TWILIGHT

“You have served your Clan more faithfully than some cats manage in a long lifetime,” the blue-furred cat went on. “It must seem very unfair that you should have to leave them.”

The crouching cat raised luminous eyes to face the starry warrior. “Bluestar, I know this isn’t your fault. There’s no need to apologise.”

Bluestar twitched her tail. “Of course there is. You should know how much your Clan owes to you.”

“All the Clans.” A black and white tom with a long tail rose to his paws and padded round the edge of the pool to stand beside Bluestar. “StarClan too. None of us would have found our new home without your help.” He dipped his head in a gesture of respect, and the starlight on the surface of the pool wavered.

The cat blinked at him. “Thank you, Tallstar. I’ve made mistakes, but I have always tried to do what I believed to be right.”

“StarClan asks no more from its warriors.” A lean, black tomcat began to pick his way over the moss-covered rocks. “If we could change your fate, we would.”

“But remember,” Bluestar warned, “not even StarClan can turn aside the paws of destiny, however much we might want to.”

The cat at the water’s edge nodded. “I understand. And I will try to have courage. Can you tell me when—”

Bluestar shook her head. “No. Even we cannot see the future so clearly. But when the time comes, you will know, and we will be waiting for you.”

A fourth warrior spirit rose from his place further up the slope and padded down between the shimmering ranks of StarClan. He was a light-coloured tabby with a twisted jaw. “Whenever the Clans tell stories of the great journey, your name will be honoured,” he promised.

“Thank you, Crookedstar,” the cat meowed.

All four of the shining warriors gathered around, four who had been Clan leaders when their paws walked the earth.

“Know that the strength of StarClan will be with you,” Bluestar meowed. “We will not leave you to face this alone.”

The cat looked up to meet the intense blue gaze. “StarClan has always been with me.”

“You say that, even though your life has been so hard?” Tallstar’s voice was surprised.

“Of course.” The cat’s eyes glimmered in the starlight. “I have made good friends in all the Clans. I’ve seen kits born and watched elders leave on their final journey to Silverpelt. I’ve made the long journey to the Clans’ new home. Believe me, I wouldn’t change a single day.” The cat paused and looked down into the pool again. “I know it is not in your power to give me longer with my Clan. But I can’t help wanting more.”

Bluestar’s eyes narrowed. “It hurts us all when a young cat is called to join StarClan. I know you would continue serving your Clan loyally for many seasons more.” Her voice rasped with pain, and the cat looked up at her, stretching out one paw in a comforting gesture.

“Don’t grieve, Bluestar. I know my Clan will be well cared for after I am gone.”

A murmur of respect rose up from around the hollow. Bluestar bent her head over the crouching cat, bathing the moon-bright fur with her scent. “We are with you always,” she mewed.

In turn, each of the others bent over and added their scent, filling the air with the tang of stars and ice and the night wind. More warriors followed—a graceful tortoiseshell, a sturdy bracken-coloured tom, a tabby she-cat with a silver-striped pelt—wreathing the cat with the strength and courage of StarClan.

Their voices swelled to a low keening of sorrow that drifted up to the stars. The shimmering forms began to fade one by one, until the hollow was empty.

And the stars shone down on a single cat that crouched unmoving beside the pool.

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_d2128e7a-2070-51d0-8bf8-3cfb48a03a80)

“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting.”

Squirrelflight woke with a start as the ThunderClan leader’s yowl rang out across the stone hollow. Cloudtail was already pushing his way out through the thorny branches that screened the warriors’ den. His mate, Brightheart, uncurled herself from their mossy nest and followed him.

“What does Firestar want now?” Dustpelt muttered, pulling himself stiffly to his paws and shaking scraps of moss from his fur. With an irritated flick of his ears, he thrust his way into the open after his Clanmates.

Stretching her jaws in a yawn, Squirrelflight sat up and gave herself a quick grooming. Dustpelt’s temper was even shorter than usual this morning; Squirrelflight could see from his awkward movements that the wound he’d received in the battle against Mudclaw was still painful. Most of the ThunderClan cats still bore the rebels’ clawmarks; Squirrelflight’s side stung from a wound of her own, and she drew her tongue over it in rapid, soothing strokes.

Mudclaw had been deputy of WindClan until the Clans arrived in their new territory around the lake. The previous leader, Tallstar, had appointed Onewhisker to succeed him instead just moments before he died; furious, Mudclaw had led a rebellion against Onewhisker before he had the chance to receive his nine lives from StarClan. And Hawkfrost of RiverClan had helped him. Squirrelflight felt a surge of anger as she remembered how Brambleclaw still insisted on trusting his half-brother, even after he had seen that Hawkfrost was up to his ears in Mudclaw’s treachery.

Thank StarClan, Squirrelflight thought, that ThunderClan had discovered the plot in time, and had joined the battle against Mudclaw and his supporters. StarClan had proved who the true leader was when lightning struck a tree that fell on Mudclaw and killed him.

Giving a last lick to her dark ginger fur, Squirrelflight slid through the branches and padded into the clearing, shivering in the cold air. The pale sun of leaf-bare was just showing above the trees around the stone hollow where ThunderClan had settled at the end of their long journey. Wind rattled in the bare branches, but down here all was still. The air smelled crisp, and frost still edged the grass and bushes with white. Yet Squirrelflight could pick up a faint hint of growing things that told her newleaf could not be far away.

Digging her claws into the earth, she stretched luxuriously. Her father, Firestar, was seated on the Highledge outside his den, about halfway up the cliff. His flame-coloured pelt gleamed in the slanting rays of sun, and his green eyes shone proudly as his gaze swept across his Clan. Squirrelflight guessed he wouldn’t look so confident if he needed to warn them about more trouble.

The cats gathered in the clearing below him. Mousefur and Goldenflower emerged one after the other from the elders’ den; Goldenflower was guiding blind Longtail behind her, the tip of her tail resting on his shoulder.

“Hi.” Squirrelflight’s sister Leafpool padded up and touched noses with her. “How are those scratches? Do you want some more marigold?”

“No, I’ll be fine, thanks.” Leafpool and her mentor, Cinderpelt, the ThunderClan medicine cat, had been busy ever since the battle, finding the right herbs and treating the cats’ wounds. “There are plenty of cats who need it more than I do,” Squirrelflight added.

Leafpool sniffed Squirrelflight’s scratches and gave a nod of satisfaction. “You’re right. They’re healing well.”

An excited squeal came from the nursery as Birchkit pelted out, tumbled over his own paws, and picked himself up in a scramble of light brown fur to take a place beside his father, Dustpelt. His mother, Ferncloud, padded after him and sat next to him, turning her head to smooth his ruffled fur.

Squirrelflight let out a mrrow of amusement. Her gaze drifted past them to the tunnel through the thorn barrier at the entrance to the camp. She felt the muscles in her shoulders tense. It looked like the dawn patrol had just returned: Brambleclaw was padding out of the tunnel, followed by Sandstorm and Rainwhisker.

“What’s the matter?” Leafpool asked.

Squirrelflight suppressed a sigh. She and her sister were much closer than most littermates, and each one was always aware of what the other was feeling. “It’s Brambleclaw,” she mewed reluctantly. “I can’t believe he’s still friends with Hawkfrost, after the way he supported Mudclaw.”

“Many cats supported Mudclaw,” Leafpool pointed out. “They did it because they truly believed Onewhisker wasn’t the right cat to lead WindClan. After the tree fell, Hawkfrost admitted he was wrong, and that Mudclaw had tricked him into helping. Onewhisker has already forgiven him, and all the other cats who fought against him.”

Squirrelflight lashed her tail. “Hawkfrost lied! He was part of Mudclaw’s plot all along. I heard what Mudclaw said before he died—Hawkfrost was trying to become powerful enough to take over RiverClan.”

Leafpool’s troubled gaze seemed to pierce Squirrelflight’s fur. “You have no proof of that, Squirrelflight. Why should we believe Mudclaw over Hawkfrost? Are you sure you’re not judging Hawkfrost because of who his father was?”

Squirrelflight opened her jaws for a swift retort, but there was nothing she could say.

“Remember, Tigerstar was Brambleclaw’s father too,” Leafpool went on. “He may have been a murderous traitor, but that doesn’t mean his sons have to follow his pawsteps. I don’t trust Hawkfrost any more than you do, but we can’t assume he’s as evil as his father without proof. And even if Hawkfrost is dangerous, it doesn’t mean that Brambleclaw has to be like him—or like Tigerstar.”

Squirrelflight twitched her tail uneasily. “I guess you’re right.” The three tabby toms were tangled together like the tendrils in a bramble thicket, and she wondered if either of Tigerstar’s sons could ever be free of their father’s treacherous legacy. “It’s just—Brambleclaw won’t listen to a word I say! He cares about Hawkfrost far more than he cares about me. I don’t understand why he would take Hawkfrost’s word over mine.”

“Hawkfrost is his brother,” Leafpool reminded her. Her amber gaze was warm and sympathetic. “Don’t you think you should judge Brambleclaw by what he does now, instead of what his father did—or what you’re afraid he might do in the future?”

“Do you think I’m being unfair?” Squirrelflight asked. On the journey to the sun-drown-place, where StarClan sent them to learn about the danger threatening all the Clans, she had trusted Brambleclaw with her life. Since she had witnessed his growing friendship with his half-brother, Hawkfrost, she had felt her trust melt away like dew.

“I think you’re upsetting yourself for no reason,” Leafpool replied.

“I’m not upset.” Squirrelflight couldn’t bear to admit, even to her sister, the ache inside her when she thought of what she had lost. “I’m worried about the Clan, that’s all. If Brambleclaw wants to go off with Hawkfrost, it’s none of my concern,” she growled.

Leafpool rested the tip of her tail on her sister’s shoulder. “Don’t pretend that you don’t care,” she meowed. “Especially not to me.” Her voice was light, but her eyes were still serious.