Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars (24 page)

Chapter 1

Dovepaw slid out through the thorn
tunnel and stood waiting in the forest for her sister, Ivypaw, and their mentors to join her. A hard frost had turned every blade of grass into a sharp spike under her paws, and from the bare branches of the trees, icicles glimmered in the gray dawn light. Dovepaw shivered as claws of cold probed deeply into her fur. Newleaf was still a long way off.

Dovepaw’s belly was churning with anxiety, and her tail drooped.

This is your warrior assessment
, she told herself.
It’s the best thing that can happen to an apprentice. So why don’t you feel excited?

She knew the answer to her question. Too much had happened during the moons of her apprenticeship: important events beside which even the thrill of becoming a warrior paled into insignificance. Taking a deep breath, Dovepaw lifted her tail as she heard the pawsteps of cats coming through the tunnel. She couldn’t let the cats who were assessing her see how uneasy she was. She needed to do her best to show them that she was ready to be a warrior.

Dovepaw’s mentor, Lionblaze, was the first cat to emerge, fluffing his golden tabby pelt against the early morning chill. Spiderleg followed him closely; Dovepaw gave the skinny black warrior a dubious glance, wondering what it would be like to have him assessing her as well as Lionblaze. Spiderleg looked very stern.

I wish it was just Lionblaze,
Dovepaw thought.
Too bad Firestar decided that we should have two judges
.

Cinderheart appeared next, followed closely by her apprentice, Ivypaw, and last of all Millie, who was to be Ivypaw’s second assessor. Dovepaw’s whiskers quivered as she looked at her sister. Ivypaw looked small and scared, and her dark blue eyes were shadowed with exhaustion.

Padding closer, Dovepaw gave Ivypaw’s ear an affectionate lick. “Hey, you’ll be fine,” she murmured.

Ivypaw turned her head away.

She doesn’t even talk to me anymore,
Dovepaw thought wretchedly.
She’s always busy somewhere else when I try to get close to her. And she cries out in her dreams
. Dovepaw pictured how her sister twitched and batted her paws when they were sleeping side by side in the apprentices’ den. She knew that Ivypaw was visiting the Dark Forest, spying on behalf of ThunderClan because Jayfeather and Lionblaze had asked her to, but when she tried to ask her sister what happened there, Ivypaw only replied that there was nothing new to report.

“I suggest we head for the abandoned Twoleg nest,” Spiderleg announced. “It’s sheltered, so there’s a good chance of prey.”

Lionblaze blinked as if he was surprised that Spiderleg was trying to take over the assessment, but then nodded and led the way through the trees in the direction of the old Twoleg path. Dovepaw quickened her pace to pad beside him, and the other cats followed.

“Are you ready?” Lionblaze asked.

Dovepaw jumped, startled out of her worries about her sister. “Sorry,” she mewed. “I was thinking about Ivypaw. She looks so tired.”

Lionblaze glanced back at the silver-and-white she-cat, then at Dovepaw, shock and anxiety mingling in his amber eyes. “I guess the Dark Forest training is taking its toll,” he muttered.

“And whose fault is that?” Dovepaw flashed back at him. However urgent it was to find out what the cats of the Dark Forest were plotting, it wasn’t fair of Lionblaze and Jayfeather to put the whole burden on her sister’s shoulders.

Ivypaw isn’t even a warrior yet!

Lionblaze let out a sigh that told Dovepaw he agreed with her privately, but wasn’t prepared to say so. “I’m not going to talk about that now,” he meowed. “It’s time for you to concentrate on your assessment.”

Dovepaw gave an irritable shrug.

Lionblaze halted as the old Twoleg nest came into sight. Dovepaw picked up traces of herb scent from Jayfeather’s garden, though most of the stems and leaves were blackened by frost. She could hear the faint scutterings of prey in the grass and in the debris under the trees. Spiderleg was right: This would be a good spot to hunt.

“Okay,” Lionblaze began. “First we want to assess your tracking skills. Cinderheart, what do you want Ivypaw to catch?”

“We’ll go for mice. Okay, Ivypaw?”

The silver tabby gave a tense nod.

“But not inside the old Twoleg nest,” Millie added. “That would be too easy.”

“I know.” Dovepaw thought her sister sounded too weary to put one paw in front of another, let alone catch mice. But she headed off into the trees without hesitating; Cinderheart and Millie followed at a distance.

Dovepaw watched until the frostbitten bracken hid Ivypaw from her sight, then sent out her extended senses to track her as she padded behind the abandoned nest toward the group of pine trees. Mice were squeaking and scuffling among the fallen needles; Dovepaw hoped that her sister would scent them and make a good catch.

She was concentrating so hard on following Ivypaw that she forgot about her own assessment until Spiderleg flicked his tail-tip over her ear.

“Hey!” she meowed, spinning around to face the black warrior.

“Lionblaze
said
he’d like you to try for a squirrel,” Spiderleg meowed. “If you’re sure you want to become a warrior, that is.”

“I’m sure,” Dovepaw growled. “Sorry, Lionblaze.”

Lionblaze was standing just behind Spiderleg, looking annoyed. Dovepaw was angry with herself for missing his order, but even more with Spiderleg for being so obnoxious about it.

It’s mouse-brained to have two judges,
she grumbled to herself.
Mentors have been assessing their own apprentices for more seasons than there are leaves on the trees!

Raising her head, she tasted the air and brightened when she picked up a nearby scent of squirrel. It was coming from the other side of a clump of bramble; setting her paws down lightly, Dovepaw skirted the thorns until she came out into a small clearing and spotted the squirrel nibbling a nut at the foot of an ivy-covered oak tree.

A wind was rising, rattling the bare branches. Dovepaw slid around the edge of the clearing, using the bracken for cover, until she was downwind of her prey. Its scent flooded strongly over her, making her jaws water.

Dropping into her best hunter’s crouch, Dovepaw began to creep up on the squirrel. But she couldn’t resist sending out her senses just once more to check on Ivypaw, and she jumped as she picked up the tiny shriek, quickly cut off, of a mouse under her sister’s claws.

Her uncontrolled movement rustled a dead leaf, and instantly the squirrel fled up the tree, its bushy tail flowing out behind it. Dovepaw bounded across the grass and hurled herself up the trunk, but the squirrel had vanished into the branches. She clung to an ivy stem, trying to listen for movement beyond the wind and the creaking of the tree, but it was no use.

“Mouse dung!” she spat, letting herself drop to the ground again.

Spiderleg stalked up to her. “For StarClan’s sake, what do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. “A kit just out of the nursery could have caught that squirrel! It’s a good thing none of the other Clans saw you, or they’d think ThunderClan doesn’t know how to train its apprentices.”

Dovepaw’s neck fur bristled. “Have you never missed a catch?” she muttered under her breath.

“Well?” the black warrior demanded. “Let’s hear what you did wrong.”

“It wasn’t all bad,” Lionblaze put in before Dovepaw could answer. “That was good stalking work, when you moved downwind of the squirrel.”

Dovepaw flashed him a grateful look. “I guess I got distracted for a heartbeat,” she admitted. “I moved a leaf, and the squirrel heard me.”

“And you could have been faster chasing it,” Spiderleg told her. “You might have caught it if you’d put on a bit more speed.”

Dovepaw nodded glumly.
We haven’t all got legs as long as yours!
“Does this mean I’ve failed my assessment?”

Spiderleg flicked his ears but didn’t answer. “I’m going to see how Millie is getting on with Ivypaw,” he announced, darting off toward the abandoned nest.

Dovepaw gazed at her mentor. “Sorry,” she meowed.

“I guess you must be nervous,” Lionblaze responded. “You’re much better than that on an ordinary hunting patrol.”

Now that she was facing failure, Dovepaw realized just how much she wanted to be a warrior.
Being a warrior is way better than being part of the prophecy with my so-called special powers
. She tensed as another thought struck her.
What if Ivypaw is made a warrior and I’m not?

Her sister deserved it, Dovepaw knew. She didn’t have any special powers of her own, but every night she put herself in danger to spy for Lionblaze and Jayfeather in the Dark Forest.

Ivypaw’s better than me. I can’t even catch a stupid squirrel!

“Cheer up,” Lionblaze meowed. “Your assessment isn’t over yet. But for StarClan’s sake,
concentrate
!”

“I’ll do my best,” Dovepaw promised. “What’s next?”

In answer, Lionblaze angled his ears in the direction they had come from. Dovepaw turned to see Icecloud picking her way across the frosty grass.

“Hi,” the white she-cat mewed. “Brambleclaw sent me to help you.”

“You’re just in time.” Lionblaze dipped his head. “The next part of the assessment is hunting with a partner,” he explained to Dovepaw.

Dovepaw brightened up; she enjoyed hunting as part of a team, and Icecloud would be easy to work with. But she was disconcerted when Icecloud looked at her with her head cocked to one side and asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“I . . . er . . .” Dovepaw wasn’t used to giving orders to a warrior.
Come on, mouse-brain!
Shape up!

“Let’s try for a blackbird,” she suggested. “Icecloud, your white pelt is going to be a problem, though.”

“Tell me about it,” the white she-cat mewed ruefully.

“So we’ll have to find somewhere you can stay in cover until the last moment. When we find a bird, I’ll stalk it and try to drive it toward you.”

“You’ll need to make sure it doesn’t fly off, or—”

Lionblaze interrupted Icecloud’s warning with a meaningful cough.

“Oops, sorry,” Icecloud mewed. “I forgot. Go on, Dovepaw.”

“Blackbirds often nest just beyond the old Twoleg den,” Dovepaw went on after a moment’s thought. “I know it’s too early for them to be nesting, but it might be worth scouting there for good places.”

Lionblaze nodded encouragingly. “Then what?”

“Well . . . the ground slopes away there. Icecloud could take cover down the slope.”

“Okay, let’s see you do it,” Lionblaze meowed.

Dovepaw had only taken a few pawsteps when Spiderleg reappeared, shouldering his way through the bracken. He said nothing; Dovepaw’s paws itched with curiosity to find out how her sister was getting on, but there was no time to ask. It felt weird to be padding a pace or two ahead of Icecloud, as if she was leading a patrol, and weirder still to be the one who was making the decisions. Panic pricked at Dovepaw, like ants crawling through her pelt. Her head felt as empty as an echoing cave, as if everything she had ever learned had flown away like birds from a branch.

I’ve spent more time eavesdropping on other Clans than training to be a warrior!

Dovepaw wanted to finish her assessment without using her special powers.
Ivypaw doesn’t have them, so it’s only fair
. But it was hard to switch her senses off when she was constantly wondering what her sister was up to. Besides, when she tried to focus on the sounds that were closest to her, she felt trapped and smothered by the trees.

How do the other cats cope?
she wondered.
I can hardly catch my breath!

Dovepaw led the way up the old Thunderpath, then struck off into the trees where the blackbirds nested. Icecloud followed her closely, while Lionblaze and Spiderleg hung back, observing. Sliding into a hazel thicket, Dovepaw raised her tail to warn Icecloud to keep back, where her white pelt wouldn’t alert any possible prey. Her paws tingled with satisfaction when she spotted a blackbird, pecking at the ground underneath a hazel bush.

Dovepaw drew back. “Go that way, down the slope,” she whispered to Icecloud, signaling with her tail. “I’ll scare the bird and send it in your direction.”

Icecloud nodded and crept away, silent as a wisp of white mist. Dovepaw watched her until she was out of sight; without meaning to, she extended her senses to track the white she-cat even after she disappeared. Puzzled, she realized that Icecloud’s paws sounded different on the ground.

Something isn’t right.

About the Author

ERIN HUNTER
is inspired by a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior. She is also the author of the bestselling Warriors series.

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