Sunrise

“And I’ll keep that promise.” Sol flicked his ears in the direction of ShadowClan territory. “I’ll go to that old Twoleg nest beyond the ShadowClan border, and wait for you there. Come with your littermates as soon as you can.”

“Okay.” Lionblaze’s belly churned with frustration. “But you’d better be there.”

Sol flicked his tail dismissively. “I will be.” Turning, he bounded off toward the ShadowClan border.

Lionblaze watched him until the undergrowth hid his blotched pelt from sight. Then he slipped down to the thorn barrier and back into the camp the same way he had left it. He hoped no cat would ask why it had taken him so long to make his dirt.

I did the right thing, he argued with himself. Hollyleaf said we have to find out who our father is. And even more important, Sol is the only cat who can help us fulfill the prophecy!

“Firestar! Firestar!” Birchfall’s yowl dragged Lionblaze from a deep sleep. All around him in the warriors’ den, his Clanmates were rousing.

“Is there an attack?” Brightheart’s fur bristled. “Birchfall sounds terrified!” She scrambled out of her nest and pushed her way out into the open, with Cloudtail just behind her.

“Firestar!” Birchfall’s screech sounded right outside the den.

“What’s got into him?” Dustpelt grumbled, rising to his paws and shaking moss out of his fur. “Can’t a cat get a decent night’s sleep around here?”

More warriors were shouldering their way out, loudly demanding what was going on. Lionblaze knew exactly what was bothering Birchfall, but he realized he had to seem just as concerned as every cat. He sprang up and slid out through the branches into the gray dawn light. Shadows still lay deep around the edges of the clearing, and the ground was dusted with frost.

Firestar was bounding down the tumbled rocks. Birchfall raced across the clearing to meet him at the bottom.

“Firestar!” the young warrior gasped. “Sol has escaped!”

Firestar’s ears flicked up. With Birchfall panting behind him, he raced over to the thornbush and thrust his head inside. More of the ThunderClan cats followed him, and Lionblaze crowded up with them, making sure that he left his fresh scent at the bottom of the cliff where he and Sol had begun their climb.

“He’s really gone?” Brambleclaw asked, rushing up to join his leader as Firestar backed away from the bush.

Firestar nodded.

“Hey, there are marks on the cliff!” Hazeltail stretched up with her paws to point at a spot where a couple of pebbles had been dislodged. “Sol must have escaped this way.”

“Good riddance, if you ask me,” Cloudtail growled, giving a single lash of his tail. “It’s not like we could have kept him here forever.”

There was a murmur of agreement; Lionblaze saw relief in the eyes of more than one cat.

“You’re not going to track him down, are you, Firestar?” Sandstorm asked. “He’s caused us enough trouble, and we could never have punished him enough for killing Ashfur.”

“He’s obviously guilty,” Spiderleg put in. “He wouldn’t have risked his neck climbing the cliff to escape, otherwise.”

“That’s true,” Thornclaw meowed as Firestar looked thoughtful. “He must have been scared of what we would do to him. We sure taught him a lesson!”

Firestar took a couple of paces away from Sol’s den and gazed at the cats who stood around him. “You’re right,” he murmured at last. “Let’s hope that Sol has learned the Clans can’t be messed around with, and doesn’t try to cross any more borders. Brambleclaw, we’ll double the patrols for now, until we’re sure he’s not still in the territory.”

“Sure, Firestar,” the deputy meowed with a brisk nod.

“What will you tell the other Clans?” Graystripe asked, a worried look in his amber eyes. “If we say he escaped, they’ll think we were too weak to hold on to him. And they might blame us for letting him out to cause more trouble.”

Firestar twitched his ears. “I’ll tell him we banished him from our territories and made him promise never to set paw here again.”

“But that’s not true.” Sandstorm looked uneasy. “Should we really be lying to the other Clans?”

“Like they always tell us the truth!” Cloudtail snapped.

“I think Sandstorm’s right,” Brightheart put in, with a sharp glance at her mate. “What if Sol is still around? What would the other Clans think of us then?”

Firestar hesitated, his gaze fixed on his paws, then raised his head again. “We’ll do as I said. It’s for the sake of ThunderClan,” he meowed. “We need to show that we’re strong and committed to the warrior code, and that we deal with our own Clan’s affairs in our own way. And we’ll make sure that Sol isn’t still hanging about,” he finished.

As the cats began to move away, and Brambleclaw began to organize the patrols, Lionblaze spotted Hollyleaf standing at the edge of the clearing. Her eyes were like green flames, but it was impossible to tell what she was looking at.