Hawkwing’s Journey

Chapter 22

“Who? Where?” Leafstar’s voice was urgent.

“Other cats… They jumped down on us from the top of a wall,” Bellaleaf replied. “There were so many of them! I managed to get Fidgetpaw away, but I couldn’t help Curlypaw.”

“What about Stick’s cats?” Leafstar asked. “Where are they?”

“They ran away.” Bellaleaf’s mew was bitter. “Cowards!”

By now Hawkwing and the others had leaped to their paws and were crowding around Leafstar and Bellaleaf. Echosong hurried up to Fidgetpaw and began examining his injured paw with careful sniffs.

“We have to do something!” Hawkwing exclaimed. “If they’ve hurt Curlypaw, I’ll—”

“We must stay calm,” Leafstar interrupted sharply. “Bellaleaf, can you take us back to where this ambush happened? We can try to follow the scent trail and find out where these cats took

Curlypaw.”

“I wouldn’t bother.” Stick padded up to join the Clan leader.

“They must have been Dodge’s cats, and if Dodge has your friend there’s nothing you can do to help her.”

Leafstar whirled around to face Stick, a blaze of fury in her amber eyes. “We don’t abandon our friends,” she hissed. “We’re Clan cats!”

Stick shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Stick, you should be ashamed of yourself!” Shorty exclaimed, bounding up to the group with more of Stick’s cats behind him.

“Have you forgotten how SkyClan helped us? I’ll come with you, Leafstar.”

“So will I,” Snowy added.

“Thank you,” Leafstar meowed. “Let’s go. I’ll take Bellaleaf, of course, and Rabbitleap, Harrybrook, Sagenose, and Tinycloud.

Waspwhisker, you’re in charge here.”

“What about me?” Hawkwing asked, his fur beginning to bristle in anger at being left out. “Curlypaw is my apprentice.”

Leafstar fixed him with a hard gaze. “Can I trust you to follow orders and not lose your temper?”

Hawkwing swallowed. “Yes, Leafstar.” Underneath his anger was fear, fear that Curlypaw might be in real danger.

“Then you can come. But…”

Leafstar’s voice trailed off as she gazed past the twisted trees, toward the alley where Bellaleaf had appeared. Another cat had emerged, and was pacing slowly toward them. As he drew closer, Hawkwing could see that he was a powerful gray-and-brown tabby tom. M uscles rippled under his pelt as he padded up to the group and halted a tail-length away.

Stick was glaring at him, his shoulder fur bristling and his eyes narrowed. “Harley!” he snarled. “You’re not welcome here!”

Hawkwing thought that Harley looked no happier to be there than Stick was to have him, but his voice was even as he responded. “I’ve brought a message from Dodge. Not for you, Stick, but for Leafstar.”

This must be another one of the cats Leafstar met when SkyClan was here before, Hawkwing thought.

“What message?” Leafstar asked calmly.

“Dodge has your cat,” Harley replied. “He wants you to meet him and discuss the situation. All of you,” he added, sweeping his tail around to include the whole Clan.

“You must think they’re all flea-brained,” Stick sneered. “Walk into Dodge’s territory, just like that? No way!”

Harley ignored him. Dipping his head respectfully to Leafstar, he meowed, “I give you my word that none of you will be harmed until the meeting is over.”

“And what is your word worth?” Stick challenged him.

“That’s not your affair,” Harley replied. “I’m not offering it to you. If you or any of your cats set paw in Dodge’s territory, you can expect trouble.”

“Like I don’t know that!” Stick snorted.

Leafstar gave Stick a sidelong glance. “I have to trust Harley,” she stated. “We cannot abandon Curlypaw.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Waspwhisker asked, in the midst of uneasy murmuring from the rest of the Clan.

“Then I’m wrong,” Leafstar replied. “But I believe StarClan will be with us if we do what is right.” To Harley she added, “Show us the way.”

As the Clan moved off, Hawkwing heard a low mutter from some cat behind him. “Why can’t StarClan ever just say what they want us to do?”

Harley headed back toward the alley, with the whole of SkyClan hard on his paws. Hawkwing padded at Leafstar’s shoulder, with Pebbleshine next to him. Apprehension swelled inside him with every paw step. Part of him would have liked to run and run until he left this terrible place behind him, but first he and his Clanmates had to rescue Curlypaw. So he kept padding steadily onward, grateful for the touch of Pebbleshine’s pelt against his own.

Complete darkness had fallen. As Harley led the Clan deeper into the Twolegplace, the only light was pale and fitful as the moon appeared now and again through gaps in the clouds that surged across the sky. They followed a twisting path down alleys, over walls, and once through a tunnel beneath a Thunderpath, and Hawkwing thought that the only way they would be able to find their way back to Stick’s camp would be by following their own scent trail.

That’s if any of us come back at all.

Finally Harley drew to a halt outside a tumbledown Twoleg den. Two of the walls had almost completely crumbled away, the red square-cut stones lying scattered on the ground. The other two walls met at an angle across a stretch of muddy, broken ground where the uncertain moonlight reflected from puddles covered with rainbow-colored scum. In the center of the ruined den the ground fell away into a pit.

Everywhere Hawkwing looked, cats were sitting on top of the tottering walls, or perched in the gaps where stones had fallen away. He almost felt as though their unblinking gazes were scorching his pelt.

At the edge of the pit a dark brown tabby tom was sitting with his paws tucked under him. He rose as Leafstar padded forward across the broken ground, and took a pace forward to face her.

Hawkwing drew in a sharp breath at the size of him and the powerful muscles of his shoulders and hindquarters. Slitted yellow eyes stared out from a flat face seamed with scars. One of his ears was shredded and there was another deep scar running from his neck to halfway down his flank.

“That’s Dodge?” Pebbleshine whispered into Hawkwing’s ear.

“Great StarClan, he looks dangerous!”

As Leafstar halted in front of him with her Clan clustering around her, the tabby tom dipped his head, mockingly polite.

“Welcome to my camp,” he meowed.

Leafstar gave him a curt nod. “Where is our apprentice?” she asked.

Before Dodge could reply, a desperate wail came up from the depths of the pit. “Leafstar, is that you?”

At the sound of Curlypaw’s voice, Hawkwing thrust his way through his Clanmates to stand at the edge of the pit. Its sides were lined with more of the red Twoleg stone, and a jagged slope led downward from one corner. Curlypaw crouched at the bottom, with two hulking toms keeping guard over her.

“I’m here, Curlypaw!” Hawkwing called. “Don’t be scared!”

“Hawkwing! Thank StarClan!” Curlypaw yowled. She leaped to her paws, but one of the toms guarding her gave her a hard cuff over one ear, and she sank back down to the ground.

“Stay there!” Hawkwing told her. To his relief she didn’t look badly hurt. “We’ll get you out!”

Turning away from the edge of the pit, he padded back to where Leafstar and Dodge still stood facing each other.

“I was expecting a visit from you,” Dodge meowed.

Leafstar’s whiskers twitched suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

“Last time we met,” Dodge replied, “you told me to keep to my own side of the border, or you would come back and fight me again.”

“And now you’ve broken that agreement,” Waspwhisker broke in. “But we didn’t know that. That’s not why we’re here.”

Dodge licked one paw and drew it slowly over his uninjured ear. “Oh, I know why you’re here,” he purred.

“What do you mean?” Leafstar repeated sharply.

“I expect that you’ve had a few visitors of your own,” Dodge responded.

Leafstar and Waspwhisker exchanged a sudden, startled glance, and shocked exclamations rose from the Clan cats clustered around them.

Hawkwing felt as though a wave of hot rage was surging through him. He shouldered his way forward until he stood nose to nose with Dodge. “You mean Darktail?” he choked out. “You know him?”

Dodge raised one paw and thrust him back contemptuously.

Hawkwing braced his muscles to spring, only to feel Leafstar’s tail laid warningly on his shoulder.

“Hawkwing, no,” she snapped with a shake of her head.

Turning back to Dodge, she asked, “Did you send Darktail and his rogues to our camp?”

“Not exactly,” Dodge replied. “They passed through here a while back, looking for Clan cats. They would have found you anyway, but I might have helped them on their way a little.”

Now Hawkwing’s rage was burning deep within his belly.

“Why?” he demanded. “A decent cat would have warned us.”

Dodge’s yellow stare suddenly grew hard and malignant. “Do you think I’ve forgiven you for what you did to us?” he asked Leafstar. “No. I’ve often thought of gathering my cats together and traveling upstream to give you another taste of our claws. But then… well, wasn’t it lucky that Darktail and his rogues turned up to do the job for me?”

Leafstar’s eyes were sparkling with anger, but Hawkwing could see the massive effort she was making to keep it under control. “So you’ve had your revenge.” Every word was spat out. “You have helped to wound my Clan—but we are not destroyed. SkyClan still lives!”

A chorus of voices erupted from behind her. “SkyClan lives!”

Leafstar waved her tail for silence and waited until the clamor of support from her Clanmates had died down. “So why are we here?” she asked Dodge. “Why have you taken one of my cats?”

Dodge blinked slowly. “I told you I expected you to come through here,” he rasped. “So I made a plan. Now one of your cats is my prisoner. You can have her back unharmed if you fight on my side this time, and help me drive Stick and his cats out of this Twolegplace for good.”

Hawkwing felt his jaws drop open in astonishment. Leafstar was gazing at Dodge as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. For a moment she didn’t reply.

“Well?” Dodge slid out the claws of one paw and examined them nonchalantly. “Do we have a deal?”

“We do not!” Leafstar snarled. “Stick and the others were our friends. Clan cats do not betray their friends.”

Dodge shrugged. “Okay. If that’s the way you want it.” He turned aside and took a pace back toward the pit, his jaws opening to call out to Curlypaw’s guards.

“Wait!” Leafstar followed him. “You can’t do this.”

“Oh, I think you’ll find I can,” Dodge drawled. “Of course, you could always try fighting your way out, but that young cat of yours will still be the first to die.”

From where he was standing Hawkwing couldn’t see Curlypaw, but he guessed she could hear what Dodge and Leafstar were saying.

She must be so scared! he thought. She’s such a young apprentice—hardly more than a kit. Oh, StarClan, help us!

“Please…” The plaintive mew came from Birdwing, Curlypaw’s mother. Her eyes were full of fear and grief, and Hawkwing guessed she hardly knew what she was asking for.

Whatever Leafstar decided, all their lives were in danger.

Glancing around, Hawkwing realized that all the cats sitting around on the crumbling walls of the camp were suddenly more alert. Their eyes gleamed in the fitful light, and many of them had risen to their paws, the fur on their shoulders rising. Here and there he caught the glitter of extended claws.

They’re only waiting for Dodge’s order before they tear us apart!

In contrast, the cluster of SkyClan cats were hopelessly outnumbered, and not in any fit state to fight. Bellaleaf and Fidgetpaw had fresh wounds, while other cats, like Cherrytail, were still weakened from injuries they took in the gorge battle against Darktail.

If we fight Dodge’s cats, we’re bound to lose. But if we fight against Stick, we lose the honor of our Clan, and some of us will still die. What are we going to do?

Then to Hawkwing’s surprise, the tabby tom Harley—who had escorted them from Stick’s camp—sprang up onto a pile of tumbled stones near the edge of the pit.

“Dodge, this is wrong,” he protested. “I gave these cats my word that they would be unharmed until the meeting was over.”

“It is over,” Dodge growled. “But I’ll give their so-called leader one more chance. What is it to be?” he asked Leafstar. “Fight for us, or against us? There’s no other choice.”

Dead silence fell over the whole camp. Dodge’s cats waited with scarcely concealed excitement, while the cats of SkyClan were silent with horror. Beside Hawkwing, Pebbleshine stood rigid, her eyes closed.

I wish I could tear that cat apart! Hawkwing glared at Dodge, trying to pour all the hatred he felt into his gaze. He helped Darktail, and now he’s taken Curlypaw. But they would never let me get at him.

“You’re just a coward,” Hawkwing snapped. “You keep your claws sheathed until you think you have the upper paw. But a real leader of cats steps up and leads even in the face of uncertainty.

That is real bravery!”

Dodge cocked his head, eyes narrowing in a contemptuous sneer. “Your ‘bravery’ won’t save you in a real fight…” Dodge flexed his claws, hissing: “And we can prove that to you right now!”