CURLFEATHER—pale brown she-cat
PODLIGHT—gray-and-white tom
HERONWING —dark gray-and-black tom
SHIMMERPELT—silver she-cat
LIZARDTAIL—light brown tom
APPRENTICE, FOXPAW (russet tabby tom)
HAVENPELT—black-and-white she-cat
PERCHWING —gray-and-white she-cat
SNEEZECLOUD—gray-and-white tom
BRACKENPELT—tortoiseshell she-cat
JAYCLAW—gray tom
OWLNOSE—brown tabby tom
LAKEHEART—gray tabby she-cat (mother to Harekit, Dapplekit, Gorsekit, and Softkit)
ICEWING —white she-cat with blue eyes (mother to Nightkit and Breezekit)
MOSSPELT—tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat
Maps
Prologue
Sun split the branches above Echosong’s head and sliced through the shadows dappling the forest floor. Echosong relished the ray s as they warm ed her back. She swished her tail happily as a soft, warm wind rustled the leaves. Overhead, birds chattered, and she licked her lips hungrily. She would hunt before the sun set.
She paused.
Before the sun sets?
Hadn’t it set already today? And hadn’t rain been lashing the j uniper bush where she’d made her solitary nest?
Yes! She’d fallen asleep to its thrum m ing, wondering where her scattered Clanmates were sheltering as the storm swept the forest.
This is a dream.
Yet it felt too real to be a dream. A vision? Her heart lifted. It had been so long since she’d had a vision. She was beginning to think that StarClan had forgotten Sky Clan, just like the other Clans had forgotten them countless moons ago.
Ahead she heard fur brush the undergrowth. Paw steps were stalking toward her. Danger?
Echosong froze, fear clutching her belly. No. She calm ed herself. This is a vision. I’m safe here.
And y et she didn’t m ove. Instead she waited, her paws pricking with expectation.
A broad-shouldered tom slid from between the ferns and stopped a few tail-lengths ahead.
Stars sparkled in his pelt, and his blue eyes shone like the sky.
“Who are you?” Recognition itched in Echosong’s paws. His thick gray pelt was fam iliar, and he blinked at her softly, as though they were old friends. She’d seen him before in a vision!
“Embrace what you find in the shadows, for only they can clear the sky,” the tom m urm ured.
Her thoughts quickened. “What shadows? Who are they?”
He gazed at her, not speaking.
“And what does clear the sky mean?” Frustration tightened her chest. This cat had brought her a prophecy before: What remains when the fire has burned out? It had baffled her. Why couldn’t he ever say what he meant? “Just tell m e.” Was he try ing to give her a clue about what had happened to her Clan? The cats she’d known her whole life had scattered when the rogues had driven them from the gorge. She didn’t even know if any of them were still alive.
The gray tom lifted his gaze and stared into the oak canopy. As he did, a sharp wind whisked through the branches. She followed his gaze. He was watching a flurry of leaves as they fluttered toward the ground. Dancing, the leaves twirled between them for a m om ent before drifting onto the forest floor.
Echosong blinked at the leaves. They were not oak leaves. They were bigger and didn’t have softly curved edges. Each of them had five points, more like m aple than oak.
“Now you’re scattered like leaves, blown by the wind.” The tom’s mew broke into her thoughts. He reached out a paw and swept the fallen leaves, piling a sm all heap in front of him.
Another five-pointed leaf was falling, larger than the rest. It fluttered toward him like a moth.
Deftly he reached up and hooked it from the air. He laid it on top of the pile. “Look.”
Echosong leaned forward, excitem ent tingling through her pelt. What did the leaves mean?
Why were they m aple and not oak? As she gazed at them, try ing desperately to understand their meaning, she saw them fade.
“No!”
The vision was blurring. Darkness clouded her sight. It mustn’t disappear y et. She didn’t understand!
“Tell me more!” Her own panicked mew woke her, and she lifted her head sharply. She blinked into darkness, disappointm ent swam ping her. She was back in her makeshift nest, rain beating the j uniper branches above her. Cold water dripped through the leaves and soaked into her pelt. Shivering, she closed her eyes and tried to remember every detail of the vision. Her heart pounded. What had StarClan been try ing to tell her? I have to understand! If only she could figure it out, she might finally find her way home.
Chapter 1
Alderpaw’s gaze drifted toward the trailing brambles at the entrance of the medicine den. Outside, leaves would be drifting into the hollow. Leaf-fall had come so soon! Less than a moon ago he’d been trekking back from his quest beneath sunny blue skies.
“Alderpaw!”
Jayfeather’s sharp mew snapped him from his thoughts. He turned his attention back to the herbs piled in front of him.
“You’re meant to be separating the y arrow from the coltsfoot.” Jayfeather glared at him with sightless blue eyes.
“Sorry,” Alderpaw mumbled. Nothing he did seem ed to please Jayfeather. Hurriedly he began to peel the wide, lim p y arrow leaves away from the brittle coltsfoot.
Beside him, Leafpool reached deeper into the crevice at the back of the cave. She hauled out another pawful of leaves. “I think that’s the last of them. Once we’ve sorted these, we can decide what we need to gather before leaf-bare.”
“We’ll need catm int,” Jayfeather mewed. “If we’d gathered more last y ear, we might not have lost Spiderleg.”
At the far side of the medicine den, Briarlight pushed herself upright in her nest. “I can help with the sorting.”
“Thanks,” Jayfeather told her without turning. “But we have enough cats here already.” His ears twitched irritably as he added, “And kits.”
Alderpaw glanced guiltily at Twigkit. The young cat was play ing with a leaf just inside the entrance. She stood on her hind legs, reaching up to bat the leaf into the air, then ducked as it drifted down, to catch it on her back. As it landed between her shoulder blades, she gave a mrrow of delight. “I had to bring her with m e,” Alderpaw explained. “She didn’t have any one to play with.”
“What about Lily heart’s kits?” Jayfeather snapped. “They’re her nestmates, aren’t they?”
Leafpool pushed a pile of thyme to one side. “Lily heart’s kits are nearly five moons old,” she rem inded Jayfeather gently. “They’re far too boisterous for Twigkit.”
And they’re not interested in having a young kit tag along. Alderpaw was grateful that Lily heart had agreed to raise Twigkit along with her own kits, Leafkit, Larkkit, and Honey kit, but he wished the older kits had more patience with their foster littermate. Still, he knew they would be apprentices soon; they were more interested in pretending to hunt and fight than in play ing nursery gam es with Twigkit.