Outcast (26 page)

Just below Lionpaw, Gray was struggling with a black-and-white she-cat, his paws flailing as he tried to dislodge her teeth from his shoulder. He looked as if he was rapidly tiring.

Lionpaw let out an exultant yowl as he dropped onto the trespasser's shoulders, digging in his claws in the move he had practiced with Ashfur back in the forest. The she-cat released Gray and instantly rolled over, crushing Lionpaw beneath her bulk. The breath driven out of him, his nose buried in her fur, he fought to breathe and convulsed with pain as he felt her teeth meet in his ear.
Think!
The whisper came again, and this time Lionpaw could picture Hawkfrost's ice-blue eyes.

He let every limb go limp. The she-cat relaxed her grip, and at once Lionpaw heaved upward, tearing his ear free and throwing her back onto the stony ground. She clambered to her paws and crouched to leap at him. He braced himself to meet her attack.

Suddenly Lionpaw spotted Hollypaw and Breezepaw dashing toward him. They split up, racing up on either side of the she-cat. The trespasser leaped, claws extended. Lionpaw dived beneath her belly and felt his fur ruffled as she overshot and landed just where Hollypaw and Breezepaw were waiting to slash her flanks with their claws. The she-cat wailed and fled.

“Great!” Lionpaw gasped, springing up again. “They must teach that move in WindClan, too!”

Battling cats were already separating him from the other two apprentices. He hurled himself into the fight again. He could hear the blood pounding inside him; he felt as if he had the strength of twenty cats. He felt
alive
, more than ever before. As one cat after another fled from his raking claws he knew this was what he had been born for.

There came a moment when no other cat leaped to confront him. Lionpaw spun around like a kit chasing its tail.
Where are you? Come out and fight!

“Lionpaw.” No mysterious whisper now; the steady voice was his father's. “Lionpaw, stop. It's over.”

Lionpaw halted, staring at Brambleclaw, his teeth bared. “It's not over,” he hissed. “Not until every last intruder has been defeated.”

“Calm down, Lionpaw,” Brambleclaw meowed. “They
are
defeated. We've won.”

Lionpaw's first reaction was disappointment. No more of that wonderful coordination of muscles, teeth, and claws? No more of the light of fear in his opponents' eyes as they fled? He took several deep breaths and looked around. Cats of Clan and Tribe were watching him, impressed—and maybe scared?
Why? What have I done?

“You fought well, Lionpaw,” Crag told him quietly. “Your skill and courage will be remembered as long as the Tribe exists.”

Lionpaw looked down at himself and saw his fur clumped together with drying blood. He felt hot and sticky, and his stomach heaved at the stench of it. He staggered; then Hollypaw was at his side, her green eyes horrified.

“Where are you hurt?” she asked anxiously.

Lionpaw shook his head in confusion. The only pain he felt was from his bitten ear, and in his paws, which had been sore for days from scrambling over rock. “I'm okay,” he mumbled.

Before Hollypaw could say any more, a few of the trespassers crept timidly out from among the rocks. Stripes was in the lead. He had lost most of the fur from one shoulder and his muzzle was bleeding. He limped up to Crag and Brambleclaw and dipped his head.

“You have won,” he rasped. “We will respect your borders from now on, if only you leave our queens and kits alone.”

Crag and Brambleclaw glanced at each other, as if they were considering what the silver tom had said. Part of Lionpaw wanted to yowl,
No! Drive them out!
But he kept silent.

“The Tribe has no quarrel with queens or kits,” Crag meowed at last. “We will leave you in peace so long as you stay on your own side of the border.”

Stripes dipped his head again and waved his tail to lead his battered companions back through the cleft into their camp.

Lionpaw watched them go. Had Tigerstar and Hawkfrost really fought beside him in the battle? Or did their shadows stalk the woods beside the lake, waiting for his return? There were no voices now, no praise for the way he had fought, nothing but Hollypaw trying to check him for wounds.

“Lie down and rest,” she begged. “Do you want me to fetch Jaypaw? I'll get him here somehow.”

“I'm okay,” Lionpaw insisted. “I don't need help.”

Brambleclaw was rounding up his warriors, Clan and Tribe, ready for the journey back to the cave. Lionpaw joined them, falling in beside Breezepaw and Pebble, trying to ignore Hollypaw's fussing as she padded along on his other side, clearly expecting him to collapse at any moment.

Pebble's eyes were gleaming. “Did you see them run?” she mewed.

“I always knew the Clans would sort out the Tribe's problems,” Breezepaw told her loftily. “You'll be grateful to us
for ever
!”

Catching Hollypaw's troubled green gaze, Lionpaw could see that she wasn't so sure. But the battle was won.
He
had won the battle. And he would fight it all over again in a heartbeat.

Jaypaw lay in the sleeping hollow
where the scents of his littermates still lingered. He did not try to sleep; his ears were pricked for the first sounds of the returning warriors. His belly churned with apprehension. What if Hollypaw or Lionpaw died in the battle? What would happen to the prophecy then, if three suddenly became two—or even one? How could he bear to be without them?

The endless thunder of the waterfall sounded different, hollow and echoing, with the cave almost empty. The two kit-mothers were with their litters in the nursery. The elders, Cloud With Storm in Belly and Rain That Rattles on Stones, had retreated to their sleeping places at the other side of the cave. Wing Shadow Over Water, the prey-hunter who had been badly injured in the fight over the eagle, was sleeping nearby. Every other cat had gone to fight, for there was no point in leaving guards to protect the cave when all the intruders would be caught up in the battle.

Eventually Jaypaw couldn't bear to keep still any longer. He rose to his paws and padded across the cave, pausing to lick up a few icy drops where they trickled from the rock into
the pool of fresh water. Then he slipped down the passage that led to the Cave of Pointed Stones.

Inside, all was silent. Jaypaw felt the faint stir of wind against his face and drew in the scent of the Tribe's Healer, strong and fresh.

“Stoneteller?” he mewed.

“I am here, Jaypaw.” The old cat's voice came from the far end of the cave; it sounded sad and defeated. “What do you want?”

“Is there any word from the Tribe of Endless Hunting?” Jaypaw asked.

“None. I stare into the puddle, and I see nothing but moonlight upon water.”

A pang tore through Jaypaw's belly, sharp as thorns. He knew that Stoneteller had lied to his Tribe about the Tribe of Endless Hunting. He had tried to manipulate the Tribe into choosing to flee, to show Brambleclaw and the Clan cats how little influence they had. But his plan had failed. The Tribe had chosen to fight, and left him here to face the knowledge that if they survived it would be without the support of their ancestors. The Healer's pain flowed through the cave like a river; Jaypaw couldn't help pitying him.

“I'm sorry,” he mewed.

“Perhaps they have lost faith in us,” Stoneteller responded, his voice flat.

“I'm sure it's not that.” Jaypaw pictured the pool among the sheer crags, where he had confronted the Tribe of Endless Hunting. He had revisited the dream over and over in his
waking mind, and he thought he understood what it meant. But what use the knowledge would be to him, he wasn't sure.

“Jaypaw.” The rasping voice spoke behind him.

Jaypaw spun around. Every hair on his pelt rose as he saw the sagging, hairless body and sightless eyes of Rock.
But I'm not asleep!
The ancient cat glimmered as if he stood in moonlight, though all around him was dark; he seemed to float in shadow.

His heart beginning to race, Jaypaw reached out all his senses to Stoneteller, but there was no change in the old cat's scent or the dull pain that came from him. He made no sound.

“Stoneteller cannot hear or see me,” Rock mewed. “Only you can.”

“Why have you come?” Jaypaw's voice shook.

“The battle has been won. You can go home now—all of you.”

Jaypaw forced down his delight. Hollypaw and Lionpaw were safe! But he was sure that Rock hadn't come just to tell him something that he would discover for himself before morning. There had to be another reason.

“The Tribe must have fought well,” he meowed. “Perhaps now the Tribe of Endless Hunting will have more faith in them.”

“Why should they?” Rock retorted. His voice was sour. “It was the Clans who saved the Tribe of Rushing Water.”

“What's wrong with that?” Jaypaw demanded. Back at the lake, he had longed to speak with Rock again, but each time
he encountered the ancient cat was more frustrating than the last.

“StarClan did not send you,” Rock replied, “and the Tribe of Endless Hunting did not summon you.”

“But—”

“Silence!” Rock hissed with a sweep of his bare tendril of a tail. “You came and won—for this battle, at least. But do you think the borders will hold? The Tribe is not a Clan, with experience of defending its territory, and the trespassers have no code of honor that will make them keep their word.”

“Then we came for nothing?” Jaypaw asked, dismayed.

Rock shook his head. “No. You have learned much. And the Tribe will eat well, for a while at least.” His bulging eyes seemed to gaze into the shadows at something hidden from Jaypaw.

Jaypaw took a deep breath. “You knew the Tribe cats before they came here, didn't you? They came from the lake.”

He had the satisfaction of seeing Rock's start of surprise. “Yes. How did you know?”

“It was the pool in the mountains that the Tribe spirit showed me,” Jaypaw explained. “They found another Moonpool, just like the one near the lake.”

“They turned their back on so many of their old ways.” There was pain in the ancient cat's voice. “Yet they still sought for peace beside the water.”

Jaypaw's heart thumped harder, but he had to continue. “The Tribe knew me, just as you did. The prophecy comes from when you all lived together, doesn't it?”

Rock bowed his head. “Yes. We have been expecting you
for a long time. And now you have come.” A shiver of mingled fear and delight passed through Jaypaw as he returned the stare of the old cat's sightless eyes. “The others deserve to know,” Rock continued. “This is not just your destiny, and you cannot walk this path alone.”

“Jaypaw! Jaypaw, where are you?” Hollypaw's voice echoed from the main cave. “Come quickly!”

As if a dark wing had folded over him, Rock was gone. Jaypaw was left alone in the Cave of Pointed Stones, except for the silent presence of Stoneteller. He found the entrance to the passage and raced out to meet his sister.

“It's Lionpaw!” she gasped, bounding up to meet him and giving his ear a hurried lick. “He's covered in blood. He says he's not hurt, but the blood must have come from somewhere. You've got to help him.”

“Where is he?”

“Outside, by the pool,” Hollypaw mewed. “I told him to rest.”

Jaypaw followed her across the cave to the waterfall. Clan and Tribe cats poured past them, yowling the good news to those who had stayed behind. Jaypaw detected Crag's scent and heard the big cave-guard meow, “I'll go and tell Stoneteller.”

Hollypaw dashed along the path beneath the tumbling water, for once not worrying about whether Jaypaw could manage it on his own. Jaypaw followed hard on her paw steps, his pelt pressed against the rock, feeling the cold spray on his exposed flank.

His heart had begun to pound again. After believing that both Hollypaw and Lionpaw had come back safe, was his
brother's life to be snatched away from him after all?

Reaching the pool, he nosed at Lionpaw's fur. Shock clawed at him as he realized how thickly it was clotted with drying blood. “We've got to get this off him,” he mewed crossly, trying to hide his fear. “How can I tell what's underneath all that?”

“Come closer to the waterfall,” Hollypaw suggested. “The spray will help us clean off the blood.”

All three cats moved around the edge of the pool until Jaypaw could feel the spray soaking into his fur.

“I wish you wouldn't fuss,” Lionpaw protested, raising his voice to make himself heard above the thunder of the falls. “I keep telling you, I'm perfectly all right.”

His voice sent another shiver of fear through Jaypaw. His brother sounded distant, stunned, as if the battle had affected not only his body but his mind. “You're all right when I say you are,” he snapped.

“I'm not hurt….” Lionpaw sounded almost puzzled. “No cat could touch me.”

“Shut up and let me lick,” Hollypaw scolded him.

As he and Hollypaw cleaned the blood from Lionpaw's fur, Jaypaw began to realize that his brother was right. He
wasn't
hurt, except for a bitten ear and sore pads.

“I don't think you need any herbs,” Jaypaw mewed, trying to hide that his paws were shaking with relief. “Just keep that ear clean. I'll give it a sniff every day until it heals.”

“You're really okay!” Hollypaw's voice was unsteady. “All that blood came from other cats! Jaypaw, I wish you could have been there. Lionpaw fought like a whole Clan of cats!”

“We won the battle.” Lionpaw was beginning to sound
more like his usual self, as if the licking of his brother and sister had brought him back from some distant place.

“For what it's worth”—Hollypaw sounded troubled—“I don't trust the trespassers. And I don't know if the Tribe will be able to defend its new borders.”

Jaypaw's belly lurched to hear his sister echoing the warning that Rock had given him in the Cave of Pointed Stones.

“I don't know why we came here if we weren't going to succeed,” she continued, sounding a little desolate. “Did the Tribe of Endless Hunting get it wrong?”

Jaypaw reached out with his tail to touch her shoulder. “The Tribe's ancestors didn't want us here,” he mewed. “And StarClan did not send us. We came so that we could win the battle, and because we needed answers to our questions.” When neither Hollypaw nor Lionpaw responded, he added, “We all wanted to come to the mountains, didn't we?” There was a murmur of agreement from his brother and sister. “Then don't you understand? That's why things happened so that we came. This is all about
us
, the three of us. Without us the Tribe might survive, or it might not, but that doesn't matter now. They've all been waiting for us—StarClan, the Tribe of Endless Hunting, Rock—”

“Who?” Hollypaw asked.

“What are you talking about?” Lionpaw meowed. “Have you got bees in your brain?”

Jaypaw crouched on the edge of the pool and motioned with his tail for his brother and sister to draw closer. “Listen,” he murmured. “There's something I have to tell you….”