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A moment later he realized how wrong he was. Darkstripe whirled to face him, hissing, “You’re mine, kittypet. It’s time for you to die.”
Firestar braced himself for the attack. “So now you’re fighting on the side of Tigerstar’s murderer?” he taunted Darkstripe. “Have you no loyalty in you?”
“Not anymore,” Darkstripe snarled. “Every cat in the forest can turn to crowfood for all I care. All I want is to see you dead.”
Firestar slipped to one side as Darkstripe leaped toward him, but one of the dark warrior’s paws caught him on the side of the head and he lost his footing. Darkstripe landed on top of him and pinned him down. Firestar twisted, trying to free his hind paws. He scrabbled furiously at Darkstripe’s belly but could not shake him off. The warrior bared his teeth, aiming for Firestar’s neck. Firestar braced himself for a last desperate effort.
Suddenly Darkstripe’s body rolled off him. Firestar got to his paws to see Graystripe struggling with his old Clan mate in a screeching knot of fur and claws. Graystripe’s pelt was torn and his shoulder glistened with blood from an earlier wound, but before Firestar could move to help him he flung Darkstripe to the ground and landed on top of him, panting.
“Traitor!” he hissed.
Darkstripe writhed violently, scoring deep gouges in the earth, but he couldn’t throw off the gray warrior. “Fox dung!” he spat. He twisted his head, trying to sink his teeth into Graystripe’s neck.
Graystripe lashed out with one forepaw. His claws pierced Darkstripe’s throat and blood gushed out. The dark tabby gave one convulsive shudder. His jaws parted as he fought for breath. “There’s nothing left…” he choked out. “It’s all dark—everything’s gone….”
Firestar saw his eyes glazing, a terrible emptiness in them. His struggles faded and his body went limp.
Spitting contemptuously, Graystripe scrambled off him. “One less traitor in the forest,” he snarled.
Firestar touched his nose to Graystripe’s shoulder. Suddenly Graystripe went rigid, staring past his leader. “Firestar…” he rasped.
Firestar whirled around to see Sandstorm and Dustpelt fighting side by side at the edge of the battle. They didn’t seem to need his help, and at first he couldn’t understand what had distressed Graystripe. Then the mass of cats parted briefly to reveal Bone, the huge BloodClan deputy, crouched over another cat who moved feebly beneath him. So much blood clotted the victim’s fur that Firestar could hardly make out its color, and it took him a couple of heartbeats to recognize Whitestorm.
“No!” he yowled, and he hurled himself at Bone with Graystripe hard on his paws.
Bone sprang backward, only to cannon into Bramblepaw and Ashpaw, who came charging across the clearing at the same moment. Firestar saw his apprentice leap onto the huge deputy’s back, while Ashpaw bit down into his hind leg.
Confident that Bone would be distracted for a while, Firestar crouched beside Whitestorm, almost oblivious to the battle that surged around them. Recognition glimmered in the white warrior’s eyes when he saw Firestar, and the tip of his tail twitched. “Good-bye, Firestar,” he rasped.
“Whitestorm, no!” Firestar felt a wail of agony building up inside him. He should never have brought his deputy into this battle, when all along the white warrior had seemed to know that it would be his last. “Graystripe, find Cinderpelt.”
“Too late,” Whitestorm breathed. “I go to hunt with StarClan.”
“You can’t—the Clan needs you! I need you!”
“You will find others….” The white warrior’s gaze, growing rapidly dimmer, flickered to Graystripe and back again. “Trust your heart, Firestar. You have always known that Graystripe is the cat StarClan destined to be your deputy.”
Letting out a long sigh, he closed his eyes.
“Whitestorm…” Firestar wanted to mewl his grief like a tiny kit. For a heartbeat he pushed his nose into his deputy’s blood-soaked fur, the only mourning ritual that the battle allowed.
Then he turned to Graystripe, who was staring in shock at the old warrior’s body. “You heard what he said,” Firestar meowed. “He chose you.” Rising to his paws, he lifted his voice above the tumult of battle. “I say these words before the body of Whitestorm, that his spirit may hear and approve my choice. Graystripe will be the new deputy of ThunderClan.”
A yowl of agreement from behind startled him, and Firestar turned to see Sandstorm and Dustpelt pausing to nod briefly at Graystripe before dashing back into the battle again.
Graystripe had not moved, his yellow eyes fixed on Firestar. “Are you…are you sure?”
“Never surer,” Firestar growled. “Now, Graystripe!”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the BloodClan deputy struggling free from Bramblepaw and Ashpaw. Before Firestar could spring at him, a screech of defiance sounded above the noise of battle and several more apprentices hurtled across the clearing. Bone was barely visible under the writhing heap of furious young cats. Bramblepaw and Ashpaw were there, with Featherpaw and Stormpaw and, yes, Tawnypaw, fighting beside her brother. Within a few heartbeats Bone had stopped trying to defend himself; his body went into a series of spasms, ending in his twitching tail, and as Firestar watched the twitching stopped. Ashpaw let out a hoarse cry of triumph.
At the same instant Jaggedtooth appeared out of nowhere. Firestar felt his fur stand on end. Once a rogue, then a member of ShadowClan, and now part of the insult to the warrior code that was BloodClan. The massive warrior flung himself on the apprentices and fastened his teeth in the nearest—Bramblepaw—dragging him off Bone’s body. At once Tawnypaw launched herself at the rogue cat. “Let go of my brother!” she spat. The rest of the apprentices sprang forward with her, and Jaggedtooth abruptly dropped Bramblepaw, turning tail and fleeing across the clearing with all the apprentices in pursuit.
Br ea thing hard, Firestar glanced around, and his stomach turned over as he tried to judge how the battle was going. Though Darkstripe and Bone were dead, and Jaggedtooth had been driven off, the clearing still seemed full of BloodClan warriors, and yet more were racing down the slope. ThunderClan had lost Whitestorm, and between the battling cats Firestar caught a glimpse of Torn ear from WindClan lying motionless. Brackenfur and Mousefur fough
t on side by side, but Brackenfur was limping and Mousefur had deep claw marks stretching all along one side. At the edge of the clearing Frostfur was dragging herself into the bushes, with Fernpaw helping her, and not far away Runningnose, the ShadowClan medicine cat, was pressing cobwebs on a wound in Blackfoot’s shoulder, until the ShadowClan deputy shook him off and threw himself back into the fray. Leopard star appeared briefly, yowling hoarse encouragement to her warriors, before she vanished again in a surge of BloodClan cats.
We’re losing, Firestar thought, fighting panic. I must find Scourge!
With the BloodClan leader’s death, he knew the battle would be over. The cats from Twolegplace had no sense of tradition or loyalty to the warrior code. Scourge held them together, and without him they would be nothing.
Firestar felt his fur begin to bristle as his gaze found Scourge at last. The small black cat was crouched at the base of the Great Rock, his claws slicing at a warrior he had trapped there. Firestar’s belly lurched as he recognized Onewhisker.
With a yowl of defiance he leaped across the clearing. Scourge whipped around, leaving Onewhisker to crawl away, bleeding.
The BloodClan leader bared his teeth in a snarl. “Firestar!”
Without warning, he leaped. Firestar rolled with the impact and landed on top of the smaller cat, planting one paw on his neck. But before he could bite down, Scourge wriggled away with the speed of a snake. The dogs’ teeth on his claws flashed as he raked them across Firestar’s shoulder.
Excruciating pain lanced through Firestar’s body. He forced himself not to flinch but leaped forward again, sending Scourge flying back against the Great Rock. Briefly the black tom was stunned, and Firestar managed to bite down on his foreleg. Pain like fire seared through him again with another blow from the BloodClan leader’s claws, and in the shock of it Firestar lost his grip on Scourge.
The BloodClan leader reared back, his paw raised for the death blow. Firestar scrabbled to get away, but he was not fast enough. Agony exploded in his head as the reinforced claws struck down. flame washed over his eyes, fading to leave nothing but darkness. A soft, black tide was rising to engulf him; he made one final effort to get up, but his paws would not support him, and he fell back into nothingness.
