The Apprentice's Quest (28 page)

“I'm scared!” Twigkit mewed. “I don't want to meet so many cats.”

“There's nothing to be scared of,” Sparkpaw told her briskly. “Cats never fight at a Gathering. In fact, you're both very lucky. Kits aren't usually allowed to go to Gatherings. You're only here because you're special.”

“Think what you'll have to tell Leafkit, Larkkit, and Honeykit when you get home,” Alderpaw meowed.
If you get home,
he added silently.

Twigkit and Violetkit clung on tightly as Alderpaw and Sparkpaw carried them across the tree-bridge to the island. Pushing through the bushes to reach the clearing around the Great Oak, Alderpaw saw the open space filled with cats. The scents of the other three Clans hung heavily in the air, and he
realized that ThunderClan was the last Clan to arrive.

He and Sparkpaw settled down with the kits in the shelter of a bush at the edge of the clearing, while the kits gazed around with huge eyes.

“I didn't think there were so many cats in the world!” Violetkit mewed.

Almost at once Alderpaw spotted Needlepaw at the far side of the clearing beyond the Great Oak. Her eyes widened at the sight of Alderpaw with the kits.

Alderpaw expected her to cross the clearing to meet him, but she didn't move until a white ShadowClan tom padded up to her. Needlepaw exchanged a few words with him, then turned her back on Alderpaw and walked away with the tom at her side. Alderpaw lost sight of her in the crowd.

An odd, empty feeling gathered in Alderpaw's belly. He was happy to be back with his own Clan, especially when his Clanmates were so pleased with him, but he still felt bad about the way Needlepaw had gone home alone without much of a farewell. He was nervous, too, about what she might have told her Clanmates about SkyClan. Part of him wanted to bound across the clearing and find her, but he knew that for now his place was with the kits. And when the final decision was made about their future, he and Needlepaw would be rivals.

Alderpaw realized that while these thoughts had been passing through his mind, the four leaders had leaped up into the branches of the Great Oak. The deputies had gathered on the roots, while the medicine cats sat nearby. Gradually silence fell over the cats in the clearing.

“I'll begin, shall I?” Mistystar began when she had greeted the Clans. “Prey has been plentiful in RiverClan, and—”

She broke off with an annoyed look as Rowanstar interrupted by rising to his paws and pacing to the end of his branch.

“Why are we acting like this is a typical Gathering?” the ShadowClan leader demanded. “I know that Bramblestar has news to share—don't you?” he added, turning to face the ThunderClan leader and giving him a hard stare.

Bramblestar froze for a moment. Alderpaw knew what he must be thinking, and he felt the same flare of panic.
Did Needlepaw tell Rowanstar about SkyClan?

“News that might relate to the prophecy? Maybe about some young cats?” Rowanstar continued, his voice heavily sarcastic. “
Surely
you want to tell us all about that.”

Alderpaw drew a long breath of relief.
She didn't give away the secret.

Clearing his throat, Bramblestar rose to his paws. “Yes, there is news,” he meowed, raising his voice so that every cat in the clearing could hear him. “But I'm not sure that it relates to the prophecy. Our medicine-cat apprentice, Alderpaw, went on a quest to find what lies in the shadows. Sadly, our wise elder Sandstorm died on that quest, and her whole Clan grieves for her. But on his way home, Alderpaw found those two kits”—Bramblestar pointed with his tail—“just outside our territories.”

Alderpaw realized that every cat was staring at him and the two kits with him and Sparkpaw. He wanted to hide under
the nearest bush, but he made himself sit still and meet the curiosity with a calm gaze.

“I don't think that's quite right, Bramblestar,” Rowanstar went on. “Don't you mean that Alderpaw and Needlepaw found the kits, working together? Didn't Needlepaw save Alderpaw's life on the quest, helping him to shore when he was drowning?”

Bramblestar dipped his head. “Yes, that's true. But what was Needlepaw doing there in the first place? Is it normal for ShadowClan apprentices to wander off by themselves?”

“That's not your concern,” Rowanstar snapped; Alderpaw could see he was embarrassed by the question. “ShadowClan can look after its own apprentices, thank you very much. What's important is that ThunderClan did not find these kits without help. And what I understand,” he added, twitching his whiskers, “is that the kits were brought to ThunderClan for urgent care from your medicine cats, but that where they would stay permanently would be decided at this meeting.”

Before Bramblestar could respond, Mistystar took a step forward. “I think Onestar and I would appreciate a bit more information,” she mewed politely. “This is the first we've heard about this quest.”

“You bet we would,” Onestar growled from where he crouched on a lower branch, hardly more than his eyes visible among the leaves. “Or is this another case of ThunderClan thinking it can control the whole forest?”

“Not at all,” Bramblestar replied; Alderpaw could tell that he was making an effort to hold on to his temper.

The ThunderClan leader launched into an account of the quest, although he left out any mention of SkyClan. “Sandstorm's spirit guided Alderpaw to discover the kits,” he finished. “That makes me think that they must be important for us somehow, even if they're not ‘what you find in the shadows' from the prophecy.”

The cats in the clearing broke out into excited speculation and argument. Alderpaw was worried that the noise and curious glances would frighten the kits, but they seemed untroubled by it; they were curled up together, listening to what was going on but clearly not understanding that their future was being decided.

Up in the branches of the Great Oak, the leaders were wrangling too.

“You'll never convince me that those kits are what we were meant to embrace,” Onestar grumbled. “I mean . . . they're kits! What do they know?”

“They don't have to
know
anything,” Rowanstar pointed out with an irritated lash of his tail. “But StarClan guided us to them, and that's good enough for me.”

Mistystar nodded in agreement.

“We can't be sure about this,” Bramblestar meowed, his glance sweeping around to take in the other three leaders. “Not until the kits grow and reveal more about themselves. What is clear is that it's the Clans' responsibility to take care of them.”

“That's all well and good,” Rowanstar responded, baring
his teeth in the beginning of a snarl, “but it doesn't mean the kits need to stay in ThunderClan. Perhaps they belong in ShadowClan with Needlepaw, who helped find and care for them.”

“But they're happy and safe now,” Bramblestar argued. “It would be cruel to move them.”

“You would say that, Bramblestar,” Onestar hissed. “All that interests you is keeping the kits for ThunderClan.”

“It looks like that, Bramblestar.” Mistystar sounded almost apologetic. “But the prophecy came to every Clan, not just to ThunderClan. You don't have the right to keep the kits.”

“That's so unfair!” Sparkpaw exclaimed, but Alderpaw waved his tail for her to be quiet. He didn't want to miss a single word of the argument.

“I accept that,” Bramblestar meowed, to Alderpaw's dismay. “And I agree that ShadowClan has a claim to the kits—or at least to one of them.”

“Then the only fair thing,” Mistystar pointed out, “is for ThunderClan to keep one kit, and give the other to ShadowClan.”

Alderpaw glanced down in horror at Twigkit and Violetkit.
Splitting them up would be so cruel!

“What's happening?” Twigkit asked, blinking rapidly in agitation.

“Yes, why is every cat angry?” Violetkit added.

“It's okay, little ones.” Alderpaw gave each kit an affectionate lick around the ears. “Clan leaders are always arguing.”

The kits grew calmer, accepting what he said, while Alderpaw felt guilty that he might be lying to them.

“You don't think Bramblestar will really allow them to be separated!” Sparkpaw whispered into his ear.

“I don't know,” Alderpaw murmured in reply, but inwardly he was afraid that their Clan leader would.
He doesn't really have any choice, with all the other leaders against him.

When Alderpaw was able to listen to the leaders again, Bramblestar was speaking. “I'm not happy about this,” he meowed, “but I feel I have to agree that one kit goes to ShadowClan.”

“But that's not good enough!” Onestar protested, while Alderpaw felt cold all over with despair. “What about WindClan and RiverClan? Shouldn't all the Clans try to raise the kits together?”

His suggestion met with silence from the other leaders. “Is he mouse-brained?” Sparkpaw muttered to Alderpaw. “How would that work?”

Onestar just let out a hiss of annoyance and retreated even farther into the leaves, glaring out balefully.

The cats in the clearing were still whispering together. Some of them crowded around to get a good look at the kits. Twigkit and Violetkit shrank closer together, looking even smaller with so many full-grown cats looming over them.

“Back off, flea-pelts!” Sparkpaw hissed. “You're scaring them.”

Up in the Great Oak, Mistystar was lashing her tail in frustration. “Is there any other business to discuss?” she called
out, trying to make herself heard above the buzz of conversation.

“Don't be ridiculous,” Onestar growled. “No cat is going to want to talk about day-to-day business after all this!”

“Then I declare the Gathering at an end,” Mistystar announced. She jumped down from the tree and disappeared into a crowd of RiverClan warriors.

Alderpaw's heart pounded with apprehension as Bramblestar and Rowanstar leaped down together and thrust their way through the clusters of cats until they reached the bush where he and Sparkpaw waited with the kits.

“I can't believe you agreed to this!” Alderpaw burst out as his father approached.

Bramblestar's eyes were grave and he bowed his head as he replied. “There's no other way. Rowanstar, choose a kit.”

Rowanstar hesitated, and Alderpaw sensed that he wasn't happy about the solution either. He would protect the rights of ShadowClan against any cat, but he wasn't cruel, and he clearly understood what he was doing.

“I'll take the black-and-white one,” he meowed.

“That's Violetkit,” Alderpaw told him, unable to stop his voice shaking. “Look after her, please.”

Rowanstar dipped his head. “She will be well taken care of in ShadowClan,” he promised. Then he gently lifted Violetkit by her scruff.

At last the kits understood what was happening. Violetkit began to wail in a shrill voice and lashed out helplessly with her tiny paws.

“No! No! Don't take her!” Twigkit screeched, flinging herself against Rowanstar's leg and raking her claws through his pelt.

“Alderpaw! Help me!” Violetkit begged. “I want to go home! I want Lilyheart!”

Alderpaw thought that his heart would shatter into icy splinters. Curling his tail around Twigkit, he drew her back from Rowanstar. “It's no use, little ones,” he mewed. “This is the way it has to be.”

“Take her quickly,” Bramblestar snapped at Rowanstar.

Instantly the ShadowClan leader swung around and headed away to where his own Clan were gathering ready to leave. Dangling from his jaws, Violetkit twisted around so that she could still see her sister.

“Twigkit! Twigkit!” she kept on calling until she vanished from Alderpaw's sight.

Alderpaw imagined himself being separated from Sparkpaw, and how much it would hurt. But the pain that clawed through him now was even bigger than that. He felt that the Clans were being swept down a long, dark tunnel, and that this terrible separation was only the beginning of even more terrible troubles to come.

I should feel happy,
he told himself.
I found the kits, and they might be the thing that will save the Clans if we embrace them.
But instead a sense of foreboding hung over him, like a storm cloud that was only waiting for the right moment to release its fury.

He was jerked back to the present by a sharp nudge from Sparkpaw. “Stop dreaming! Twigkit needs you.”

The little gray kit had collapsed into a heap, letting out a desolate mewling. Alderpaw bent over her and licked her head and her ears. “Don't be sad, little one,” he murmured. “We'll look after you. And you'll see Violetkit again, when you're old enough to come to Gatherings.”

“But it's not the same,” Twigkit whimpered. “I want Violetkit now! And what will she do without Lilyheart?”

“A ShadowClan cat will look after her,” Sparkpaw promised. “A
nice
ShadowClan cat.”

Alderpaw stroked Twigkit gently with his tail, and Sparkpaw nuzzled her from the other side, but the little kit wouldn't be comforted.

“The others are leaving,” Sparkpaw mewed. “We should go too.”

Looking up, Alderpaw saw that Bramblestar and his other Clanmates were gathering near the foot of the Great Oak, while the ShadowClan cats streamed past them on their way to the tree-bridge. Among them he spotted Needlepaw, with Violetkit riding on her back.

For a moment Needlepaw caught Alderpaw's eye, and Alderpaw stared back at her. His head was buzzing with questions, like they were bees in a hive.

Did you tell them about SkyClan? Will you? Will you take care of Violetkit? Do you miss me?

But Needlepaw's glance was not friendly, and almost at once she turned away and followed her Clanmates. Violetkit looked scared as Needlepaw flattened herself to thrust her way through the bushes. Then they were gone.

Alderpaw wondered what Violetkit's future would hold. He remembered the loneliness he had sensed in Needlepaw, and he wondered whether Violetkit would share it now that she had lost her sister. But he realized that there was nothing he could do to control what would happen to her.
I
can
take care of Twigkit,
he thought, looking down at the gray kit.
I always will, and I'll do everything I can to make sure that she's happy.
Touching his nose to hers, he felt a sense of warmth spreading through him.
If nothing else comes of my quest, at least I can make sure that this little one has a good life.