Shattered Sky

“What’s the point of twittering like a nestful of blackbirds?” he demanded. “It’s obvious what we need to do.”

“It might be obvious to you, Jayfeather,” Bramblestar meowed.

Jayfeather gave a disdainful sniff. “If you weren’t Clan leader, Bramblestar, I’d call you a mouse-brain. We must seek the advice of StarClan.”

A stiff breeze blew into Alderheart’s face as he toiled up the last slope toward the Moonpool. Clouds were scudding across the sky where the warriors of StarClan were beginning to appear.

Ahead of Alderheart, Leafpool and Jayfeather scrambled from rock to rock, while Mothwing and Willowshine were just behind him. Puddleshine, once again ShadowClan’s medicine cat, brought up the rear.

I wish Kestrelflight could be with us, too, Alderheart thought sadly. But there’s no point even trying to fetch him from WindClan.

Thrusting his way through the bushes that surrounded the hollow, Alderheart began to follow the spiral path down to the water. His paws slipped easily into the paw marks left there by the ancient cats so many seasons ago.

The moon was only a thin claw-scratch; the water that poured out from the rocks, and the pool below, was dark except for the glimmer of starshine. Alderheart felt the hairs on his pelt rise at how strange and mysterious it seemed without the glow of reflected moonlight they saw at the regular half-moon meetings.

As he and his fellow medicine cats crouched at the water’s edge, Alderheart wondered what message the spirits of his warrior ancestors would have for them. He closed his eyes and touched his nose to the surface of the pool, barely biting back a yowl as the chill raced through him from nose to tail-tip.

When Alderheart opened his eyes, he seemed to be still in the hollow beside the pool, but now the surface of the water blazed with reflected light. He raised his head to see that the sides of the hollow were lined with glittering spirit cats, their pelts frosted with starlight and their eyes glowing like countless small moons. He took in a long, awestruck breath.

This is wonderful! he thought, relief bursting in on him like the sun appearing from behind a cloud. StarClan has barely appeared to any of us since they gave us the prophecy moons ago.

He waited confidently for the spirit cats to speak. After the long, horrible misadventure with Darktail and his rogues, the Clan cats had finally found SkyClan… Now they had to learn how to “clear the sky.”

Leafpool was the first to speak, rising eagerly to her paws. “They’re here, finally—we’ve found SkyClan! Are they ‘what you find in the shadows’?”

At the opposite side of the pool, a flame-colored tom also rose; Alderheart recognized Firestar. “They are,” he replied. “But there is more to be done.”

Alderheart glanced around at the other medicine cats. How strange for us all to be here together! He saw the same eagerness reflected in their eyes as they gazed at Firestar.

“What more should we do?” Leafpool meowed. “We found what lies in the shadows—the missing Clan. SkyClan! Now how do we clear the sky?”

“Not every Clan is present,” Firestar pointed out. “This was about restoring all five Clans, as it was long ago—long before I came to the forest. SkyClan has no medicine cat, but another Clan is missing from our group, too…”

The starry cats began to fade from Alderheart’s sight. As the light died, he and the other medicine cats exchanged uneasy glances.

Mothwing, who had been absent from the vision, looked on curiously. “What happened?”

As quickly as he could, Alderheart explained what they’d seen and heard.

“Of course,” murmured Mothwing, her eyes widening with recognition.

“I guess we know what we must do… ,” Jayfeather mewed reluctantly.

Chapter 18

Twigpaw lay stretched on the ground outside the apprentices’ den, leaning into the warmth of her father’s pelt. Hawkwing was telling her all about SkyClan, about their life in the gorge and their journey to find the other Clans, in much more detail than had been possible while they were still traveling.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of listening to his voice, Twigpaw thought. It’s great to be back home, and it’s even better now that I have kin.

It was very early in the morning, a day after SkyClan had reached the ThunderClan camp. The sun had not yet risen, though rosy tints in the sky showed where it would appear. A breeze carried cool, fresh scents into the camp.

The day before, the clearing had been filled with bustle. Before leaving for the Moonpool and their meeting with StarClan, the medicine cats had tended to the RiverClan prisoners and the cats who had been wounded in the battle.