Эрин Хантер - The Apprentice's Quest

“Territory belongs to those strong enough to defend it—or to take it,” Darktail pointed out, unmoved. “If SkyClan couldn’t dig their claws into the land they claimed as theirs, they have nothing to complain about. And if you want to stake your claim, Mistfeather, do you want to fight me for the territory right here, right now?”

Alderpaw’s outrage almost choked him.

Can’t Darktail see that Mistfeather is in no state to fight any cat?

But the exiled cat puffed up his fur and slid out his claws, drawing his lips back in a snarl.

“Do your worst, Darktail!”

Alderpaw started forward to place himself between the two cats, but Mistfeather waved him back with a sweep of his tail.

“Stay back!” he hissed. “A fight is a fight.”

No, it’ll be a slaughter, Alderpaw thought, as reluctantly he stepped back.

Mistfeather lunged forward, aiming a blow at Darktail, but the rogue leader slipped aside easily and raked his claws down the back of Mistfeather’s head.

“You’ll need to be faster than that!” he taunted the gray tom.

Undaunted, Mistfeather spun around and launched himself at the rogue leader again, but Darktail avoided the second blow as easily as the first. Mistfeather’s breath was already coming in ragged, wheezing gasps. He staggered and almost fell as Darktail thrust him off contemptuously with one paw.

Alderpaw couldn’t help admiring Mistfeather’s courage. As he watched the one-sided fight, he recognized some skillful fighting moves, and he realized that the SkyClan cat would have been a formidable opponent if only he’d had the strength.

Mistfeather scrabbled around and charged at Darktail again and again, but each time the rogue sidestepped clear of his feeble swipes and landed a strike of his own. Soon blood was trickling down Mistfeather’s sides, and tufts of his fur littered the forest floor.

At last Mistfeather was completely spent, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath.

Darktail padded slowly up to him and stood over him. Mistfeather raised one forepaw to strike at him, but the movement was slow and listless. Darktail easily swatted the paw aside.

Alderpaw’s muscles tightened with foreboding as he saw the real SkyClan cat sink to the ground, exhausted and defenseless.

“Stupid mange-pelt,” Darktail growled. “You should have stayed away.”

“Stop!” Alderpaw said, trying to move forward to protect the defeated cat, but he was too slow.

Darktail reared up and swept one forepaw around in a slashing blow. His claws ripped into

Mistfeather’s throat, opening it up so that blood gushed out in arcing spurts.

Mistfeather’s whole body spasmed, then went limp.

Alderpaw gazed in horror at the dead

SkyClan warrior.

Alderpaw winced as Darktail’s claws dug into his haunches. Only moments had passed since the slaughter of Mistfeather, and his killer was driving Alderpaw back to the camp.

“Keep moving,” the rogue leader rasped.

Stumbling onward, Alderpaw could still picture Mistfeather’s body, the gush of blood as Darktail’s claws slashed open his throat.

“You didn’t have to kill Mistfeather,” he meowed, struggling to master his fear of the rogue leader. “He was already weak and defenseless. What harm could he have done to you? And you didn’t even bury him!” he added.

Darktail stabbed his claws once more into

Alderpaw’s haunches. “There’s no way I would bury such a devious cat!” he snarled. “And when you and your companions are dead, I’ll leave your bodies to rot, too.”

Dismayed, Alderpaw half turned to confront

Darktail, who simply gave him a hard shove to keep him moving. Is this the end of my quest? he wondered in despair. Maybe I should have listened to the others and left!

“We’ve done nothing to you or your cats to deserve being killed!” he protested.

“Don’t lie, flea-pelt!” Darktail hissed. “It’s obvious you’re allies of SkyClan. You’ve come as spies to unsettle my group, so the weak Clan with their daylight-warriors could come back.

But my cats and I claimed this territory honorably, and we mean to keep it. Your plan has fallen apart!”

Alderpaw didn’t know how to reply to such false accusations; he knew that nothing he said would change Darktail’s mind.

Every cat stood up and stared as Darktail shoved Alderpaw across the pile of rocks to return to the camp. Alderpaw saw with relief that his Clanmates had returned. They padded to his side as Darktail pushed him into the middle of the circle of rogues.

“What’s going on?” Molewhisker asked.

Darktail stood at the bottom of the rocks, his gaze sweeping across the crowd of his followers as he prepared to address them.

Of course! Alderpaw thought. He always sits beside the rocks. A real Clan leader would speak to his cats from the top. We shouldn’t have believed Darktail was a Clan cat. He’s never behaved like one.

“I found this pathetic excuse for a cat”—Darktail gave Alderpaw a contemptuous prod—“talking to a SkyClan cat in the forest. It’s obvious that these cats have lied to us. They’re not friendly visitors. They’re working with SkyClan to steal this territory back from us, after we fought for it so bravely! This has been a conspiracy from the beginning.”

Angry murmurs arose from the rogues.

Alderpaw saw their neck fur beginning to bristle, their tails lashing as they closed in around the questing cats. His friends scarcely resisted, bewildered by the news and the accusation.

“They’re not SkyClan?” Cherryfall meowed.

“We should have known!” Molewhisker hissed. “A lot of things are making sense now.”

“Is this true?” Rain asked Needlepaw, thrusting his face up against hers until their noses almost touched. “Are you plotting with SkyClan?” Alderpaw could see his anger as Rain’s claws flexed in and out, but he could sense something else beneath it. Does he feel hurt? Alderpaw wondered, the odd ache swelling in his chest again.

Needlepaw remained calm as she met Rain’s furious green gaze. “Of course it’s not true,” she replied. “We live far away from here, and when we set out, we weren’t even sure that SkyClan existed. So how could we have been conspiring with them?”

An angry yowl from Darktail followed her words. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“Certainly not.” Needlepaw’s voice was still even, and she raised one paw to smooth her whiskers. Alderpaw admired how she showed not the least trace of fear. “I’m not calling any cat a liar.” She turned to look at Alderpaw, her face as annoyed as Molewhisker’s had been sometimes when he was Alderpaw’s mentor.

“My medicine-cat friend might have been spending time with the wrong cat, but I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.”

Darktail seemed to be considering her words. In the brief silence the black she-cat, Raven, sidled up to him.

“Better safe than sorry,” she mewed. “We don’t know for sure that we can trust these cats.

After all, they did turn up out of the blue. And does any cat really believe what they told us?”

Alderpaw felt as though his windpipe was swelling, cutting off his breath. Is every cat here ruthless and nasty?

Darktail went on thinking for a moment longer, then fixed an unblinking blue gaze on Needlepaw. “You know I can’t just let you go. Not after everything that has happened.”

Instantly Molewhisker and Cherryfall stepped forward, their backs arching and their shoulder fur bristling. “You can’t keep us here if we don’t want to stay,” Molewhisker snarled.