Rippletail stared back. “Rogues? No!” Shock edged his mew. “Is that what ShadowClan thinks?”
“Our Clanmates think you’re dead.” Anger hardened Tigerheart’s mew. “Why have you let them grieve for so long?” His gaze flitted from Rippletail to Berryheart. “You are Snowbird and Scorchfur’s kits. Can you imagine their pain?”
Berryheart pressed close to her brother, her gaze shimmering with hope. “They still have Yarrowleaf, don’t they?”
“We think she went with the rogues after the battle with Darktail.” A bone-chilling wind swept down the hillside and bit through Tigerheart’s pelt.
Berryheart blinked in disbelief. “We thought she’d returned to the Clan!”
“Like you did?” Tigerheart curled his lip.
Rippletail stepped forward, shielding his sister. Alarm glittered in his eyes. “We meant to, eventually, but—”
“You betrayed your Clan!”
As Tigerheart bristled, Dovewing brushed against him. “Be gentle,” she murmured. “We don’t know what they’ve suffered.”
Guilt jabbed Tigerheart’s belly. Dovewing was right. Moons had passed since these warriors had left their Clan. And hadn’t he left ShadowClan too? Perhaps they had their reasons for staying away, like he had. He dipped his head to Berryheart and Rippletail. “I’m sorry. You’re not responsible for your littermate’s decision. But ShadowClan has lost so many. Mistcloud, Lioneye and Spikefur . . .” Berryheart’s eyes widened with horror as Tigerheart went on. “Please tell me Sparrowtail’s with you, at least.”
Rippletail pricked his ears. “Sparrowtail and Cloverfoot are with us!”
“They are?” Tigerheart breath caught in his throat.
Rippletail nodded toward a shadow on the hillside. “We’ve been living up there. In an abandoned Twoleg nest.”
“Are Sparrowtail and Cloverfoot there now?” Tigerheart could hardly believe his ears. He’d found four of ShadowClan’s missing warriors.
“They’re hunting,” Rippletail told him. “We were getting ready to go out ourselves when this cat found us.” He nodded to Spire. The healer was gazing blankly toward the abandoned Twoleg den.
Blaze stood beside him, staring at Rippletail and Berryheart with wide moonlit eyes. “Are these warriors too?”
“They were Clanmates once,” Tigerheart told him. Were they Clanmates now?
Rippletail went on. “Sparrowtail is the father of Berryheart’s kits.”
Dovewing padded forward and blinked kindly at the queen. “When are they due?”
“Soon.” Berryheart shifted her paws nervously.
Rippletail narrowed his eyes as he stared at Tigerheart. “What are you doing here? Why are you traveling with them?” He looked suspiciously at Dovewing, Blaze, and Spire.
Blaze puffed out his chest. “I’m going to be a warrior. And Spire is going to be a medicine cat.”
If only it were that simple. Tigerheart glanced at the young tom, imagining all the questions and recriminations that might be waiting at the end of their journey. “It’s a long story,” he told Rippletail. He felt suddenly tired. What would Rippletail think when he discovered that he and Dovewing had kits waiting for them on the other side of the hill? “Too long to tell here.”
As he spoke, paw steps thrummed across the frozen hillside. Tigerheart recognized the shapes of Cloverfoot and Sparrowtail at once. Lit by the moon, their pelts gleamed as they raced closer.
Cloverfoot called out anxiously from the darkness. “Rippletail? Berryheart? Who’s with you?” The gray tabby she-cat pulled up, blinking in surprise at Tigerheart.
Sparrowtail scrambled to a halt beside her. A fat rabbit dangled from his jaws. He dropped it as he saw Tigerheart. “What are you doing here?” His surprised gaze flitted to Spire and Blaze. “Who are you?”
Rippletail fluffed out his pelt. “Let’s have this conversation somewhere warmer.”
Berryheart’s eyes were clouding with tiredness. She blinked gratefully at her brother.
“Let’s go back to our den.” Cloverfoot nodded toward the abandoned Twoleg nest as Sparrowtail hurried to Berryheart and pressed his muzzle against her cheek.
Dovewing glanced anxiously at Tigerheart. “The kits,” she whispered. “They’ll be worried about us.”
Blaze whisked his tail. “Ant and Cinnamon will want to know that Spire’s okay.”
“Ant and Cinnamon?” Cloverfoot frowned.
Berryheart pricked her ears. “Kits?”
Rippletail padded between the cats, his tail flicking. “I guess you do have quite a story to tell.”
Spire flicked his tail impatiently. “The past is irrelevant. Now that we’ve found you, you must come with us.”
“Where to?” Rippletail looked alarmed.
“To the Clans, of course,” Spire meowed.
Rippletail and Sparrowtail exchanged anxious looks.
“We’ve been worried about going home,” Cloverfoot explained. “We joined the rogues. We fought the Clans. We weren’t sure ShadowClan would have us back. That’s why we’ve stayed away.”
Tigerheart returned the gray tabby’s gaze. After such disloyalty, any cat would find it hard to return to the Clan they’d betrayed. But ShadowClan was in trouble. Doubt fluttered in his belly. Could he trust them? He met Cloverfoot’s eye. “Would you join the rogues again?” he asked.
Her eyes flashed in alarm. Sparrowtail and Berryheart pressed together.
Rippletail lifted his chin. “Never.” His meow was unflinching. “We made a terrible decision. We didn’t realize that Darktail was a liar and a bully. We truly thought he could make ShadowClan stronger and safer. We were wrong. And we will spend our lives making it up to ShadowClan, if they agree to take us back.”
“They may not have much choice,” Tigerheart meowed grimly. “We lost so many warriors to the rogues that we didn’t have enough to patrol our territory. We gave some of it to SkyClan. The remaining cats lost faith in Rowanstar, and I . . . I left the Clan to give him a chance to be leader.”
Rippletail looked confused. “But you’re his son! You were always Rowanstar’s strongest ally.”
“I was causing trouble for the Clan just by being there,” Tigerheart told him bluntly. “My Clanmates were looking to me for orders. It undermined Rowanstar’s leadership. I thought Rowanstar had more chance of keeping the Clan together without me. And Dovewing . . . was expecting my kits. We traveled far, to a territory with many, many Twolegs, so she could give birth in a place where no cats could judge us.” He looked around the ShadowClan cats, daring them to criticize him. After all, he’d not only left his Clan, but he’d had kits with a warrior from ThunderClan. But there was truth in his curt explanation—and none of them were in a position to criticize the choices he’d made. And Tigerheart felt sure that he would make the same choice all over again, if he had to.
Sparrowtail glanced past Tigerheart. “Where is your camp?” Clearly he didn’t want to dwell on the past. “If you have kits, we should go to them.”
Blaze blinked at him. “Are they coming back to the Clans with us?”
Tigerheart looked at them. “Are you?”
Cloverfoot, Sparrowtail, Berryheart, and Rippletail exchanged glances, then nodded. “We’re ready to go home,” Rippletail meowed.
Dovewing padded anxiously around Berryheart. “Are you well enough to travel?” Her gaze flicked over the queen’s swollen flanks.
Spire answered for her. “It’ll be easier for her to travel with the kits inside her belly than outside,” he meowed matter-of-factly.
Berryheart’s eyes flashed with amusement. “Your friend is right.” She padded forward heavily. “I’m afraid I may slow you down. But if I wait until the kits are born, it may be moons before we can travel back to the lake.”
Tigerheart huffed in reluctant agreement. “Let’s go back to our camp,” he meowed. “We can rest for the night.” He glanced at Cloverfoot’s rabbit. Its warm prey-scent was bathing his tongue. “You can eat and rest there, and we can start the journey home in the morning.”
Spire glanced up. Tigerheart followed his gaze, his eyes resting on the stained wall looming above them. He dipped his head to the skinny tom. “The orange sun,” he said. “You were right.”
Two days of rain were followed by a crisp, bright day. Blue sky stretched toward the horizon. White clouds whisked across the sky, driven by a brisk, chilly wind. Tigerheart followed the Silverpath around a wide, curving valley, Dovewing padding at his side. There were only a few Twoleg nests dotted among the frosty meadows here. Spire kept his distance from the track, eyeing it warily from time to time. Blaze stayed close to him, glancing back at Rippletail and Berryheart.
The queen had slowed down their pace as she’d predicted. Her swollen belly made her breathless, and she tired easily. Pouncekit, Lightkit, and Shadowkit scampered ahead with Rippletail and Cloverfoot. They’d been excited to meet ShadowClan warriors and seemed eager to impress them. Ant and Cinnamon seemed pleased too, and asked their new traveling companions almost as many questions about Clan life as the kits did. Tigerheart hadn’t told any of them that the last time he’d seen these warriors, they were fighting alongside rogue cats who had threatened to destroy all the Clans. He eyed Rippletail now, his pelt pricking with an unease that hadn’t left him since they’d found their former Clanmates.
Dovewing brushed against him as they walked. She followed his gaze toward Rippletail. “You’ve forgiven them, haven’t you?” She sounded uncertain.
“We all make mistakes,” Tigerheart murmured. “But I keep thinking of the moment when the rogues came, and our Clanmates”—the word felt bitter on his tongue—“didn’t lift a paw to stop Rowanstar, Tawnypelt, and me from leaving the camp. They wanted us to go. They chose Darktail instead.”
Dovewing turned her soft green gaze on him. “That must have felt terrible. But things have changed. They know they were wrong.”
Tigerheart shook out his pelt. He knew he must get rid of the resentment worming beneath his fur. If ShadowClan was to survive, past grievances must be forgotten. “When I left ShadowClan, there was so little trust in the Clan. I’m worried that bringing traitors back will only make it worse.”
Dovewing flicked her tail. “For a start, you have to stop thinking of them as traitors.” She watched Pouncekit duck beneath Cloverfoot’s belly and pop out the other side. Lightkit ducked after her, purring. “They are clearly sorry for the choices they made. You’re helping to reunite your Clan. You need to show by example that old wounds can heal and old arguments can be forgiven.”
Tigerheart’s thoughts flitted back to the city cats. He remembered Fierce’s reluctance to hold grudges. Her easy acceptance of other strays. He remembered Tuna’s words. In the city, it’s rare to have anything long enough to defend it. Perhaps the Clans had been trying too hard to hold on to the past. “I thought I had nothing to learn from the guardian cats,” he meowed thoughtfully. “But they’ve learned to live with change. It might be easier to live life the way it is now than to try to keep it the way it was.”
Dovewing nudged her shoulder softly against his. “You’re starting to sound like a leader,” she murmured teasingly.
He met her gaze. “Am I?” He remembered Rowanstar’s offer to step aside and make him leader of ShadowClan. He hadn’t felt ready then. Did he feel ready now? He pushed the thought away. It had brought swirling with it memories of Spire’s dark vision. The shadows are fading. He can’t keep them together. Was there a ShadowClan left to lead?
“Tigerheart!” Shadowkit’s mew distracted him. The gray kit had stopped and was waiting for Tigerheart and Dovewing to catch up to him. Lightkit and Pouncekit had rushed ahead, batting an acorn between the tracks. “Rippletail wanted to know if we are going to be ThunderClan cats or ShadowClan cats.” He gazed inquisitively from Tigerheart to Dovewing.
Dovewing answered. “We don’t know yet,” she told him. “We’ll decide when we reach the lake.”
There may be no ShadowClan to join. Tigerheart was relieved that Dovewing hadn’t mentioned this possibility. Why worry the kits about something that might not be true?
“Can we choose?” Shadowkit fell in beside his father. “Because I think I’d choose ShadowClan.”
“Why?” Tigerheart looked at his son.
“I don’t know.” Shadowkit shrugged. “I just feel like ShadowClan needs me. And I am called Shadowkit.”
Tigerheart smoothed his tail along the kit’s spine. “When we reach the lake and see the Clans again, we’ll decide where you and your sisters should live. And when you’re old enough to start your training, you can decide for yourself which Clan you prefer.”
“Is that what all Clan kits do?” Shadowkit asked.
Tigerheart thought of Violetpaw and Twigpaw. “No,” he answered. “But it happens from time to time. Especially when kits are born outside the Clans.”
Shadowkit frowned. “Will the other cats think we’re strange?”
Before Tigerheart could answer, a yowl split the air. Tigerheart jerked his muzzle toward the bank. Spire was staring at the Silverpath, his eyes lit with panic. “It’s coming! Too fast! Quick! It’s coming! It’s too fast!”
Tigerheart pricked his ears. He heard the distant rumble of a Thundersnake. The tracks began to hum. Why was the healer making such a fuss? Thundersnakes passed them several times a day. “Every cat get off the tracks,” he called.
As Sparrowtail guided Berryheart to the safety of the grassy bank, Ant, Cinnamon, Cloverfoot, and Rippletail hopped from the tracks. Dovewing grabbed Shadowkit’s scruff and hurried to join the others. Like a fox darting from the shadows, a Thundersnake appeared from behind a rise. It was moving fast.
Tigerheart’s belly tightened as he saw Lightkit and Pouncekit chasing their acorn toward it. Hadn’t they heard him? “Get off the tracks!” The Thundersnake’s roar drowned his cry. Heart lurching, he raced toward the kits. “Run!” They turned as he yowled again, blinking first at him and then at the Thundersnake.
Pouncekit’s eyes widened in terror. She scrambled away from the acorn, tripping over the track. Tigerheart reached her and scooped her up, racing to the bank to drop her. He turned back for Lightkit. She was frozen between the tracks. The Thundersnake pounded toward her, moving faster than any Tigerheart had ever seen.
“Lightkit!” He hared toward her, but black fur flashed past him. Spire pelted onto the Silverpath as the Thundersnake howled closer. With a yowl drowned by its roar, the healer dragged Lightkit from the track. The Thundersnake screeched past. Its wind hit Tigerheart like a wall of water. As he staggered, he saw Lightkit tumble toward its flashing paws. Spire, pelt plastered against his thin frame, grabbed her scruff between his teeth. She clung to the ground, the Thundersnake tearing at her pelt as Spire gripped her, ears flat, belly pressed against the earth.
Horror surged beneath Tigerheart’s pelt as he watched, and then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the Thundersnake passed and roared away into the distance. Lightkit scrambled to her paws, her pelt bushed. “Tigerheart!” She raced toward him, her eyes wide with terror, and huddled against his belly as he wrapped his tail around her.
Dovewing rushed to their side. She was trembling almost as hard as Lightkit. “It nearly killed her.” Her mew was breathless. She hauled Lightkit toward her, pressed her close, and licked her head fiercely.
“Didn’t you hear it coming?” Tigerheart stared at the kit, his heart pounding.
“We were playing with the acorn.” Lightkit’s eyes glittered with shock.
“It was going so fast.” Pouncekit hurried toward them, Shadowkit at her heels. “We didn’t have time.”
As Dovewing pulled the kits close to her and purred quick, desperate purrs to reassure them, Tigerheart hurried toward Spire. The healer was pushing himself stiffly to his paws.
Blaze was already at his side. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Spire shook out his pelt and gazed along the Silverpath.
“You saved my kit.” Gratitude swelled in Tigerheart’s throat.
Spire met his gaze. His eyes were dark with foreboding. “Next time, I might not be able to.”
“Next time?” Tigerheart bristled.
“If we stay on the Silverpath, there will be death.” He held Tigerheart’s gaze. “Death too quickly. Death without meaning.”
The cold wind seemed to reach Tigerheart’s bones. He shivered.
“We have to leave the Silverpath.” Spire stared at him unblinking.
Ant reached them, Cinnamon at his side. “What did he say?”
Berryheart, Sparrowtail, Rippletail, and Cloverfoot crowded around Tigerheart, Blaze, and the healer.
Death without meaning. Fear tightened Tigerheart’s belly as Spire’s words burrowed deeper.
“That was close,” Rippletail murmured.
“Is Spire okay?” Berryheart’s pelt pricked anxiously.
“Why was the Thundersnake running so fast?” Cloverfoot asked.
Blaze glanced around them. He ignored their questions. “Spire says we have to leave the Silverpath.”
Cloverfoot blinked. “But Tigerheart said it leads to the lake.”
“We’ll have to find another way,” Blaze told her.
Should we follow Spire’s advice? Tigerheart’s mouth grew dry.
Rippletail shifted his paws. “That was scary,” he mewed. “But all it means is that we have to be more careful. There’s no need to leave the Silverpath.”
“We’ll get lost if we leave it,” Berryheart agreed.
Sparrowtail moved closer to his mate. “We need to get back to the lake before Berryheart starts kitting. We can’t risk losing our way.”
Spire’s gaze was still fixed on Tigerheart. “We have to leave the Silverpath,” he repeated. “If we don’t, cats will die.”
Tigerheart avoided the anxious looks of the others. “But we don’t know how to get to the lake without the Silverpath to guide us,” he told Spire.
“I know.” Spire didn’t move.
Tigerheart blinked. “But you’ve never even left the city before. How can you know?”
“My dreams will show me the way.”
Berryheart stiffened. “I know he’s some kind of medicine cat—somehow—but . . . are we sure he knows what he’s talking about?”
Blaze glared at the black-and-white queen. “His dreams found you, didn’t they?”
Tigerheart’s thoughts quickened. Leaving the Silverpath was risky. They could follow the sunset. But what if the Silverpath changed direction and headed away from the sunset? Why didn’t I pay more attention to which way I was heading when I left the lake? He should have watched the sunsets and made sure to remember the changing landscapes. But he’d followed the Silverpath blindly, like a squirrel chasing a trail of beechnuts.
He searched Spire’s gaze. He’d listened to this cat’s dreams before: the falling tree, Rowanstar’s voice. And his vision of the orange sun had led them to the ShadowClan cats. “Do you really think your dreams can lead us home?”
“I know they can,” Spire answered firmly.
Fear trickled along Tigerheart’s spine. I have to trust him.
Rippletail grunted. “I hope you’re right.”
“He is.” Tigerheart held Spire’s gaze. “He dreams with StarClan.”
Blaze lifted his tail. “Are we going to let Spire lead us?”
“Yes.” Tigerheart dipped his head. He thought of Lightkit, so close to the paws of the Thundersnake. His heart quickened. He wasn’t risking her life again by staying on the Silverpath. “We’ll follow Spire.”