“Is that how Echosong was hurt?” Waspwhisker asked.
“Yes. Harveymoon was injured as well.”
Hawkwing felt even worse. “This is awful,” he stammered. “It must have been their scent that Ebonyclaw and I smelled on the day of the fire. And I forgot to report it! I’m so sorry.”
Leafstar touched her tail to his shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t dwell on it,” she murmured. “Every cat knows why you didn’t remember. Besides, Ebonyclaw did report it, and it didn’t make any difference. There was no way we could have prevented this attack.”
“So where’s Harveymoon?” Pebblepaw asked. “Why isn’t he in the medicine cat den? Is he okay?”
“Yes, he’ll be fine,” Leafstar replied. “But he’s with his Twolegs now, and we haven’t seen him since. In fact, most of our daylight warriors’ Twolegs have been keeping them inside their dens since the strange animals moved into the territory.”
Just like Betsy said, with the badgers, Hawkwing thought. And that means we’ll have to do without our daylight warriors.
“And that’s not all,” Leafstar went on, her voice beginning to shake. “During the attack, Honeytail was killed.”
“No!” Blossomheart choked out.
Hawkwing felt a sudden chill, cold creeping over him right down to his pads. Honeytail, the gentle ginger she-cat who loved caring for kits, and lived in the nursery to help with them and the nursing queens. I can’t believe this! First Duskpaw, then Billystorm, and now Honeytail!
“We held a vigil for her while you were away on your quest,” Leafstar continued. “We’ll show you where she’s buried, so you can pay your last respects.” She paused, clearly giving them all a little time to process their grief for Honeytail. “I’ll ask you about your quest later,” she went on at last, “and then I’ll hear all the details. But for now, just tell me this: Did you find the cats you were looking for?”
Hawkwing expected Waspwhisker to speak, as the senior warrior, but the gray-and-white tom was silent, staring down at the ground. When the silence had dragged out for a few heartbeats, Hawkwing took a breath. “There’s something we need to tell you,” he began, each word forced slowly out of him as his heart began to break for his leader.
Leafstar gazed into his eyes. Then her expression suddenly took on a terrible alertness, as if she was really seeing them for the first time since they arrived. “Where is Billystorm?” she asked, her voice hollow.
The questing cats were all silent except for Pebblepaw, who let out a tiny strangled cry. And Hawkwing could see from Leafstar’s eyes, which suddenly became deep and dark with grief, that she already understood. “I’m so sorry, Leafstar,” he meowed. “Badgers killed him. He died the death of a brave warrior.”
For a moment Leafstar stood still, frozen with shock. Then she drew in a deep, shuddering breath and turned away. “No,” she whispered, her voice quiet, sounding almost like a kit. A shiver passed through her, and Hawkwing knew that her heart must be breaking. She loved Billystorm so much.
“Why are all these terrible things happening to us all at once?” she demanded. Her voice was raw, and she didn’t look at any of her Clanmates, as if she was challenging StarClan for answers. “The strange animals who attacked… the failed quest… the fire. Is it because we haven’t found ‘the spark that remains’?”
Leafstar fell silent, then after no more than a couple of heartbeats she turned back. Hawkwing could see that she was pushing everything down, and summoning every scrap of her self-control. He knew that what was most important to her was to be a strong leader for her Clan, in this dark time when death seemed to be all around them.
“We must call a Clan meeting,” she mewed, her voice level. “We must decide what to do now. We must work out how to ‘dispel the darkness.’ It’s our only hope.”
Chapter 9
Hawkwing padded over to the foot of the Rockpile to join the rest of his Clanmates. Leafstar’s voice as she called the meeting still rang in his ears, and he marveled at the strength and authority she was showing.
We’ve just told her that her mate is dead, and that he’s been buried far from camp, somewhere she might never find, yet here she is, gathering her warriors around her.
Hawkwing realized that Leafstar must be grieving for Billystorm every bit as much as he grieved for Duskpaw, but she was forcing herself to be strong for the rest of her Clan.
News of the failure of the quest and of Billystorm’s death must have traveled, for sadness filled the air like fog as the warriors gathered, and no cat could look up at the Rockpile to meet
Leafstar’s gaze. Instead, they crouched at the foot of the boulders, their eyes fixed on their paws, or exchanged glances of bewilderment and fear. Firefern, Stormheart, and Harrybrook, the kits of Leafstar and Billystorm, huddled together as if they were trying to find comfort in each other.
“Disaster has fallen upon SkyClan,” the Clan leader began, “but we must not allow it to crush us. We must still find ‘the spark that remains.’ If we give up our quest now, we dishonor the memory of the cats who have died for that quest. There is still a prophecy that we must fulfill. And now we know only too well that there is still darkness to be dispelled.”
“But how are we going to do that?” Nettlesplash asked.
“Yes,” M intfur, Nettlesplash’s mate, agreed, ruffling up her gray tabby fur. “The quest failed, so maybe that’s a sign that we mistook the meaning of the prophecy. M aybe we shouldn’t be looking for Firestar’s kin after all.”
“No!” Cherrytail sprang to her paws, glaring at M intfur.
“Echosong has never been that wrong before.”
So far Hawkwing had sat in silence, keeping his thoughts to himself, but now he couldn’t stop himself from speaking. “Let’s not forget that we weren’t only following Echosong’s advice,” he meowed. “She may well have been right, but it was some other cat who told us where to go, to find Firestar’s kin.”
As he spoke, every cat turned to look in the same direction.
Following their gaze, Hawkwing spotted Darktail settled comfortably in the shadow of a rock, his paws tucked under him.
So he is still living here! he thought, suppressing a gasp.
“Hawkwing!” Sharpclaw spoke commandingly from his place on the Rockpile at Leafstar’s side. “If you want to make an accusation, consider carefully before you speak. Darktail has been living among us since you left, and he was a huge help when the beasts attacked us. He fought valiantly.”
Hawkwing rose to his paws and faced his father. In spite of Sharpclaw’s words, something encouraging in his voice suggested that the Clan deputy might agree with him—or at least that he wanted Darktail’s involvement brought out into the open.
“I have considered carefully,” Hawkwing responded. “In fact, I’ve thought of very little else since Billystorm died. Darktail’s directions were all wrong, and they got Billystorm killed.”
Fury rising inside him, Hawkwing marched over to Darktail, other cats scrambling to get out of his way. He halted in front of the white tom, thrusting out his neck until they were nose to nose.
“Did you know about the badgers?” he hissed. “I’d hate to think you led us deliberately into danger—but it sure looks like you did!
Why would you do that, to cats you don’t even know?”