Sunrise

“ShadowClan is thriving,” Blackstar reported. “Littlecloud has taken Flamepaw as his apprentice, and introduced him to StarClan at the Moonpool.”

A murmur of congratulation rose from the assembled cats, with a few yowls of “Flamepaw! Flamepaw!” Hollyleaf spotted the young cat sitting with Littlecloud and the other medicine cats, his eyes shining with pride. Claws tore at her heart. I felt like that once.

Onestar followed Blackstar, but he had nothing to tell them about except a dead sheep in the border stream, which his warriors had dragged out to keep the water clean.

Then it was Firestar’s turn. Rising to his paws, he balanced on his branch and looked down into the clearing with his green eyes glowing in the moonlight. “Sol has left the forest,” he began. “We—”

“About time, too,” Blackstar growled.

Leopardstar dipped her head to Firestar with cold courtesy. “I’m glad you saw sense at last, Firestar.”

Firestar returned the nod equally politely, though Hollyleaf could see his claws tighten on his branch. “Besides that—”

Now!

“Wait!” Hollyleaf leaped to her paws. “There’s something that I have to say that all the Clans should hear.”

“What?” Lionblaze reached up and dragged at her with one paw, trying to get her to sit down again. “Are you mouse-brained? Warriors don’t speak here!”

“This one does,” Hollyleaf hissed, shaking him off. She spotted Jayfeather among the other medicine cats, his expression utterly horrified, but she ignored him.

“You think you—” she began.

“Hollyleaf!” Firestar’s voice rang out from the branch where he stood looking down at her; his eyes smoldered with green fire. “If you have anything important to say here, it should have been discussed with me first. Be silent now, and whatever’s troubling you, I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow.”

Moons spent following the warrior code almost forced Hollyleaf to clamp her jaws shut and sit down. I have to obey my Clan leader! Then she braced herself. The warrior code is dead! There’s no point in trying to follow it anymore.

“No!” she meowed, ignoring the gasps of shock from the cats around her. “I will speak now!”

“Yes, let her speak.” Leopardstar stepped forward again, looking down curiously at Hollyleaf. “I’d like to hear what she has to say.”

“So would I,” Onestar growled.

“Or has ThunderClan got secrets that they’re too scared to reveal?” Blackstar taunted, flicking his tail contemptuously at Firestar.

Yowling broke out all around the clearing as the cats from the other three Clans challenged ThunderClan. Hollyleaf stood in the middle of the uproar, feeling strangely calm; she knew she needed to wait only a few heartbeats more.

At last Firestar raised his tail for silence. “Very well, Hollyleaf,” he mewed when the noise had died down. “Say what you have to. And StarClan grant you don’t regret it.”

Now the clearing was so quiet that Hollyleaf could hear a mouse scuttering among the dead leaves under the Great Oak. “You think you know me,” she began again. “And my brothers, Lionblaze and Jayfeather of ThunderClan. You think you know us, but everything you have been told about us is a lie! We are not the kits of Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight.”

“What?” Brambleclaw shot to his paws from where he sat with the other deputies among the roots of the Great Oak. His amber eyes flamed. “Squirrelflight, why is she talking such nonsense?”

Squirrelflight stood up. The flare of panic in her eyes faded and was replaced with—what? Regret? Guilt? Or the sorrow of a mother who was about to lose her kits forever…?

“I’m sorry, Brambleclaw, but it’s true. I’m not their mother, and you are not their father.”

The Clan deputy stared at her. “Then who is?”

Squirrelflight turned her sad green gaze on the cat she had always claimed as her daughter. “Tell them, Hollyleaf. I kept the secret for seasons; I’m not going to reveal it now.”

“Coward!” Hollyleaf flashed at her. Her gaze swept around the clearing, seeing the eyes of every single cat trained on her. “I’m not afraid of the truth! Leafpool is our mother, and Crowfeather—yes, Crowfeather of WindClan—is our father.”

Yowls of shock greeted her words, but Hollyleaf shouted over them. “These cats were so ashamed of us that they gave us away and lied to every single one of you to hide the fact that they had broken the warrior code. It’s all her fault.” She whipped her tail around to point at Leafpool. “How can the Clans survive when there are cowards and liars at the very heart of them?”

The screeches and gasps of horror grew so loud that Hollyleaf couldn’t make herself heard anymore. But there was no need. She had said what she had come to say. Her legs trembled as if she had run all the way across the territory, and she had to sit down. Inside she felt a curious peace, as if she had lanced a festering sore and was watching the poison drain away.