“We came to get Clear Sky.” Thunder glanced toward the oak roots where Clear Sky’s nest lay. It was empty.
“He and Star Flower have made a nest up in the bracken.” Acorn Fur nodded toward the steep mud bank and the shadows beyond.
“Clear Sky!” Thunder raised his voice. He stiffened as the bracken rustled and Clear Sky’s gray pelt showed in the shadows.
“What do you want, Thunder?” Clear Sky stopped at the top of the bank.
Thunder stared at him. “Quiet Rain has come down from the mountains. She is in Tall Shadow’s camp. She wants to see you.” He watched Clear Sky’s eyes widen, satisfaction at his father’s surprise rippling through his pelt. “I promised Gray Wing I’d get you. You need to hurry; she’s sick.” As he turned and headed for the entrance, a soft mew sounded beside Clear Sky.
“Wait, Thunder.” Star Flower was calling him.
He stopped. “What for?”
“This is a shock for your father. Won’t you show him a little kindness?”
Like the kindness he’s always shown me? Bitterness rose in Thunder’s throat, but he was aware of the other cats’ gazes on him. “Okay.” He waited as Clear Sky scrambled down the bank.
“How sick is she?” Clear Sky stopped beside him.
Thunder avoided his gaze. He didn’t want to feel sorry for his father. “She’s half-starved and has a wound on her hind leg. Pebble Heart’s treating it, but he says the infection has gone deep.”
Star Flower jumped down the bank. “I’m coming with you.”
Thunder stiffened. The she-cat smelled different. And there was a gentle glow in her eyes, which he’d never seen before.
“Please stay here,” Clear Sky told her gently. “It’s cold. You should rest. You’re expecting our kits.”
Shock stabbed like icicles into Thunder’s chest. Expecting his kits! He dug his claws into the snow, trying to hide his disbelief. “Clear Sky’s right,” he growled. “You should stay here. Besides, this isn’t your concern—Quiet Rain is our kin, not yours.”
Acorn Fur stepped forward. Her eyes flashed in the dark. “What’s done is done, Thunder. Don’t be cruel.”
Thunder glanced at her. What do you know about cruelty? Your mother didn’t die when you were a kit. Your father didn’t send you away.
“Come on,” Lightning Tail murmured in his ear. “We’re wasting time.”
Thunder faced Clear Sky. “Are you ready to leave?”
Clear Sky’s tail trembled. “Yes.”
By the time they reached Tall Shadow’s camp, the snow had pierced the pine canopy and was falling in heavy clumps onto the forest floor. An icy wind sliced between the dark trunks. Thunder ducked through the bramble entrance, relieved to reach the shelter of the high camp walls.
He waited for Clear Sky and Lightning Tail to follow him through.
The clearing looked deserted. The cats must have taken to their nests to escape the cold. Only Gray Wing lay in the open. He was curled into a ball outside Pebble Heart’s den. Snow flecked his pelt. He leaped to his paws as soon as he saw Clear Sky and hurried across the camp to meet him.
Clear Sky spoke first. “Why has Quiet Rain come? Did something happen in the mountains?”
Gray Wing shook his head. “She came to see us. She’s weak and sick from the journey.” He nodded toward Pebble Heart’s den. “She’s waiting for you.”
Thunder watched his father hurry across the clearing and disappear into the bramble den.
“Thank you, Thunder.” Gray Wing’s breath stirred his ear fur.
Thunder drew away from the gray tom. Gray Wing’s harsh words from earlier still rang in his mind. Stop acting like a kit! Anger pricked beneath his pelt. “You asked me to get him, so I got him,” he snapped. He’d spent all day doing what every cat had asked of him and now he was tired. All he wanted was to return to his own camp and sleep among cats who actually cared about him.
“I’m sorry.” Gray Wing’s mew was soft.
Thunder looked at him in surprise.
“I was too hard on you earlier,” Gray Wing admitted. “But I was worried, and I needed Clear Sky to see Quiet Rain before she…” He stopped, his gaze glittering with fear.
Did Gray Wing think his mother was dying?
Paws scuffed the snow behind Gray Wing. Jagged Peak was heading toward them.
“There’s prey, if you want it,” he told Lightning Tail, nodding toward the pile, now covered with snow. “We’ve fed every other stray in the forest. You might as well share our catch too. Help yourself.”
Lightning Tail caught Thunder’s eye. “Will you be okay?”
“Of course.” Thunder flicked his tail. “Go and eat. It’s not often you get offered prey that you haven’t hunted.” He watched Lightning Tail cross the clearing, then looked back at Jagged Peak. “Is
Fern okay?”
“She’s sharing our den.”
“And Sun Shadow?”
Jagged Peak nodded toward the camp wall. Thunder could make out a dark shape huddled beside
Mud Paws and Mouse Ear in a nest of pine branches. “He ate two mice and fell asleep. He hasn’t moved a whisker since dusk.”
Thunder nodded, satisfied. “Quiet Rain has all her sons around her now. Once Lightning Tail has eaten, we will return to our camp.”
“Don’t you want to wait and see how she is?” Jagged Peak asked. “She’s your kin, too.”
Thunder snorted. “Clear Sky’s hardly my kin. Why should Quiet Rain be any different?”
Jagged Peak’s eyes glittered in the darkness. “It’s easy to be angry, Thunder. But anger achieves nothing except heartache. Have some pity. This must be hard for Clear Sky.”
Only because he’ll have to admit to her how much trouble he’s caused.
Gray Wing moved beside him. “It’s hard for all of us.”
Jagged Peak nodded solemnly. “We came from the mountains in search of a good, safe home.
That’s what Quiet Rain expected to find when she got here—but all we have to tell her are stories of battle, sickness, and death. This isn’t what any cat wanted.”
Thunder glanced at Pebble Heart’s den. What was Clear Sky saying to his mother?
Suddenly, the camp wall shivered. Thunder blinked in surprise as Star Flower padded through the bramble entrance.
Seeing her, Gray Wing let out a low growl and Jagged Peak arched his back with a hiss.
Thunder stepped forward. “What are you doing here?”
Star Flower brushed past Gray Wing, ignoring the hostility flashing from the tom, and stopped at the edge of the clearing. “I was worried about Clear Sky.”
“He told you to stay in camp,” Thunder muttered.
She narrowed her eyes. “I do as I please, not as I’m told.” Unease rippled through Thunder’s pelt when he noticed Jagged Peak’s fur bristling along his shoulders. Star Flower had taken a big risk coming here. The last time any of these cats had seen her, she had just betrayed them to One Eye.
He moved closer to her. “You should leave,” he hissed in her ear.
“I’m staying,” she snapped.
Jagged Peak glared at the she-cat. “Why do you care about Clear Sky?”
“I’m his mate,” Star Flower told him. “And I’m expecting his kits. I have a right to be at his side when he needs me.”
Thunder felt the air crackle with tension as she met Jagged Peak’s gaze.
“Gray Wing! Jagged Peak!” Clear Sky thrust his head from Pebble Heart’s den. “Quiet Rain wants—” He stopped as his gaze reached Star Flower.
She returned it, her luminous eyes like stars in the gloom.
Clear Sky tugged his gaze away. “Quiet Rain wants to talk to us.” He nodded to Jagged Peak and Gray Wing and ducked back inside.