“It looks like they’re better off without Sol.” But as Lionblaze spoke, he knew that some of these cats wouldn’t agree with him. He had felt the pull of Sol’s charm, his quiet authority and sense that he knew exactly the right thing to do. Jingo and the others must have felt it too, and missed the loner when he was gone. Lionblaze thoughtfully ate his blackbird. It was plump and juicy, but it had a taint of the Thunderpath about it, and he would have found it hard to choke down if he hadn’t been so ravenous.

When they had finished eating, Speckle’s kits started to bat a scrap of leaf around, squealing and tumbling over one another in their excitement. Frisk, the biggest and boldest of the four, batted the leaf toward Lionblaze.

Some of Lionblaze’s tension melted away as he batted the leaf back to the kit. This was almost like playing with the kits back in the stone hollow. Speckle’s litter were big and strong, almost ready to become apprentices.

Soon they should be learning to fight and hunt, he thought. Do these cats have the skills to teach them properly?

Hollyleaf joined in the game, too, chasing the leaf and pouncing on it until all four kits collapsed, panting, beside their mother.

“They’re fine kits,” Lionblaze gasped, flopping down on the floor in front of Speckle. “They’ll grow up to be strong cats.”

“I hope so,” Speckle murmured. She bent over Frisk, licking his rumpled fur. Then she looked up again. “Whatever you think Sol has done, you’re wrong.”

Lionblaze’s belly lurched as he glanced at his sister; Hollyleaf’s green eyes were wide with alarm. How much does this cat know?

He was too startled to reply. After a couple of heartbeats, Speckle went on quietly: “Sol never gets his own paws dirty. If something has happened, another cat did it—maybe at Sol’s bidding, maybe not. You won’t be able to accuse him of anything.”

There was a yearning in her voice; even though she knew the damage Sol had done here, she clearly wanted him back.

“Is Sol the father of your kits?” Hollyleaf asked, reaching out her tail to touch the brown queen’s flank.

Speckle shook her head. “Their father left when the dogs started to become a problem.” She hesitated, then added almost defiantly, “I wanted them to be Sol’s. I know that the other cats say he betrayed us, but we were the ones who decided to fight the dogs. Sol didn’t force us to do anything.”

No, he just made it seem as if you couldn’t do anything else. Lionblaze couldn’t speak the words aloud to Speckle. It was obvious she was still deeply in love with the loner.

He and Hollyleaf exchanged another glance. Neither of them had mentioned Ashfur, but Lionblaze knew that the gray warrior’s death must be weighing on his littermate’s thoughts, just as it was on his own.

Speckle bent her head and went on grooming Frisk. “If Sol came back,” she mewed between licks, “I’d be very glad to see him.”