want to destroy them like this?”

Before he had finished speaking, the wind picked up and the starry cats began to fade, blown away like mist. Midnight watched them with berry-bright eyes until their frail forms were gone and the glimmer of starlight had died away.

A cat emerged from behind a windblown bush a few tail-lengths away: a hairless cat with bulging, sightless eyes.

“You heard, Rock?” Midnight asked.

Rock nodded. “I knew the Clan leaders would be unhappy that you confided in Sol,” he rasped. “But you had no choice.

The power of three is coming, and the Clans must be ready.”

The moon was huge, a golden circle resting on a dark ridge of hills.

Stars blazed above Hollyleaf ’s head, reminding her that the spirits of her ancestors were watching over her. Her fur prickled as something stirred on the ridge. A cat had appeared there, outlined against the moon. She recognized the broad head and tufted ears, and the tail with its bushy tip; even though the shape was black against the light, she knew the colors of its pelt: white with brown, black, and ginger blotches.

“Sol!” she hissed.

The outlined shape arched its back, then reared up on its hind paws, its forepaws stretched out as if it was about to rake its claws across the sky. It leaped upward, and as it leaped it swelled until it was so huge that it blotted out the moon and the blazing stars. Hollyleaf crouched, shivering, in darkness thicker than the deepest places of the forest.

Screeches of alarm rose up around her, a whole Clan of hidden cats wailing their fear of the shadow cutting them off from the protective gaze of StarClan. Above the noise, a single voice rang out: “Hollyleaf! Hollyleaf! Come out!”

Hollyleaf thrashed in terror and found her paws tangled in soft moss and bracken. Pale gray light was filtering through the branches of the warriors’ den. A couple of foxlengths away, Hazeltail was scrambling out of her nest, shaking scraps of moss from her pelt.

“Hollyleaf!” The call came again, and this time Hollyleaf recognized Birchfall’s voice, meowing irritably outside the den. “Are you going to sleep all day? We’re supposed to be hunting.”

“Coming.” Groggy with sleep, every hair on her pelt still quivering from her nightmare, Hollyleaf headed toward the nearest gap between the branches. Before she reached it, her paws stumbled over the haunches of a sleeping cat, half hidden under the bracken.

Cloudtail’s head popped up. “Great StarClan!” he grumbled. “Can’t a cat get any sleep around here?”

“S-sorry,” Hollyleaf stammered, remembering that Cloudtail had been out on a late patrol the night before; she had seen him return to camp with Dustpelt and Sorreltail while she was keeping her warrior’s vigil.

Just my luck. My first day, and I manage to annoy one of the senior warriors!

Cloudtail snorted and curled up again, his blue eyes closing as he buried his nose in his fur.

“It’s okay,” Hazeltail murmured, brushing her muzzle against Hollyleaf ’s shoulder. “Cloudtail’s mew is worse than his scratch. And don’t let Birchfall ruffle your fur. He’s bossy with the new warriors, but you’ll soon get used to it.”

Hollyleaf nodded gratefully, though she didn’t tell Hazeltail the real reason she was thrown off balance. Birchfall didn’t bother her; it was the memory of the dream that throbbed through her from ears to tail-tip, making her paws clumsy and her thoughts troubled.

Her gaze drifted to the nest where her brother Lionpaw—

no, Lion blaze now—had curled up at the end of his vigil. She wanted to talk to him more than anything. But the nest was empty; Lionblaze must have gone out on the dawn patrol.

Careful where she put her paws, Hollyleaf pushed her way out of the den behind Hazeltail. Outside, Birchfall was scraping the ground impatiently.

“At last!” he snapped. “What kept you?”

“Take it easy, Birchfall.” Brambleclaw, the ThunderClan deputy and Hollyleaf ’s father, was sitting a tail-length away with his tail wrapped neatly around his paws. His amber eyes were calm. “The prey won’t run away.”

“Not till they see us, anyway,” Sandstorm added as she bounded across from the fresh-kill pile.

“If there is any prey.” Birchfall lashed his tail. “Ever since the battle, fresh-kill’s been much harder to find.”

Hollyleaf ’s grumbling belly told her that Birchfall was right.

Several sunrises ago all four Clans had battled in ThunderClan territory; their screeching and trampling had frightened off all the prey, or driven them deep underground.

“Maybe the prey will start to come back now,” she suggested.

“Maybe,” Brambleclaw agreed. “We’ll head toward the ShadowClan border. There wasn’t as much fighting over there.”

Hollyleaf stiffened at the mention of ShadowClan. Will I see Sol again? she wondered.

“I wonder if we’ll see any ShadowClan cats,” Birchfall meowed, echoing her thought. “I’d like to know if they’re all going to turn their back on StarClan, and follow that weirdo loner instead.”

Hollyleaf felt as if stones were dragging in her belly, weighing her down. ShadowClan had not appeared at the last Gathering, two nights before. Instead, their leader Blackstar had come alone except for Sol, the loner who had recently arrived by the lake, and explained that his cats no longer believed in the power of their warrior ancestors.

But that can’t be right! How can a Clan survive without StarClan?

Without the warrior code?

“Sol’s not such a weirdo,” Hazeltail pointed out to Birchfall with a flick of her ears. “He predicted that the sun would vanish, and it did. None of the medicine cats knew that was going to happen.”

Birchfall shrugged. “The sun came back, didn’t it? It’s not that big a deal.”

“In any case,” Brambleclaw interrupted, rising to his paws,

“this is a hunting patrol. We’re not going to pay a friendly visit to ShadowClan.”

“But they fought beside us,” Birchfall objected. “WindClan and RiverClan would have turned us into crow-food without the ShadowClan warriors. We can’t be enemies again so soon, can we?”

“Not enemies,” Sandstorm corrected. “But they’re still a different Clan. Besides, I’m not sure we can be friends with cats who reject StarClan.”

What about our own cats, then? Hollyleaf didn’t dare to ask the question out loud. Cloudtail has never believed in StarClan. But she knew without question Cloudtail was a loyal warrior who would die for any of his Clanmates.

Brambleclaw said nothing, just gave his pelt a shake and kinked his tail to beckon the rest of the patrol. As they headed toward the thorn tunnel they met Brackenfur pushing his way into the hollow with Sorreltail and Lionblaze behind him.

The dawn patrol had returned. As all three cats headed for the fresh-kill pile, Hollyleaf darted across and intercepted her brother.

“How did it go? Is there anything to report?”

Lionblaze’s jaws parted in a huge yawn. He must be exhausted, Hollyleaf thought, after keeping his warrior vigil and then being chosen for the dawn patrol.

“Not a thing,” he mewed, shaking his head. “All’s quiet on the WindClan border.”

“We’re going over toward ShadowClan territory.” Alone with her brother, Hollyleaf could confess how worried she was. “I’m scared we’ll meet Sol. What if he tells the other cats about the prophecy?”

Lionblaze pressed his muzzle into her shoulder. “Come on!

Is it likely that Sol will be doing border patrols? He’ll be lying around the ShadowClan camp, stuffing himself with fresh-kill.”

Hollyleaf shook her head. “I don’t know. . . . I just wish we’d never told him anything.”

“So do I.” Lionblaze’s eyes narrowed and his tone was bitter as he went on. “But it’s not like Sol is bothered about us. He decided to stay with Blackstar, didn’t he? He promised to help us after we told him about the prophecy, but he soon changed his mind.”

“We’re better off without him.” Hollyleaf swiped her tongue over her brother’s ear.

“Hollyleaf!”

She spun around to see Brambleclaw waiting beside the entrance to the thorn tunnel, the tip of his tail twitching impatiently.

“I’ve got to go,” she meowed to Lionblaze, and raced across the clearing to join Brambleclaw. “Sorry,” she gasped, and plunged into the tunnel.

The morning had been raw and cold, but as Hollyleaf padded through the forest with her Clanmates the clouds began to clear away. Long claws of sunlight pierced the branches, tipping the leaves with fire where they had changed from green to red and gold. Leaf-fall was almost upon them.

Brambleclaw led his patrol away from the lake toward the ShadowClan border, keeping well clear of the old Twoleg path and the abandoned nest where the Clans had fought their battle.

Tasting the air in the hope of finding a squirrel or a plump mouse, Hollyleaf caught a stale trace of her own and her littermates’ scents, lingering from their trek across the forest to find Sol. She hoped that none of the patrol would notice, especially not Brambleclaw or Sandstorm, because that would mean awkward questions she wasn’t sure she could answer.

To her relief, the other cats seemed too intent on tracking prey to notice. Sandstorm raised her tail for silence, and Hollyleaf could hear the crisp sounds of a thrush knocking a snail shell against a stone. Peering over a clump of bracken, she spotted the bird: a fine fat one with its back turned to the group of cats, too intent on its own prey to realize that hunters were creeping up on it.