Tallstar's Revenge (39 page)

“I thought you liked early hunting.” Talltail stepped back, whisking his tail. “The pigeons will hardly be awake. If we get there before them, we can choose a good hiding spot.”

“You sound like a warrior planning a patrol.” Sparrow narrowed his eyes. “I thought you'd left the Clan to get away from rules and duties.”

“Hunting isn't a duty,” Talltail muttered. “It's fun.”

Sparrow yawned and climbed out of his nest. “Come on, then.” He headed into the forest.

Talltail stalked him through the silent dawn, keeping a muzzle-length behind. Blood roared in his ears. Sparrow was prey to him now, more deserving of his death than any mouse or pigeon. Talltail's heart pounded harder until his whole body seemed to ring with its beat. Images flashed in his mind. He saw Sandgorse struggling to escape from the collapsing tunnel, pinned by the earth, mud blocking his yowls as he fought desperately to escape. Ahead, Sparrow's tail disappeared as he threaded through a dense laurel bush. Was Sparrow's tail-tip the last thing Sandgorse had ever seen? Talltail pushed after him through the waxy leaves, clenching his teeth to stop himself from growling.

As they reached the field, Sparrow slowed. “The grain is over there.” He nodded downslope toward a smooth stretch of grass. It rippled in the light breeze, gray in the pale dawn light.

Talltail headed toward the cliff. “Let's check the Thunderpath first.”

“What for?” Sparrow called, trotting after him.

“Crows would pick fresh-kill from the Thunderpath back home.”
Home?
He corrected himself quickly. “Back in WindClan territory.”

“What good is that to us?” Sparrow fell in beside him. “Who eats crow-food? Or crows? The cliff's too steep to climb down anyway.”

“Is it?” Talltail asked innocently.

“Come on.” Sparrow veered toward the patch of smooth grass. “Let's wait for a pigeon.”

“Let's look at the Thunderpath.” Talltail struggled not to growl. Was Sparrow going to make this impossible? He uncurled his claws, ready to fight the rogue if he had to.

“Okay.” Sparrow shrugged. “If that's what you want.”

Talltail glanced over his shoulder, relieved to see Sparrow following him toward the cliff. He could smell the tang of stone and monsters, and as he neared the edge, he slowed.

“Any sign of crow-food?” Sparrow grunted, padding past him and peering over the edge.

Elation thrilled through Talltail.

Sparrow leaned forward. “I can't see anything.”

Talltail lifted his paws, ready to slam them into Sparrow's flank. Heat pulsed through his pelt. This was it. He was finally avenging Sandgorse's death.
Are you watching, Sandgorse? I'm punishing this cat for you! Can you see?

“Talltail?” Sparrow turned, his paws crumbling earth over the cliff edge. “What's the matter? You look odd.”

Talltail stretched his claws. “Take a good look at me, Sparrow. I'm the last cat you're ever going to see. I brought you here to kill you,” he hissed.

“Kill me?” Sparrow's pelt rippled. “Why?”

Talltail felt cold air pierce his fur. “Don't you
know
?” He dropped onto all fours. Couldn't this heartless rogue even
guess
?

For the first time, emotion sparked in Sparrow's gaze. “Tell me.”

“You killed my father.” The words caught in Talltail's throat.

“Sandgorse?”

“You
made
him go into that tunnel!” Talltail found he was shaking. “You left him there to die.”

Sparrow blinked. “That's not how it happened.”

Talltail hissed. “I saw you run from the tunnel like a frightened rabbit! You left my father behind!”

“I didn't know what to do. I'm no warrior.” Sparrow glanced over the edge. “I had no training. Your father
knew
that. He gave his life so that I could escape. That's why he died. He held back the earth long enough for me to run.”

He held back the earth.
Talltail's head began to spin. A monster sounded in the distance, its roar echoing through the still dawn air.

Sparrow edged closer. “He died a hero, Talltail.”

“Why should I believe you?” Rage swept through Talltail. Why wait till now to tell him?
The rogue must be lying.

“Don't you believe that Sandgorse would give his life to save me?” Sparrow turned his head toward the monster as it rumbled beyond the gorge.

He's playing with me like
I'm
the prey!
Talltail curled his claws into the grass. He'd waited too long for this moment. Sparrow wasn't going to take it away from him. His ear fur trembled as the monster thundered closer. Its yellow eye beams showed faintly on the cliff face.

Just push him!

“So you're going to
kill
me?” Sparrow breathed. “A life for a life? Is that part of the warrior code?”

“You know nothing of the warrior code,” Talltail snarled.

“I know courage. Your father showed it when he helped me escape.”

Talltail's breath caught in his throat. Sandgorse
was
brave. He would have
given his life for another cat.

“This isn't courage, Talltail,” Sparrow pressed. “Killing me won't bring Sandgorse back.”

Jake's words flashed in Talltail's mind.
I know you, Talltail. You're not a killer.
Sandgorse's voice joined Jake's.
Another cat's life is as precious as your own.
Talltail's thoughts whirled.
What if he's telling the truth?
Alarm ripped though his chest.
I can't kill him, Sandgorse. I'm sorry!

As he backed away from Sparrow, the ground trembled. Talltail glanced along the Thunderpath. The monster was coming, shaking the earth. “Let's get away from here.”

Sparrow's eyes widened. “Help!” He jerked clumsily backward as the cliff started to give way beneath his paws. “I'm falling!”

Talltail flung out a paw, reaching for the rogue's pelt. He felt fur brush his claw-tips as they curled around thin air.

Then Sparrow disappeared.

C
HAPTER
38

Talltail flung himself onto the grass
and wriggled forward to peer over the edge. Sparrow was slithering down the cliff face, showering grit as he fought to get a grip. “Talltail!” he wailed, a moment before he landed with a thump on the Thunderpath.

There was a heartbeat of ominous silence; then the gorge echoed with the roar of a monster as it howled closer. Sparrow scrambled to his paws and darted back and forth, pressing close to the cliff. Talltail stared down at him in horror. The smooth, black stone reached right to the edge of the Thunderpath. There was nowhere for Sparrow to hide.

The eyes of the monster lit up the curve.

“Help me!” Sparrow reached up with his front paws, trying to get a clawhold. “Help me up!” His mew was sharp with terror. He jumped, clinging to the sandy stone, but it crumbled in his claws and he tumbled back onto the hard, gray Thunderpath. “Talltail! Help!”

I have to save him!
Talltail stared around desperately.
How?
A thought struck him.
There must be ditches somewhere along the Thunderpath, like the ones near WindClan land.
Without them, the gorge would become a river when it rained. If there was a ditch close by, they could hide inside while the monster went past. If they reached the ditch ahead of the monster. And if the ditch was big enough for two cats. If, if, if . . .

Talltail scrambled over the edge. He half skidded, half fell down the steep, sandy cliff, landing heavily beside Sparrow.

Sparrow blinked. “What are you doing?”

“Follow me!” Talltail hared along the Thunderpath. He glanced behind him. Sparrow was on his heels, his eyes huge with fear. Behind him, the vast head of a gleaming black monster loomed around the curve. “Run!” Paws burning, Talltail raced over the hard black stone. The gorge thrummed with the monster's roar. Talltail flattened his ears, pushing harder, stretching further with every paw step.

He scanned the edges of the Thunderpath, straining to see a hiding place carved somewhere in the rock. Ahead, a shadow darkened the stone where the Thunderpath touched the rugged rock of the gorge. Talltail's heart leaped. As he raced nearer, he could a see channel dug into the ground, just wide enough for a cat. Talltail sprang into it and looked back at Sparrow.

The terrified rogue was several tail-lengths behind. The monster thundered after him, so huge it blocked the sky.

“Hurry!” Talltail shrieked.

As Sparrow neared, Talltail reached up and grabbed the rogue's pelt. Sinking his claws into the dense fur, Talltail hauled him into the narrow ditch. Stones battered his flanks and the earth shook beneath him. Foul wind tugged his fur. He shuddered with terror, his flesh shrinking beneath his pelt as the monster hurtled past.

“Sparrow?” Talltail scrambled backward and looked at the cat squashed beneath him.

Sparrow lifted his head. “We're alive!”

Talltail tried to stop himself from trembling. Dawn was lighting the sky. More monsters would be coming soon. “We have to get out of here.” Could they make it to the end of the gorge without meeting another?

Sparrow seemed to guess what he was thinking. The rogue's gaze flicked past Talltail. “What about that way?” he suggested.

Talltail wriggled around in the narrow space. Sparrow had spotted a small tunnel that opened into the ditch. That must have been where the rainwater flowed out. Talltail padded toward it and sniffed the darkness. Fresh air washed over his muzzle. “Good idea.” He beckoned Sparrow with a nod and started to duck inside.

He paused when there was no sound of paw steps following. Looking back, he saw Sparrow staring wide-eyed at the mouth of the tunnel, fur bristling and claws unsheathed. Talltail looked at the tunnel, then at Sparrow again. A pang of sharp emotion—pity, sorrow, even guilt—stabbed his belly. The last time Sparrow had entered a tunnel, he had barely escaped—and the other cat had died.

“Come on,” Talltail mewed. “It's perfectly safe, I promise.”

Sparrow took a step forward. His fur still stood on end.

“Stay close to me,” Talltail told him. “You'll be fine.” He ducked his head and walked into the tunnel. The sides were round and smooth, made of hard, gray stone rather than hewn from wet earth. Talltail's claws skittered on the surface. Sheathing them, he padded cautiously on. He could hear Sparrow's pelt brushing the walls behind him. Darkness swallowed them and Talltail quickened his pace. He told himself that this tunnel would not collapse, that they would be out soon because he could feel air being funneled toward them, rich with the scent of grass. For a moment, he imagined how terrifying it must have been for Sparrow when the gorge tunnel collapsed around him. Talltail knew what it was like to feel mud and earth raining down on him, but when he had been in a tunnel accident, every other cat had made it out alive.

“You're doing great,” he called over his shoulder.

“Thank you.” Sparrow's mew echoed close behind, his breath warm on Talltail's hindquarters.

Talltail felt numb. Because of him, Sparrow had nearly died falling off the cliff. And now, because of him, Sparrow was alive. This wasn't what he had planned. He felt like he was walking in another cat's body.

Sparrow's muzzle touched his tail-tip. “I'm sorry your father died.” The rogue's words were hardly more than a breath, but they rang around Talltail like spiraling wind. “It was an accident. Sandgorse saved my life. And I'll never forget him.”

Of course Sandgorse saved him.
Talltail's throat tightened
.

“When we don't know the truth, we invent stories to fill the gaps,” Sparrow went on quietly. “Sometimes it's the only way we have to make sense of our lives.”

“Why didn't you tell me what really happened?” Talltail asked. “At the time?”

“I didn't think you'd believe me,” Sparrow confessed. “You were so angry—so determined that someone must be to blame.”

Talltail didn't argue. It was true.

The end of the tunnel glowed ahead, small at first but growing with each paw step until they emerged into dazzling, cold daylight. Talltail blinked as his eyes adjusted after the gloom. They were close to the Thunderpath, but the gorge was gone and meadows stretched away on either side. Sparrow stood still, taking deep breaths of the sparkling air.

“Where are we?” Talltail mewed.

Sparrow flicked his tail. In the distance, woodland nestled between two gently rolling hills. “The camp's up there.” He jumped a swathe of long grass and pushed through a hedge. Talltail bounded after him.

They walked in silence across frosty fields until they reached the trees. Sparrow seemed to know his way and Talltail was happy to let him lead, scrambling over logs and sliding into dips as he tried to keep up. He scented the camp as they neared a patch of silvery bracken. Orange fur flashed in front of it.

Talltail broke into a run. “Jake? Is that you?”

Jake was pacing back and forth, his eyes like huge moons. He stopped when Talltail reached him. “What happened?” he demanded.

Talltail glanced at Sparrow as the rogue caught up with him. Jake blinked in surprise.

“You didn't do it!” Jake breathed after Sparrow had padded past and pushed through the bracken.

Talltail sat down wearily. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Sandgorse saved him.”

Jake's eyes clouded with confusion. “He
saved
him?”

“It's what Sandgorse would do.” Now that the rage had gone, Talltail wondered how he could ever have thought of killing Sparrow. Had grief taken away all his faith in the warrior code?

“I knew it!” Jake paced around him. “I knew you couldn't do it!”

Talltail's pelt pricked.
What if Sparrow hadn't had time to explain? What if I'd pushed him over as a monster came into the gorge? What if he'd—?
He shifted his paws. With cold, crushing certainty, he knew that killing Sparrow wouldn't have changed anything. “I let anger change who I am.” He gazed helplessly at Jake.

“No, you didn't!” Jake argued. “In the end, you let Sparrow live. That was being true to yourself, far more than you were when you wanted to kill him.” His gaze softened. “I know you, Talltail. Your thirst for Sparrow's blood, your belief that only his death would change the way you felt—that was never really you.”

Talltail blinked up at his friend. “You're right. But that's all I've thought about for so long. What do I do now?” He felt shaky, as if the path ahead had vanished into mist.

Jake glanced toward the camp. “Does Sparrow know you planned to kill him?”

Talltail's whiskers twitched. “Oh yes,” he meowed grimly. “He knows.”

“Then we'd better leave,” Jake murmured. “We can't expect him to share food and shelter with us now, even if you did change your mind.”

Talltail nodded, feeling numb. “I have to say good-bye first,” he meowed.

“Really?” Jake's fur rippled along his spine. “After what you did?”

“Yes.” Talltail knew he couldn't vanish without telling the other rogues he was leaving. That wouldn't be fair, to let them think they had done something to offend him or Jake. “You wait here.” He wove through the crisp bracken into the center of the camp. Sparrow sat on the far side, washing his paws.

“Talltail!” Bess trotted over to him. “Sparrow told us you were both nearly killed by a monster!”

Reena bounded across the clearing. “Are you hurt?”

Algernon sat up, his ears pricked. “Sparrow said it was pretty close.”

Mole sniffed Talltail's pelt. “You've still got the monster's stench on you.”

“I'm fine.” Talltail looked at Sparrow.

Sparrow stared back, his impassive gaze as unreadable as ever.

Talltail dipped his head. “Jake and I must leave now.”

“Now?” Bess sounded surprised.

“You can't go yet!” Hurt flashed in Reena's eyes.

Sparrow stopped licking for a moment. “They must, actually,” he meowed.

Algernon looked over his shoulder at the brown tom.

Talltail shifted his paws. “Jake needs to go home,” he explained.

“What about you?” Reena's muzzle was a whisker away from his. “Are you going back to WindClan?”

“I'll see Jake home,” Talltail meowed.
After that, who knows?

“I can show you the way,” Reena offered. “I know the Twolegplace.” She began to circle him. “If we start now we can be there by—”

Talltail cut her off. “We can find our own way,” he told her. Reena flinched as though he'd raked her nose with claws.

Bess pressed against her. “You heard him, Reena.” There was sympathy in the she-cat's mew, and Talltail suddenly wondered if Reena had been hoping that Talltail would be her mate: that they'd have kits and travel together. Had she started to imagine a whole new life ahead of them?

Guilt rippled through his pelt. “I'm sorry, Reena.” Part of him wished that he could make her happy. Their kits would be brave and strong. Talltail shook the thought away. Reena's path wasn't his. He was destined to travel alone. “I'll miss you,” he meowed a little awkwardly.

She touched her muzzle to his cheek. “And I'll miss you.”

Sparrow got to his paws. “We won't be visiting WindClan next greenleaf.”

“Really?”
Because of me?
Guilt jabbed Talltail's belly.

“Times have changed,” Sparrow meowed. “We need new paths to roam. Old tracks grow stale.”

Algernon's eyes were wide with shock. “You've decided this just now, have you?”

Sparrow shook his head. “Not right now, no. But I think it's the right decision. We have our lives; WindClan has theirs. Rogues like us don't belong in Clans. The warrior code wasn't made for us. Right, Talltail?”

Stunned, Talltail nodded.