Darktail, who simply gave him a hard shove to keep him moving. Is this the end of my quest? he wondered in despair. Maybe I should have listened to the others and left!
“We’ve done nothing to you or your cats to deserve being killed!” he protested.
“Don’t lie, flea-pelt!” Darktail hissed. “It’s obvious you’re allies of SkyClan. You’ve come as spies to unsettle my group, so the weak Clan with their daylight-warriors could come back.
But my cats and I claimed this territory honorably, and we mean to keep it. Your plan has fallen apart!”
Alderpaw didn’t know how to reply to such false accusations; he knew that nothing he said would change Darktail’s mind.
Every cat stood up and stared as Darktail shoved Alderpaw across the pile of rocks to return to the camp. Alderpaw saw with relief that his Clanmates had returned. They padded to his side as Darktail pushed him into the middle of the circle of rogues.
“What’s going on?” Molewhisker asked.
Darktail stood at the bottom of the rocks, his gaze sweeping across the crowd of his followers as he prepared to address them.
Of course! Alderpaw thought. He always sits beside the rocks. A real Clan leader would speak to his cats from the top. We shouldn’t have believed Darktail was a Clan cat. He’s never behaved like one.
“I found this pathetic excuse for a cat”—Darktail gave Alderpaw a contemptuous prod—“talking to a SkyClan cat in the forest. It’s obvious that these cats have lied to us. They’re not friendly visitors. They’re working with SkyClan to steal this territory back from us, after we fought for it so bravely! This has been a conspiracy from the beginning.”
Angry murmurs arose from the rogues.
Alderpaw saw their neck fur beginning to bristle, their tails lashing as they closed in around the questing cats. His friends scarcely resisted, bewildered by the news and the accusation.
“They’re not SkyClan?” Cherryfall meowed.
“We should have known!” Molewhisker hissed. “A lot of things are making sense now.”
“Is this true?” Rain asked Needlepaw, thrusting his face up against hers until their noses almost touched. “Are you plotting with SkyClan?” Alderpaw could see his anger as Rain’s claws flexed in and out, but he could sense something else beneath it. Does he feel hurt? Alderpaw wondered, the odd ache swelling in his chest again.
Needlepaw remained calm as she met Rain’s furious green gaze. “Of course it’s not true,” she replied. “We live far away from here, and when we set out, we weren’t even sure that SkyClan existed. So how could we have been conspiring with them?”
An angry yowl from Darktail followed her words. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“Certainly not.” Needlepaw’s voice was still even, and she raised one paw to smooth her whiskers. Alderpaw admired how she showed not the least trace of fear. “I’m not calling any cat a liar.” She turned to look at Alderpaw, her face as annoyed as Molewhisker’s had been sometimes when he was Alderpaw’s mentor.
“My medicine-cat friend might have been spending time with the wrong cat, but I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.”
Darktail seemed to be considering her words. In the brief silence the black she-cat, Raven, sidled up to him.
“Better safe than sorry,” she mewed. “We don’t know for sure that we can trust these cats.
After all, they did turn up out of the blue. And does any cat really believe what they told us?”
Alderpaw felt as though his windpipe was swelling, cutting off his breath. Is every cat here ruthless and nasty?
Darktail went on thinking for a moment longer, then fixed an unblinking blue gaze on Needlepaw. “You know I can’t just let you go. Not after everything that has happened.”
Instantly Molewhisker and Cherryfall stepped forward, their backs arching and their shoulder fur bristling. “You can’t keep us here if we don’t want to stay,” Molewhisker snarled.
“Right,” Cherryfall agreed. “If we say we’re leaving, we’ll leave.”
Alderpaw realized in despair that Darktail had no need to respond. Without a word from him, the rogues tightened the circle around them, their tails raised and their claws flexing, ready to fight.
We’re outnumbered, Alderpaw thought.
They can keep us here. They can do what they like with us.
“It’s nothing personal,” Darktail meowed smoothly. “Already one enemy has trespassed in the forest. I’m just making sure that no more danger is brought here to the gorge. Once I’m convinced that the danger has passed, I’ll let you go.” He licked one paw and drew it over his ear. “I promise…”
But how can we believe your promises?
Alderpaw added silently.
The sun had gone down, and deep shadows lay over the gorge. After the earlier confrontation, Alderpaw and the others had been escorted to a different den, no more than a jagged crack in the rock, where they huddled together tightly. The rough walls pressed into their fur, and it was impossible to get comfortable.
Just outside, Raven was sitting on guard, her back to the den. Seeing her ears pricked alertly, none of the questing cats had felt able to discuss plans for what they might do next.
“So what happened to the real SkyClan?”
Cherryfall asked Alderpaw at last, her voice a low murmur. “Did you find out?”
Alderpaw nodded. “Mistfeather—the cat I met in the forest—told me that the rogues attacked SkyClan and drove them out of the gorge. After that, the SkyClan cats scattered.
Mistfeather didn’t know where they went. And then Darktail killed him.”
Sparkpaw let out a horrified gasp, and dug her claws hard into the sandy floor of the den.
“Darktail is evil,” Molewhisker mewed.
Turning to Needlepaw, he added, “What were you thinking this morning? We shouldn’t have tried to explain to him. We should have walked out of our own accord.”
“And don’t you think the rogues would have followed us?” Needlepaw retorted. “We would have led them straight to our own Clans.”
Her voice rose as she spoke. Alderpaw and the others all turned to look at Raven, but if the black she-cat had heard them, she was giving nothing away.
The Clan cats settled once more into an uneasy silence, nestling down into the uncomfortable new den. Alderpaw felt the dust sticking to his pelt, the sharp stones and pebbles jabbing at his flesh, and he began to wonder where this quest had gone so wrong.
We found what’s left of SkyClan… but will we share their fate?
Chapter 19
Alderpaw dozed uneasily, only to rouse again as he felt a paw prodding him gently in the shoulder. He opened his eyes; there was just enough light for him to see Sparkpaw staring down at him.
“Shh!” she whispered. “We need to go—now.”
Alderpaw blinked at her. “What are you talking about?”
“The rogues are asleep,” Sparkpaw murmured, “but who knows for how long? The sun will be up soon. This is the best chance we’ll have.”
Alderpaw staggered to his paws, stretching his jaws in a massive yawn. As he arched his back, stretching his cramped body, he saw
Molewhisker and Cherryfall standing just behind his sister. Needlepaw, looking unusually hesitant, was waiting near the entrance to the den.
“I think this is a bad idea,” she mumbled. “If they catch us—”
Molewhisker brushed his tail across her shoulder. “We’ll just have to make sure they don’t,” he said.