The top of the rock was smooth, still warm from the day’s heat. Gray Wing sat a tail-length from Clear Sky, who rested on his haunches, paws splayed as he washed his chest.
Tall Shadow circled Clear Sky slowly, her eyes never leaving him. She stopped and narrowed her eyes. “Why did you bring the others?”
Clear Sky lifted his head slowly and met her gaze, drawing his paws neatly in front of him. “Why did Gray Wing bring you?”
Thunder bristled. “Because we don’t trust you,” he growled.
Gray Wing nudged Thunder backward as Tall Shadow settled beside him. “Thank you for coming, Clear Sky,” he meowed evenly.
Clear Sky lifted his chin. “This meeting is long overdue.” His voice rang across the hollow.
Thunder scanned the shadowy slopes, searching for movement. Clear Sky seemed to be addressing every cat, as though he was leader of them all. His hackles lifted. “Stop acting like it was your idea.”
“Be quiet, Thunder,” Gray Wing growled softly.
“Yes, Thunder. Be quiet.” Clear Sky’s eyes flashed scornfully in the moonlight.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Thunder flashed back at him.
“I forgot,” Clear Sky meowed silkily. “You were always Gray Wing’s cat.”
“That’s not true!” Claws seemed to rake Thunder’s heart. “I tried to be the son you wanted me to be.”
“Is that right?” Clear Sky stared at him coldly, the moonlight gleaming on his pelt.
“You wanted me to be cruel, like you!” Thunder thrust his muzzle toward his father. “But I’ll never be cruel!”
“Thunder!” Gray Wing hissed at him fiercely.
Tall Shadow wove past Thunder, nudging him backward, as Gray Wing shifted his paws.
“I’m sorry about Thunder,” said Gray Wing. “He’s young and impulsive.”
Thunder struggled to swallow his rage at the politeness in Gray Wing’s mew. How dare you apologize for me!
Gray Wing went on. “The silence between us has festered like warm prey. Talk will clear the air and perhaps we can go back to how things were when we first arrived from the mountains.”
Clear Sky’s ear twitched but he didn’t speak.
“Do you remember how it was?” Gray Wing prompted. “What it was like to be warm for the first time? To have full bellies? To feel soft grass beneath our paws instead of snow and rock? We were proud that we’d made such a dangerous journey. We were united in our determination never again to cower, hungry, in cold caves.” He reached his muzzle closer to Clear Sky. “Surely, you remember?”
Clear Sky cocked his head to one side. “I remember the cats who died on the way. Have you forgotten Bright Stream?” His gaze glittered like ice. “And, when we arrived, the rogues didn’t exactly welcome us to their land. We had to fight for it.”
“That’s not true!” Gray Wing objected. “What about Wind and Gorse?” He flicked his nose toward the shadows moving at the edges of the clearing. “What about Nettle and Fircone? All these rogues! They’re your allies now.”
“Like Fox?” There was a sneer in Clear Sky’s mew.
As Gray Wing flinched, Thunder leaned closer. He’d heard about the tom Gray Wing had killed. “Fox died defending boundaries that you created!” he snarled.
“Hush!” Tall Shadow breathed in his ear. “Control yourself, Thunder. Now isn’t the time to settle scores with your father.”
He met her dark gaze, anger churning in his belly. She was right. They were here to bring peace to the forest and the moor.
She stepped forward and lifted her face so that moonlight drenched her muzzle. “The stars have looked down on this place for countless seasons. The stone beneath my paws has stood for endless moons.”
Movement flickered at the corner of Thunder’s vision. The cats below were slinking from the shadows. Falling Feather’s white pelt glowed. He recognized the small frame of Quick Water at her side. Nettle and Fircone hurried closer, fur rippling. Petal, Leaf, and Snake jostled to get near. Thunder spotted a dull, black pelt moving like a shadow after the others. Was that Jackdaw’s Cry?
As silent as hunters, they gathered beneath the rock. Their eyes shone with curiosity. Above them, bats flitted, swooping this way and that like ghostly swallows. The cats ignored them and lifted their gazes to Tall Shadow.
She turned to them. “This great rock did not rise from the ground for me to sit on. These trees did not grow to give you shelter.” She flicked her muzzle toward the moor. “The grass did not cover the moor to soften our paw steps. The rabbits didn’t hollow burrows for us to shelter in.” She turned her gaze suddenly to Clear Sky. “The forest did not burn to destroy your home.”
Thunder saw him shiver. She’d reminded Clear Sky of how vulnerable he’d been when flames threatened to engulf his camp. He’d needed their help then. He’d never have survived without it.
Tall Shadow pressed on. “This land isn’t ours. We live here for a few short moons then disappear. But the land lives on. It isn’t ours to claw into morsels and share like prey. We must honor it and protect it. It feeds us and shelters us.” Her gaze swept back to the cats below. “Can we be united in that?”
Quick Water glanced at Falling Feather. Leaf rounded his eyes, intrigued. Fircone shifted his paws.
Were they considering Tall Shadow’s plea?
Thunder looked at Clear Sky. His father’s gaze had widened. Suddenly, he looked young, his ears pricked, his whiskers quivering. Had Tall Shadow convinced him that they could share the land in peace?
Hope surged beneath Thunder’s pelt as Gray Wing stepped forward, reaching his muzzle out to his brother.
“Got you!” A triumphant yowl sounded below.
Thunder spun, heart lurching as he saw Jackdaw’s Cry leap and swat a bat from the air. The black tom leaped on it and began gnawing, a warning growl rumbling in his throat.
“How dare you!” Petal turned on him, hissing. “That’s forest prey.”
“This is no cat’s land.” Jackdaw’s Cry looked up at her, bat flesh hanging from his jaws. He flicked it into his mouth and swallowed hungrily.
Petal leaped and hooked the bat away. “That belongs to us! Clear Sky forbid you from eating our prey!”
“No!” Gray Wing’s eyes rounded in horror.
Thunder blinked. They were so close to an agreement. They mustn’t fight now. Not over prey!
Clear Sky growled from the edge of the rock. “Stop!”
Petal and Jackdaw’s Cry froze and backed away. The bat lay between them, pooled in blood.
Clear Sky’s gaze swung toward Jackdaw’s Cry. “What’s he doing here?”
Petal looked up at her leader. “We couldn’t leave him alone with Birch and Alder.”
Jackdaw’s Cry snarled. “You think I’d harm kits?”
Leaf showed his teeth. “Never trust a hungry cat.”
“Whose fault is it I’m hungry?” Jackdaw’s Cry threw an accusing glare at Clear Sky. “You haven’t let me eat since I got to the forest.”
What? Outrage pulsed through Thunder. He pictured the piles of prey in the forest camp, rotting because there was too much to eat. Hadn’t they shared any with Jackdaw’s Cry? “You starved him? But… you swore that you would never again see another cat go hungry.”
Clear Sky turned on him. “Don’t you dare speak! You’ve no right to be heard after everything you’ve done!” Hurt blazed in his eyes. “You’re disloyal and ungrateful. First, you left Gray Wing. And then you left me!”
Thunder shrank beneath his pelt. Disloyal? Was that how Gray Wing saw it, too? “You told me it was destiny.” His mew was barely a whisper.