“What will they do with him?”
“And Fidgetpaw!” Sagenose tore at the grass with his claws. “I have to save my kit!”
Peering out through the long stems, Hawkwing saw two
Twolegs emerge from the trees, rolling the shiny den in front of them, with Fidgetpaw and Waspwhisker still trapped inside. The rest of the Clan was scattering, all of them making for the long grass, with the Twolegs in pursuit.
Hawkwing watched helplessly as they swung their sticks again and trapped Clovertail, then Birdwing, and carried the struggling cats over to the monster.
“Birdwing!” Sagenose howled as he saw his mate disappear into the belly of the monster. “Birdwing, not you too!”
Claws of pain gripped Hawkwing’s heart; he knew exactly how his Clanmate felt. But he still blocked Sagenose’s way as he tried to leap out of hiding and follow Birdwing. Sagenose tried to dodge around him, and Hawkwing had to dart to the side, anticipating which way his Clanmate would move, and stop him from charging into danger.
“No,” he mewed, nose to nose with Sagenose. “You can’t help them.”
“I can at least go with them!” Sagenose panted, sliding out his claws to attack Hawkwing.
“No.” That was Leafstar, appearing through the grass stems and resting her tail on Sagenose’s shoulder. “SkyClan needs you, Sagenose.”
“Birdwing and Fidgetpaw need me,” Sagenose responded, bunching his muscles and preparing to leap out into the open.
Before he could move, Hawkwing slammed a paw down hard on his neck. “Stop that!” he hissed. “Leafstar is right. We need you here.”
For a moment Sagenose writhed in Hawkwing’s grip, growling furiously. Then he collapsed with his nose on his paws and his eyes closed, not trying to fight anymore.
At last the remaining warriors of SkyClan made it to the tall grass, and watched as the Twolegs climbed back into the monsters, which awoke with a roar and sped along the Thunderpath, heading away from the lake.
“What just happened?” Dewkit asked plaintively. “Did they take them to be kittypets?”
“M aybe,” Leafstar replied, though Hawkwing could tell by looking at her that she didn’t believe it.
I don’t believe it, either, he thought. I know enough about Twolegs to be sure they don’t treat their kittypets that way. Our Clanmates are prisoners. Horror shivered through his pelt again as he added to himself, What do they do to their prisoners?
“They’re gone,” Leafstar meowed when the noise of the monsters had died away. Her voice was shaking with anger and grief. “The Twolegs are no longer willing to live in peace with us.
This proves that we’re right to leave.”
“Leave?” Sagenose let out a desperate wail. “Surely we can’t leave Birdwing and Fidgetpaw?”
“And Waspwhisker,” Rabbitleap added.
“They are already gone,” Leafstar told them gently. “M onsters can travel very far, very fast. Remember what happened to Pebbleshine!” As she spoke she cast an embarrassed glance at Hawkwing, as if she was sorry to have mentioned the name of his lost mate. Hawkwing didn’t need the reminder. He was already reliving that terrible day. “She got trapped inside a monster that ran off with her. She never came back,” Leafstar finished.
Rileypool let out a wail. “Are we going to lose all our Clanmates?”
“I know you’re hurting,” Leafstar meowed, “but you must be quiet. The Twolegs might hear you. And we must all be brave,” she continued, gazing around at her Clan. “We have lost two special cats: our medicine cat, Fidgetpaw, and our deputy, Waspwhisker.
We can only pray to StarClan to send Echosong back to us, but we can and will have another deputy.”
A stir of surprise traveled through the remaining cats of SkyClan, as if none of them had thought of replacing Waspwhisker so quickly. But it has to be done, Hawkwing thought regretfully. I wonder who Leafstar will choose.
Leafstar stood silent for a few heartbeats, gazing down at her paws, as if she was deep in thought. Then she raised her head again. “I speak these words before StarClan,” she announced, “that the spirits of our warrior ancestors may hear and approve my choice. Hawkwing will be the new deputy of SkyClan.”
Hawkwing stared at his Clan leader, stunned. He couldn’t have been more astonished if the ground had opened up and swallowed him. “M e?” he gasped. “But I—”
“You, Hawkwing,” Leafstar interrupted him. “I can think of no cat better suited to help me lead our Clan through these dark days.”
Hawkwing couldn’t agree with her. I failed my Clan… I’ve failed time and time again! I couldn’t even keep my apprentice. But as he gazed around at his Clanmates, saw their eyes shining and heard their approving murmurs, he realized with even more amazement that they wanted him to be their deputy.
“You’ll do a marvelous job,” Firefern assured him. “Remember how you saved the whole Clan back in the Twolegplace.”
Plumwillow’s gaze was warm as she turned to him. “Leafstar couldn’t have made a better choice.”
“That’s right,” Sparrowpelt added. “You’ll be a great deputy, just like your father was.”
Hawkwing couldn’t agree with that. I’ll never be as good as Sharpclaw. But his Clanmates were murmuring their agreement with Sparrowpelt’s words. Even though it was too dangerous for them to chant his name, he couldn’t have hoped for a better sign of their support.
“Then… thank you, Leafstar,” Hawkwing stammered, his voice hoarse. “I swear that I will be loyal to SkyClan, and spend my last drop of blood defending it.”
Leafstar dipped her head. “And now we must go,” she meowed. “It is a difficult journey ahead of us, but we must make it, to have any chance of saving our Clan.”
With a wave of her tail she ventured out of the long grass, checked that no more Twolegs were lurking, then led the way back into the trees in the direction Echosong had gone, a little more than two moons ago. Her Clan followed.
Hawkwing, his mind still reeling, took up a position in the rear.
At the edge of the woods he halted and took a last look back at the lake. We should never have stayed here, he reflected. Echosong was right.
Then with a deep breath he turned and padded into the shadows after Leafstar and the tattered remnants of his Clan.
Chapter 33
Hawkwing sat on a rock overlooking a shallow stream bubbling over stones, and surveyed his Clan’s temporary camp. A moon and a half had passed since they left the lake, and though they thought they were going in the direction they had seen Echosong take when she left, they had seen no sign of her or the cats who went with her.
Every cat was weary of traveling, growing thinner as the weather became colder and prey scarcer. Finally Leafstar had decided to camp here, where the ground had fallen away into rocky hollows that offered at least a little shelter. But the landscape that surrounded them was bleak, with only a few wind-twisted trees; Hawkwing’s heart sank right down to his paws at the thought of being caught here by leaf-bare.
Wind buffeted his fur as he sat on watch and let his mind travel back to the beginning of their new journey, just after Leafstar had made him deputy. The Clan had sheltered for the night in a copse on the side of a hill, where wind rustled the branches of the trees and sent clouds scudding across the sky. Unable to sleep, Hawkwing had padded out of his makeshift den and crouched among the roots of an oak tree, watching the sky. Soon, Leafstar had slipped through the shadows to join him.