The Darkest Hour

Chapter 26

Firestar wondered if the rest of his Clan had noticed his absence, and if they were worrying about him. He knew that he should go back to the camp, but for a short time he stayed where he was on top of the rock, watching the dawn light spread above the forest.

The territory on the far side of the river was still and silent. Firestar tried to imagine how Leopardstar was coping. He guessed that the ShadowClan warriors who had fled into her territory would be unwelcome guests, with no prey to spare through the harsh moons of leaf-bare.

Then he sat bolt upright, fur bristling and ears pricked. Something had just occurred to him, and he couldn’t think why he hadn’t thought of it before. Maybe ThunderClan wasn’t as outnumbered as he feared. Across the river were the warriors of two Clans, and with Tigerstar dead none of them had any reason to support BloodClan.

“Mouse-brain!” he murmured aloud. There was a chance that all four forest Clans could join together to drive out the lethal cats that threatened every pawstep of their lives. Four would not become two—four would become one, but not in the way that Tigerstar had intended.

As the first glittering rays of the sun appeared above the horizon, Firestar leaped down from the rock and raced downstream toward the stepping-stones.

“Firestar! Firestar!” The yowl brought him up short just as he came in sight of the stones. He turned to see a ThunderClan patrol emerge from the trees behind him. Graystripe was in the lead, followed by Sandstorm, Cloudtail, and Bramblepaw.

“Where have you been?” Sandstorm mewed crossly as she picked her way toward him. “We’ve been worried sick.”

“Sorry.” Firestar gave her ear an apologetic lick. “I needed to think a few things out, that’s all.”

“Whitestorm said you would be okay,” Graystripe meowed. “And Cinderpelt didn’t seem worried. I got the feeling she knew more than she was telling.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Firestar mewed briskly. “And I’m glad I’ve met you. I’m going over into RiverClan territory, and it’ll look better if I take some warriors with me.”

“RiverClan?” Cloudtail looked amazed. “What do you want with them?”

“I’m going to ask them to fight with us against Scourge tomorrow.”

The young warrior stared. “Are you out of your mind? Leopardstar will rip your fur off!”

“I don’t think she will. Now that Tigerstar’s dead, she won’t want BloodClan in the forest any more than we do.”

Cloudtail shrugged, and Graystripe was looking uncertain too, but Sandstorm’s green eyes glowed with delight.

“I knew you would think of a way to defeat BloodClan,” she purred. “Let’s go.”

Firestar turned to lead the way to the stepping-stones, but paused as Bramblepaw padded up to him.

“Firestar, can we talk to Tawnypaw if she’s there?” his apprentice asked hopefully. His voice quavered. “There might not be another chance.”

Firestar hesitated. “Yes, if you see her,” he meowed. “Get her side of the story. Then we’ll decide what to do.”

“Thanks, Firestar!” Bramblepaw’s eyes shone with relief.

Firestar slipped down the bank to the stepping-stones with his warriors behind him. As he led the way across he kept alert for movement on the opposite side of the river, but he saw nothing. There had not even been a RiverClan patrol, though by now the sun was well above the horizon.

Reaching the far bank, Firestar turned upriver toward the RiverClan camp. Before he reached it he came to the stream that led to the clearing of the Bonehill. A shudder ran through him as he remembered the last time he had been here. The reek of crowfood was fainter now, but the scent of many cats came to him on the breeze. Firestar recognized the mingled scent of TigerClan, once so ominous but now almost familiar compared with the stench of BloodClan.

“I think they must be in the clearing by the Bonehill,” he mewed over his shoulder. “Some of them, at least. We’ll go and see—Graystripe, keep a lookout.”

Graystripe fell back as Firestar followed the stream, creeping quietly through the reeds until he came to the edge of the clearing. Peering out, he saw that the Bonehill was already beginning to crumble so that it looked like nothing more than a heap of rubbish. The stream was no longer choked with rotting prey, and there was a small heap of fresh-kill, as if cats had begun to establish a new camp.

Several warriors were huddled in the clearing, with ungroomed fur and dull, staring eyes. Firestar was surprised to see cats from both RiverClan and ShadowClan. He had expected to find only ShadowClan warriors setting up a camp here while RiverClan occupied their old camp on the island upriver.

Leopardstar was crouched at the foot of the Bonehill. She was gazing straight in front of her, and Firestar thought she must have seen him, but she gave no sign. The ShadowClan deputy, Blackfoot, lay close by. As his initial surprise ebbed, Firestar felt relieved that he would be able to deal straightaway with Leopardstar, who was obviously trying to rule both Clans.

He glanced back at Sandstorm. “What’s wrong with them?” he murmured. He would almost have believed that the warriors were sick, but there was no taint of sickness in the air.

Sandstorm shook her head helplessly, and Firestar turned back to the clearing. He had come here looking for a fighting force, but these cats appeared to be half-dead. Still, there was no sense in going back. Signaling with his tail for his own cats to follow, he stepped into the clearing.

No cat challenged him, although one or two of the warriors raised their heads and gave him an incurious stare. With a glance at Firestar, Bramblepaw slipped away to look for Tawnypaw.

Leopardstar struggled to her paws. “Firestar.” Her voice rasped, as if she had not used it in many days. “What do you want?”

“To talk to you,” Firestar replied. “Leopardstar, what’s going on here? What’s the matter with you all? Why aren’t you in your old camp?”

Leopardstar held his gaze for a long moment. “I am the sole leader of TigerClan now,” she meowed at last, a spark of pride returning to her dull eyes.

“The old RiverClan camp is too small to hold both Clan s. We let the queens and kits and the elders stay there, with some warriors to guard them.” She let out a spurt of mocking laughter. “But what’s the point? BloodClan will slaughter us all.”

“You mustn’t think like that,” he urged the RiverClan leader. “If we all stand together, we can drive out BloodClan.”

A wild light shone in Leopardstar’s eyes. “You mouse-brained fool!” she spat. “Drive out BloodClan? How do you think you’re going to do that? Tigerstar was the Greatest warrior this forest has ever seen, and you saw what Scourge did to him.”

“I know,” Firestar replied steadily, hiding the shiver of sheer dread that ran through him. “But Tigerstar faced Scourge alone. We can join together as one to fight him so that afterward we can be four Clans again, according to the warrior code.”

A sneering look crossed Leopardstar’s face and she made no reply.

“What will you do, then?” Firestar asked. “Leave the forest?”

Leopardstar hesitated, tossing her head from side to side as if the effort of talking to Firestar irritated her. “I sent a scouting party to look for places to stay beyond Highstones,” she admitted. “But we have young kits, and two of our elders are ill. Not every cat can go, and the ones that stay will die.”

“They don’t have to die,” Firestar promised her desperately. “ThunderClan and WindClan are going to fight. Stand with us.”

He expected further mockery, but Leopardstar was looking at him more intently now. Nearby, Blackfoot scrambled to his paws and padded over to stand beside her. As he faced the ThunderClan cats Firestar heard a low snarl from Graystripe did, and saw his friend begin to flex his claws. He gave the gray warrior a warning flick with his tail; he loathed Blackfoot just as much as Graystripe did, but for now they would have to be allies in order to face an even greater enemy.

“Are you mouse-brained?” the ShadowClan deputy growled. “You can’t seriously be thinking of joining these fools? They’re not strong enough to tackle BloodClan. They’ll get us all torn apart.”

Leopardstar gave him a cold look, and Firestar realized with a sudden burst of hope that she didn’t like Blackfoot any more than he did. Stonefur, who had died under the black-and-white warrior’s claws, had been her trusted deputy.

“I am leader here, Blackfoot,” she pointed out. “I make the decisions. And I’m not ready to give up yet—not if there’s a chance of driving out BloodClan. All right,” she meowed, facing Firestar again. “What’s your plan?”

Firestar wished he had some clever trick to offer, some way of driving out BloodClan that wouldn’t risk the lives of every cat in the forest. But there was no trick; the path to victory, if there were one, would be hard and painful.

“At dawn tomorrow,” he replied, “ThunderClan and WindClan will meet BloodClan at Fourtrees. If ShadowClan and RiverClan join us, we’ll be twice as strong.”

“And will you lead us?” asked Leopardstar. Reluctantly she added, “I haven’t the strength now to take my cats into battle.”

Firestar blinked in surprise. He had expected Leopardstar to demand authority over the other Clans. He wasn’t at all sure that he himself was strong enough to take on the leadership in her place, but he could see that he had no choice.

“If that is your wish, then yes, I will,” he replied.

“Lead us?” The voice, harsh with mockery, came from behind Firestar. “A kittypet? Are you out of your mind, Leopardstar?”

Firestar turned, knowing what he would see. Darkstripe was thrusting his way through the little group of his former Clan mates.

Firestar stared at him. In ThunderClan, Darkstripe had always been sleek; now his black-striped coat was dull, as if he had stopped caring for it. He looked gaunt, and the tip of his tail twitched nervously. Only the cold hostility in his eyes was familiar, and the insolence with which he looked Firestar up and down as he came to a stop in front of the leaders.

“Darkstripe.” Firestar acknowledged him with a nod. Though he could never truly pity the dark warrior, he felt a pang to see how haunted he looked, his eyes empty, as if he were already being punished for betraying his birth Clan.

Leopardstar stepped forward. “Darkstripe, this isn’t your decision,” she meowed.

“We should kill you or drive you out,” Darkstripe snarled at Firestar. “You turned Scourge against Tigerstar. It’s your fault he died.”

“My fault?” Firestar gasped in astonishment. The dark tabby’s eyes burned with hatred, and Firestar knew that in his own way Darkstripe was grieving for the dead leader. Now that Tigerstar was dead, Darkstripe was utterly alone. “No, Darkstripe. It was Tigerstar’s own fault. If he hadn’t brought BloodClan into the forest, none of this would have happened.”

“And how did it happen?” Graystripe broke in. “That’s what I’d like to know. What was Tigerstar thinking of? Didn’t he see what he was letting loose in the forest?”

“He thought it was for the best.” Leopardstar tried to d e f end Tigerstar, though her words sounded hollow. “He believed the forest cats would be safer if they all joined together under his leadership, and he thought BloodClan would convince you he was right.”

A snort of contempt came from Graystripe, but Leopardstar ignored it. Instead, she flicked her tail and another cat came up—a skinny gray tom with a ragged ear. Firestar recognized him as Boulder, one of the rogue cats Tigerstar had taken into ShadowClan.

“Boulder, tell Firestar what happened,” Leopardstar ordered.

The ShadowClan warrior looked thin and tired as he met Firestar’s gaze. “I belonged to BloodClan once,” he confessed. “I left many moons ago, but Tigerstar knew about my past. He asked me to take him into Twolegplace because he needed more cats to make sure ShadowClan controlled the forest.” He glanced down at his paws, his ears twitching uncomfortably. “I…I tried to tell Tigerstar that Scourge was dangerous, but neither of us imagined what he could do. Tigerstar offered Scourge a share of the forest if he would bring his cats to help him fight. He thought that once he’d made all the other Clans join TigerClan he could get rid of BloodClan.”

“But he was wrong,” Firestar murmured, feeling again that strange grief he had felt when he saw his oldest enemy lying dead at his paws.

“We couldn’t believe it when he died.” Boulder’s eyes were stunned, as if he were sharing Firestar’s memory. “We thought nothing could ever defeat Tigerstar. When BloodClan attacked our camp after Tigerstar died, we were too shocked to fight, though not all of us left. Some cats thought it would be safer to join Scourge. Jaggedtooth, for one.” Boulder’s voice grew bitter. “It would be worth fighting BloodClan to get my claws into that traitor’s fur.”

“Then will you do it?” Firestar glanced around and realized that all the cats in the clearing had drawn closer and were silently listening. Only Blackfoot and Darkstripe stood aloof, at the edge of the crowd. “Stand with us and WindClan tomorrow?”

The cats remained silent, waiting for Leopardstar to speak.

“I don’t know,” she mewed. “Maybe the battle is already lost. I need time to think.”

“There’s not much time left,” Sandstorm pointed out.

Firestar gathered his own warriors together with a sweep of his tail and beckoned them over to the side of the clearing. “Think now, Leopardstar,” he meowed. “We’ll wait.”

The RiverClan leader flashed him a defiant glance, as if she were going to insist that she would take as much time as she needed, but she said nothing, only drawing two or three of the RiverClan warriors closer to her and speaking to them in a low, urgent voice. Anger burning in his eyes, Blackfoot thrust his way forward to join them. The rest of the cats stayed in their frozen, wretched silence, and Firestar couldn’t help wondering what kind of fighting force they would make.

“How mouse-brained can they be?” growled Cloudtail. “What’s to discuss? Leopardstar says they can’t leave safely—what else can they do but fight?”

“Be quiet, Cloudtail,” Firestar ordered.

“Firestar.” Bramblepaw’s voice interrupted him. Firestar turned to see his apprentice standing a tail-length away with Tawnypaw close beside him. “Tawnypaw wants to talk to you.”

The young she-cat returned Firestar’s gaze steadily, reminding him irresistibly of her formidable mother, Goldenflower.

“Well, Tawnypaw?” he prompted.

“Bramblepaw says I should tell you why I left ThunderClan,” Tawnypaw meowed without preamble. “But you already know, don’t you? I wanted to be judged for what I was, not for what my father did. I needed to feel I belonged.”

“No cat thought you didn’t belong,” Firestar protested.

Tawnypaw faced him with a glint in her eyes. “Firestar, I don’t believe that,” she meowed. “And neither do you.”

Firestar felt his fur flush hot with guilt. “I made a mistake,” he admitted. “I looked at both of you, and all I could see was your father. Other cats did, too. But I didn’t want you to leave.”

“Other cats did,” Tawnypaw meowed quietly.

“She could still come back into the Clan, couldn’t she?” Bramblepaw pleaded.

“Hang on a minute,” Tawnypaw interrupted sharply. “I’m not asking you if I can come back. All I want is to be a loyal cat in my new Clan.” Her eyes were shining. “I want to be the best warrior I can be,” she went on. “And I can’t be that in ThunderClan.”

Firestar could hardly bear to see all the courage and loyalty that they were losing. “I’m sorry you left ThunderClan,” he meowed, “and I wish you well. Tawnypaw, I really believe that if all four Clans fight tomorrow we can win back the forest. ShadowClan will survive, and be a Clan you can be proud of—a Clan that will be proud of you.”

Tawnypaw gave him a short nod. “Thank you.”

Bramblepaw looked distraught, but Firestar knew there was nothing more to say. The sound of his name distracted him, and he turned to see that Leopardstar was padding toward him across the clearing.

“I have made my decision,” she told him.

Firestar felt his heart begin to pound. Everything rested on Leopardstar’s choice. Without the support of RiverClan and ShadowClan—even with their warriors in such a pitiful state—there was no hope of driving BloodClan out of the forest. The few heartbeats before Leopardstar reached him seemed to stretch out to a moon.

“RiverClan will fight against BloodClan tomorrow,” she announced.

“And so will ShadowClan,” Blackfoot added, walking up behind her. His eyes flashed at Leopardstar as he silently asserted his authority.

Even though Firestar was relieved that the leaders had chosen to fight, he noticed some doubtful looks among the other cats. Darkstripe was the only one to speak out loud.

“You’re all mad,” he spat. “Joining a kittypet? Well, I’m not going to follow him, whatever any cat says.”

“You’ll obey orders,” snapped Leopardstar.

“Make me,” Darkstripe retorted. “You’re not my leader.”

For a few heartbeats Leopardstar looked at him with cold eyes. Then she shrugged. “Thank StarClan I’m not. You’re about as much use as a dead fox. Very well, Darkstripe, do as you like.”

The dark warrior hesitated, looking from Leopardstar to Blackfoot and back again, and then around at the rest of the clearing. The warriors were still murmuring among themselves, and none of them paid any attention to Darkstripe.

He glanced back at Leopardstar as if he were about to speak, but the RiverClan leader had already turned away. Darkstripe swung around with a vicious snarl at Firestar. “You fools—you’ll all be ripped apart tomorrow.”

He stalked away in dead silence. The cats parted to let him go and watched him until he disappeared into the reeds. Firestar wondered where the solitary warrior could possibly go now.

Leopardstar stepped forward. “I swear by StarClan that we will meet you at dawn tomorrow at Fourtrees. We will fight with you and WindClan against BloodClan.” More briskly she added, “Shadepelt, will you send out hunting patrols? We’ll need all our strength for tomorrow.”

A dark gray RiverClan she-cat flicked her tail and began moving through the cats, choosing warriors for the patrols.

Leopardstar looked at the Bonehill with deep sadness in her eyes, and a shiver ran through her mottled pelt. “We must pull this down,” she murmured. “It belongs to a darker time.”

She dug her claws into the heap of prey bones. Slowly and hesitantly, as if they still thought that Tigerstar might appear and accuse them of treachery, her warriors joined her. Bone by bone, the pile was scattered across the clearing. Blackfoot and a few of the ShadowClan warriors stood watching a little way off. The deputy’s face was shadowed, and it was impossible to guess what he was thinking.

Firestar drew his own followers away. He had succeeded in what he set out to do, and he could not help admiring Leopardstar’s courage, but instead of satisfaction he felt a dark surge of foreboding as he cast one last glance at the two Clans in the clearing.

What if I’ve condemned them all to death?