The Blazing Star (23 page)

He got behind Jagged Peak and gave him a strong shove,
propelling him to the safety of the grass, where they both tumbled, a tangle of flailing paws. Lightning Tail landed beside them and rolled over as the monster swept past and growled away into the distance.

“What have we here?” A voice spoke somewhere above their heads.

Clear Sky stiffened. Looking up, he saw One Eye gazing down at him, a mocking twist to his mouth.

“Flea-pelt!” Clear Sky spat.

One Eye made no response, only circling them with the same mockery on his face as all three cats scrambled to their paws and shook debris off their pelts.

“And what's this?” he went on, padding up to Lightning Tail. He gave the young cat a hard blow on the side of the head, making him drop his bunch of herbs. “Oh dear,” he went on. “I really don't think I can allow you to take that.”

“It's got nothing to do with you!” Jagged Peak protested, bravely facing up to One Eye. “We don't need your permission.”

One Eye tilted his head to one side, as if he was pretending to think. “I guess not,” he meowed. “Yes, yes, you're right. I shouldn't have been so presumptuous.”

Clear Sky watched the rogue cat warily. He knew this had to be a trick.

A moment later, One Eye's glance grew icy, and his voice was clipped and cold. “Rogue cats, attack!” he commanded, stepping aside.

Clear Sky stared as One Eye's rogues streamed out of the
undergrowth. Their pelts were matted; their rheumy eyes were filled with spite. There seemed to be even more of them than when One Eye drove him out of the camp.

The leading rogue leaped at Clear Sky, who rolled out of the way just in time.

“Coward!” One Eye sneered. “You'd never win a fight with me, one-on-one.”

With a snarl of rage, Clear Sky hurled himself at One Eye, but the weight of several rogues landing on top of him bore him to the ground. Twisting his head to one side he saw that Lightning Tail and Jagged Peak were lashing out at the mass of rogue cats who were attacking them. In spite of their scrawny bodies, One Eye's followers were vicious fighters.

We're hopelessly outnumbered,
Clear Sky thought, as two rogues bundled him to the ground.

With a pang of pure horror he saw that two more rogues were forcing Lightning Tail back onto the Thunderpath, almost under the crushing, black paws of the passing monsters. Clear Sky heaved at the rogues who were pinning him down, but their weight was too much for him to throw off.

There's nothing I can do!

Then a loud yowling sounded from the other side of the bramble thicket. Acorn Fur burst out into the open. Throwing herself at the rogues who were attacking her brother, she sank her claws into the nearest shoulder.

The rogue let out a screech of pain. Arching his back, he let go of Lightning Tail to take a swipe at Acorn Fur. While he was distracted, Lightning Tail squirmed free from the other
rogue and flung himself back onto the grass just as a huge monster growled past.

At the sight of Acorn Fur, One Eye let out a furious screech. The rogues turned toward him, briefly breaking off the fight.

“Now! Run!” Clear Sky yowled.

He scrambled to his paws, thrusting Lightning Tail and Jagged Peak in front of him as he headed for the depths of the forest.

“I can't leave Acorn Fur!” Lightning Tail protested.

“There's nothing you can do!” Clear Sky gave him another shove. “Now,
run
!”

Lightning Tail growled in frustration, but he ran. The three cats pelted into the depths of the forest, blindly blundering through brambles and clumps of bracken in their desperate urge to escape.

Clear Sky took a last glance over his shoulder. He caught a glimpse of One Eye buffeting Acorn Fur around the head. The claw of regret tore at his heart. He didn't want to leave her there, but there was nothing he could do to rescue her now.

One Eye will destroy the forest,
Clear Sky thought as he raced after Jagged Peak and Lightning Tail.
Somehow we have to drive him out.

C
HAPTER
20

Clear Sky and his companions slowed
their pace when they realized that One Eye and his rogues weren't pursuing them. Their route back to the moorland hollow had never seemed so long. Lightning Tail was bleeding from a scratch on his shoulder, and limping almost as badly as Jagged Peak. Clear Sky's tail stung as if a rogue had bitten it, and every muscle in his body seemed to ache.

Jagged Peak was trudging along with his head down. He had no obvious injuries, but his tail drooped and he looked as if every step took great effort.

Clear Sky watched him sympathetically, but didn't say anything. His younger brother's first mission as leader had ended disastrously, even though it wasn't his fault. There was no way any cat could fight against One Eye and his rogues, and escape with a whole pelt.

When they reached the camp, the rest of the cats eagerly crowded around and began questioning them.

“What happened?”

“Why are you hurt?”

“Where's the Blazing Star?”

At first no cat replied. Clear Sky felt exhausted, his chest still heaving from the aftermath of the fight and the desperate race to escape. Lightning Tail and Jagged Peak were struggling for breath too. The press of bodies around them made Clear Sky feel he was going to suffocate.

Then Pebble Heart wriggled his way to the front of the crowd. “Back off!” he told the other cats. “Give them some air.”

As the other cats obeyed, Clear Sky gradually felt the tension in his chest ease, and looked around for Gray Wing. His brother was standing to one side, a couple of tail-lengths away, waiting for the excitement to die down.

Jagged Peak was the first to speak. He padded up to Gray Wing and stood in front of him with his head hanging. “I failed,” he choked out. “I'm sorry.”

“What happened?” Gray Wing asked.

“I don't have the Blazing Star.”

Clear Sky slipped up to his side and rested his tail across his young brother's shoulders. “One Eye attacked us on the way back,” he explained to Gray Wing. “We had to fight him and his rogues, and we lost the Blazing Star. Jagged Peak was not to blame.”

To his surprise, though his face was grave, there was a gleam of approval in Gray Wing's eyes. “It's bad news about the Blazing Star,” he meowed, “but good news about One Eye. I'm sorry you were attacked, but in a way I was hoping something like that would happen.”

“What?” Clear Sky's tail curled up in astonishment. “You
wanted
One Eye to rip our pelts off?”

“Not that, of course,” Gray Wing replied. “But it's good that you ran away. Now that he thinks we're all a bunch of cowardly cats, he won't be expecting any more trouble from us. And that means we can go on to the next stage of our plan.”

“And what's that?” Clear Sky asked, his interest stirring. He refused to show his annoyance that his brother had almost accused him of cowardice.

“I'm working out the last details now,” Gray Wing told him. “Let's all meet at sunset, and I'll explain it to you then.”

Clear Sky's pads itched with impatience. He opened his jaws to protest, but Gray Wing forestalled him.

“You all need to let Cloud Spots check you out,” he meowed. “And then you can rest, and eat. Tall Shadow led a hunting patrol out, so there's plenty of prey.”

Clear Sky's shoulders sagged. All he wanted was to find a way of defeating One Eye, but he knew that his brother was talking sense. “Okay,” he muttered.

“And I'll go and talk to Holly,” Jagged Peak added, still looking dejected. “I promise I won't get too close, but I need to tell her face-to-face. I just hope she understands why I failed to bring back the Blazing Star.”

“I'm sure she will,” Gray Wing assured him. “And Jagged Peak,” he added as his young brother turned away, “you
didn't
fail. You put us exactly where we need to be for my plan against One Eye to have a chance of working. Thanks to you, we have a real chance of winning this battle.”

“Let all cats gather together at the foot of the rock!”

The sun was going down, streaking the sky with scarlet, when Tall Shadow's yowl echoed around the camp. Clear Sky watched from the tunnel he was sharing with Gray Wing as Cloud Spots and Jagged Peak emerged from Holly's den. Lightning Tail, Mud Paws, and Dappled Pelt, who were sharing prey beneath a gorse bush, hastily swallowed the last mouthfuls and found places to sit near the rock. Mouse Ear broke off the game he was playing with Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes, and led the way to join their denmates. Shattered Ice and Thunder padded down the slope from where they had been keeping watch at the top of the hollow.

When the rest of the cats were assembled, Gray Wing and Clear Sky padded over from the den they were sharing, and thrust their way into the center of the crowd. Tall Shadow remained on her rock, her ears angled to listen while her eyes scanned the moor for intruders.

“So what is this plan, then?” Clear Sky demanded. He felt better after resting and eating, and from the burdock root Cloud Spots had put on his bitten tail, but his impatience was like ants crawling through his pelt.

Gray Wing signaled with his tail for the other cats to draw back, leaving him alone in the center of a ragged circle. Then he began to draw lines in the earth with his claws.

“Look,” he explained as Clear Sky peered closer. “Here's the forest, and here's the hollow where we are. There's the Thunderpath, and there's the river. This is the rocky outcrop where Wind Runner is living, and this is the clearing with the
four oak trees. And here . . .” Gray Wing smacked a paw down in the middle of his drawing, then looked around inquiringly to see if any cat had gotten his point.

Clear Sky frowned in confusion. “But there . . . there's nothing.”

“Exactly!” Gray Wing gave his brother a satisfied nod. “An empty space a good way away from anywhere cats live. Free, open space where a single cat on his own would be terribly vulnerable.”

Owl Eyes had crept forward and was studying the markings. His eyes stretched wide until they were as big as the eyes of the bird he was named for. “You mean . . . attack One Eye there?” he breathed out.

“That's exactly what I mean,” Gray Wing confirmed.

Clear Sky was aware of the cats sharing worried glances, until Thunder spoke up. “I'm not sure,” he meowed.

Gasps of astonishment came from the cats around him, and Clear Sky himself was shocked. “Is that my son talking?” he asked. “The brave warrior Thunder, with his great leaps and huge paws? He's really backing away from action?”

Thunder took a pace forward, glancing around the assembled cats. “We've seen so much death and destruction,” he explained. “The spirit-cats told us to unite or die. Maybe One Eye will be happy now that he has the forest, so we should give it to him.”

Clear Sky stared at his son, feeling that he scarcely recognized him. “You'd be happy with that, would you? Think how well you hunt in among the trees. You'd be happy never to go back there?”

Doubt clouded Thunder's face. “I don't know,” he confessed, scraping at the ground with one massive paw. “I'm just trying to do the right thing.”

“We all are,” Clear Sky retorted. “But the right thing isn't nothing.”

“And what about Acorn Fur?” Lightning Tail asked. “I'm not going to abandon my sister to stay in the forest with One Eye.”

“Okay,” Thunder conceded, though he still didn't look happy. “But we drive One Eye out. We don't kill him. That would make us just as bad as he is.”

Good luck with that,
Clear Sky thought, knowing how vicious the rogue was. Aloud, he said, “That's fine with me . . . provided we
can
make him leave.”

As Thunder and Clear Sky faced each other, a she-cat's voice rang out from the top of the hollow. “Can I help at all?”