“Have you seen any sign of Mothwing and Willowshine?” Jayfeather asked Kestrelflight as he scrambled up the rocks and stood panting at the top.

The WindClan medicine cat shook his head. “Not a whisker.”

“Then I suppose they’re not coming,” Frecklewish murmured. “After all, the RiverClan borders are still closed.”

“Maybe we ought to wait a little while,” Puddleshine suggested. “Just in case they show up.”

Jayfeather let out an irritated sigh, but none of the other cats objected. Moment after moment slid past, but the moorland was empty.

“They’re not coming,” Leafpool meowed at last. “We’d better get started.”

Along with his fellow medicine cats, Alderheart pushed his way through the line of bushes that surrounded the Moonpool and followed the spiral path down to the water’s edge. A shiver ran through him as his paws slipped into the paw prints made by other cats so long ago. His worries seemed to fade as he listened to the sound of the water falling into the pool, and watched the shimmer of moon and starlight on its surface.

When every cat had settled around the edge of the pool, Leafpool rose to her paws. “We have an outbreak of belly sickness and vomiting in ThunderClan,” she announced. “Our sick cats are recovering, thank StarClan, but many of our cats are sick.”

“We have it in WindClan, too.” Kestrelflight sounded eager to share information. “Several of our cats—six now—have the sickness. We and ThunderClan have used all the watermint from our border stream and the border with RiverClan.”

“Have you got it in Shad—in SkyClan?” Alderheart asked the other medicine cats.

“No,” Frecklewish replied. “Not yet, at least.”

“Then let’s try to keep it that way,” Leafpool meowed. “I’ll warn our border patrols to stay away from yours, and you should do the same. But enough of this,” she went on briskly. “Kestrelflight, stay in touch with us over the sickness. Now it’s time to think about the prophecy.”

“‘The dark sky must not herald a storm,’” Alderheart murmured, remembering how hard he had struggled to understand the meaning. It was all too obvious now. “We have darkened the sky by going from five Clans to three,” he went on, “at least until RiverClan decides to join us again—if they ever do.”

“Have any of you had another message from StarClan?” Leafpool asked. “Any sign of what we should do next?”

The other medicine cats shook their heads.

“The spirit cats that Tree helped us see told us we must find the missing ShadowClan cats,” Alderheart mewed.

“And I’d like nothing better,” Puddleshine told him. “But we have no idea where they went, so how can we send out a patrol to find them?”