No, I can’t. Jayfeather was right. I’m a medicine cat, and a good one.
Yet he could not deny the pain in his heart as he remembered Velvet’s beautiful eyes and soft gray fur, and more than that, her gentleness and care for every cat. But I can’t let myself think about that.
Picking up the thyme bush, Alderheart leaped up onto the garden wall. In the sky in front of him he could see a pale half-moon rising.
Alarm clawed through him. Oh, no . . . I’d better hurry if I’m going to make it to the Moonpool for the half-moon medicine-cat meeting!
Night had fallen, and the half-moon floated high in the sky by the time Alderheart reached the Moonpool. He had raced there straight from the Twolegplace without returning to the ThunderClan camp, and as he climbed the last rocky slope, his spine prickled with nervousness.
Jayfeather will have something to say to me about this!
The water cascading down the rocks into the Moonpool looked like liquid starshine, and the surface of the water reflected the silver light of the moon. The beauty calmed Alderheart and made him feel that this was the place, above all others, where he belonged.
As Alderheart pushed his way through the bushes and began to follow the spiral path down to the Moonpool, he could see the other medicine cats waiting for him at the water’s edge. Satisfaction warmed his pelt when he saw that Mothwing and Willowshine were there, reunited with their fellow medicine cats for the first time since Darktail had attacked their Clan.
“Greetings, Mothwing, Willowshine,” he meowed as he reached the bottom of the path. “It’s good to have you back.”
The two RiverClan medicine cats dipped their heads in response.
“Never mind greetings,” Jayfeather snapped. “Where have you been? We’re wasting moonlight here.”
“Yes, we were worried about you,” Leafpool added.
“I’m sorry,” Alderheart explained. “I went to the Twolegplace to see how Velvet and Fuzzball were doing.”
Jayfeather gave him a scorching look from his sightless blue eyes.
“They’re fine,” Alderheart went on, meeting his gaze levelly. “I won’t need to go there again. And look at this.” He set down the thyme that Velvet had given him.
Jayfeather gave it a sniff. “It’s thyme.”
“Yes, but it’s a different sort of thyme,” Alderheart mewed. “Velvet says her Twolegs planted it, and it’s stronger than the kind that grows in the forest. There’s not enough to divide between the Clans,” he added to the others, “but I’ll plant it, and when it grows, we’ll share it with you if you need it.”
Jayfeather grunted, obviously unwilling to admit he was pleased. “We can give it a try, I suppose.”
“There’s something else,” Alderheart confessed. He felt bad, because the ShadowClan tom clearly wanted to be left alone, but it wasn’t a secret he felt he could keep. “I saw Rippletail, living as a kittypet in the Twolegplace. I called out to him, but he bolted into his Twoleg den and wouldn’t come out.”
The other medicine cats exchanged shocked glances.
“It’s good to know that he’s okay, at least,” Puddleshine mewed at last. “I’ll tell Tigerstar and Tawnypelt, and they’ll decide if they want to send some cat to talk to him.”
The mention of Tigerstar brought the previous night’s events back into Alderheart’s mind, and he felt a renewed touch of wonder at the way Tigerstar had been sent back to his Clan. He could tell that the other medicine cats felt the same.
“What exactly happened?” Kestrelflight asked, curiosity alight in his eyes.
“StarClan appeared,” Puddleshine replied. “They brought Tigerstar back and gave him nine lives.”
And that doesn’t really tell us anything, Alderheart thought. But then, it’s always been forbidden to tell other cats what happens at nine-lives ceremonies.
Frecklewish let out an irritated snort. “It’s certainly convenient that StarClan gave ShadowClan the chance to rebuild itself,” she mewed. “But you’d better not be planning on reclaiming the territory you ceded to SkyClan. We’ll be patrolling our borders, you can be sure of that!”
Puddleshine looked taken aback at the SkyClan medicine cat’s waspish tone. But Alderheart could understand Frecklewish’s irritation. Clearly, she shared Leafstar’s opinion that the ShadowClan cats who had joined SkyClan and then left had taken advantage of SkyClan’s generosity.
“Of course,” Puddleshine meowed after a moment. “I’m sure all the ShadowClan cats value their friendship with SkyClan.”
“And now, can we please get started?” Jayfeather’s tail-tip twitched irritably. “Are we going to meet with StarClan tonight, or aren’t we?”
At his words, all the medicine cats took their places at the water’s edge and leaned over to touch their noses to the surface of the Moonpool. Alderheart felt the familiar rush of darkness and icy cold, and opened his eyes to find himself sitting in dappled sunlight and shade. The scent of fresh, growing things filled his nose; he could hear birds singing in the branches and, a little way away, the gurgle of a stream.
Rising to his paws, Alderheart looked around him. At first he couldn’t see any cat, and he wondered what StarClan meant to show him in this place. Then he saw fronds waving in a nearby bank of fern, and a gray she-cat stepped into the open. Her eyes were a clear, intense blue, and starshine glimmered in her fur and around her paws.
Alderheart couldn’t remember ever seeing her before, though she looked familiar. As she approached, he dipped his head to her in a gesture of deepest respect.
“Greetings, Alderheart,” the she-cat meowed. “I am Cinderpelt.”
Understanding flooded over Alderheart. She looks so much like Cinderheart. That’s who she reminds me of! He remembered too the story that Leafpool had told him when he was first apprenticed as a medicine cat: how Cinderpelt had died defending her Clan, and how StarClan had sent her spirit back for a while to live another life in Cinderheart’s body. This is a really special cat!
“I was once Firestar’s apprentice,” Cinderpelt went on, “but I was injured on the Thunderpath and could never live the life of a warrior. Instead I became ThunderClan’s medicine cat.” She brushed her tail along Alderheart’s side, purring warmly; Alderheart shivered at the touch.
“I loved Firestar,” Cinderpelt continued; memories swirled in the depths of her blue eyes. “But I chose my duty over the hope that he would love me, and it was the right choice. ThunderClan needs you, Alderheart, just as it needed me. For the future to remain unclouded, medicine cats must choose their duty to their Clan over anything else.”
“I understand,” Alderheart murmured. “But it’s hard.”
“True, but the rewards are great,” Cinderpelt assured him. “And now,” she went on more briskly, “now that the five Clans are finally united once more, there will be new challenges. The sky has cleared at last, but the Clans must come together to make the forest grow.”
Her voice began to fade on the last few words, and the sunlight dazzled Alderheart’s eyes. His last sight was of Cinderpelt’s gentle, approving gaze. Then he woke beside the Moonpool to see his fellow medicine cats stirring from their own visions.
Happiness warmed Alderheart from ears to tail-tip as he rose to begin the journey home. But he couldn’t feel completely at peace. I wonder what Cinderpelt meant, he asked himself. What challenges will we face, now that the five Clans must learn to live together?