“Greetings, Mothwing, Willowshine,” he meowed as he reached the bottom of the path. “It’s good to have you back.”

The two RiverClan medicine cats dipped their heads in response.

“Never mind greetings,” Jayfeather snapped. “Where have you been? We’re wasting moonlight here.”

“Yes, we were worried about you,” Leafpool added.

“I’m sorry,” Alderheart explained. “I went to the Twolegplace to see how Velvet and Fuzzball were doing.”

Jayfeather gave him a scorching look from his sightless blue eyes.

“They’re fine,” Alderheart went on, meeting his gaze levelly. “I won’t need to go there again. And look at this.” He set down the thyme that Velvet had given him.

Jayfeather gave it a sniff. “It’s thyme.”

“Yes, but it’s a different sort of thyme,” Alderheart mewed. “Velvet says her Twolegs planted it, and it’s stronger than the kind that grows in the forest. There’s not enough to divide between the Clans,” he added to the others, “but I’ll plant it, and when it grows, we’ll share it with you if you need it.”

Jayfeather grunted, obviously unwilling to admit he was pleased. “We can give it a try, I suppose.”

“There’s something else,” Alderheart confessed. He felt bad, because the ShadowClan tom clearly wanted to be left alone, but it wasn’t a secret he felt he could keep. “I saw Rippletail, living as a kittypet in the Twolegplace. I called out to him, but he bolted into his Twoleg den and wouldn’t come out.”

The other medicine cats exchanged shocked glances.

“It’s good to know that he’s okay, at least,” Puddleshine mewed at last. “I’ll tell Tigerstar and Tawnypelt, and they’ll decide if they want to send some cat to talk to him.”

The mention of Tigerstar brought the previous night’s events back into Alderheart’s mind, and he felt a renewed touch of wonder at the way Tigerstar had been sent back to his Clan. He could tell that the other medicine cats felt the same.

“What exactly happened?” Kestrelflight asked, curiosity alight in his eyes.

“StarClan appeared,” Puddleshine replied. “They brought Tigerstar back and gave him nine lives.”

And that doesn’t really tell us anything, Alderheart thought. But then, it’s always been forbidden to tell other cats what happens at nine-lives ceremonies.

Frecklewish let out an irritated snort. “It’s certainly convenient that StarClan gave ShadowClan the chance to rebuild itself,” she mewed. “But you’d better not be planning on reclaiming the territory you ceded to SkyClan. We’ll be patrolling our borders, you can be sure of that!”

Puddleshine looked taken aback at the SkyClan medicine cat’s waspish tone. But Alderheart could understand Frecklewish’s irritation. Clearly, she shared Leafstar’s opinion that the ShadowClan cats who had joined SkyClan and then left had taken advantage of SkyClan’s generosity.