Squirrelflight padded sleepily over to Brambleclaw, her jaws gaping in a huge yawn. “What’s happening? What does Firestar want?”
“It’s best you hear it from Firestar,” Brambleclaw meowed.
He couldn’t begin to put into words what had happened before Tallstar lost his ninth life.
Too late, he remembered his quarrel with Squirrelflight; she obviously hadn’t forgotten, however, and interpreted his guarded response as reluctance to speak to her at all.
“Fine,” she mewed. She glanced coolly at him, then padded a couple of tail-lengths away before sitting down.
“Cats of all Clans, I have some very sad news,” Firestar began. “Tallstar has gone to hunt with StarClan.”
“Tallstar dead!” exclaimed Tornear. “He became leader before I was born. What will happen to WindClan without him?”
Beside him, his apprentice, Owlpaw, bowed his head, too overcome to speak. Mosspelt, a RiverClan queen, touched the young cat on his shoulder with the tip of her tail. “He was a noble cat,” she murmured. “He will be welcomed by StarClan, and walk with the best of them.”
From somewhere near the back a single voice rose up in a wail of grief. Brambleclaw echoed it in his heart.
“I was there when he died,” Firestar went on, with a glance at Brambleclaw, “and he said—”
He broke off as a mottled brown warrior thrust his way forward and halted at the foot of the stump. “What’s that?” he demanded, his eyes flashing anger. “Tallstar is dead? Why did no cat tell me?”
It was Mudclaw.
Chapter 7
Firestar looked calmly down at the WindClan warrior. “Tallstar died just a few moments ago,” he meowed. “There’s been no chance to tell any cat.”
“Mudclaw, you’re our leader now,” meowed Webfoot. “We will all grieve for Tallstar, but we need you to help us settle in our new home.”
A murmur of agreement came from his Clanmates.
Mudclaw dipped his head in acknowledgment, but when he turned back to Firestar his eyes still gleamed with fury. “You should have come to find me before calling this meeting.
Why should a ThunderClan cat announce WindClan’s news?”
Firestar’s tail-tip twitched. “Tallstar wanted it to be this way. Listen to what I’m trying to tell you, please.” Addressing all the cats, not just Mudclaw, he went on: “Just before he died, Tallstar made Onewhisker his deputy.” His gaze swept over Brambleclaw, but he didn’t meet the warrior’s eye.
Brambleclaw’s fur prickled; was Firestar really willing to ignore the fact that Tallstar hadn’t used the right ceremony to appoint his new deputy?
“What?” Mudclaw screeched in disbelief.
“You mean Mudclaw isn’t our leader?” Webfoot queried.
He unsheathed his claws in confusion and sank them into the ground.
“Mouse dung to that!” A black WindClan she-cat drew her lips back in a snarl. “There’s no cat better able to lead the Clan.”
Brambleclaw listened uncomfortably. If it were up to him, he thought Onewhisker would make a better leader than Mudclaw, but he didn’t have the right to judge. And he could imagine exactly how Mudclaw must be feeling, to have the leadership he had been waiting for snatched out of his paws in a heartbeat.
Onewhisker looked down at Mudclaw. “This is as much of a shock to me as it is to you,” he meowed. “And I would like you to carry on being WindClan’s deputy. I’ll need your support and experience every pawstep of the way.”
Mudclaw’s neck fur bristled. “You don’t think I believe this load of fox dung, do you?” he spat. “Every cat knows that Tallstar practically handed our Clan over to Firestar before he left the forest. He’s always felt more loyalty to ThunderClan than they ever deserved. And now Firestar tells us that his friend Onewhisker is to be leader! Did any other cat witness this convenient change of mind?”
His paws heavy as stone, Brambleclaw padded forward until he stood beside Mudclaw. “I did.” The words stuck in his throat like a tough bit of fresh-kill. “I was there. I heard Tallstar make Onewhisker his deputy.”
He almost added, but he didn’t use the right words, then stopped himself. Firestar had said nothing about that.
The clearing and the tree stump faded away, and Brambleclaw was back in the ravine, an apprentice of less than seven moons, grudgingly searching the elders’ pelts for ticks. All the apprentices hated this duty, but sometimes it was made bearable by the chance to listen to stories about the old days in ThunderClan, before the apprentices were even born. As Brambleclaw fixed his teeth gingerly around a tick at the base of One-eye’s tail, he could hear the old cat talking to Dappletail about when Bluestar appointed Firestar—then called Fireheart—to be her deputy. The former deputy, Tigerclaw, had been revealed as a traitor who was plotting to kill his Clan leader—and Brambleclaw’s fur had crawled even then to hear his father spoken of in dark, grim tones.
Tigerclaw had been chased out of the camp, and Bluestar had appointed Fireheart in his place. But she had been so distressed by Tigerclaw’s treachery that she had delayed the ceremony until long after moonhigh, which was the time limit set down by the warrior code. Several cats in the Clan, even those who liked and respected the flame-colored warrior, had grave doubts about his right to be called deputy, and it had been many moons before Fireheart had proved himself worthy of taking Tigerclaw’s place.
Brambleclaw shook his head, jolting himself back to the copse on the lakeshore. His blood thickened icily in his veins.
There had been something wrong with Firestar’s deputy ceremony, just like Onewhisker’s! No wonder the ThunderClan leader wanted to defend Onewhisker when doubts were cast on his right to lead the Clan. If Firestar had ever had any doubts about his own position as deputy, he had kept them to himself; he obviously believed Onewhisker should do the same.
Mudclaw narrowed his eyes at Brambleclaw. “You were there too, were you? Another ThunderClan cat, what a surprise! What did Firestar offer you if you backed him up? Did he promise to make you deputy of ThunderClan?”
Any temptation to blurt out the truth vanished in an instant, as Brambleclaw struggled with the urge to leap on the WindClan warrior’s back and claw his fur off. Just managing to stay where he was, he glanced up at Firestar and saw cold fury in his leader’s green eyes.
“How dare you doubt my word, or my warrior’s?” Firestar hissed at Mudclaw. “Tallstar’s decision was made in the sight of StarClan.”
“How do you know?” Mudclaw challenged. “Are you a medicine cat all of a sudden?”
“His decision was clear enough.” Firestar spat back.
Mudclaw spun around to face his Clanmates. “Are you going to sit here and accept this?” he demanded. “Do we let ThunderClan choose our leader for us?” Whipping around to glare at Onewhisker again, he added, “How many of our warriors do you think will follow you, you sniveling, crow-food-eating traitor?”
Before Onewhisker had time to reply, Crowfeather padded forward and stood at the edge of the tree stump. His fur was ruffled and his eyes stunned with grief, but when he spoke his voice was calm.
“I will follow Onewhisker. I made the journey to the sun-drown-place with Brambleclaw, and I know he does not lie.
If he says that Tallstar made Onewhisker deputy before he went to hunt with StarClan, then I believe him.” Raising his head to meet Onewhisker’s gaze, he meowed, “Onestar, I greet you as the leader of my Clan.”
More voices came from WindClan. “Yes! Onestar!