“No—stop.” Violetshine hadn’t noticed Rowanclaw approaching, but now he stood beside his mate and curled his tail across her shoulders. “Whatever Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker have done in the past, I forgive them. It will do no good for Clans to hold grudges. That’s a sure way to drag every cat into trouble again. We should—”

Rowanclaw suddenly broke off and gave his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks. He had obviously just realized that he was making a speech like a Clan leader. With a guilty look at Leafstar, he added, “Of course, this is SkyClan now. It’s your decision about whether these cats are welcome or not.”

Leafstar stepped forward and gazed at the two newcomers with narrowed eyes. “Give me one reason why I should trust you,” she meowed, “after everything that’s happened.”

Violetshine could hear several cats murmuring agreement, while beside Yarrowleaf, Snowbird and Scorchfur exchanged anxious looks.

“We’re ready to dedicate ourselves to SkyClan,” Sleekwhisker assured Leafstar, her eyes wide and pleading. “We’ll do whatever we need to prove ourselves.”

Leafstar seemed unimpressed. “It seems you were willing to dedicate yourselves to ShadowClan, not to SkyClan,” she mewed with a sniff. “And I’m not even sure I believe that, if what I understand about you is true. You did leave ShadowClan to join Darktail’s group?”

The two she-cats nodded, looking wretched.

“Are you aware,” Leafstar went on, her tone suddenly as icy as a wind in leaf-bare, “that before Darktail came to the lake, he wormed his way into SkyClan, posing as our friend? And that then he and his rogues attacked us in the dead of night and drove us out of the gorge—out of our home?”

Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf exchanged horrified glances. This was the first they had heard of SkyClan’s story.

“We were left homeless,” Leafstar went on inexorably, “wandering for moon after moon, searching for the other Clans. It’s only recently that we arrived here at the lake and were given this territory. Have you any idea how many cats died because of Darktail’s treachery?”

The two cats shook their head. “No,” Sleekwhisker responded.

“Too many,” Leafstar meowed grimly. “And Darktail is responsible for the deaths of many of your ShadowClan Clanmates, too. I’m not sure I could ever trust a cat who chose to leave a Clan to follow Darktail. Why in the name of StarClan would you do that?”

“I was young and stupid!” Yarrowleaf wailed. “I blamed Rowanstar for things that weren’t his fault. Now I know my life would have been better if I’d been loyal to my Clan.”

“I thought our leader was weak,” Sleekwhisker added simply as Leafstar’s cold gaze turned to her.

Her words brought a gasp of outrage from Tawnypelt and some of the others, but Rowanclaw looked unsurprised, dipping his head in acceptance.