Fading Echoes

Chapter 24

Lionblaze nosed Dovepaw up the tree trunk and turned to face the ShadowClan attack. Brambleclaw’s idea had to work. The battle in the clearing was going badly, because none of them had figured they wouldn’t be able to hold their footing on the smooth, short grass. They needed to take the fighting to somewhere ThunderClan held the advantage. Maybe Firestar was right to start training the apprentices up in the trees. Hopefully they’d fight better among the pines.

Blackstar burst out of the brambles. “Can’t you even respect the border you just made?”

Lionblaze unsheathed his claws.

“Where are the rest of you?”

He felt a glimmer of satisfaction at Blackstar’s confusion. Power pulsed through his paws and he braced himself for the attack. ShadowClan warriors streamed through the trees. They were furious, their faces twisted with outrage, their yowls edged with fury as they spun in surprise.

“Now!”

On Thornclaw’s signal, ThunderClan warriors swooped like hawks from the branches. Lionblaze relished ShadowClan’s yowls of bewilderment. The battle exploded around him, shrieks echoing through the pines.

Scorchfur.

Lionblaze glimpsed the streak of gray pelt a moment before the ShadowClan warrior rammed him. He fell skidding across the needles, slowing himself by digging his claws deep into the earth. Scorchfur has no idea who he’s dealing with. Drawing himself to his paws, Lionblaze faced his attacker.

Scorchfur’s face was a mask of anger. The gray tom’s eyes were lit with a self-righteous rage, as though he’d been wronged by this battle.

Maybe he had.

Lionblaze felt his paws freeze.

All this because of the dream of one apprentice. An apprentice who’d never before shown any sign of a connection with StarClan.

He shook the doubt away.

Ivypaw was Dovepaw’s sister. That was proof enough that they could trust her.

Scorchfur reared and clawed at his ear. Lionblaze felt only a distant prick of pain. Power was stirring beneath his pelt. Strength rose from his belly, flooding every muscle.

Around him the battle seemed to slow down.

The cats fought as if in water, each blow an arcing sweep of paw, each lunge a dragging leap that Lionblaze could watch unfold moment upon moment. Around him, the shrieking seemed to fade, and yet he saw curses billow from snarling jaws.

He saw Snowbird face Rosepetal, her green eyes betraying every thought as they flitted like butterflies, assessing Rosepetal’s position, moving to fix on her strike point, half closing as she bunched her muscles and prepared to jump.

This is too easy. Lionblaze strode forward, flipping Owlclaw from his path, knocking Redwillow backward as the warrior attempted to lunge. Lionblaze saw Rowanclaw’s gaze fix on him, heard the breath gasp from his mouth as he crouched for the attack, felt the rush of air as slowly the warrior flew at him, teeth bared. Lionblaze had only to rear up and raise a paw to bat him backward into his Clanmates.

A yowl, deep and slow, sounded at the edge of the clearing.

Spinning around, he saw Firestar with Russetfur at his throat. The ShadowClan deputy had sunk her teeth deep into the ThunderClan leader’s neck. Firestar was trying to shake her off, but she allowed her body to be thrashed back and forth, her jaws clamped shut while Firestar staggered, paws slithering in his own blood.

Lionblaze lunged for the ShadowClan deputy. He swiped at her, raking her flank with claws half-sheathed. He only wanted her to release her grip. But she writhed and lashed out, still holding Firestar’s throat.

Firestar sank slowly to his belly, rings of white showing around the rims of his wide-stretched eyes.

Desperate now, Lionblaze flung his paws around Russetfur’s neck and hauled her off. As she let go, he lurched backward, his paws still wrapped tightly around her scrawny body. He landed heavily, sprawling on his back, and Russetfur collapsed on him like a deadweight.

The noise of battle suddenly flooded his ears; the screeching mayhem crashed into his consciousness like a wave breaking.

“You killed Russetfur!” Owlclaw’s wail split the air.

Lionblaze scrambled to his paws. The she-cat flopped, unmoving, onto the ground, her eyes wide-open but clouded with death.

His breath came in panicked gasps. “I d-didn’t do anything!” He hadn’t even scratched her. Only pulled her loose. How could she be dead?

Blackstar barged past him and crouched over her limp body. “Russetfur!” He shook his deputy with his heavy black paws, but she didn’t stir. “Russetfur!”

“Enough!” Thornclaw shook Ratscar from his back and sat up. “The battle is won,” he growled. “The clearing is ours. Do you concede or shall we fight for it again?”

Blackstar flashed a look of burning hatred over his shoulder. “Take it,” he hissed. “It was never worth the blood that has been spilled here today.”

Around them the battle stuttered and stumbled. Confusion filled the air as Lionblaze stood, frozen, wrapped in horror until Sorreltail shrieked.

“Firestar!”

Turning in a daze, Lionblaze saw blood pool around Firestar’s neck. The ThunderClan leader twitched, his flanks falling still. His tail snaked behind him, dead as prey.

He’s losing a life!

The ground lurched beneath Lionblaze. This wasn’t supposed to happen!

ShadowClan warriors began to gather around Russetfur’s body. They pressed forward to lick her fast-cooling fur.

Lionblaze backed away.

Sorreltail leaned over Firestar, her eyes clouding as Sandstorm appeared at the edge of the trees.

“What’s wrong?” The orange she-cat raced to crouch at her mate’s side.

“He’s losing a life,” Sorreltail reported grimly.

Two deaths?

What kind of battle was this? StarClan would never have sent a dream to lead them into a battle this deadly. A thought flickered in Lionblaze’s mind. His fur, sticky with the blood of other warriors, grew cold. A black, sucking hollow opened like a pit in his belly.

What if this dream hadn’t come from StarClan? What if it had been sent from beyond StarClan’s hunting grounds? Had Dark Forest warriors sent them on this fatal battle against their rivals? Two senior cats dead—one who would never recover—and many more warriors and apprentices badly wounded? Both Clans would be weak for a long time, right at the beginning of leaf-bare. StarClan would never have wanted this, not over a strip of grass that was useless to either Clan.

Lionblaze stared at Russetfur’s and Firestar’s unmoving bodies.

Warriors filed silently past him, gathering, dazed, beside the dead.

This battle should never have happened!