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“StarClan, help me!” Fireheart let out a yowl of terror and despair. This was not just his death, but the end of his whole Clan. His plan had failed. “StarClan, where are you?”
Suddenly a yowl sounded close by. Fireheart was flung to the ground, the breath driven out of his body. The grip on his neck loosened and was gone. Dazed, he looked up to see a blue-gray shape ramming into the side of the lead dog.
“Bluestar!” he yowled.
The force of his leader’s impact had sent the dog staggering to the very edge of the gorge. Its barking changed to a high-pitched howl of terror as its huge paws scrabbled for a grip on the turf. The loose soil crumbled away under its weight and it fell, but as it disappeared over the edge its snapping jaws closed on Bluestar’s leg, and wrenched her over as well.
Two of the other dogs, hard behind their leader, could not pull up in time. Blindly they charged over the edge of the gorge and vanished, howling, while the remaining dogs skidded to a halt, their fierce barks fading to piteous whimpers. Before Fireheart could force himself to his paws, they had backed away from the edge and fled into the forest.
Fireheart staggered to the edge of the gorge and looked over. Water foamed white beneath him. For a heartbeat he glimpsed the gaping muzzle of the pack leader struggling among the waves, before it vanished again.
“Bluestar!” Fireheart screamed. What had his leader been doing over here? He had sent her with the rest of the Clan to Sunningrocks.
Too stunned to move, Fireheart gazed down into the river. Suddenly he saw a small gray head bob to the surface, paws thrashing wildly. Bluestar was still alive! But the torrent was sweeping her downstream, and Fireheart knew that she was too frail to swim for long.
There was only one thing to do. Yowling, “Bluestar, hold on! I’m coming!” he launched himself down the steep side of the gorge and into the river.
Water clutched Fireheart like a huge paw and buffeted him from side to side. The icy cold of the torrent took his breath away. His paws worked furiously as he tried to swim, but the force of the current rolled him under. He had lost sight of Bluestar before he even entered the water; he could see nothing but the foam that bubbled all around him.
As his head broke surface he gasped for air, managing to stay afloat as the racing torrent swept him downstream. Then he spotted Bluestar again, a few fox-lengths ahead of him, her fur plastered to her head and her jaws gaping. Kicking out strongly, Fireheart closed the gap between them, and as Bluestar began to sink again he fastened his teeth in her scruff.
The extra weight dragged him down. All Fireheart’s instincts screamed at him to let Bluestar go and save his own life. But he made himself hold on, while he forced his limbs to go on working and bring his drowning leader back to the surface. He almost lost his grip on her as something slammed into them, and he caught a glimpse of a dog rolling over in the current, its eyes glazed with terror as it floundered helplessly and vanished again.
A sudden shadow fell across them and was gone as the current carried them under the Twoleg bridge and away from the looming cliffs. Fireheart could see the river bank now and he struck out toward it, but his limbs were aching with weariness. Bluestar was a deadweight, unable to help herself. Fireheart knew that he could not let go of her to gulp in more air, and his senses began to spin away into darkness as his head went under again.
Barely conscious, he made one more massive effort, thrusting at the water with his paws. But when he resurfaced he could not see the bank, and he had lost all sense of direction. His limbs stiffened with panic as he knew he was going to drown.
Suddenly Bluestar’s weight grew less. Blinking water out of his eyes, Fireheart saw another head bobbing in the water beside him, teeth firmly gripping Bluestar’s fur. He recognized the blue-gray pelt and almost forgot to swim in his shock.
It was Mistyfoot!
At the same moment he heard Stonefur’s voice from his other side. “Let go. We’ve got her now.”
Fireheart did as he was told and let Stonefur take his place. The two RiverClan cats propelled Bluestar through the water toward the bank. Without the need to support the heavy she-cat, Fireheart managed to flounder after them until he felt the river bottom beneath his paws. On flatter ground now, carried by the river out of the steep-sided gorge, he was able to splash his way to the safety of the bank on the RiverClan side.
Coughing as he gasped air into his straining lungs, Fireheart shook water from his fur and looked around to see what had become of Bluestar. Mistyfoot and Stonefur had laid the Clan leader down on her side on the pebbles. Water trickled from her parted jaws, and she did not move.
“Bluestar!” Mistyfoot exclaimed.
“Is she dead?” Fireheart asked hoarsely, staggering up to them.
“I think she—”
Stonefur was interrupted by a loud yowling. “Fireheart! Fireheart! Watch out!”
It was Graystripe’s voice. Fireheart turned to see Tigerstar racing across the Twoleg bridge with the gray warrior hard behind him. As the ShadowClan leader swerved along the bank toward Fireheart and the others, Graystripe darted in front of the massive tabby and whirled around to face him.
“Keep back!” he snarled. “Don’t touch them.”
Rage lent strength to Fireheart. His leader lay on the riverbank, her last life ebbing away; whatever she had said or done, she was still his leader, and he had never intended her to die for the sake of the Clan. And all this was because of Tigerstar!
He bounded upstream to stand beside Graystripe, and the ShadowClan leader halted a couple of fox-lengths away. Clearly he was thinking twice about taking both of them on at the same time.
From behind him Fireheart heard Mistyfoot gasp. “Fireheart! She’s alive!”
He bared his teeth at Tigerstar. “Come one step closer, and I’ll throw you in the river with the dogs,” he growled. “Graystripe, make him stay back.”
Graystripe nodded, unsheathing his claws, and Tigerstar let out a long hiss of fury and frustration.
Fireheart raced back to Bluestar and crouched down beside her. She still lay on the pebbles, though now Fireheart could see her chest rising and falling with each jagged breath. “Bluestar?” he whispered. “Bluestar, it’s Fireheart. You’re all right now. You’re safe.”
Her eyes blinked open and focused on the two RiverClan warriors. For a heartbeat she did not seem to recognize them, and then her eyes stretched wide, softening with prid
e. “You saved me,” she murmured.
“Shhh. Don’t try to talk,” Mistyfoot urged her.
Bluestar seemed not to hear. “I want to tell you something…. I want to ask you to forgive me for sending you away. Oakheart promised me Graypool would be a good mother to you.”
“She was,” Stonefur meowed tersely.
Fireheart tensed. Last time they spoke to Bluestar, the two RiverClan warriors had spat venom at her, hating her for what she had done. Would they turn on her now, defenseless as she was?
“I owe Graypool so much,” Bluestar went on. Her voice was faint and uneven. “Oakheart too, for mentoring you so well. I watched you as you grew up, and I saw how much you had to give to the Clan who adopted you.” A shudder passed through her body, and she stopped speaking for a moment. “If I had made a different choice, you would have given all your strength to ThunderClan. Forgive me,” she rasped.
Mistyfoot and Stonefur exchanged an uncertain glance.
“She suffered a lot of pain for her choice,” Fireheart couldn’t help putting in. “Please forgive her.”
For a heartbeat the two warriors still hesitated. Then Mistyfoot bent her head to lick her mother’s fur, and Fireheart felt his legs shake with relief. “We forgive you, Bluestar,” she murmured.
“We forgive you,” Stonefur echoed.
Weak as she was, Bluestar began to purr with delight. Fireheart’s throat felt tight as he watched the two RiverClan cats crouched over his leader—their mother—sharing tongues with her for the first time.
A furious hiss from Graystripe made him turn his head to see that Tigerstar had taken a step forward. The massive tabby’s eyes were wide with astonishment. Fireheart knew that until now Tigerstar had not known who was the mother of the kits that ThunderClan had given away.
“Don’t come any nearer, Tigerstar,” he hissed. “This has nothing to do with you.”
