Twilight lay thick in the gorge as Hawkwing and the others reached the head of the trail that led down into the camp. It was impossible to see exactly what was going on down below, except that there seemed to be a crowd of cats clustering around the entrance to Echosong’s den.
Hawkwing took the lead as the patrol headed into the gorge. He was scarcely aware of the cliff dropping away below him as his paws skimmed over the rocks. His heart was pounding and he could hardly catch his breath.
“What happened?” he demanded, thrusting his way into the group of cats around Echosong’s den. “Is something wrong?”
His sister Blossomheart turned to face him. In the dim light he saw that she had an angry wound on one shoulder, with a clump of fur missing, as if some creature had bitten her.
“Those animals came back,” she told Hawkwing. “Those…
raccoons. It was terrible. Leafstar lost a life!”
Hawkwing felt as though he had been clawed in his belly. Now he understood why the scent markings hadn’t been renewed, and why his Clanmates were waiting anxiously outside the medicine cats’ den. And now that he had a moment to catch his breath, he could pick up the reek of the raccoons, fading now but still clear enough to reveal the creatures’ recent presence in the camp. The scent of blood was mingled with it, and as Hawkwing looked around he saw that more of his Clanmates bore the marks of the raccoons’ teeth and claws. M ost of them were already patched with cobweb and poultices of marigold; both medicine cats must have been working tirelessly.
“There were more of them this time,” Rabbitleap added from where he stood beside Blossomheart. “What are we going to do?”
Before any cat could reply, Sharpclaw appeared at the mouth of the den. His green eyes glinted in the twilight as his gaze swept across the cluster of cats.
“Leafstar will be fine,” he announced. “There’s no need to worry about her, or to hang around here like a bunch of sick rabbits. Tinycloud…” He angled his ears toward the white she-cat. “You’re okay, aren’t you? Round up some of the other uninjured warriors and take them to renew the scent markers.”
Tinycloud gave a brisk nod. “Right, Sharpclaw.” She headed off, waving her tail to collect more of her Clanmates around her.
As the crowd thinned out, Sharpclaw spotted Hawkwing and the other questing cats, who had hurried up behind him. “You’re back!” he exclaimed, his tail curling up in surprise. “Come in here and report—no, not all of you, just Hawkwing and… yes, Darktail.”
Hawkwing’s belly cramped; this was the moment he had been dreading. StarClan, help me. It wasn’t our fault! No cat could have tracked Firestar’s kin from that barn. But Hawkwing knew that Sharpclaw wouldn’t see it like that.
He padded into the medicine cats’ den, with Darktail hard on his paws. Inside he saw Leafstar lying in a nest of moss; she was stretched out on one side with her belly exposed, and Echosong was patting marigold pulp onto a scar on her chest between her forelegs. Hawkwing felt sick as he realized that must be the wound that had taken one of his Clan leader’s lives.
On the other side of the den, Frecklewish was patching Mistfeather’s shoulder with a thick wad of cobweb. The gray tom flinched as her paws pressed the web down firmly to stop his wound from bleeding.
Leafstar raised her head as Hawkwing and Darktail entered the den. She looked exhausted, but her voice was steady as she meowed, “So you’re back! Are all of you safe?”
Hawkwing nodded. “We’re all fine.”
“And did you find Firestar’s kin?”
Hawkwing felt as if the one word was going to choke him, it was so hard to get it out. “No.”
“No?” It was Sharpclaw who spoke, his voice edged with irritation. “Why not?”
Glancing at Darktail, Hawkwing saw that the rogue tom was standing at his shoulder, his head bent dejectedly as he stared at his paws. Obviously there was no use expecting him to explain anything.
“We traveled for two days,” Hawkwing began, speaking to Leafstar. It was easier to face his leader than the icy green stare of his father. “Then we met a cat called Toad, a friend of Darktail’s.”
He went on to describe how Toad had told them of a group of cats who had stayed for a while in the abandoned Twoleg barn, and how
Twolegs and dogs had sprung out on the patrol when they tried to investigate. His voice shook and cold shivers ran through him as he related the story of Toad’s death. In his mind he could still hear the rogue cat’s shrieks and the terrible snarling of the dogs. “And when we tried to pick up a scent trail,” he finished, “we couldn’t find anything. Not a single trace that Clan cats had ever been there.”
Sharpclaw turned a hostile gaze on Darktail. “You told us you knew how to find Firestar’s kin.”
Darktail didn’t look up. “I was wrong,” he mewed humbly.
“I’m sorry.”
“‘Sorry’ doesn’t help us,” M istfeather put in with a snort of contempt. “We’re no nearer to finding out what StarClan’s prophecy means.”
“And yet more darkness seems to be gathering, with all these attacks,” Sharpclaw added. “We need to follow StarClan’s advice as soon as we can.”
“As far as I can see,” M istfeather growled, still glaring at Darktail, “we’d have been far better off if you and your rogue friend had never set paw in our camp.”
Darktail cringed away from him. “I tried my best—” he began.
“And your best wasn’t good enough,” Sharpclaw told him curtly. “Hawkwing, did this Toad tell you anything about where the Clan cats might have gone?”
“No,” Hawkwing replied, beginning to feel annoyed. “If he had, don’t you think we would have tried to follow them?”
“I don’t know what you would have done,” Sharpclaw retorted. “I only know that you’ve gone out twice now, and we’re still no nearer to fulfilling the prophecy.”
“And we’ve lost Billystorm,” M istfeather added.
Hawkwing’s belly churned and he twitched the tip of his tail to and fro, doing his best to hold on to his temper. Like you would have done any better if you’d been there, he thought, but he had the sense not to say the words out loud.
“That’s enough.” Leafstar’s voice was weary, and Hawkwing realized that M istfeather’s mention of Billystorm was more than she could cope with just then. “We need to think more deeply about this before we decide what to do next.”
“And you need to rest.” Echosong spoke for the first time, her voice firm. “Out, all of you! Frecklewish, go and see if any cat still has untreated wounds. Otherwise, no cat sets paw in here until morning.”
As he left the den in obedience to the medicine cat’s orders, Hawkwing felt as if his heart had sunk right down into his paws.
We have enough trouble with these new creatures attacking our camp, he thought. How can StarClan expect us to follow their prophecy as well? And what’s going to happen to us if we don’t?
Chapter 12
Hawkwing was roused from his sleep in the warriors’ den by the sound of his father’s voice yowling through the camp. “Let all cats gather here beneath the Rockpile for a Clan meeting!”
Around Hawkwing, his Clanmates were already leaping up and heading out of the cave. He staggered to his paws and shook scraps of bedding out of his pelt. Exhausted from the journey and the shock of learning about the fresh attack, he felt as if he had hardly rested at all, even though the sun was already well above the trees.