Leafpool gasped. The stars had become two sets of paw prints, twining together across the indigo water.
Was this a message from StarClan? Was she dreaming? A movement at the far end of the starry paw prints caught her eye, and she peered across the lake. Two cats had appeared, walking away from her with more stars spooling out after them. At first they were indistinct, shadowy shapes; Leafpool strained to make them out, expecting to see warriors from StarClan. Then as the shapes grew clearer she saw that one was a dark tabby with broad shoulders, while the other was smaller, lighter-framed, with dark ginger fur.
Leafpool’s heart thudded harder. It was Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight. They were padding away from her side by side, so close that their pelts brushed together and their tracks merged into a single glittering path. On and on went their paw prints, sparkling across the dark water. Then the cats faded into the shadows, and the reflected stars spilled across the surface of the lake until they matched the stars in the sky once more.
Leafpool shivered. StarClan knew she had been anxious about Brambleclaw, that her trust in him had been shaken by her sinister dream of Tigerstar. They must have sent this sign to let her know that his destiny was so closely intertwined with Squirrelflight’s, no cat could separate their paths.
Surely this meant StarClan approved of Squirrelflight’s choice for her mate? If that was the case, Leafpool had no need to worry about her dark vision of Tigerstar training his sons. She didn’t have to warn Squirrelflight about her relationship with Brambleclaw. Their future rested in the paws of StarClan.
Comfort crept over her like a warm breeze, and she curled up among the rustling leaves and drifted out on a wave of sleep.
Her eyes blinked open what felt like moments later. She still lay in the hollow; shadows of leaves danced over her as the branches of the beech tree moved in a gentle breeze. A sweet scent drifted around her, and she lifted her head to see Spottedleaf sitting on a root a tail-length away.
“Spottedleaf!” she exclaimed, knowing that she was dreaming. Suddenly she remembered the last time she had spoken to the beautiful tortoiseshell and she sprang to her paws, trembling with anger. “You lied to me! You told me to leave ThunderClan and go away with Crowfeather. Cinder pelt died because I left my Clan!”
“Peace, dear one.” Spottedleaf jumped lightly down from the tree root and came over to brush her muzzle against Leafpool’s shoulder. “I told you to follow your heart—and your heart lies with your Clan. So you have followed your heart after all.”
Leafpool gazed at her, bewildered. Crowfeather had said exactly the same thing before he left her to go back to WindClan. “Then why didn’t you tell me that’s what you meant?” she protested.
“Would you have listened?” Spottedleaf’s gaze was full of pained love. “You needed to make the choice to go with Crowfeather. It was the only way you could find out that it was the wrong path for you to follow.”
Leafpool knew she was right. She hadn’t understood how committed she was to her Clan until she had tried to leave. “But Cinderpelt died!” she repeated miserably.
“Cinderpelt knew what was going to happen,” Spottedleaf meowed. “She knew there was no way to escape it. Not even StarClan can turn aside the paws of fate. That’s why she didn’t try to stop you from going. Do you think things would have been different if you had stayed?”
“I know they would,” Leafpool insisted. “I would never have left her if I’d known!”
“That is a weight you will carry for a long while, but I promise you could not have done anything to change what happened to Cinderpelt.” Spottedleaf pressed close against Leafpool’s side. Her comforting warmth was still not enough to ease Leafpool’s pain.
“Since she died, I haven’t seen her in my dreams,” Leafpool whispered. “I haven’t felt her presence, smelled her scent, or heard her voice. She must be angry with me, or she would come to me.”
“No, Leafpool. Cinderpelt loved you; do you think she would abandon you, even in death? Her paws walk another path for now.”
Fresh anxiety surged up inside Leafpool. She had thought she understood the links between a medicine cat and the spirits of her warrior ancestors. What was this “other path”? Did Spottedleaf mean that Cinderpelt was wandering in the dark forest where Leafpool had seen Tigerstar?
“What do you mean?” she demanded, her neck fur bristling. “Where is she?”
“That I cannot tell you. But she is well, I promise you, and you will see her again, sooner than you think.”
Spottedleaf ’s voice faded away. The warmth against Leafpool’s side melted into the breeze, and the StarClan cat’s tortoiseshell fur blended into the dapples of light and shadow until Leafpool couldn’t see her any more. Only her scent remained a heartbeat longer.
Leafpool opened her eyes to see the peaceful lake water still dappled with the reflections of countless stars. Fresh grief for Cinderpelt swept over her. Why did she have to die? Why hadn’t she come to Leafpool in her dreams like Spottedleaf? Leafpool wanted to cry like an abandoned kit.
Instead, she rose and stretched. “Wherever you are, Cinderpelt,” she mewed out loud, “if you can hear me, I promise that I will never leave our Clan again. I am their medicine cat now, and I will follow in your paw steps until it’s my turn to walk with StarClan.” Hesitating, she added, “But please, if I ever meant anything to you, come to me when you can and tell me you forgive me.”
A cold breeze ruffling his fur woke Brambleclaw. Stretching his jaws in an enormous yawn, he looked up. A patch of pale sky was visible through a ragged hole where once thorn branches had sheltered the warriors’ den. Dawn was breaking; it was time to get to work. Brambleclaw felt more hopeful after a good night’s sleep, undisturbed by dreams.
Around him the other cats were beginning to wake. Cloudtail got up, wincing as he put weight on the paw that had lost a claw. “Badgers!” he snorted. “If I never see another, it’ll be too soon.” He brushed between two branches, out into the clearing.
Brambleclaw had gone to sleep with Squirrelflight curled up by his side, her sweet scent in his nostrils. But now she was gone, leaving only a flattened patch of moss. His pelt prickled when he saw that Ashfur was gone too. He sprang up, making his wounded shoulder protest with a shriek of pain, but before he could follow them into the clearing he heard Squirrelflight and Ashfur just outside; he stood without moving, screened by a branch, to listen.
“Look, Ashfur.” Squirrelflight’s voice told Brambleclaw that she was trying hard to hold her temper. “I really care about you as a friend, but I don’t want any more than that.”
“But I love you!” Ashfur protested. More hesitantly, he added, “We’d be great together, Squirrelflight, I know we would.”
Brambleclaw felt a stab of sympathy for the grey warrior. He remembered how he had felt when he thought he had lost Squirrelflight’s affection.
“I’m sorry,” Squirrelflight went on. “I never meant to hurt you, but Brambleclaw—well, I think StarClan has destined us to be together.”
“I don’t know how you can say that!” There was the hint of a snarl in Ashfur’s voice. “You said yourself that it’s impossible to trust a cat with Brambleclaw’s heritage. He’s a great cat, I know, but he is still Tigerstar’s son.”
Brambleclaw’s feelings of sympathy vanished instantly. He unsheathed his long, curved claws and sank them into the ground. Would he never be judged for