The Darkest Hour

Chapter 12

Firestar paused at the top of the hollow before leading his cats down to the Gathering. The night was still. Clouds were building up on the horizon, so that Firestar had begun to wonder if StarClan was going to hide the moon to show that it was not their will for the Gathering to take place.

But for now the moon rose high above the clouds, and the scent of cats drifted up to Firestar from the hollow below.

“Only WindClan so far,” murmured Graystripe, who was crouched at Firestar’s shoulder. “What’s keeping the others?”

Firestar shrugged. “StarClan knows. Personally, I wouldn’t care if Tigerstar never showed up.”

He signaled with his tail and led his warriors as they raced down through the bushes and into the clearing at the center of the hollow. As Graystripe had said, only WindClan cats were there. Firestar spotted their leader, Tallstar, seated with his deputy, Deadfoot, near the base of the Great Rock.

“Greetings, Firestar,” Tallstar mewed, dipping his head courteously as Firestar approached. “Tornear told me he met you on your way to Highstones. We grieve for Bluestar.”

“So do her own Clan,” Firestar responded, bowing his head in turn. “She was a noble leader.”

“But you will be a worthy successor,” meowed the black-and-white tom, surprising Firestar by the warmth of his tone. “You’ve served your Clan well.”

“I-I hope to serve it even better in future,” Firestar stammered.

Tallstar nodded once more in response, and sprang up to the top of the rock. Before following him, Firestar glanced around at his own cats. They were already circling am o n g the WindClan warriors and beginning to exchange their news. Firestar was pleased to see that the two Clans seem e d friendly toward each other, in spite of the recent clash over missing prey. Worried as he was about ShadowClan and RiverClan, it was good to think that he might find allies in WindClan.

Waving with his tail toward Onewhisker and his apprentice, Gorsepaw, who were settling down to talk with Sandstorm, Firestar jumped up to stand beside Tallstar on the top of the Great Rock.

He had stood here once before, when he took Bluestar’s place while she was ill after the fire, but he was still not used to looking down on his cats from such a great height, nor seeing their eyes gleam pale from reflected moonlight as they stared up at him. Firestar’s tension increased as he thought about what was to come, and the confrontation with Tigerstar that would surely happen before moonset.

“ShadowClan and RiverClan are late,” he remarked.

Tallstar twitched his ears in agreement. “Clouds threaten the moon,” he pointed out. A trace of anxiety crossed his face. “Perhaps StarClan is angry.”

Looking up, Firestar saw that the clouds he had noticed earlier were spreading farther across the sky.

The air tasted damp, and his fur prickled with expectation. What would it mean, Firestar wondered, if StarClan veiled the moon and Tigerstar was left to plot in secret until the next Gathering?

“Tallstar,” he began, deciding that the time had come to confide in the WindClan leader and ask for his advice. “I’m worried about what Tigerstar might be planning—”

He never finished. A triumphant yowling from the top of the hollow interrupted him, and a heartbeat later more cats raced into the clearing as ShadowClan and RiverClan arrived together, their cats fanning out below him. Tigerstar reached the top of the Great Rock in a single bound, and Leopardstar scrambled up beside him.

“Cats of all Clans!” Tigerstar declared, not waiting to greet Tallstar and Firestar or discuss which of the leaders should speak first. “I have news for you. Listen well, for great change is coming to the forest.”

Firestar stared at the ShadowClan leader in confusion. When Tigerstar first mentioned news, he had thought for a moment he was referring to Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s half-Clan heritage. Yet that would not merit such a spectacular arrival or make Tigerstar talk about great change.

Below them in the clearing there was dead silence. Al l the cats stared up at the Great Rock, their eyes wide as they waited for Tigerstar to explain. Every hair on Firestar’s pelt began to bristle, and he did not know whether it was due to the tension of the assembled warriors or the threatening rain clouds.

“Great change,” Tigerstar repeated. “And StarClan has shown me that it is ShadowClan’s task to prepare every cat in the forest to meet it.”

“Every cat?” Firestar heard the quiet mutter from Tallstar. The WindClan leader took a step forward. “Tigerstar—”

“ShadowClan has the favor of StarClan,” Tigerstar swept on, ignoring the interruption. “We are blessed because we survived the sickness, and I have received the blessing of our warrior ancestors most of all because it was my task to restore the Clan and make it great again.”

Oh, yes? Firestar thought. He refused to believe that StarClan were showing favor to Tigerstar after all that he had done to his birth Clan. Glancing down into the clearing, he looked for Runningnose. The ShadowClan medicine cat had done his best to support his Clan during Nightstar’s ill-fated leadership, and Firestar had an idea that he was not entirely happy with Tigerstar as the old tom’s replacement. He wondered what Runningnose thought of the announcement Tigerstar had just made, but though his gaze searched the clearing carefully he could see no sign of the medicine cat.

Left at home, Firestar asked himself, so he can’t deny what Ti g e r s tar claims?

At the same time, he couldn’t help noticing that Stonefur was also missing, and he wondered if the RiverClan deputy was in more trouble because of his half-Clan parentage, and what he thought about his leader’s decision to ally her Clan with Tigerstar.

One cat Firestar did spot in the clearing below was Darkstripe. The former ThunderClan warrior was sitting beside Blackfoot, the ShadowClan deputy, and his eyes shone with admiration as he looked up at Tigerstar. It was clear that he had gone straight to his old ally after being driven out of ThunderClan.

“All of you know,” Tigerstar went on, “that changes have already come to us—unwelcome changes beyond our control. Last leaf-bare much of the forest was covered by floods. A fire swept through ThunderClan territory.” As he mentioned the fire he flashed a look at Firestar, who would have liked to claw the arrogance off his enemy’s battle-scarred face. “Twolegs are moving into our territory in ever greater numbers. Life is growing harder, and as the forest changes around us, we must change to meet the crisis.”

Yowls of support rose from below, though Firestar noticed that they came only from ShadowClan and RiverClan cats. The warriors of ThunderClan and WindClan were exchanging stunned glances, as if they couldn’t work out what Tigerstar was trying to say. Firestar felt just as shocked. He had been so certain that Tigerstar would reveal Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s secret at this Gathering, and demand his own kits, Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw, from ThunderClan. Firestar had braced himself, but now he was left to face a completely different challenge.

“StarClan have shown me the way,” Tigerstar meowed with a glance at the sky, where the storm clouds were massing more thickly still. “To survive the hardship ahead of us, we must join together. As four Clans, we waste our energies in striving against each other. As one, we would be strong. We must unite!”

Total silence met his words. Firestar could hear a faint breeze stirring the leafless branches of the four oak trees, and in the distance a mutter of thunder. He gaped at Tigerstar. A single Clan in the forest? When StarClan had always decreed that there should be four?

“Leopardstar has already agreed to join RiverClan with ShadowClan,” Tigerstar told them. “We shall be joint leaders of a greater Clan, to be known as TigerClan.”

Joint leaders? Firestar didn’t believe that for a moment. Tigerstar would never share his leadership with any cat.

Now Tigerstar turned to Firestar and Tallstar. “We have come to invite you to join the new Clan,” he meowed, his amber eyes glittering. “Let us rule the forest together in friendship and peace.”

Before he had finished speaking, Tallstar stepped forward, his fur bristling aggressively. But it was not to Tigerstar that he spoke; instead he addressed all the cats in the clearing below.

“TigerClan was the name of one of the great Clans of ancient times.” Tallstar’s voice rang out as strong and clear as if he were still a young cat. “Tigerstar has no right to use it now. Nor does he have the right to change the number of Clans in the forest. We have lived as four Clans for innumerable seasons, following the warrior code laid down for us by StarClan. To throw aside our ancient ways would bring disaster.” Turning to Tigerstar, he hissed, “I’ll die before I join my Clan to yours!”

Tigerstar blinked slowly. Firestar could see a dangerous gleam in his eyes, but his voice was calm as he replied, “Tallstar, I understand. These are important matters, and an older cat like yourself will need time to see that what I’m suggesting is for the good of all our Clans.”

“I’m not so old that I’ve lost my wits, you piece of fox dung!” Tallstar snarled.

Tigerstar flattened his ears, but he kept his temper. “And what does the new leader of ThunderClan think?” he sneered. All the hatred he had ever felt toward the flam e-colored warrior was contained in those words, and even the air felt scorched.

Firestar’s veins throbbed as though they were filled with ice as he imagined the future. His territory and Tallstar’s lay between Tigerstar’s and Leopardstar’s. With ShadowClan and RiverClan in alliance, the two remaining Clans could be crushed between them.

Glancing down, Firestar saw unease spread among the ThunderClan and WindClan warriors. Sandstorm was on her paws, yowling, “Never, Firestar, never!” but some of the WindClan cats were talking urgently to each other, as if they were considering Tigerstar’s proposition. The dark tabby warrior had been clever, Firestar realized. Much of what he had said was true—times were growing harder, for all the reasons he had given. Maybe some cats would believe their problems could be solved by joining together as one Clan. But Firestar was convinced that the cats of the forest could fulfill their destiny only if there were four Clans. And even if he had considered for one moment the idea of joining together as one, he would have rejected it if Tigerstar was to be the new Clan’s leader.

“Well, Firestar,” Tigerstar rumbled, with another swift glance at the storm-dark sky. “Have you lost your tongue?”

Firestar took a couple of paces that brought him to Tallstar’s side. “I’ll never let you take over my Clan,” he spat at Tigerstar.

“Make us,” Tallstar invited. “If you can.”

“Make you?” Tigerstar’s amber eyes widened; for a heartbeat he looked almost genuinely hurt. “I came here in peace with a plan to help us all. Tallstar, Firestar, I want you to recognize that this is the right decision and come to me willingly. But don’t delay too long,” he added, a hint of menace in his voice. “StarClan will not wait forever.”

Fury blazed up in Firestar. How dared Tigerstar claim that his attempt to take over the whole forest was the will of StarClan?

Spinning around, he turned his back on the ShadowClan leader and paced to the front of the rock, where he could look down on all the assembled cats. The time had come for him to speak. When he had finished, Tigerstar would be revealed for what he was—a murderer who would wade through the blood of countless cats to get what he wanted. Let Leopardstar see the kind of cat she had trusted!

“Cats of WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan!” Firestar yowled. “I can stay silent no longer. You cannot trust Tigerstar any more than you would trust a cornered badger.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a swift movement from Tigerstar, a bunching of muscles under the rippling tabby pelt, but then the ShadowClan leader glanced at the sky again, controlled himself, and went on listening with a look of deliberate indifference.

“I know many of you must have wondered why Tigerstar left ThunderClan,” Firestar went on. “You want to know the truth? This cat is power-hungry and dangerous, and he is willing to murder other cats to get what he wants.”

He broke off as lightning stabbed down from the sky, a blazing claw of white fire that raked the forest. Thunder crashed overhead, drowning Firestar’s words; it sounded as if the Great Rock itself were being torn up.

“A sign! A sign!” Tigerstar yowled. He gazed up at the sky, his yellow eyes glowing in the light of the moon that still shone between the gathering clouds. “I thank you, StarClan, for showing us your will. This Gathering is over.”

Calling a command to his cats to follow him, he bunched his muscles to leap down from the Great Rock. Before he sprang he turned his head, eyes narrowed with hatred. “Bad luck, kittypet,” he spat. “Think about my offer. It’s your last chance to save those miserable cats.”

Before Firestar had the chance to respond, the ShadowClan leader launched himself from the Great Rock and disappear e d into the bushes that lined the hollow. ShadowClan cats poured after him. Leopard star jumped down in her turn and gathered the warriors of RiverClan.

Firestar and Tallstar faced each other, shocked and bewildered, as lightning stabbed down again. A gust of wind buffeted the rock, almost carrying Firestar off his paws, and rain poured from the sky as the storm broke.

Almost blinded by the lashing rain, Firestar half jumped, half slithered down the side of the rock and streaked across the open ground to the shelter of the bushes, calling to his warriors as he went. Moments later he found himself crouching beneath a hawthorn bush with Graystripe and Sandstorm huddled close to him. Shaking rain from his pelt, he looked around for Tallstar, but the WindClan leader had not followed him.

The rain was striking the ground so hard that the drops scattered into a mist of spray. The four oaks thrashed and groaned in the wind. Grasses and ferns were flattened in the fury of the storm. But the chaos in the clearing was no worse than the chaos in Firestar’s mind.

“I can’t believe this!” he meowed, raising his voice above the howling wind. “I didn’t think even Tigerstar would dare to claim power over all the forest.”

“But what can we do about it?” asked Graystripe. “You didn’t get to tell the truth about Tigerstar.”

“It’s not Firestar’s fault that the storm broke,” Sandstorm pointed out, her hackles rising.

“Too late to worry about it,” Firestar told them. “That prey’s killed and ea t en now. We have to decide what we do next.”

“What is there to decide?” snarled Sandstorm. The light of battle shone in her green eyes. “We fight, of course—until we’ve driven that piece of crowfood out of the forest for good.”

Firestar nodded. Though he said nothing, he couldn’t help thinking of Bluestar’s prophecy during his dream at the Moonstone.

Four will become two. Lion and Tiger will meet in battle.

“Tiger” must mean the new TigerClan, but who or what is “Lion”? Firestar pushed the question aside as he remembered Bluestar’s ominous parting words.

Blood will rule the forest.