Warriors: Omen of the Stars #6: The Last Hope (26 page)

“Sorry!” Fur brushed stone as a cat heaved her belly over the ridge.

Jayfeather padded forward, feeling the rock dimpling underpaw. “Willowshine, is that you?”

“We’re here.” The RiverClan medicine cat followed the spiraling path toward the Moonpool. “Mothwing sends good wishes.”

“Why didn’t you wait for us by the stream?” Kestrelflight bounded down to join them.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.” Jayfeather shifted his paws.

Littlecloud padded stiffly into the hollow, his old bones tired from the journey. “We told you we would be here.”

“I’ve had to leave a camp full of sneezing warriors.” Kestrelflight fluffed out his pelt. “The first cold of leaf-bare has brought sickness.”

“Anything serious?” Littlecloud asked.

“Nothing more than runny noses and a cough or two,” Kestrelflight told him with obvious relief. “I’ve left Whitetail in charge of the herb store. She knows how to treat a sore throat.”

Willowshine’s paws scuffed the stone. “Perhaps it’s time you took on an apprentice?”

Jayfeather cut her off. “Kestrelflight won’t need an apprentice if the Dark Forest destroys us!”

Willowshine’s breath touched his nose. “What do you mean?”

“They’ve found a way of crossing over from the Place of No Stars,” Jayfeather announced.

“Into
our
territory?” Willowshine whispered.

Littlecloud’s claws scratched the rock. “It’s been them all along!” Fear edged his mew. “It’s been Dark Forest warriors sneaking into our territory!”

“Into all our territories,” Jayfeather corrected him. “They’re looking for the best places to fight. They could attack any day!”

Kestrelflight growled. “We can fight off a few mangy dead cats.”

Jayfeather leaned forward, his heart pounding. “It’s not just a few dead cats!” he hissed. “They’ve been training our Clanmates.”

Willowshine gulped. “How?”

“In their dreams!” Jayfeather ignored the shock sparking from the pelts around him. They had to know the truth.

“WindClan wouldn’t betray their own!” Kestrelflight snarled.

“Most of them don’t understand what they’re doing,” Jayfeather explained. “They believe they’re being loyal. They think Brokenstar and his Clanmates are teaching them to be better warriors so they can fight for their Clans.”

“Most
of them?” Willowshine echoed. “What about the others?”

Jayfeather faced her. “Some of them want the Dark Forest to win.”

“We can handle a few traitors!” Littlecloud paced around Willowshine.

“I hope you’re right,” Jayfeather muttered darkly. “But Brokenstar has threatened the worst punishment to any cat who betrays him. And in the chaos of battle—with all four Clans under attack—do you really think the battle lines will be so clearly drawn?” Jayfeather stalked down to the water’s edge. “Blood will flow from every Clan.” He turned, widening his sightless eyes. “It’s Tigerstar’s destiny to destroy us all.”

“What can we do?” Willowshine breathed.

He crouched beside the Moonpool. “It’s my destiny to stop him.”

“How?” Littlecloud padded closer.

Jayfeather hesitated. “I don’t know.” He’d warned the medicine cats. They could pass on his warning to their Clans. But would that be enough?

Willowshine shifted her paws. “StarClan will protect us.”

“StarClan is divided,” Kestrelflight reminded her.

Jayfeather gripped the rock with his claws, fighting back the fear that was turning his belly cold. “They’re more scared than we are,” he murmured.

Willowshine’s breath quickened. “How can we fight the Dark Forest alone?”

When all cats have closed eyes, we gave the gift of sight to the cat who is blind. You see more than most.
Midnight’s words suddenly flooded back to him, and Brambleberry’s mew echoed in his ears:
You already know the answer.

Jayfeather lifted his chin. “Flametail united us,” he declared. “Now I will unite StarClan.”

“How?” Littlecloud’s tail-tip whipped the stone.

“I’ll let them see the danger for themselves!” Jayfeather turned and touched his nose tip to the Moonpool.

At once, the world opened around him and his blindness lifted. He was on a grassy hilltop, dark clouds skimming overhead. Wind-battered meadows stretched below him. Trees huddled in the valleys, stripped of leaves. StarClan’s hunting grounds had slid deep into leaf-bare.

“Where’s the sun gone?” Willowshine shimmered into view beside Jayfeather, her nose sparkling with water from the Moonpool.

Kestrelflight stalked from the long grass, eyes round as he adjusted to the gloom.

“Now what?” Littlecloud’s pelt brushed his flank as the ShadowClan medicine cat joined them.

“Each of you must go to your own ancestors and bring them here.”

Willowshine stared down to a muddy river flowing between the fields. Littlecloud faced the swath of dark forest spreading beside it while Kestrelflight fixed his gaze on the rolling moorland beyond.

“Can you do it?” From here Jayfeather could see the tops of the mighty oaks where ThunderClan sheltered beneath.

“I’ll bring every cat that I find.” Littlecloud headed down the hillside.

Kestrelflight broke into a run, streaking toward the moors.

“Willowshine?” Jayfeather saw the RiverClan medicine cat hesitate.

She whisked her tail. “Will the Dark Forest warriors come here, too?”

Jayfeather flattened his ears. “We won’t let them.”

Willowshine flashed him an anxious look and began to trot toward the river. Jayfeather headed down the hill and into the woods.

A white pelt moved at the edge of his vision. He snapped his head around.
Whitestorm!
The ThunderClan warrior was stalking prey. Tail down, muzzle low, he crept forward, his eyes fixed ahead. A mouse skittered over a tree root a tail-length away. Whitestorm sprang and landed on it squarely, killing it and sitting up with a purr rumbling in his throat.

Jayfeather padded out of the shadows. “I’m glad there’s still prey here.”

Whitestorm jerked around, blinking. The mouse dropped from his jaws. “Hi, Jayfeather.”

“Follow me, Whitestorm. Please, it’s important.” He stared into the white warrior’s eyes. “We need to gather StarClan.”

Whitestorm tipped his head. “Everyone?”

“As many as we can.” Jayfeather bounded forward and broke into a run.

Whitestorm chased after him. “But what about the boundaries?”

“The other medicine cats are helping me gather ShadowClan, WindClan, and RiverClan.” He ducked just in time to avoid the prickly stem of a bramble.

“Didn’t StarClan order you to stay away from the other medicine cats?”

“Yes.” Jayfeather caught sight of a matted old tom snoozing in the shelter of a fern. “Goosefeather!”

The old ThunderClan medicine cat lifted his head, then hauled himself to his paws. “Is it half-moon already?”

“Come with us.” Jayfeather flicked his tail. “We’re gathering the Clan.”

Goosefeather glanced at Whitestorm. “What’s going on?”

Whitestorm shrugged.

“Come on!” Jayfeather raced away. He crested a rise to find Sunstar picking his way along an ivy-choked trail.

Jayfeather caught him up. “Follow us!” He didn’t even pause. There wasn’t time to explain. The ground grew muddy underpaw and ferns gave way to bracken. “Frostfur!”

The white she-cat was reaching up into a cloud of tumbling leaves, batting at them with her paws. Her gaze widened as she saw Whitestorm, Goosefeather, and Sunstar on his tail. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Join us!” Jayfeather called, racing past the she-cat and heading for a swath of brambles.

“Bluestar!”

The old ThunderClan leader was eating a vole in the shade of a withering juniper. She looked up in surprise.

“Follow us!” Jayfeather told her.

Bluestar glanced down at the vole, then bounded toward them, her eyes shining with excitement. “Where are we going?”

“Wait and see!” Jayfeather led the cats down a ravine that cut through the middle of the woods.

As they scrambled up the other side, Jayfeather glanced over his shoulder, surprised by the long line of cats trailing in their wake. Tawnyspots, Frostfur, Swiftbreeze, and Adderfang had joined them. He reached the top of the ravine and caught sight of a thick, tangled pelt lurking in the shadows. “Yellowfang?” Her amber eyes narrowed as he called to her. “Come with us!” he urged.

She curled her lip. “What are you up to?”

Jayfeather stumbled to a halt. “I’m uniting StarClan!”

“Why would I follow fools?”

Jayfeather lashed his tail.
“Don’t
come, then! Stay here in the dark. My words will be wasted on you anyway.” He bounded forward, his Clanmates scrambling after him.

Pale light showed ahead and he pelted for the edge of the forest, breaking from the trees, tail high. The hill rose before him. Charging through ferns, he led his Clanmates onto the grassy slope. Cats were swarming from every direction, racing for the hill. He spotted Willowshine’s gray pelt leading a horde of RiverClan warriors. Kestrelflight raced from the valley, warriors skimming over the grass behind him like a flock of starlings.

Jayfeather’s paws ached from running but hope was swelling in his chest. At the crest of the hill, he stopped and turned, amazed by the ranks of StarClan cats crowding over the slopes below him.

Kestrelflight halted beside him. “Word must have spread.”

Willowshine slowed, panting, and sat down.

As Jayfeather plucked at the grass, Littlecloud scrambled to the top of the hill and stopped beside him. His eyes stretched wide as an owl’s as he saw the cats amassed below.

“Yellowfang came,” Willowshine whispered in Jayfeather’s ear. The mangy, old she-cat stood apart from the other cats, eyeing them distrustfully.

“StarClan!” Jayfeather stepped forward and lifted his chin. “Listen!”

“Why?” Yellowfang yowled. “We have the wisdom of ages. You have the stupidity of youth!”

Sunstar jerked around and hissed at her. “You can leave if you want to!”

Yellowfang flattened her ears but didn’t move.

Jayfeather tried again. “You must listen to me!” he called. “Yellowfang’s right. I’m younger than any of you.”

Mosskit flicked her tail as she padded out from behind Snowfur.

“Younger than most of you,” Jayfeather corrected himself. He unsheathed his claws. “There is a terrible threat to you all! And to the Clans you once lived in. You know the Dark Forest is rising. You can see it in the dead leaves that litter your hunting grounds, and the clouds that block out your sun.” Jayfeather glanced up at the gray sky. “You must face the truth. And the truth is worse than you ever imagined.” He gazed around the raised faces, hoping they understood. “The Dark Forest must be met and fought. You will not win by huddling together like families of mice. You must stand together or fall divided!”

“But how can we beat an enemy that can bring leaf-bare to StarClan?” Raggedstar called.

Darkflower’s eyes glittered. “They have grown stronger than us.”

Sunstar padded forward. “When we sent you the Prophecy of the Three, we didn’t know the Dark Forest would grow so powerful.”

“But now they are
Four!”
Bluestar pushed past her old leader. “The Ancients gave them an ally to make them strong enough to fight any enemy.”

Jayfeather’s pelt ruffled. “We don’t know who it is yet.”

Bluestar tipped her head. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Jayfeather frowned.

“You are not the first cats guided by a prophecy,” Bluestar prompted. “I was promised long ago that fire would save the Clan. It has never needed saving as much as it does now.”

The fire in the reeds. Always fire.

Bluestar nodded, as if she could see into his thoughts. “Get him,” she mewed softly. “He needs to know what is happening.”

Jayfeather spun and darted away down the far side of the slope. Skidding to a halt, he closed his eyes. Forcing his thoughts into the minds of his Clanmates, tucked tight in their nests in the hollow, he searched their dreams for the cat who had always been destined to save his Clan.

“Surrender, you fox-hearts!”

“Never!”

Jayfeather crashed into a battle. He felt smooth rock beneath his paws. It stretched, flat and wide, toward a dark wall of pine trees. Jayfeather flinched as cats fought around him, throwing up dust from the sandstone as they reared and slashed at one another. A flame-colored pelt glowed at the heart of the battle.

“Firestar!”

The ThunderClan leader was wrestling with a dark-furred ShadowClan warrior. “Sunningrocks will never be yours!” With a sharp thrust of his hind paws, Firestar heaved the warrior away. His muscles flexed with the strength of a young cat, and his eyes were green and fierce.

“Firestar!” Jayfeather yowled again, dodging between the battling warriors.