“Tribe?” Half Moon echoed.

“Yes,” Jayfeather replied. “You are a Tribe now, united in loyalty to everything you represent. It won’t be easy, but the other cats will understand what needs to be done to keep you safe here forever.”

“I’ll miss you.” Half Moon’s voice was desolate.

“And I you. I won’t ever forget you, I promise.”

Jayfeather leaned toward her, and their noses touched. If only…Jayfeather thought.

Half Moon was the first to break away. Jayfeather watched as she jumped neatly down beside the waterfall, paused at the end of the path for one brief glance at him over her shoulder, then vanished into the cave.

“Good-bye, Stoneteller,” Jayfeather murmured. “May the Tribe of Endless Hunting light your path, always.”

CHAPTER 20

“Mouse dung! Which cat thought night training would be a good idea?” Thornclaw muttered, pulling away from a trailing bramble tendril and leaving a tuft of tabby fur behind. “I can’t see my own paws!”

Lionblaze suppressed a mrrow of amusement. “That would be Firestar,” he meowed. “You know he wants us to keep all our skills sharp.”

Thornclaw let out a snort of disgust as he headed after the rest of the patrol. Lionblaze brought up the rear with his ears pricked, but all he could hear was the faint pad of his Clanmates’ paw steps and the rustle of branches in the breeze. The forest was cool and quiet, with only a thin sliver of moon to light the cats’ path.

Brackenfur, who was leading the patrol, halted in the next clearing. “Right, this is the exercise,” he began. “We split into two patrols. I’ll lead one, with Thornclaw, Bumblestripe, and Birchfall. Sorreltail, you can lead the other, with Ivypool, Lionblaze, and Berrynose.”

“So what are we supposed to be doing?” Berrynose asked, scuffling his paws through the dead leaves.

“Each patrol has to approach and seize control of the old Twoleg nest,” Brackenfur explained. “And stop the other patrol from taking it, of course. Even better if we can track down and capture some of the opposing patrol.”

“Sounds like fun!” Bumblestripe exclaimed.

Sorreltail raised her tail. “Brackenfur, we don’t want to get into serious fights, do we? If one of us jumps on your patrol, then we’ve won, right?”

“In your dreams!” Brackenfur blinked at his mate with warm amber eyes. “But yes, good point. If you’re jumped on, you surrender. This is an exercise in night tracking, not fighting.”

When there were no more questions, Brackenfur waved his tail as a signal to his own patrol to move off. Sorreltail watched them go, her eyes narrowed; Lionblaze guessed she was trying to work out which route they would take. Then she summoned her own patrol with a flick of her ears and led the way into the trees.

The undergrowth was thicker here; it was hard to move quietly and harder still to see the other cats. The thin claw-scratch of moon and the weak starlight were hardly any use at all. Trying to creep down a slope covered with bracken, Lionblaze crashed into Sorreltail’s rump and realized that she had halted.