Chapter 35

Leafstar sensed silver light all around her, encouraging her to open her eyes. She found herself sitting on the edge of the woods, bathed in the warm rays of the rising sun. Battle still raged in Dodge’s camp, and on the far side of the ditch, cats were gathering around a hunched shape lying on the ground—something Leafstar couldn’t see clearly. Billystorm and Cherrytail were there with Rockshade, and as she watched, Sharpclaw came racing up.

She tried to hear what they were saying, but their voices were oddly muted, and however much she strained her ears she couldn’t make out the words. For some reason they seemed to be very distressed. Billystorm was crouched on the ground, his head flung back and his jaws parted in a soundless wail.

Then the crowd shifted and Leafstar gasped in horror as she saw her own body stretched lifeless in the mud at the edge of the ditch. The cream-colored she-cat was standing triumphantly over her.

No!

Leafstar jumped as she felt a tail stroke her flank. She turned her head to see a tortoiseshell she-cat sitting beside her, a look of compassion in her beautiful green eyes.

“Spottedleaf?” she rasped.

“Don’t be afraid, dear one,” Spottedleaf reassured her. “You are losing a life. You will return to them soon.”

Leafstar became aware of another cat sitting on her other side, and glanced across to see the gray-and-white pelt of Cloudstar. The former SkyClan leader licked the top of her head as if she were a troubled kit.

“We are here,” he murmured. “We will keep you safe.”

“Did I do the wrong thing by bringing my Clanmates here?” Leafstar asked. “This isn’t their battle!”

“But you have skills that you can give these cats to live in peace from now on,” Spottedleaf told her.

“And you and Sharpclaw have fought together as a leader and deputy should,” Cloudstar added, wisdom shining from his pale eyes. “Don’t keep doubting him, Leafstar. He is as loyal to you and to SkyClan as you could wish.”

Leafstar longed to accept their reassurances, but the anxieties of the last moon had sunk into her too deeply, like leaves trapped in the ice of leaf-bare. “It’s been so hard!” she whispered. “I don’t know what our destiny is!”

Cloudstar bent his head toward her. “Your destiny is what you make it, Leafstar.”

Spottedleaf’s sweet scent wreathed around her, stronger than the smell of blood and fury. “I gave you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry,” she murmured. “Use it now, Leafstar.”

Her voice faded as she spoke, and the shapes of the two StarClan cats dissolved into the surrounding woodland until they became no more than a frosty glimmer, and then were gone.

Leafstar’s eyes blinked open and she saw the anxious faces of her Clanmates staring down at her.

“Oh, thank StarClan!” Rockshade’s voice rose to a squeak.

“We hoped you were just losing a life,” Cherrytail meowed. “It was scary, though!”

Leafstar stretched her limbs and managed to sit up. “Is the kit okay?” she croaked.

“Yes,” the tortoiseshell queen replied. “My kits are all safe on the other side of the ditch.”

Leafstar nodded thankfully, then looked around until her gaze met Billystorm’s. The SkyClan warrior’s eyes were full of love and pain; after a couple of heartbeats he turned his head away, his claws kneading the ground.

We will talk later, Leafstar promised him silently.

She became aware of the screeches of battle still coming from the other side of the ditch. Leafstar struggled to her paws. “We must help them,” she wheezed.

Sharpclaw padded up and offered his shoulder for her to lean on. “Wait until your strength comes back,” he meowed.

Before Leafstar could reply, there was a rustle from the trees on the other side of the ditch. Red and Harley appeared from behind a scrubby patch of bramble. Red halted, staring in horror at the battle and the wrecked camp.

“What’s going on?” she gasped.

Leafstar turned to look across the ditch, trying to imagine how Red would see the scene. The camp was in ruins, the flimsy sides of the dens squashed or torn, and smeared with blood. In the midst of the debris, Stick and Dodge still wrestled, with growls of hatred and claws clotted with each other’s blood. It was obvious that the two toms were determined to kill each other.

With barely a glance at the Clan cats, Red leaped across the ditch and raced up to her father, with Harley hard on her paws. Beckoning her Clanmates with a wave of her tail, Leafstar staggered after them.

“What are you doing?” Red shrieked, standing over her father.

Without relaxing his grip on Dodge, Stick looked up; it took him a moment to focus on his daughter. “Freeing you!” he snarled.

“But I’m not a prisoner!”

All around them the other cats stopped fighting, as if they recognized that this was the heart of the battle. Stick and Dodge broke apart; Stick rose to his paws and faced his daughter, while Dodge sat up and started to lick his wounds, glaring resentfully at the cats who had attacked his camp.

“What’s your problem?” Red challenged her father.

“These cats have done nothing but steal since they arrived,” Stick spat back at her. “This was our home first! They have taken our prey, our dens, and now you!”

Red opened her jaws to reply, but Harley padded up close to her side before she could speak.

“No cat stole Red,” the gray-black tom growled. “Do you think so little of her? She came of her own accord.”

“No,” Red meowed, turning her head to gaze at Harley. “I came because of you—because I love you. No cat can make me leave.”

Anger turned Stick’s eyes into black pools. “This isn’t love! You tricked her!” he roared as he sprang at Harley with claws outstretched.

Swift as a snake, Red threw herself in Stick’s way. His claws plunged deep into her throat; at once he tried to throw his weight back, but it was too late. Red crumpled to the ground at his paws, blood welling from the wound he had opened up.

Stick stared down in disbelief, at the blood on his own claws and the gashes in his daughter’s throat. “No… no…” he whispered.

For a heartbeat horror froze Leafstar’s paws to the ground. Then she rushed forward to crouch beside Red. “Quick, bring cobwebs!” she ordered.

The words were scarcely out of her mouth before Cherrytail raced up to her with a pawful of cobwebs, which Leafstar slapped onto Red’s wound. Shrewtooth arrived a moment later, holding out strands of sticky goosegrass from the ditch.

“Here, try this,” he suggested.

Leafstar took the stems, trying to bind them across the pad of cobweb. But Red’s blood kept gushing out. Her fur turned as scarlet as the sunrise behind them, as if her life were bleeding into the sky.

“Red—stay with me.” Harley crouched beside her, opposite Leafstar, covering her ears with frantic licks. “Remember the kits we were going to have… tough little ginger she-cats, just like you? Remember how we planned our life?”

“That would never have happened,” Stick snarled.

Dodge sprang to his paws. “Touch one hair on Harley’s pelt and you’ll answer to me.”

Stick spun around to glare at him. “Then I’ll kill you first.”

As he crouched to spring, Sharpclaw flung himself at Stick’s flank, overbalancing him and standing over him as he scrabbled in the mud. “Enough!” the SkyClan deputy hissed. “Too much blood has been shed already! You asked for our help to drive these cats out, not to kill them.”

Stick stumbled to his paws, narrowing his eyes at the ginger tom. “Anything less is a sign of weakness,” he spat.

Leafstar rose from Red’s side and padded forward to stand beside her deputy. “Then you have learned nothing from the warrior code,” she mewed. Looking around, she saw that all of Dodge’s cats had been overpowered by her warriors. “This battle is over,” she continued. “Dodge, leave these cats alone or we will come back and fight you again. Stick, defend your hunting places—learn from SkyClan and protect your prey as well as your dens. Use those parts of the warrior code that will help you to live without shedding more blood.”

Stick said nothing, breathing hard and fixing Leafstar with a mutinous glare. But behind him Leafstar could see Shorty and Cora exchanging glances and nodding. They have learned something, and they will use that to make their life better.

“What?” Dodge stalked up, a truculent look in his eyes. “You’re not going to get away with this!” he growled at Stick.

Leafstar turned, gesturing with her tail toward Red’s body. The dying she-cat had her glazed eyes fixed on Harley; after a couple more heartbeats she gave a faint quiver and lay still, her paws and tail limp. Harley let out a groan from deep in his throat and buried his face in her fur.

“Do you think Stick can possibly suffer more than this?” Leafstar asked Dodge softly. “There is room here for all of you, if you divide it fairly. Carry on fighting to the death, and you’ll only lose what you love most.”

With the tip of her tail Leafstar signaled to her Clanmates, gathering them around her. All of them bore the marks of the battle, but she saw with a vast rush of relief that they were all there, all standing on their paws.

Sharpclaw padded up close to her side. She exchanged a long look with him, and he nodded solemnly.

“Come. It’s time for us to return home,” she meowed. With a last glance at Dodge and Stick, she led her Clanmates out of the battered camp, across the ditch, and into the woods.

While they were still among the trees, Cora raced to catch up to them.

“Thank you,” the black she-cat panted, running alongside Leafstar. “For everything.”

Leafstar nodded. “It was our destiny.”

A pang of regret shook her as Cora turned back to return to the Twolegplace. If things had been different, we could have been friends. But Cora’s paws lay on another path, she knew, helping her friends to rebuild their lives after the devastation of the battle. That is her destiny. And this is ours.

* * *

The SkyClan cats traveled slowly that day. Every cat was injured: Cherrytail was the worst, with scratches on both flanks and a wound to her neck which kept oozing blood. Shrewtooth was limping from where he had pulled out a claw, but he held his head proudly. Egg had a shredded ear, and patches of Sparrowpelt’s fur had been wrenched out.

Leafstar made camp early, under the roots of a tree; with Sharpclaw and Waspwhisker, who had the least injuries, she hunted for the rest of the Clan, and found cobwebs to put on Cherrytail’s neck wound.

“We’ll soon have you home to Echosong,” she promised.

The tortoiseshell she-cat flicked her tail. “Don’t worry about me, Leafstar. I’ll be okay.”

The next day dawned fine, with a warm, sleepy breeze brushing the grass and ruffling the cats’ fur. Leafstar glanced around approvingly as they set out again. Well-fed and rested, her Clanmates were already starting to recover. Her paws were tugging her home, but she set an easy pace, mindful of their wounds.

In the heat of sunhigh they rested beside the river where marigold grew thickly at the water’s edge. Leafstar chewed up leaves to make a poultice for Cherrytail, while the rest of her Clanmates treated one another’s scrapes and bruises. Egg caught another fish for them to share, and started to teach Rockshade how to do it; a close friendship seemed to be springing up between the two young cats.

SkyClan will be stronger for all we have been through together, Leafstar thought with satisfaction.

On the final day of their journey, Leafstar realized that Sharpclaw had fallen into step beside her. She had been waiting for this moment, and was mildly surprised that it had taken him so long. Is he going to make one final challenge to my leadership?

“I want you to know that I’ll fight to the end of my nine lives to keep my position as leader,” she vowed quietly, before Sharpclaw had the chance to say anything. “Not because I think I deserve it, but because I am loyal to my Clan, and to the warrior code, above all else.”

Sharpclaw widened his eyes. Leafstar’s voice grew sharper as she continued. “The code says that as leader my word is law, and my Clanmates must be loyal to me. If any cat cannot be loyal to me in this way, they cannot be part of SkyClan.”

Sharpclaw just nodded. “I never expected anything else,” he meowed.

“What?” Leafstar was outraged. “When you challenged me at every turn? When you took patrols into the Twolegplace without telling me? When—”

“But I’ve never doubted that you should be our leader,” Sharpclaw interrupted. “I’ve always believed that, ever since Firestar took you to the Skyrock to receive your nine lives. I challenged you, yes, so I could be sure of your conviction that you were doing the right thing.” His green eyes flashed. “What SkyClan needs more than anything else is a leader who has faith in herself. Because only then could other cats have faith in her, too.”

Leafstar stared at him, stunned. I thought he was a traitor! But all he cares about is making our Clan strong!

“Then you have to accept the daylight-warriors,” she told him, scrambling her thoughts together. “They are our Clanmates as much as any cat, and they have equal roles to play.” Realizing how deeply she believed what she had just said, she added, “So Frecklepaw will be apprenticed to Echosong, just as she wishes, and we’ll offer night training to all cats, not just those based in the gorge.”

“Even in the Twolegplace?” Sharpclaw asked with a glint in his eyes.

Leafstar let her neck fur bristle up, but inwardly she was rejoicing at the new relationship that seemed to be unfurling between them. Maybe I shouldn’t have expected him to respect me when I didn’t have enough respect for him. “You’ll have to let me think about that. But you will show respect to the daylight-warriors and include them in all the Clan activities. They are a worthy part of SkyClan.”

Sharpclaw gave her a sideways glance. There was an edge to his tone as he murmured, “That’s our destiny, right?”

Leafstar halted and faced him; the other cats gave them curious glances as they padded past.

“SkyClan’s destiny is that we will never live in isolation from other cats,” she meowed. “We’re not like the forest Clans; we can’t shut ourselves off entirely from kittypets or rogues. And visitors will be welcome.”

“Just like that?” Sharpclaw queried.

Leafstar recalled the havoc that Stick and his friends had almost caused in her Clan. “No, there must be conditions.” Excitement tingled through her as she realized that she was expanding the warrior code itself to fit the conditions in which SkyClan had to live. Are these the “deeper roots” that the prophecy spoke of?

“Visiting cats must hunt every day,” she continued, “but we won’t train them for fighting until they have spent one moon with us. And if they bring danger to the gorge, they must leave. SkyClan does not offer itself to the highest bidder as a fighting force.” She lifted her head. “We are a proud, independent Clan with a code and honor of our own.”

Sharpclaw let out a small sigh; then he nodded and touched his muzzle to the top of Leafstar’s head. “I am proud to be your deputy,” he murmured. He gave her a long look from sparkling eyes before turning away to pad after his Clanmates.

Leafstar stayed where she was for a moment, watching him go. Sharpclaw would never be an easy cat, she knew, blindly following her orders. He would always be a tough, challenging presence at her shoulder, with ideas of his own, and he would never be afraid to argue. We’ll have many more quarrels to come, I’m sure, Leafstar thought. And that’s good.

Watching her Clanmates pad away from her along the riverbank, Leafstar narrowed her eyes. There’s one more part of my destiny that I need to take control of. With energy flooding into her paws she bounded forward until she caught up with Billystorm.

The ginger-and-white tom turned to look at her, his gaze warm with welcome. Leafstar reveled in the sensation of being close to him. He was so strong, so brave, so loyal in the battle… She knew that he loved her, but he had accepted her destiny to be the leader of SkyClan, and nothing more. He was still prepared to go into battle beside her, and forge a path for other daylight-warriors to follow.

But Leafstar wanted more than this. If she could choose her Clan’s destiny, she could choose her own. She had a deputy and a medicine cat she would trust with her eight remaining lives. Even if she had to step down from her duties while she nursed a litter of kits. In her Clan, her warrior code, there was no law against leaders having a mate, and a destiny of their own.

“Will you walk with me a while?” she asked him. “We need to talk…”

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