CHAPTER 19

“Please,” Jayfeather begged. “Let me stay here with Half Moon. This is my only chance to live like my Clanmates, to raise kits and grow old with a mate.”

“That is not why you have returned to these cats,” Rock meowed somberly. “And this is not where Half Moon’s future lies. She must become the first Teller of the Pointed Stones.”

“Why?” Anger and frustration gripped Jayfeather with all the force of the eagle’s talons. “Why not some other cat?”

“Because Half Moon can read the reflections,” Rock replied. “She saw the sign of the moon.”

“Any cat could have seen that!”

Rock shook his head. “It is not her destiny to have kits and live the same life as her companions. You must help her see that.”

“Couldn’t you have done that on your own?” Jayfeather’s anger was rising now, spinning out of his control. “Why did you need me? Did you know what would happen, how I would feel about Half Moon?”

Rock dipped his head, an admission that he had known it all. “You have the power of the stars, Jayfeather. There are some things you must do, however hard they may seem.”

“It’s not fair.” Jayfeather flexed his claws. “And you can’t make me.”

He turned away, meaning to go back to the cave and seek out Half Moon, but suddenly Rock was in front of him, barring his way with ominous strength, in spite of his blindness and scrawny, hairless body.

“I can make you if I have to,” he warned Jayfeather quietly. “Where do you think the prophecy came from? This is your destiny. Yours and Half Moon’s.”

Trembling with fury, Jayfeather brushed past him and scrambled down beside the waterfall. Between his anger and his soreness from fighting the eagle, he lost his footing a few tail-lengths from the ground and fell, the breath driven from his body as he landed beside the pool. Struggling to his paws, he spotted Rising Moon at the end of the path that led behind the waterfall. He braced himself for more cold words as she padded toward him, but as she drew closer he saw that her eyes were full of gentle concern.

“Thank you for your courage, Jay’s Wing,” she mewed. “If we can survive here until we are strong enough to go back to the lake, you have done us a great favor.”

Following her back into the cave, Jayfeather saw that most of the cats were clustered around Stone Song and the rest of the patrol.

“So we leaped up onto the eagle’s wings….” Stone Song gave a huge jump into the air as he spoke.

Owl Feather’s three kits were watching with open mouths, their hunger forgotten.

“Come on, Strong Pounce,” one of them mewed to his littermate. “I’m going to be an eagle, and you and Running Fox can attack me.”

“You’re so bossy, Lapping Wave,” another kit replied. “I want to be the eagle!” He flung himself at his littermate and all three kits wrestled together on the floor.