Эрин Хантер - Path Of A Warrior

Shadowstar felt her shoulders slump. “You’ve known me just as long,” she meowed. “And I thought you trusted me.”

Thunderstar looked apologetic, but he didn’t drop his gaze. “I believe Quick Water,” he mewed again. “And I will protect her.”

Shadowstar brushed her tail across Raven Pelt’s back. Time to go. “This isn’t over,” she told Thunderstar, who nodded solemnly. She was afraid for a moment that the ThunderClan warriors would spring at her, but she and Raven Pelt left the camp unchallenged.

As they headed back toward their own territory, Raven Pelt asked apprehensively, “What happens now?”

Shadowstar felt a heavy dread settle in her gut. Her mind cast back to one of her earliest memories of Thunderstar—a time when he was known only as Thunder, and she was a cat called Tall Shadow. She’d just killed Fircone, a rogue cat, in front of him, and explained that she’d had no choice. We must fight or die.

Was she walking closer to another such day? Was it her final death she could feel right now, circling above her like a hawk?

“We can’t let Quick Water stay in the forest,” she told him. “She’s a threat to ShadowClan. If we can’t make Thunderstar see reason … we may have to fight.”

Fight or die …

Chapter Seven

Shadowstar paced nervously across the Great Rock, waiting for the other Clans. In the clearing below, ShadowClan stood quietly, with none of the usual chatter of a Gathering. It felt strange to be at Fourtrees when the moon was less than half full, but she hadn’t been willing to wait for the next full moon to talk to the Clans all together. She had called this Gathering about Quick Water.

Windstar arrived first, leaping up to stand beside her. “I see you’ve named a new deputy at last,” she said, nodding down to where Raven Pelt stood beside her own deputy and mate, Gorse Fur. “Good choice.”

RiverClan and SkyClan were streaming into the clearing, and Riverstar and Skystar joined them at the top of the Great Rock. Skystar only nodded solemnly, but Riverstar seemed cheerful.

“I hope you called this Gathering to tell us you’ve found a great territory for SkyClan,” he meowed brightly.

“It’s not about that,” Shadowstar told him, then raised her head. ThunderClan was entering the clearing. Thunderstar and Sparrow Fur led the way, followed by a group of ThunderClan’s largest warriors, all surrounding a smaller cat. Shadowstar caught her breath. Quick Water. Thunderstar had brought her to the meeting, already making a public statement about who he believed. The ShadowClan cats in the clearing muttered to one another, glancing up at Shadowstar in confusion, as did the SkyClan cats. The other Clans looked at one another as if wondering when Quick Water had defected to ThunderClan.

Thunderstar leaped onto the Great Rock without looking at Shadowstar, and sat neatly, his tail wrapped around his paws. Skystar, she saw, was staring at his son, puzzled. Good, she thought. Maybe he didn’t know about this. Maybe they’re not conspiring together… .

“Since we’re all here now, Shadowstar, do you want to report on the territory up by the Highstones?” Windstar asked briskly.

Shadowstar slashed her tail. “The territory’s a possibility, but that’s not why I called this Gathering.” She took a deep breath and quickly told the other cats what had happened, from her suspicions that Quick Water had led the dogs to attack her and Sun Shadow to the fact that Quick Water had tried to kill her on the Thunderpath by the Highstones. “Quick Water has broken the code we all promised to live by,” she told them. “Skystar did the right thing and exiled her from his territory, only for Thunderstar to welcome her into his Clan. We cannot allow this murderer to stay in any Clan’s territory. She’s no longer a true Clan cat.” She looked around. Windstar and Riverstar seemed bewildered, and Skystar was glaring at his son.

Thunderstar stood up in a smooth, fluid motion. He was the largest and youngest of the leaders, a powerful opponent. Shadowstar didn’t want to have to fight him.

“I understand why Shadowstar and Skystar want to exile Quick Water, but I don’t think she’s to blame for what happened to Shadowstar,” he announced. “And I’m not going to drive a cat I trust off my own territory because another Clan tells me to.”

Skystar growled at Thunderstar. “If I choose to exile one of my cats, it’s my business. It’s not your place to interfere.”

“You exiled one of your Clanmates without even listening to her side of the story!” Thunderstar growled back. Father and son were facing off now, nose to nose, their teeth bared. “You abandoned her!”

Unease rippled through the gathered cats. Every warrior had heard some of the stories about how Clear Sky, as he was then known, had rejected his son for moons, leaving him to be brought up by Gray Wing. Now that they were both Clan leaders, they had long had a more friendly relationship—but right at that moment, Shadowstar worried that old wounds had been reopened.

“I can’t believe that Quick Water would do anything like this,” Riverstar broke in. “There must be some kind of misunderstanding.” The usually serene silvery-gray tom’s green gaze was distraught.

Windstar looked out at the cats gathered below the Great Rock. “Let’s not fight among ourselves. The best way to resolve this is to hear what Quick Water has to say,” she meowed calmly.

Surrounded by her guard of ThunderClan warriors, Quick Water got to her paws, seeming calm and poised despite a quick, nervous flick of her tail. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” she began, and a chorus of hisses and growls from the ShadowClan cats drowned out her voice.

“Liar!”

“Killer!”

Windstar yowled above the commotion, “ Silence! We will listen before we decide.”

The gathered cats quieted, and Quick Water continued. “I’m sure that Shadowstar and her cats did scent me over near the Highstones.” She looked up at Skystar. “I was so worried about maybe having to leave our territory that I traveled up there to scout around. I’m sorry I didn’t ask for permission first. But I didn’t go there to hurt any cat.”

At least she’s now admitting she was there, Shadowstar thought. Maybe it had been a spur-of-the-moment attack rather than a planned one. She had seen a vulnerable leader, alone, one whose deputy she knew to be dead … it was possible that Quick Water hadn’t set the dogs on her and Sun Shadow, and that the idea of killing Shadowstar had first occurred to her when she saw her by the Thunderpath. Was Quick Water going to confess?

“And I never even saw Shadowstar,” Quick Water added pleadingly. “I believe that she was attacked, but I wasn’t the one who tried to kill her.”

Raven Pelt spoke up angrily from where he stood with the other deputies. “We saw you, Quick Water. I chased you a long way. It was you. Explain that.”

The she-cat shrugged. “Maybe there was a rogue who looked a little like me. I don’t know.” Her amber eyes were huge and innocent. She was lying very well, Shadowstar thought grudgingly.

But at least the other Clan leaders know me, Shadowstar thought , and know I’m not dishonest, or easily fooled.

“Quick Water is lying,” Shadowstar told them flatly. But all four of them looked doubtful.

Should she tell them what Gray Wing had said when she lost her eighth life? If Quick Water had succeeded in killing her, if ShadowClan had fallen apart at the loss of both their leader and deputy, it could have destroyed all five Clans. Would they even believe her? I don’t want them to know I’m on my last life, Shadowstar decided, and held her tongue.