Eclipse

Chapter 23

Hollypaw paused from washing herself. “Are you going to the Gathering?”

Jaypaw heard her tongue scrape along her foreleg. “Yes.”

He rolled onto his side, feeling full.

“Me too.” Lionpaw kicked the remains of the squirrel away and stretched out.

The fresh-kill pile had been restocked in the days following the battle, and they had eaten well. Now they lay beside the halfrock enjoying the last of the evening sun.

Hollypaw yawned. “Do you think the other Clans will turn up?” No one had seen any sign of WindClan since the battle, but tension was still high, with continual patrols along the WindClan border.

“They’ll be scared of upsetting StarClan if they don’t,” Jaypaw mewed.

Lionpaw’s claws scratched the halfrock. “I hope WindClan are there.”

“Don’t forget the truce,” Hollypaw reminded him.

“Like I would.” Lionpaw snorted. “I just want WindClan to see that we’re as strong as we ever were, and ready to fight them again if we have to.”

ThunderClan’s warriors and apprentices were steadily recovering from their battle wounds. Even Spiderleg was taking walks around the clearing. Squirrelflight was still in her nest in the medicine cats’ den, though increasingly impatient at being confined there. But Leafpool wouldn’t let her move, fearful the wound would reopen before it had a chance to heal properly.

Jaypaw suspected that his mother’s injury was the reason Leafpool wasn’t coming with him to the Gathering. She didn’t trust any other cat to keep Squirrelflight in her nest.

She hadn’t even been to the Moonpool to share with StarClan yet.

“If StarClan have something to share with me, they’ll share it,” she had told Firestar.

Jaypaw lifted his head as Graystripe padded out of the nursery. The gray warrior’s pelt was prickling with worry.

“Leafpool!” Graystripe called through the brambles at the entrance to the medicine cats’ den. “She’s coughing again.”

“I’m coming.” Leafpool hurried out, smelling of tansy.

Millie had whitecough. Daisy had moved herself and her kits into the apprentices’ den to avoid catching the sickness, and Rosekit and Toadkit had been strutting around the camp as if they were already apprentices.

Millie was eating well, but her endless coughing was keeping the kits awake and making it hard for them to feed.

Hopefully the tansy would help.

Jaypaw laid his head back down and closed his eyes. He must have dozed, because a moment later Hollypaw was shaking him awake.

“The moon’s up,” she mewed. “Everyone’s getting ready to leave.”

“Not everyone!” Foxpaw’s cross mew sounded behind him.

“How come you three get to go while me and Icepaw and Cinderpaw get left behind?”

Jaypaw scrambled to his paws. “You’ll go next time, I’m sure.”

“Maybe.” Foxpaw’s feet scuffed the ground as he padded away.

While the warriors gathered at the entrance, Graystripe paced around the nursery. Jaypaw could sense that his emotions were torn like fresh-kill. The gray warrior longed to join his Clanmates at the Gathering, but the thought of leaving Millie while she was sick pierced his heart. Jaypaw blinked.

An old grief was fanning the flames of Graystripe’s unease, lit by the memory of the silver cat on the huge gray rock.

“Graystripe!” Firestar was heading toward his old friend.

“Stay here and guard the camp for me. We’ve a good show of warriors. WindClan won’t think they’ve weakened us.”

“Thanks.” Graystripe sounded relieved.

Firestar headed for the barrier, where Poppyfrost and Honeyfern could hardly keep their paws still.

“Looking forward to it?” Dustpelt asked them.

“Oh, yes,” Poppyfrost meowed. This would be their first Gathering as warriors.

Sandstorm paced restlessly around Brackenfur. “I wonder what WindClan will have to say for themselves?”

“They’ll come up with some excuse,” Brackenfur muttered.

“Hurry up.” Hollypaw nudged Jaypaw. Lionpaw was already waiting beside Ashfur.

Firestar stood at the camp entrance. “We must show WindClan and RiverClan that we are as strong as ever,” he reminded his Clanmates. “The moon is bright tonight, and that means StarClan is no longer angry.”

“I bet they’re still angry with WindClan,” Spiderleg called from outside the medicine cats’ den.

“We were only defending our borders. StarClan would not punish us for that,” Firestar answered.

“I should hope not.” Sorreltail was sitting outside the warriors’ den, her tail swishing over the ground.

“The vanishing sun frightened us all,” Firestar went on.

“But we must take it as a sign that the battle was wrong. The sun came back when the battle ended. We should have learned by now that the Clans need one another to survive.”

Jaypaw tipped his head. The ThunderClan leader’s confident words hadn’t come from anything Leafpool had said to him. The medicine cat was still baffled and frightened by the vanishing sun, and the silence from StarClan had made her more nervous. But she kept her worries to herself, carrying on as usual, and only Jaypaw could detect the anxiety fluttering beneath her pelt.

“Let’s go!” Firestar led his Clanmates out of the hollow.

Leaves crunched beneath their paws. Jaypaw shivered, feeling the first chill of leaf-fall. He pressed closer to Hollypaw as they headed for WindClan territory, following the familiar route down to the lake. They had to cross WindClan’s part of the shore to reach the island. If they kept within two tail-lengths of the water, WindClan had no right to challenge them. Yet the warriors fell silent as they crossed the border and hurried over the shingle.

“Any sign of WindClan?” Jaypaw whispered.

“Not yet.” Hollypaw’s pelt felt spiky against his.

Water suddenly lapped Jaypaw’s legs. He stumbled in surprise. They didn’t usually skirt the lake this closely.

“Don’t worry,” Hollypaw soothed. “Firestar’s just being careful that no cat can accuse us of straying onto WindClan land.”

The warriors splashed through the shallows, and Jaypaw gritted his teeth, hating the feel of the water on his paws. He tasted the air. Fresh WindClan scents were blowing down from the moorland.

“They’re coming,” Hollypaw warned.

Jaypaw tensed. “Toward us?”

“No. They’re far up the hillside and heading toward the island.”

At the tree-bridge, Hollypaw jumped onto the fallen trunk first and let her tail dangle down. Jaypaw reached up with his paws, feeling for it. He felt the soft tip brush his pads and knew instantly where to jump.

“Thanks,” he puffed, scrambling through the leaf less fallen branches.

The trunk was slippery, its bark shredded and peeling away.

Jaypaw padded after Hollypaw, putting one paw carefully in front of the other until his nose brushed his sister’s tail.

She had stopped where the trunk splayed out in tangled roots. The shingle crunched as she jumped down onto the shore.

This was the hardest part. Jaypaw took a breath and leaped after her. As always the shingle hit his paws suddenly, but this time he didn’t need to stumble to regain his balance.

“Nice landing,” Hollypaw purred.

Their Clanmates were streaming through the undergrowth, making it swish as they disappeared into the trees.

Jaypaw nosed his way through and followed Hollypaw through the soft swaths of fern. As they emerged on the other side, a barrage of scents hit his nose. WindClan and RiverClan were already here. He wrinkled his nose. No sign of ShadowClan.

The ThunderClan cats padded to one side of the clearing, keeping close together.

“Everyone’s keeping to themselves,” Hollypaw observed.

Jaypaw tasted the air. She was right: There was no mingling of scents. RiverClan sat upwind in a tight group. WindClan paced restlessly near them, but didn’t break ranks.

“I’m surprised RiverClan and WindClan aren’t sharing tongues,” Lionpaw muttered. His muscles were tight as though ready for battle.

“Where are ShadowClan?” Poppyfrost mewed anxiously.

“I hope they come soon,” fretted Honeyfern.

A growl suddenly rumbled in Lionpaw’s throat.

“Quiet!” Ashfur snapped.

Lionpaw fell silent, but Jaypaw could sense rage pulsing from his brother’s pelt, hot as the sun.

He narrowed his eyes, focusing his other senses on Lionpaw. He sensed hatred shooting from his brother like a shaft of light, and, concentrating harder, he realized he could follow its path into the defensive cluster of WindClan cats.

It ended at Heatherpaw; Jaypaw recognized the tone of her mew and her faint honey scent. He flicked his tail in surprise.

Lionpaw’s hatred was so strong he was surprised Heatherpaw couldn’t feel it burning her pelt. But the WindClan apprentice certainly sensed something; she was weaving self-consciously among her Clanmates, betraying unease with every step.

Bushes rustled at the far edge of the clearing. ShadowClan must be arriving. Jaypaw tasted the air, and was startled by the scent. This wasn’t a full-size Gathering patrol. It was just—“It’s just Blackstar and Sol!” Hollypaw’s mew was barely more than a whisper.

“Where are the rest of them?” hissed a WindClan cat from the far side of the clearing.

“And who in StarClan’s name is that?” came a murmur from the RiverClan cats.

All the Clans shifted anxiously as the ShadowClan leader padded to the center of the clearing. Sol followed, trotting lightly over the sandy earth.

Jaypaw was surprised by the sense of calm flowing from Blackstar’s pelt. The ShadowClan leader had seemed so lost and worried when they’d seen him in the camp. What had happened?

“I bring news,” Blackstar began.

“I hope ShadowClan’s all right,” Hollypaw whispered.

“Shh!” Brackenfur silenced her as Blackstar went on.

“ShadowClan will no longer attend Gatherings.”

An astonished silence fell on the clearing. Whatever the other cats had been expecting, this wasn’t it.

“We no longer believe that StarClan hold all the answers.

It was living cats who found the lake. It is living cats that hunt prey to keep themselves alive, and it was a living cat who predicted that the sun would vanish.”

He means Sol.

Onestar was stunned. “He predicted the sun would disappear?”

Amazement flooded through the cats like water washing through grass.

“I did no more than warn it would happen.” Sol’s mew was humble.

“How did you know?” Leopardstar demanded.

“How did you not know?” Sol answered. “You, after all, are the ones who share with StarClan.”

Barkface stepped forward. “They didn’t warn us.”

“And they didn’t warn me,” Sol meowed. “I merely followed my instinct and listened to my own voice of experience. You, of course, are entitled to believe in whatever you want…”

“What’s he saying?” Hollypaw gasped. “Does he think beliefs can be chosen like prey from the fresh-kill pile?” Her pelt seared Jaypaw’s where they touched. He flinched from her, lost in his own disappointment.

Sol was meant to be helping us! What is he doing with ShadowClan?

There was the sound of soft paw steps padding over the dry ground.

“They’re leaving.” Lionpaw sighed. “I guess that means Sol isn’t going to help us after all.”

As Blackstar and Sol swished away through the ferns, frightened whispers broke out among the Clans.

“Who was he?”

“Where did he come from?”

“Can it be true?”

Jaypaw felt his own Clan move restlessly around him, their pelts sparking with fear as they brushed against one another.

Firestar had padded to the middle of the clearing. “We must stay calm,” he called to all of them.

“Calm?” Onestar’s mew was filled with contempt. “Even you can’t change this, Firestar.”

Firestar bristled with anger. “I never said I could!”

“We mustn’t quarrel.” Leopardstar stepped in. “This is too important. We are three Clans now.”

“Three Clans!” Ashfoot gasped. The WindClan deputy paced around the leaders. “But there have always been four.”

“If ShadowClan rejects StarClan,” Mistyfoot ventured, “does that mean they can no longer be warriors?”

“Have they given up the warrior code?” Hollypaw’s breath was coming in fast gulps.

They’ve given up more than the code. Jaypaw glanced at the sky.

“Is the moon still shining?”

“It’s bright and clear,” Lionpaw assured him.

What is StarClan doing? Don’t they care what has happened?

“These are troubling times,” Leopardstar meowed. “We cannot even trust the sun to shine. Is it so surprising that Blackstar has lost faith in StarClan?”

Her words seemed to fill the clearing with an icy chill. No cat challenged her, tried to say that she was wrong, that their faith was worth fighting for. Sol warned that the sun would disappear, and it did. Where did that leave StarClan? Whispering to one another in frightened mews, the cats began to melt into the undergrowth.

“Come on.” Lionpaw was nudging Hollypaw. ThunderClan was leaving.

Hollypaw stumbled forward as if she had forgotten how to walk. Jaypaw pressed against her, guiding her path through the ferns.

“Are ShadowClan really not warriors anymore?” Poppyfrost asked.

“I suppose that’s for StarClan to decide,” Birchfall told her.

As Jaypaw waited for his turn to cross the tree-bridge, he tried not to let the urgent mews of his Clanmates unsettle him. He had to think this through. But they chattered on, crowding his thoughts.

“If StarClan hid the sun when we fought,” Dustpelt growled, “what will they do now that Blackstar has turned their back on them?”

“They haven’t covered the moon,” Brackenfur pointed out.

Thornclaw leaped onto the bridge. “Perhaps they’ll turn their backs on us all!”

As Jaypaw crossed the fallen tree, the warrior’s words buzzed like bees in his mind. StarClan had said nothing about the sun, or Sol. Perhaps they had given up on watching over the Clans below.

Jaypaw felt Lionpaw’s tail touch his shoulder as they padded along the WindClan shoreline. “Slow down,” he whispered.

Jaypaw eased his pace and let his Clanmates push on ahead until they were out of earshot. Hollypaw hung back with him, her paws dragging over the shingle.

“I thought Sol had come to help,” Lionpaw hissed. “But he’s just made things worse.”

Hollypaw was still in shock. “He’s stopped Blackstar from believing in the warrior code,” she mumbled tonelessly.

“Perhaps Blackstar would have stopped anyway,” Jaypaw suggested.

“No. It was Sol.” Lionpaw was adamant. “He’s said something to convince Blackstar that StarClan are worthless.”

Hollypaw kicked suddenly at the shingle. “I don’t care what Sol says.” Her mew was shrill. “They can’t stop believing in StarClan. That’s what Clans do! The warrior code brought us here; it gives us food and shelter.” Her fear had turned to rage.

“It keeps us safe!”

“But Sol predicted the vanishing sun,” Lionpaw reminded her. “StarClan didn’t.”

“Does that mean you’re going to give up StarClan too?”

Fury f lashed from Hollypaw so fiercely that Jaypaw wondered for an instant if she were going to lunge at Lionpaw. But she only stalked ahead, her breath rasping with emotion.

Lionpaw hurried after her. “That’s not what I meant.”

Jaypaw let them go. The shingle was soft here, dimpling around his paws. The lake whispered on the shore. A cool breeze blew off the water, and Jaypaw turned his head, feeling it ruffle his whiskers.

Broken moonlight shimmered on the surface of the lake.

He could see it.

I must be dreaming.

The shingle shifted beside him. A cat was walking with him.

Yellowfang.

Her breath fouled the air, but Jaypaw was pleased she had come. “Did you see what happened?” he mewed.

“Of course.”

Jaypaw’s heart quickened. “What are you going to do?”

Yellowfang’s paws scrunched on the shingle. She sighed, and when she spoke again, she sounded old and tired. “We must choose our battles carefully.”

Was StarClan admitting defeat without even trying to fight for ShadowClan? Jaypaw turned to her, panic coming in waves. But Yellowfang had faded from his sight. Everything had clouded over, and soon the world was black once more.

He could hear the voices of his Clanmates ahead, and pushed on after them.

His thoughts whirled and collided like leaves caught in a storm. At last Yellowfang had told him what he needed to know.

StarClan has surrendered. Their end is drawing near.

Jaypaw, Lionpaw, and Hollypaw would fulfill their destiny at last.