going back to her den, she padded across the clearing and out past the partly rebuilt barrier of thorns. Unbidden, her paws carried her towards the lake, until she reached the open ground at the edge of the trees and could gaze out over the starlit water.
Memories flooded back of the nights she had sneaked out of camp to meet Crowfeather. Then her paws had felt as light as air; she had raced through the bracken to their meeting place.
Now everything was changed. Grief and loss weighed her down like stone. She settled into a drift of dry leaves, letting her gaze rest on the starry surface of the lake.
Not many heartbeats passed before she saw that the stars in the water were moving. At first she thought it was just wind ruffling the surface, but all around her the air was still. Her pelt prickled. Above her the stars of Silverpelt blazed down as they had always done, cold, white, and unmoving; but in the lake, some patches of water were dark and empty, while the reflected stars swam sparkling across the surface until they were clustered together in two slender paths.
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. Cinderpelt 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.”
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