The Forgotten Warrior

Bluestar still stood in front of him, blocking his path, her intense blue gaze fixed on him. “But you’ve kept Hollyleaf’s secret, haven’t you?” she prompted. “You could have told Firestar or any cat the truth before now.”

“No, I couldn’t have! She’s my sister!” Jayfeather protested.

Bluestar rested her tail on his shoulders, drawing him away from the gray warrior. “You won’t learn anything by talking to Ashfur,” she mewed. “He knows who killed him, and why. Perhaps he did a lot to bring it on himself, perhaps not. It is not StarClan’s place to judge him.” As Jayfeather opened his jaws to argue, she added more sternly, “If he found his way here, then he must deserve to be here. That is what we all have to believe.”

Jayfeather sighed and shook his head. “I don’t understand…”

“There are some things that are beyond understanding,” Bluestar told him, sounding more sympathetic. “How can we say that Hollyleaf deserved to be in StarClan and Ashfur didn’t, or the other way around? Things are different here. Some cats even forget parts of their life that they don’t want to remember.”

“But… I don’t know if Hollyleaf deserves to be back in ThunderClan,” Jayfeather meowed.

“That’s not your decision, either.” Bluestar twitched the tip of her tail. “Hollyleaf has her own conscience to answer to. Ashfur paid a high price for what he did wrong—and so did she. Perhaps justice has been served.”

Chapter 15

Lionblaze opened his eyes in his nest in the warriors’ den. Gray dawn light was filtering through the branches; a breeze found its way through the gaps and probed his mossy bedding with cold claws. Lionblaze yawned and tried to blink away sleep, then sat up sharply as Cloudtail crashed into him.

“Hey!” he yelped.

“Watch where you’re putting your tail,” the white warrior snapped, pushing his way out into the open.

Lionblaze rose to his paws. It’s too crowded in here, he thought. We’re all tripping over one another.

Skirting carefully past Squirrelflight, who was just beginning to stir, Lionblaze headed into the clearing. Brambleclaw stood in the middle of the camp with warriors gathering around him as he sorted out the morning’s patrols. Firestar stood a little to one side, looking on.

“Sandstorm, will you lead a patrol along the WindClan border?” Brambleclaw was meowing as Lionblaze padded up. “Take Thornclaw and Ivypool. Cloudtail, you and Brightheart can do the WindClan border as well, but start from the other end. Take Blossomfall with you. Make sure the scent markers are fresh and strong.”

“And make sure there’s no WindClan scent on our side of the stream,” Firestar added. “Report back right away if you find any.”

“Hunting patrols,” Brambleclaw continued, glancing around at his Clanmates, “stay away from the WindClan border. We don’t want to give WindClan any reason to complain about us.”

“What?” Spiderleg’s neck fur bristled. “Are you telling me we can’t hunt on our own territory because of those flea-ridden rabbit-eaters?”

“Yeah,” Thornclaw added, the tip of his tail twitching. “Why should we have to creep around like mice when we’ve done nothing wrong?”

Brambleclaw avoided the question, just continued dividing up the hunting patrols. Lionblaze guessed that Firestar had warned his deputy about Sol’s plot with WindClan, though he had said nothing to the rest of the Clan.

“What’s Firestar thinking?” Dovewing whispered, padding up to Lionblaze’s side. Her blue eyes were puzzled. “Shouldn’t he tell the Clan that there’s a threat?”

Lionblaze shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess there’s no point starting a panic when we don’t know what will happen, or when.”

“I notice Sol hasn’t come back to camp,” Dovewing observed with a twitch of her whiskers.

Lionblaze snorted, feeling his neck fur begin to fluff up. “Are you surprised? He must know that he was seen last night, so he’s staying away.” Guilt weighed down his belly like a stone as he remembered how he had helped Sol escape from the camp all those moons ago. After I helped him, Sol has betrayed us! And I can never tell any cat what I did.

As the cats milled around, splitting up into their patrols, Lionblaze noticed that Millie was looking around with a confused air. “I don’t see Sol,” she mewed to Dustpelt. “Where do you think he can be?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Dustpelt growled. “Good riddance is what I say.”

“And so do I,” Thornclaw agreed. “But I’d like to know where the mange-pelt is, all the same.”

“Sol hasn’t done any harm,” Berrynose argued.

A chorus of arguments broke out, and Brambleclaw had to raise his voice to a yowl to be heard above it. “That’s enough! Can I have a bit of quiet around here?”