Erin Hunter - Sunset

The apprentice followed her out, casting a bewildered glance back at her father as they went.

Cloudtail stared after them, his jaws sagging open with amazement. “What did I say?”

Leafpool rolled her eyes. If he didn’t know, there was no point in trying to tell him. Besides, she didn’t want to get involved in his tangled relationships. She couldn’t figure out whether he really wanted to be with Daisy, or whether he still loved Brightheart and was just being a mousebrained tom.

She dropped the watermint in front of Cloudtail. “Okay, you can take this to Daisy,” she meowed. “And after that, make sure you get some rest.”

She followed the white warrior as far as the bramble screen, and watched him limping across to the nursery. In the center of the clearing, Squirrelflight stood beside Brambleclaw. She was meowing to him urgently, her tail waving in excitement. After a few heartbeats Brambleclaw touched noses with her and twined his tail with hers.

Leafpool suppressed a sigh. The sign of the mingled paw prints couldn’t have been clearer. Yet her pelt still prickled with fear when she saw him with her sister.

“Oh, StarClan!” she murmured. “Was I right to tell her?”

The sky above Brambleclaw’s head was dark, but the sickly glow of fungus guided his paws along the path. Shadowy ferns brushed his fur with damp, sticky fronds. Every hair on his pelt prickled as he bounded toward the meeting place. The pain from his wounded shoulder had vanished, and he felt stronger and more powerful with every heartbeat.

Soon the path grew wider and opened up into a clearing.

Though no moon shone, a pale wash of light revealed Brambleclaw’s half brother Hawkfrost crouched beside a rock, where a massive tabby tom was sitting.

As Brambleclaw emerged from the trees Hawkfrost sprang to his paws and raced toward him. “Brambleclaw!” he exclaimed. “Where have you been?”

It was his first really restful night since the badger attack.

When he closed his eyes, he had found himself back in the dark forest, as hungry as ever to find out what Tigerstar had to teach him. Brambleclaw tried to ignore the guilt that pricked at him like a stubborn thorn; there was no way he could tell Squirrelflight about walking these paths of dream and meeting Tigerstar. She would never understand that he could be loyal to his Clan and still see his father.

“Badgers attacked our camp,” he explained to Hawkfrost as they padded across the clearing side by side.

“Badgers!” Hawkfrost’s neck fur bristled. He knew how dangerous they were. “How many?”

“Enough,” Brambleclaw replied grimly.

“And you’re wounded.” Hawkfrost’s ice-blue gaze softened into concern as he noticed the long scar on Brambleclaw’s shoulder.

“It’s nothing.” Reaching the rock, Brambleclaw dipped his head to his father. “Greetings, Tigerstar.”

“Greetings.” Tigerstar’s amber gaze pinned Brambleclaw like an eagle’s talon. “You have not been here for nearly a quarter moon. If you want power you must commit yourself totally—every hair, every claw, every drop of blood. Anything less is weakness.”

“I am committed!” Brambleclaw protested. He began to describe the badger attack, though he kept in mind that Hawkfrost was listening; he was not about to reveal to a warrior from a rival Clan exactly how devastating the attack had been, nor how shattered ThunderClan was still. “I’ve hardly slept since,” he finished. “There’s been too much to do, repairing the damage.”

“You fought with courage,” Tigerstar praised him. “I’m proud you were prepared to risk your life to save your Clan.”

Brambleclaw twitched his ears uneasily. He hadn’t told his father what he had done during the attack, yet Tigerstar seemed to know already. He must have been watching me all the time.

That taunt about weakness must have been a test.

“You need to make sure Firestar remembers how bravely you fought and how hard you have worked for your Clan since the attack,” Tigerstar went on. “That will serve you well when he comes to choose a deputy.”

Brambleclaw stared at his father. He had fought to help his Clanmates, not because it had been one more step toward power! Yet he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of satisfaction.

Firestar trusted him with important duties; the Clan leader must feel he would be a good choice of deputy.

“I still haven’t had an apprentice,” he reminded Tigerstar.

“And Firestar won’t choose another deputy until he’s sure Graystripe is dead.”

“Then you need to delay his decision for as long as possible, so that you have time to be given an apprentice,” Tigerstar meowed. “How are you going to do that?

Hawkfrost, what do you think?”

“Encourage him to think Graystripe is alive,” Hawkfrost suggested. “It can’t be true, of course, but it’s what Firestar wants to believe, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince him.”

Brambleclaw didn’t like the idea of manipulating his Clan leader like that, not when he knew how much Graystripe meant to Firestar. But he couldn’t deny the sense of Hawkfrost’s advice. The longer Firestar clung to the belief that Graystripe would return, the better Brambleclaw’s chances of getting an apprentice before Firestar finally appointed a new deputy.

Tigerstar gave Hawkfrost an approving nod; then his gaze swiveled once more to Brambleclaw. “What else?”

“Er… make sure I take care of the deputy duties,” Brambleclaw meowed. “That’ll make a good impression on Firestar, and at the same time make him feel it’s not urgent to choose a new deputy yet.”

“And?”

Brambleclaw cast about wildly in his mind. It was like trying to pin down a piece of prey without the help of sound or scent.

“Make friends with those kits of Daisy’s,” Hawkfrost mewed, giving Brambleclaw a flick with his tail. “They’ll be the next apprentices, won’t they? If one of them asks for you as his mentor, you’re all set.”

“Sure,” Brambleclaw meowed. “I can do that. They’re good kits, even if their mother isn’t Clanborn.”

I’d like to mentor Berrykit , he decided. He could see the makings of a good warrior in the sturdy, adventurous little tom.

But what would Tigerstar think of a kit that wasn’t Clanborn?

“Do you think it matters that their mother came from the horseplace?” Brambleclaw ventured. He remembered tales of how Tigerstar had ordered the murder of halfClan cats when he had taken control of RiverClan and ShadowClan. Were the stories not true, or had his father changed his mind since then?

“Their mother should go back where she came from,” Tigerstar growled. “She’ll never be any use to the Clan. But the kits may do well enough, if they’re properly trained.”

Hawkfrost’s whiskers twitched. “Don’t forget that my mother wasn’t Clanborn, either. RiverClan won’t forget it, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t make me weak or stupid.”

Tigerstar gave his son a curt nod. “Your mother was a rogue, but dedicate yourself to the warrior code, and you will be as good as any of those who despise you. I became leader of a Clan where I did not belong by birth. And Daisy’s kits are too young to remember anything but being part of ThunderClan.” He paused, then added, “Being Clanborn is important, but we all work with what we’re given on the path toward power.”

“So even a kittypet like Firestar—” Brambleclaw began.

Tigerstar let out a furious hiss. “Firestar will never lose his filthy kittypet scent!” he snarled. “It only weakens him. Look at the way he let that whining horseplace cat stay. Her kits may grow up more Clan than kittypet, but she will never be any use as a warrior. And now he has welcomed that RiverClan cat who abandoned his Clan, not to mention his mate, who belongs to no Clan and never will.”