“Good day, Bluestar,” Leopardstar meowed, her voice confident. “I’ve been waiting since moonset to see ThunderClan cats, but I never hoped that one of them would be you.”
There was an edge of mockery in her tone, and Fireheart winced that the head of his Clan could be scorned so openly by other leaders.
“What are you doing here?” Bluestar asked. “Sunningrocks belongs to ThunderClan.” But her voice was low and unchallenging, as if she did not really believe what she was saying—or did not care.
“Sunningrocks has always belonged to RiverClan,” Leopardstar retorted, “even though we allowed ThunderClan to hunt here for a while. But ThunderClan stands in our debt after the help we gave you at the time of the fire. Today we claim that debt, Bluestar. We are taking Sunningrocks back.”
Fireheart’s fur bristled with fury. If Leopardstar thought she could stroll onto Sunningrocks without a fight, she was mistaken! Whipping around, he hissed, “Swiftpaw, you’re fastest. Run back to camp and fetch reinforcements.”
“But I want to fight!” Swiftpaw protested.
“Then get back here fast!”
The apprentice dashed off into the trees. Leopardstar tracked him with narrowed eyes, and Fireheart knew she must realize why he had gone. It was essential to hold off the battle for as long as possible. “Keep her talking,” he murmured to Bluestar. “Swiftpaw’s gone for help.”
He was not sure if Bluestar had heard him. She was staring at Stonefur again.
“Well, Bluestar?” Leopardstar challenged. “Do you agree? Do you allow RiverClan the right to Sunningrocks?”
For a few heartbeats Bluestar did not reply. As the silence stretched out, more RiverClan cats crept up to the top of the rock and emerged to stand beside their leader. Fireheart’s heart lurched when he saw that one of them was Graystripe. His gaze locked with his friend’s, and he saw in Graystripe’s appalled face a message as clear as if the gray warrior had yowled it to the skies. I don’t want to fight you!
“No.” Bluestar spoke at last, and to Fireheart’s relief her voice was firm. “Sunningrocks belongs to ThunderClan.”
“Then you’ll have to fight us for it,” growled Leopardstar.
Fireheart heard Longtail whisper at his shoulder, “They’ll make crowfood of us!”
At the same moment, Leopardstar uttered a bloodcurdling yowl and launched herself down the face of the rock at Bluestar. The two cats crashed to the ground, spitting and clawing. Fireheart sprang forward to help his leader, but before he reached her a warrior crashed into his side, bowling him over and sinking his teeth into Fireheart’s shoulder. Fireheart scrabbled against the RiverClan cat’s belly with his hind paws, desperate to break his grip, and slashed his claws at his enemy’s throat. The tabby warrior let go and backed off, yowling.
Fireheart spun around, looking for Bluestar, but she was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Longtail in the midst of a heaving mass of cats, but before he could do anything to help he caught a glimpse of Blackclaw springing toward him. He managed to avoid the warrior’s outstretched claws, and as the RiverClan cat fell awkwardly Fireheart sprang on him and bit hard into his ear.
Blackclaw scrabbled on the ground, trying to escape Fireheart’s grip. Fireheart raked his claws across his back, only to lose his hold as another cat barreled into him from the side. He went down and felt teeth meet in his tail.
Longtail was right, he thought despairingly. They’ll tear us into strips!
The ThunderClan cats were hopelessly outnumbered, and there had been no time for Swiftpaw to reach the camp and return with help. Long before reinforcements could arrive, the patrol would have been driven off or killed, and Sunningrocks would belong to RiverClan again.
Fireheart writhed helplessly, struggling for enough space to use teeth and claws. Suddenly the weight lifted as the cat lying across his legs was yanked away. He sprang to his paws to see Cloudpaw perched on Blackclaw’s back, his claws fastened deep in the warrior’s black fur and the wild light of battle in his eyes. Blackclaw reared up on his hind legs, but he couldn’t shake the apprentice off.
“See, Fireheart!” Cloudpaw yelled. “Do it this way—it’s easy!”
There was no time for Fireheart to answer. He spat an insult after the other warrior, who vanished wailing among the rocks, and threw himself into the whirling mass of cats around Longtail. Fireheart dragged one warrior off him, and suddenly came face-to-face with Brackenfur as the younger warrior burst out of the trees.
He gasped with surprise and gave fervent thanks to StarClan. Swiftpaw must have met the hunting patrol scouting near Sunningrocks, as Fireheart had ordered after Graystripe’s warning—and sent them along, bringing help long before Fireheart had dared to hope for it.
“Where’s Bluestar?” Brackenfur called.
“Don’t know.”
In the moment’s respite, Fireheart looked around for his leader. There was still no sign of her, though he caught sight of Leopardstar facing up to Whitestorm on top of a rock a few fox-lengths away.
Longtail staggered to his paws, panting for breath as he leaned against the rock face. Blood trickled from a gash on his forehead and he had lost a strip of fur along his flank, but his lips were still drawn back in a snarl, and he followed Brackenfur willingly as the ginger warrior leaped into the battle.
Fireheart was about to join them when he heard a voice calling out urgently above the noise of the fighting: “Fireheart! Fireheart!”
He spun around to see Graystripe crouched on top of the nearest rock, a look of anguish on his broad face. “Fireheart, come here!” he yowled.
For a heartbeat Fireheart wondered if this was a trap, and then felt ashamed of himself. His friend had avoided fighting him face-to-face; he would never snare him with a trick.
Fireheart bounded up the smooth slope of the rock to Graystripe’s side. “What is it?”
Graystripe pointed with his muzzle toward the other side of the rock. “Look.”
Fireheart peered over the edge. The rock sloped down more steeply there into a narrow gully. Bluestar was crouching almost directly below him. Her fur was ruffled, and she was bleeding from one shoulder. Coming along the gully on either side, cutting off any possible escape, were Mistyfoot and Stonefur.
The RiverClan deputy slashed his claws at Blue
star without touching her. “Defend yourself!” snarled the gray tom. “Or I swear by StarClan I’ll kill you.”
On Bluestar’s other side, Mistyfoot crept closer, her belly flat to the ground. “Are you scared to fight us?” she hissed.
Bluestar did not move, except to turn her head from one to the other. Fireheart could not see her expression from his vantage point, but he knew she would never be able to attack her own kits.
“I had to tell you,” Graystripe whispered beside Fireheart. “They’ll call me a traitor—but I couldn’t let them kill Bluestar.”
Fireheart shot his friend a look of gratitude. Graystripe had no idea of the real relationship between Bluestar and these two RiverClan cats. His only motive was loyalty to his former leader.
But Fireheart had no time to think for long about Graystripe’s tangled loyalties. He had to save Bluestar. The RiverClan cats had advanced until they were almost touching her, their fur bristling and their teeth bared in a snarl.
“Call yourself a leader?” Stonefur sneered. “Why won’t you fight?”
He drew back a paw to bring it raking down over Bluestar’s shoulder. At the same instant, Fireheart launched himself down the rock face. He landed hard in the gully, practically on top of Stonefur, forcing him away from Bluestar. On the Clan leader’s other side, Mistyfoot let out a screech of defiance and unsheathed her claws.
“Stop!” Fireheart yowled. “You can’t harm Bluestar—she’s your mother!”
CHAPTER 17
The RiverClan warriors froze, their blue eyes wide with shock.
“What do you mean?” Stonefur rasped. “Graypool was our mother.”
“No, listen…” Fireheart bundled Bluestar against the rock face and stood in front of her. He could still hear the yowls and spitting of the battle on the other side of the rock, but suddenly it seemed to have nothing to do with the confrontation in this gully.
“Bluestar gave birth to you in ThunderClan,” he meowed desperately. “But she couldn’t keep you. Your father, Oakheart, brought you to RiverClan.”