Эрин Хантер - Shattered Sky

“Stop!”

An ear-splitting yowl rang out commandingly above the noise of battle. Violetpaw gasped in astonishment as she realized that the voice was Darktail’s. Roach turned away from her, staring across the camp, and Violetpaw saw that every fighting cat, friend and foe, had grown as still as if they had been frozen by the cold of leaf-bare.

Every cat’s gaze was fixed on Onestar and Darktail. The two cats stood nose to nose, their flanks swelling with their heavy breathing.

“You mouse-hearted excuse for a cat!” Darktail taunted Onestar. “Is that the best you can do? A kittypet fights better! But then… you always were a coward .”

A puzzled murmur ran through the Clan cats. Violetpaw shared their bewilderment. I don’t understand what’s going on.

It was Harespring who voiced the question every cat wanted to ask. “Darktail, you’re talking like… like you know Onestar. How can that be?”

Onestar never took his gaze from the rogue leader as he replied. “This cat’s word is not to be trusted. Look at what he’s done: raided camps, kept prisoners, killed more Clan cats than we can count. He’ll clearly do or say anything in his efforts to steal territory. And that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” he challenged Darktail.

An evil gleam lit the white tom’s dark-furred eyes. “Of course it’s about territory. It’s always about territory. And I think you handing some of WindClan’s territory over to me would only be fair.” His eyes narrowed, and his voice grew more intense and menacing with every word. “Especially after what you did to me!”

Without waiting for a response from Onestar, Darktail turned to address the other Clan cats. “You all think of Onestar as an honorable leader, don’t you? Well, I know things about him that would make every WindClan cat’s fur stand on end.”

Now every cat’s gaze was trained on Onestar. “What is he talking about?” Harespring asked.

Onestar’s tail stood straight up, while he flexed his claws and ground them hard into the earth. “Why would you listen to him?” he demanded. “You’ve all seen the kind of cat he is!”

Darktail spun around to face Onestar again. “And they should know what kind of cat you truly are,” he meowed defiantly. “The Onestar they think they know could not have done what you did to me !”

The rogue leader’s words ended in a frenzied yowl, and he hurled himself once more at Onestar.

But this time the Clan cats were ready, and as the fighting broke out again, it was clear that the rogues were outmatched. Squirrelflight grabbed Darktail and flung him away from Onestar, aiming a pawful of claws at his throat.

The rogue leader writhed away from her and staggered to his paws. “Retreat!” he screeched.

The Kin broke away, fleeing up the slope and through the bushes, out of the WindClan camp. Darktail was the last to go; at the top of the hollow he turned and looked back, his eyes glaring hatred.

“We’re leaving now,” he yowled. “But we’ll be back! You can count on that, Onestar!”

As he vanished, Violetpaw glanced around at the Clan cats. Their eyes gleamed with victory, but they seemed apprehensive, too, like they knew that Darktail would make good on his threat. A chill ran through her.

This isn’t over.

As sunhigh approached, Violetpaw and Twigpaw were sitting with Hawkwing at the bottom of WindClan’s hollow. All three of them were sharing a rabbit.

When Darktail and his rogues had disappeared, Onestar had stood silent for a moment, gazing at the cats around him. At last he had straightened up, gathering dignity like an extra pelt.

“Now I must tell the truth,” he meowed. “But I will not speak until the Clan leaders are here. This is a matter for them, and I can only bear to explain once.”

“Okay,” Squirrelflight responded. “Bramblestar, Rowanstar, and Leafstar are—”

“Leafstar?” Onestar interrupted.

Squirrelflight nodded. “Oh, of course… you don’t know. Leafstar is the leader of SkyClan. They have returned! This cat,” she went on, above wondering murmurs from the WindClan warriors, “is the SkyClan deputy, Hawkwing.”

Hawkwing dipped his head respectfully. “It’s an honor to meet you, Onestar.”

Onestar replied with a grunt. “You might not say that when you’ve heard my story.”

Violetpaw thought that sounded ominous; she could see the WindClan cats exchanging worried glances.

“I’ll fetch the leaders from ThunderClan’s camp,” Squirrelflight mewed, moving on tactfully from the awkward moment. She bounded up the slope and slipped through the bushes.

When Squirrelflight had left, Onestar retired to his den, while Harespring sent out hunting and border patrols, with orders to keep a sharp lookout for Darktail and his Kin, and to avoid fighting except as a last resort. After that, there was nothing much to do except share the prey the hunters brought back, and wait for the leaders to arrive.

“I wonder what Onestar is going to tell us,” Violetpaw remarked, swallowing her last mouthful of rabbit and swiping her tongue around her jaws.

“I don’t know,” Hawkwing responded, a worried look in his amber eyes. “Onestar has some kind of secret—and it looks as if Darktail thinks it gives him some kind of power over WindClan.”

“I wonder if the secret is why Onestar fled from the battle in ShadowClan’s territory after Darktail spoke to him,” Twigpaw mewed. “And it must be really important to have made him do that.”

While she was still speaking, a rustle came from the bushes at the top of the slope, and Squirrelflight appeared, followed by Bramblestar, Rowanstar, and Leafstar. Together they strode down into the bottom of the hollow.

“Where’s Onestar?” Rowanstar demanded. “What’s all this about?”

“Greetings,” Harespring meowed, dipping his head politely as he rose from where he sat a tail-length away from the entrance to Onestar’s den. “Onestar is here, but he won’t see you until all the leaders have arrived. We must wait for Mistystar.”

Rowanstar let out a growl of annoyance, his claws raking the earth of the camp floor. But before he could voice an objection, there was movement in the bushes at the far side of the camp, and Tigerheart emerged with Mistystar.

“Thank StarClan for that!” Rowanstar muttered. “Now maybe we can get this over with.”

Bramblestar glanced at the ShadowClan leader with a twitch of his whiskers. “Keep your fur on,” he advised. “We’ve been waiting for StarClan knows how long for Onestar to talk to us. Let’s try not to annoy him now.”

A bad-tempered snort was Rowanstar’s only reply.

Harespring slipped into Onestar’s den, and a moment later the WindClan leader emerged. After a curt word of greeting he beckoned the leaders closer with a wave of his tail.

“Maybe we should leave the leaders to it,” Hawkwing suggested, rising to his paws and facing the other cats.

“No.” Onestar’s voice was weary but decisive. “The way you fought today proves that you’re a worthy warrior—and besides, every cat should probably hear this.”

He remained standing as the four Clan leaders settled themselves around him, and the remaining cats sat in a ragged semicircle a fox-length farther away. Every hair on Violetpaw’s pelt was tingling with excitement, and she could see the same feeling in Twigpaw’s glittering green eyes.

“ I am the reason the Clans have been blighted by Darktail and his rogues,” Onestar began. “And the story goes back many seasons, to when we lived in the old forest, when I was called Onewhisker and Tallstar was the leader of WindClan.”

The WindClan cats exchanged confused glances at their leader’s words. Violetpaw could see that even the senior warriors—the ones who remembered the time Onestar spoke of—had no idea what he was about to say.