Leafstar returned Plumwillow’s gaze solemnly. She didn’t answer the warrior’s question, but Hawkwing heard Plumwillow gasp as the truth sank in.
“You expect me to leave my own kit?”
Before Leafstar could respond, Hawkwing’s ears pricked at the sound of a cat approaching.
Please, not an attack. StarClan, not now. The wind was blowing away from SkyClan, so there was no scent to tell him what might be approaching. He slid out his claws.
“Hello?” A familiar voice reached Hawkwing’s ears.
Oh, StarClan, I can’t believe it! I think I’ll die of relief!
Hawkwing felt his entire body go slack. His Clanmates too were stirring around him, looking for the source of the sound, sudden hope in their eyes.
A silver tabby she-cat stepped out from among the trees, with two other cats trailing behind her. Hawkwing let out a triumphant yowl of welcome. Oh, StarClan, thank you!
“Echosong!”
Chapter 34
The SkyClan medicine cat splashed through the stream, followed by Bellaleaf and Harrybrook, and padded up to her Clanmates.
She, too, was thinner than when Hawkwing had last seen her, but her eyes were bright, and she looked strong. The healthy cats all crowded around her enthusiastically, purring and brushing their pelts against hers.
“Greetings, Echosong!”
“Welcome back!”
“Thank StarClan you found us!”
Hawkwing stared at Echosong, wondering if he was having some kind of weird waking dream. After all the terrible things that have happened, I can’t believe Echosong would return to us just when we need her most! Then he reflected that if this wasn’t real, all his Clanmates must be having the same dream. It must be true!
Echosong is really here!
“But how did you find us?” Leafstar asked, struggling through the crowd to Echosong’s side. “We’ve been looking for you for at least a moon.”
Echosong’s green eyes were brilliant as she replied. “It was easy! StarClan showed me where to go.”
Warmth spread through Hawkwing’s pelt, as if sunlight had broken through the storm-laden clouds overhead. Then StarClan hasn’t abandoned us!
“I had a dream,” Echosong continued. “A brown tabby tom spoke to me… I think he must be a medicine cat from the first
SkyClan. He told me that my Clan had need of me, and that he would guide my paw steps.”
“We certainly do need you,” Leafstar responded. “We have sick cats, and we don’t know what to do for them without a medicine cat.”
“But you have Fidgetpaw…” Echosong glanced around, her eyes puzzled. “Wait… no! Where is he?”
Several cats chimed in, telling Echosong how Fidgetpaw and more of their Clanmates had been trapped beside the lake, by the Twolegs with the weird cobweb-things on sticks. Hawkwing shuddered at the memory, imagining for a moment that he could still hear the harsh voices of the Twolegs and the terrified wails of his lost Clanmates.
“That’s terrible!” Echosong exclaimed. “And our Clan deputy, too.”
“Yes, Hawkwing is deputy now,” Leafstar told her.
Echosong shot Hawkwing a pleased look. “Well, well. I can see I’ve a lot to catch up on,” she mewed. “But first, show me the sick cats.”
Hawkwing led Echosong to the nest where the sick cats lay.
Harrybrook and Bellaleaf still followed her, and Bellaleaf let out a piercing wail as she saw her brother Rileypool curled up motionless among the moss and leaves. “No! He’s dead!”
Echosong held her paw close to Rileypool’s nose, and Hawkwing saw the faint ruffle of her fur that showed Rileypool still breathed.
“He lives,” Echosong said in a grave voice, “but barely.”
“Oh, thank StarClan! Please help him!” Bellaleaf begged.
“I’m going to do just that,” Echosong reassured her.
“Hawkwing, what have you done so far?”
“We gave them borage,” Hawkwing replied, pointing with his tail to a heap of the herb beside the nest. “That’s right, for fever, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it would be right, if that was borage.” Echosong turned over a few of the stems with one paw. “But it’s not, it’s comfrey.”
Hawkwing felt as if all the blood was draining from his heart, and he saw black sparkles in the sky. “StarClan, no!” he gasped.
“Have I been poisoning them?” It’s like everything has to go wrong for SkyClan, even when we try our best, he thought, his pelt growing hot with guilt.
Echosong shook her head. “No, we use a poultice of comfrey root for wounds,” she explained. “The leaves aren’t good for much, that I know of, but they wouldn’t do any harm. But now I need to find some real borage.”
Hawkwing sent Sparrowpelt and Tinycloud with Echosong into the trees in case of trouble. The patrol returned quickly, Echosong carrying a bunch of herbs in her jaws.
“We’re lucky that so far there hasn’t been a frost,” she mewed as she dropped the stems beside the sick cats’ nest. “That kills off herbs quicker than anything.”
Hawkwing bent his head to examine the herbs Echosong had brought. He saw that the leaves of borage looked very much like comfrey, but the scent was quite different. A medicine cat would have known that.
Echosong chewed up the leaves and managed to force the pulp between the sick cats’ jaws. Hawkwing watched intently, hoping for some sign of improvement, even though he knew it was far too soon to expect any change.
“They will get better, won’t they?” Bellaleaf asked; she had stayed crouched beside her brother ever since she returned.
“That’s in the paws of StarClan,” Echosong replied, but then added, “I’ve seen cats recover from worse illness than this.”
“I wish there was something I could do,” Bellaleaf meowed.
“There is,” Hawkwing told her briskly. “Lead a hunting patrol, and bring back some prey for them when they wake up.”
Bellaleaf glanced at Rileypool, clearly reluctant to leave him, then rose to her paws. “Right away, Hawkwing. I’ll find some other cats.”
“You’re right to keep her busy,” Echosong mewed to Hawkwing when Bellaleaf had gone. “I wouldn’t say this in front of her, but I’m not hopeful for Rileypool. Firefern, too. They’re both very far gone.”
A heavy knot of dread gathered in Hawkwing’s belly as he braced himself to ask the next question. “And Finkit?”
Echosong sighed, looking at the kit’s frail chest as it rose and fell. “It’s hard to say. He has youth on his side. But he’s so tiny…
.”
Hawkwing felt like his heart was being squeezed so tightly it might burst. He had to look away.
Please, StarClan, if anything I’ve ever done has pleased you… please, spare that kit.
The last warriors of StarClan were fading from the sky as the dawn light strengthened. In the middle of the rocky hollow the cats of SkyClan crouched around the bodies of their Clanmates, stiff and cold in death, with frost sparkling in their fur.
Hawkwing tried to find some consolation in looking at the cats who had survived the sickness. M acgyver and Blossomheart were out of danger, though still weak and shaky. And Finkit looked desperately small and skinny beside his robust littermates, but he was gaining strength every day. A small spark of joy kindled inside
Hawkwing as he remembered the moment when Finkit had opened his eyes, wailing plaintively for his mother and complaining about how hungry he was.