Warriors AU: The Darkest Hour

Chapter 15

Silverstream growled deep in his throat and gathered himself to spring.

"No!" Sandstar gasped, leaping on his friend before he could leave the shadow of the reeds. "If Goldenstar sees us, we're crow-food!"

On Silverstream's other side Patchpaw grabbed him by one shoulder. "Sandstar's right," he hissed. "What chance would we have against all these cats?"

Silverstream writhed desperately, as if he hadn't heard. "Let me go!" he snarled. "I'll flay that piece of fox dung! I'll rip his heart out!"

"No!" Sandstar repeated in an agonized whisper. "We'll be slaughtered if we show ourselves now. We won't leave your kits, Silverstream, I promise we won't, but we've got to wait for the right moment to rescue them."

Silverstream went on struggling for a moment longer, then subsided with a grunt of agreement. Sandstar let him go, nodding to Patchpaw to do the same.

"Listen," he murmured. "Let's find out what's going on."

While they had been holding Silverstream down, Goldenstar had begun to speak, his voice drowning the noise of their scuffle among the reeds.

"Cats of Tigerclan," he began, "you all know the hardships that we have to face. The cold of leaf-bare threatens us. Twolegs threaten us. The other two Clans in the forest, who have not yet realized the wisdom of joining with Tigerclan, are a threat to us."

Sandstar's tail-tip twitched in anger and he flashed a look at Silverstream. Goldenstar was a threat! All that Thunderclan and Windclan wanted was to get on with their lives in peace, according to the ancient traditions of Starclan and the warrior code.

But Silverstream's burning gaze was fixed on his two kits, cowering at the base of the Bonehill; he was unaware of Sandstar's glance.

"Surrounded as we are by enemies," Goldenstar went on, "we must be sure of the loyalty of our own warriors. There is no room in Tigerclan for the halfhearted. No room for cats who might waver in battle, or worse still, turn on their own Clanmates. Tigerclan will no tolerate traitors!"

Except the traitor who leads it, Sandstar thought. Or Darkstripe, who would have watched her own Clan be devoured by dogs.

The cats in the clearing broke out into yowls of agreement. Goldenstar allowed the clamor to continue for a moment before signaling with his tail for silence. The noise died and he began to speak again.

"Especially we will not tolerate the abomination of half-Clan cats. No loyal warrior would ever take a mate from another Clan, diluting the pure blood that our warrior ancestors decreed for us. Oakstar and Silverstream of Thunderclan both flouted the warrior code when they took mates from Riverclan. The kits of such a union, like the ones you see in front of you now, can never be trusted."

He paused, and his deputy Blackfoot yowled out, "Filth! Filth!"

Darkstripe took up the cry, and a chorus of yowls and screeches echoed her words. This time Goldenstar let them fall quiet in their own time, gazing out over the cats below him with a look of calm satisfaction.

He and Blackfoot must have rehearsed all this, Sandstar realized in horror.

He noticed that it was the Shadowclan warriors who yowled the loudest. The Riverclan cats joined in less enthusiastically; Sandstar guessed they might not all fully agree with the Shadowclan leader, but they did not dare stay silent.

The two half-Clan apprentices flattened themselves close to the ground, as if they were afraid of being swept away in the gale of the Clan's fury. Stonefur crouched over them as if she could protect them, gazing around with defiance in her eyes.