Night Whispers

Chapter 23

Ivypaw curled into her nest. Snow swished and paws shifted as her Clanmates pounded out of camp and headed for the island. She tucked her nose under her paw.

I’m doing it to be a better warrior! She closed her eyes. I’m doing it for my Clan!

As sleep slid around her, she opened her eyes. She was in the Dark Forest. She tasted the air, scenting nothing beyond the sourness of the earth and the reek of mold on the trees. “Hawkfrost?” Her mew echoed through the trees. She needed to see his face. He wants me to be a great warrior, that’s all.

She padded along a mossy trail. The warmth of soil felt strange against her paws after the sting of snow. The trees parted, and the slimy river rolled in front of her. With a flicker of satisfaction she remembered dunking Darkstripe beneath the water with Hollowpaw.

She followed the dark water for a few paces before spotting light through the trees. She veered onto a path that wound deep into the forest. The light glowed stronger, and she quickened her pace. Thick trunks reared up more tightly around her. Ivypaw kept her gaze fixed on the light. As she neared it, she realized that it glowed from a strange gray fungus, which sprouted from the tree trunks and crowded between their roots. Was the fungus reflecting the moon?

Ivypaw strained to see the round white moon. It must be full here too, right? But the branches grew too thickly overhead. There was no sign of sky or moon. The branches began to clatter, though no wind stirred the forest. A shiver ran along Ivypaw’s spine. Don’t be silly. She pressed on.

With a rush of relief, she heard voices and hurried forward. Beyond the clustering trunks, Tigerheart and Tigerstar were talking.

“You’re late.” Tigerstar sounded angry.

Ivypaw pricked her ears to hear Tigerheart’s reply.

“I had to go to the Gathering.”

“Training is more important.”

She ducked behind a tree and peered through the shadows. Tigerstar circled Tigerheart. “Don’t you know who your real Clanmates are yet?” he growled. “Don’t I deserve your loyalty more than those mouse-eaters?”

Ivypaw stiffened. Was Tigerstar trying to turn Tigerheart against ShadowClan?

She heard a thump. Tigerheart groaned. Ivypaw slipped forward, ducking behind the next tree before peeking out. Tigerstar had Tigerheart pinned to the ground.

“That’s the same mistake you made in the battle with ThunderClan,” Tigerstar sneered before letting Tigerheart go.

Tigerheart scrambled up. “What did I do wrong?”

“Don’t watch my paws.” Tigerstar lunged forward, as if to knock the ShadowClan warrior’s hind legs out from under him. Tigerheart bucked, flicking his back paws high and out of the way, but Tigerstar twisted faster. While Tigerheart avoided the lunge, the dark warrior nipped the young warrior’s scruff between his teeth. He dragged him off balance, and Tigerheart landed with a thump on his side.

“Never forget that paws fight, but jaws kill,” Tigerstar growled, backing off.

Tigerheart jumped up. “I won’t,” he panted.

“Lionblaze knows that,” Tigerstar snarled. “That’s how he killed Russetfur. If you can’t match those ThunderClan weaklings, you are nothing.”

Ivypaw gasped. Tigerstar lied to me! He’s not loyal to ThunderClan at all! Tightness gripped her chest, and she struggled to steady her breathing. He’s been telling Tigerheart the same things he’s been telling me. He hasn’t been training me to help ThunderClan at all.

“When the final battle comes”—Tigerstar was still talking—“wasting time at Gatherings won’t help you. It’ll be us against four Clans and their puny ancestors. Then we’ll see who the real warriors are.”

Ivypaw fled. She raced through the forest, the trees blurring on either side. This must be the battle Flametail had seen in his vision. This was why Hawkfrost had recruited her.

She wasn’t special.

She was stupid.

Tigerstar didn’t want to help ThunderClan. He wanted to wage war against the Clans. And he was using their own warriors against them!

Gasping, Ivypaw stumbled to a halt. The river blocked her path, sliding silently before her. How do I get home? She blinked and blinked again.

Wake up! Wake up!

“Are you okay, little one?”

For a moment Ivypaw imagined she was back in the nursery, Daisy murmuring over her. She snapped open her eyes and saw Mapleshade. The orange-and-white warrior was gazing at her with a mocking gleam in her eyes.

“Leave me alone!” Ivypaw hissed.

“Are you having a bad dream, dear?” Mapleshade sneered.

Ivypaw shrank from Mapleshade’s stinking breath. “Why don’t you just fade away to nothing?”

Mapleshade flexed her claws. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere until I’ve settled a few scores.”

Ivypaw forced herself not to start shaking. “I… I was looking for Hawkfrost.”

“He’s busy.” Mapleshade moved closer. “He wanted me to train you tonight.”

Ivypaw swallowed. “Really?”

“Let’s try out those river moves you learned last time.” Heart sinking, Ivypaw gazed at the river.

“Show me what you learned,” Mapleshade ordered before she turned and waded out into the water.

Ivypaw forced herself to follow. The water oozed around her paws and dragged at her pelt.

“Am I deep enough yet?” Mapleshade asked. The water was lapping the warrior’s shoulders. Ivypaw had to follow on tiptoes to keep her nose above the water. “Now what happens?” Mapleshade prompted. “Come on, you must remember your lesson.”

“I have to knock your legs from under you.”

“Go ahead then, dear.”

Get it over with quickly. Ivypaw took a breath and ducked under, gagging as the warm, slimy water washed her muzzle. She swam down toward Mapleshade’s paws and reached out to grab them. A heavy weight hit her back and pushed her deep into the water, till her chest bumped onto the riverbed. Ivypaw struggled as the blood roared in her ears. Mapleshade had her pinned down. The great she-cat’s claws pierced Ivypaw’s pelt, pressing her harder against the stones.

Ivypaw writhed on the bottom of the river, bubbles escaping her mouth. Mapleshade was pushing the air from her chest. She fought wildly, kicking out with her legs, hoping to knock Mapleshade away. Ivypaw’s lungs screamed. Blackness edged her vision. She fought the urge to suck in water.

Then her flailing hind legs struck a rock. It budged, barely the width of a whisker. Ivypaw flailed again, harder. The stone shifted, then gained speed. Mapleshade’s paws shifted as the rock rolled away. With a mighty shove, Ivypaw pushed upward, wrenching herself free as the she-warrior lost her balance.

Desperate for air, Ivypaw forced herself to stay beneath the water. She struck out with her paws and began swimming underwater as far from Mapleshade as she could. As the riverbed sloped up, she followed the curve, emerging from the water on the far bank. She slithered onto the mud, gulping for air.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Mapleshade splashing around in the river, searching the riverbed with floundering paws. Low as an otter, Ivypaw crept up the bank and slunk between the trees. When she was sure the shadows hid her, she collapsed, panting, onto the ground and coughed up a lungful of black water. Exhausted, she closed her eyes.

“Ivypaw?”

Dovepaw!

She looked up, relief swamping her as she saw the edges of her nest and her sister’s face peering anxiously over its woven stems. Early dawn light was beginning to filter through the ferns.

“Are you okay?”

Ivypaw coughed again, her chest burning. “Yes,” she rasped. “I’m okay now.” She never wanted to go back to the Dark Forest, not ever. “How was the Gathering?”

“I need to ask you something.” Dovepaw was looking anxious. The Clan was beginning to stir outside the den.

“What?”

Dovepaw leaned closer as Ivypaw sat up. “Tell me about Tigerheart again.” Her ears twitched. “Is he really training in the Dark Forest?”

Ivypaw lowered her gaze. “Yes,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Dovepaw sighed. “I don’t think he ever loved me.”

Ivypaw jerked up her muzzle. “Don’t say that!”

Dovepaw shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

“I do!” Ivypaw leaped out of her nest and pressed against Dovepaw. “Tigerstar tricked him just like he tricked me!”

Dovepaw stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“It was all a lie—”

“Wait!” Dovepaw cut her off. “Lionblaze and Jayfeather need to hear this, too.”

Ivypaw stared at her sister. What was she talking about? What did they have to do with it?

“Just trust me.” Dovepaw nosed Ivypaw to her paws and jostled her out of the den.

Jayfeather was padding from the warriors’ den with a bundle of withered herbs in his jaws. He seemed to sense Dovepaw, because he turned his blind gaze on them and narrowed his eyes. Then he tucked the herbs under a stone by the den entrance and hurried over.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“We’re fine,” Dovepaw told him. “Where’s Lionblaze?”

“I’m here.” The golden warrior was bounding down the tumble of rocks from Highledge.

“We need to talk,” Dovepaw hissed. She headed for the entrance with Jayfeather and Lionblaze on her tail.

What’s going on? There seemed to be as many secrets here as there were in the Dark Forest.

Dovepaw led them up the steep slope outside the entrance, forged her way through the drifted snow, and hopped over a fallen tree. The ground behind was clear where the trunk had held back the drift. Dovepaw crouched against the rotting bark as Jayfeather and Lionblaze settled beside her. Ivypaw balanced on the trunk for a moment before jumping down next to them. They huddled together, cocooned from the bitter wind.

“Go on, Ivypaw,” Dovepaw prompted. “Tell them.”

Ivypaw looked from Jayfeather to Lionblaze. Their pelts were pricking with expectation. She took a deep breath and began. “I’ve been visiting the Dark Forest in my dreams.”

“Tell us something new,” Jayfeather grunted.

Ivypaw blinked. “Tigerstar’s been training me,” she went on, trying to squash the butterflies leaping in her belly. “And Hawkfrost. They told me they wanted me to be a great warrior so I could protect my Clan.”

“And you believed them?” Lionblaze snapped.

Dovepaw turned on him. “Let her tell you!” she snarled.

Ivypaw glanced gratefully at her sister. “Tigerstar said that he was loyal to ThunderClan. That he’d been born ThunderClan and he’d never stopped feeling like a ThunderClan cat.”

Jayfeather was nodding slowly. “Okay.”

“I just wanted to be as good as Dovepaw,” Ivypaw explained. “I wanted to be so good that everyone would notice me, too.”

She was relieved to see Lionblaze’s gaze soften. “You’re a good apprentice, Ivypaw, and you’re going to make a fine warrior. Don’t try competing with your sister.”

Why not? The old jealousy sparked beneath Ivypaw’s pelt. What’s so special about her? “It’s over now. I know the truth. Tigerstar and his warriors are planning to attack all the Clans. They want to destroy us. I’m never going back to the Dark Forest.” She felt bone tired as tension eased from her muscles.

“How will you stop?” Jayfeather’s mew took her by surprise.

“Stop what?”

“When you go to sleep, do you choose to dream about the Dark Forest?” Jayfeather pressed.

Ivypaw narrowed her eyes. “I… I guess not. I just wake up there,” she admitted.

Jayfeather sat up. “Good.”

What do you mean? What if I wake up there again, without wanting to? Ivypaw felt sick. “W-why is that good?”

“Because you’re going to spy for us,” Jayfeather declared.

Ivypaw started to tremble. “But I don’t want to go there again.”

“Too late.” Jayfeather shrugged. “You joined the Dark Forest. Do you think Tigerstar’s going to let you go after training you so hard?”

“But I don’t want to train anymore!”

Jayfeather wasn’t listening. His blind blue eyes seemed to be boring into hers. “They don’t know you’ve changed your mind, do they?”

Ivypaw shook her head, unable to speak.

“Then you must keep training with them and tell us everything you find out.”

Ivypaw’s chest throbbed. “You want me to spy on them?”

“Of course.” Jayfeather smoothed his whiskers with a paw. “You were ready to betray us. Why not betray them?”

Dovepaw sat up sharply. “She didn’t know she was betraying us—”

Jayfeather interrupted her. “She was training with Tigerstar,” he snapped. “How was that ever going to be good for ThunderClan?”

Lionblaze tucked his tail over his front paws. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Ivypaw felt as if she were caught in another terrible dream.

“But only,” Lionblaze went on, “if Ivypaw agrees.”

Ivypaw felt Mapleshade’s paws on her shoulders, pressing her down into the riverbed. “No!” She just wanted to be an ordinary apprentice again, fetching moss for Mousefur and Purdy, learning to hunt in a real forest with real cats. “I’m not going back.”

“You may not have the choice,” Jayfeather muttered.

Dovepaw’s tail was flicking. “Let me talk to her on my own. Please.” Lionblaze dipped his head and leaped up onto the trunk.

“Come on,” he called to Jayfeather. “Let’s leave this to Dovepaw.” Jayfeather gave a small sigh and followed his brother.

As their paw steps crunched away through the snow, Ivypaw looked at her sister. “What’s going on?”

Dovepaw settled back into a crouch. “There’s something that you still don’t know.”

“What?”

“Climb over the trunk and go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything.” Dovepaw blinked at her. “Throw a snowball; climb a tree. It doesn’t matter. Just make sure I can’t hear you or see you.”

Puzzled, Ivypaw scrambled onto the trunk and bounded away through the snow. She looked back and saw nothing, then headed farther away. Once she knew Dovepaw wouldn’t be able to hear her, she slid behind a tree and dug a hole in the snow. Then she filled it in and hurried back to her sister.

“Well?” she panted.

“You dug a hole, and then you filled it in,” Dovepaw told her.

Ivypaw felt dizzy. “Did you follow me?”

“Did you see my paw prints?”

Ivypaw shook her head. “Then how did you know?”

Her sister was silent for a moment, gazing at her with wet blue eyes. “I can hear everything,” she blurted out. “I can smell everything too, if I set my mind to it.”

Ivypaw snorted. “Shut up! You’re just showing off again! No cat can smell and hear everything.”

Dovepaw lashed her tail. “I’m not showing off. Sometimes I wish that I were. I have special powers. I’m part of a prophecy that says three cats will have more power than the stars in their paws. Jayfeather and Lionblaze are the other two cats. That’s why they listen to me. That’s why Firestar listens to me.”

“Firestar listened to me when I told him about my dream!” Ivypaw pointed out.

“But you made it up!” Dovepaw thrust her muzzle in Ivypaw’s face. “This is real! Right now I can hear Hollowpaw getting lectured for not getting the ticks out of Pouncetail’s pelt yesterday. I can hear Dewkit and Mistkit fighting in their nest over who gets first bite of the stinky old sparrow Crowfrost brought them. I can hear Heathertail showing Harespring a new route through the thickest patch of gorse, and Onestar is washing—”

“Stop!” Ivypaw struggled to keep up. “You can really hear all that?”

Dovepaw nodded. “Everything. I heard the beavers.”

“That’s how you knew they were stopping the water!” Things that had puzzled Ivypaw for a long time were starting to make a strange kind of sense. “That’s why Firestar sent you on the mission, even though you were only an apprentice.” Her head was spinning. “So Firestar knows, too?”

“Yes, but only Firestar.”

Ivypaw’s pelt felt hot and prickly. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” She didn’t give Dovepaw a chance to reply. “Didn’t you realize how much it hurt to see you being singled out like some kind of super apprentice?”

Dovepaw shuffled her paws. “I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. No cat knows about Jayfeather and Lionblaze, except Firestar.”

“But they knew about each other, right? And I bet Hollyleaf knew!” Ivypaw was starting to seethe. “It’s your fault I went to the Dark Forest!!”

Dovepaw stared at her. “Wha-what do you mean?”

“The first time I met Hawkfrost, it wasn’t in the Place of No Stars; it was in a field with flowers and sunshine and stuff like that. He… he flattered me; he seemed interested in what I could do, not what my sister could do. No cat has ever treated me like that in this Clan. I’m just your shadow here.”

“That’s not true!” Dovepaw hissed.

“But that’s how it felt! You can’t blame me for listening to Hawkfrost, for wanting to learn all the moves that he taught me.”

“No cat is blaming you.” Dovepaw sighed.

Ivypaw narrowed her eyes to slits. “Are you sure? Lionblaze and Jayfeather don’t trust me. Maybe they want me to go back to the Dark Forest and stay there!”

Dovepaw flattened her ears. “Don’t be ridiculous! Can’t you see that we need you? Without knowing exactly what’s going on in the Dark Forest, the prophecy is useless. You got your wish: You’re the special one now.”

Ivypaw blinked. “I wish I weren’t,” she whispered. “I’m scared.”

Her sister rested her tail on Ivypaw’s shoulders. “I know,” she mewed softly. “We all are, even the cats in StarClan. I think that we could be all that stands between the Dark Forest and the end of the Clans.” Suddenly she looked tiny, huddled into a crouch with the snow banked around her.

“I’ll help you if I can,” Ivypaw promised in a rush. This wasn’t just about her now—in fact, it wasn’t about her at all. It was about every cat who lived beside the lake.

“Tell Jayfeather and Lionblaze that I’ll go back. I’ll pretend I’m still one of them, and I’ll find out everything I can about their plans.”