A Forest Divided Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Allegiances

  Map

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Bonus Scene

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Back Ads

  About the Author

  Books by Erin Hunter

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  DEDICATION

  Special thanks to Kate Cary

  ALLEGIANCES

  CLEAR SKY’S CAMP

  LEADER CLEAR SKY—light gray tom with blue eyes

  LEAF—gray-and-white tom

  QUICK WATER—gray-and-white she-cat

  NETTLE—gray tom

  THORN—mangy tom with splotchy fur

  ACORN FUR—chestnut brown she-cat

  KITS BIRCH—brown-and-white tom

  ALDER—gray-and-white she-kit

  TALL SHADOW’S CAMP

  LEADER TALL SHADOW—black, thick-furred she-cat with green eyes

  GRAY WING—sleek, dark gray tom with golden eyes

  JAGGED PEAK—small gray tabby tom with blue eyes

  DAPPLED PELT—delicate tortoiseshell she-cat with golden eyes

  SHATTERED ICE—gray-and-white tom with green eyes

  CLOUD SPOTS—long-furred black tom with white ears, white chest, and two white paws

  LIGHTNING TAIL—black tom

  THUNDER—orange tom with amber eyes and big white paws

  HOLLY—she-cat with prickly, bushy fur

  MOUSE EAR—tom with ears the size of a mouse’s, missing part of one ear

  MUD PAWS—tom with four black paws

  KITS OWL EYES—gray tom

  PEBBLE HEART—brown tabby tom with amber eyes

  SPARROW FUR—tortoiseshell she-kit

  EAGLE FEATHER—brown tom

  STORM PELT—gray tom with bue eyes

  DEW NOSE—tabby she-kit with white-tipped nose and tail

  RIVER RIPPLE’S CAMP

  LEADER RIVER RIPPLE—silver, long-furred tom

  NIGHT—black she-cat

  DEW—she-cat with a short, thick gray coat and bright blue eyes

  WIND RUNNER’S CAMP

  LEADER WIND RUNNER—wiry brown she-cat with yellow eyes

  GORSE FUR—thin, gray tabby tom

  SLATE—gray she-cat

  KITS MOTH FLIGHT—she-kit with green eyes

  DUST MUZZLE—gray tom-kit

  ROGUE CATS

  STAR FLOWER—golden she-cat with green eyes

  SNAKE—gray tom

  MAP

  PROLOGUE

  Cold mist pooled in the moonlit hollow. It swirled like water around the paws of the cats pacing restlessly beneath the oaks.

  Clear Sky watched them from the edge of the clearing. Their pelts seemed to sparkle as though dusted with starlight. He shivered as he caught sight of Gray Wing, waiting at the far side of the clearing. The dead outnumber the living, Clear Sky thought, as he glanced toward the shallow mound at the edge of the hollow. Beneath the slow-settling earth lay the bodies of cats he had once hunted beside, killed in the Great Battle.

  The spirit cats paused and glanced at him, then began moving once more, murmuring to one another in hushed whispers. Above them, the four great oaks creaked in the wind, their frost-whitened branches stripped clean by the cold.

  Leaf-bare gripped the earth like a wolf holding prey. The earth felt like stone beneath Clear Sky’s paws. Couldn’t the spirit cats have summoned him to a greenleaf clearing, where warm winds could bathe his fur? After all, this was a dream.

  A dark gray she-cat split from the others and padded toward him. “You came.”

  “Yes, Storm. I came.” Clear Sky’s heart ached with familiar grief. How different his life would be now if he hadn’t let her leave the forest when she was heavy with his kits. “But why have you called me here?”

  Storm’s gaze hardened. “We’re growing tired of waiting.”

  Waiting? For what? Before Clear Sky could ask, bracken cracked on the slope. River Ripple was pushing his way through the frosty stems, his thick gray pelt silvered by the moonlight as he made his way down to the smooth earth at the bottom. Close by, Tall Shadow blinked near the roots of an oak. She looked surprised as though just awakening. Thunder’s ginger pelt glowed in the shadows. The spirit cats must have summoned all the leaders to the dream.

  Fur brushed the frost-wilted grass behind Clear Sky, and he turned to see Wind Runner slip silently past him. She had separated from Gray Wing’s group. Had the spirit cats called her too?

  Clear Sky shifted his paws uneasily. The living stood separately while the dead stood together. Were the spirit cats all that united them now?

  “Well?” Storm’s sharp mew jerked him back from his thoughts.

  “What?”

  “We told you to grow and spread like the Blazing Star. . . .” Storm glanced back at the living cats. “You haven’t begun yet. Is fear holding you back?”

  “Never!” Clear Sky puffed out his chest. “But how far can we spread? We already rule the forest and the moor. We recruit more cats whenever we can.” He thought of how his own group had grown since the last dream.

  “It’s not enough!” An angry mew sounded beside Storm.

  Clear Sky stepped back in surprise as he looked down and recognized the clear, bold gaze of a young cat he thought he’d never see again. The last time he’d seen this kit, her brown pelt had clung to jutting ribs. Hunger had killed her in the mountains before she’d ever left their mother’s nest. Now she stood, chin high, eyes blazing. Her sleek pelt sparkled in the starlight; firm muscle showed beneath.

  His throat tightened as he gazed at his younger sister. “Fluttering Bird!” he rasped. “It’s you!”

  “Of course it’s me.” Her yellow eyes blazed.

  “I must go and speak with Thunder.” Storm dipped her head and backed away, leaving Clear Sky alone with his sister.

  “It’s so good to see you—”

  Fluttering Bird cut Clear Sky off. “Listen, you mouse-heart!”

  Clear Sky stiffened. She was still a kit. How dare she speak to him like that? And yet . . . He frowned, puzzled. How long had she been with the spirit cats? She still looked like a kit, but she could see things he couldn’t. His pelt rippled uneasily. Could his younger sister be wiser than him now?

  She held his gaze. “There were still leaves on the trees when we told you to spread like the Blazing Star. You talked about it, but you’ve done nothing!”

  “We’ve survived,” Clear Sky argued. “Food is scarce and leaf-bare’s here.”

  Fluttering Bird’s ears twitched. “You should be thinking of your kits and your kits’ kits. Strength doesn’t come from cowering in hollows and glades like frightened prey.”

  Clear Sky leaned over her, pelt bristling. “I never cower!”

  “Then act!” Fluttering Bird stood her ground. “Follow your hearts! They will lead you home.”

  Clear Sky frowned. “You want us back in the mountains?”

  “Not your old home!”

  “Then w
here?”

  “We can’t make every paw step for you. That will weaken you all! We have told you all you need to know.” Fluttering Bird’s gaze scorched into his. “Now you must start thinking for yourselves.”

  Clear Sky stared past her, his gaze lighting on Tall Shadow as she shared words with Moon Shadow, Hawk Swoop, and Jackdaw’s Cry. Wind Runner was with her lost kits. She nuzzled them, and he could hear her urgent purr throbbing through the cold night air. Her mew was sharp with grief. “My dear kits. Come closer. We won’t be together for long.”

  Thunder paced to and fro, lifting his head eagerly as Storm padded to join them. Fox, Petal, and Frost crowded around River Ripple, their soft mews lost in the breeze. Gray Wing was several tail-lengths away, speaking with Shaded Moss and Turtle Tail. How separate they seemed. “We traveled here together,” Clear Sky murmured, half to himself, “but now we don’t even share prey.” Sadness tugged in his belly.

  “And who’s to blame for that?” Fluttering Bird growled. “You turned against your own.”

  “That’s not true!” he snapped back. “I’ve always done what I thought was best! I tried to take care of my own.”

  “Then why do you stand here alone?” Fluttering Bird demanded. “Who do you have to care for you?”

  Clear Sky swallowed, unable to answer her. Gray Wing seemed suddenly far away, the clearing stretching like a deep gorge between them. Thunder had not even met his eye since arriving in the hollow. Clear Sky knew they still silently blamed him for the battle and for taking One Eye into his group and nurturing him until he became a threat to all the cats. There was a time when they wanted to be near him. But he had driven them away. And now? Would any of them come now if he needed them?

  He stared at Fluttering Bird. Was she trying to hurt him? “Why are you saying this?”

  “You have followed your head, not your heart, Clear Sky.” She flicked her tail. “Each cat here has a home waiting. Even you. But you have to find it for yourselves, and you must find it soon.”

  “How?” Where was home? How would they know when they found it?

  “Follow your hearts.” Fluttering Bird began to fade before his eyes. He stiffened. Not yet! The other cats were fading too, growing transparent as the dream began to disappear. The stars blurred above his head and the hollow grew hazy.

  “Fluttering Bird!” Clear Sky struggled to see her. “Where should our hearts lead?”

  Who do you have to care for you? Her words rang in his mind. Did she want him to be close to his kin once more? Perhaps the only way to spread and grow like the Blazing Star was to join forces—be like a Tribe once more.

  Darkness swamped him, and he blinked open his eyes.

  He was back in his nest again. He gazed across the moonlit hollow where the forest cats had made their camp. His hackles smoothed as calm enfolded him. I understand! Fluttering Bird was trying to tell him how foolish he’d been to split from the others and mark out his own territory.

  Determination surged through him. Wide awake now, he stood and crossed the clearing. He slipped past the brambles that shielded the camp, then bounded out into the forest. Starlight sparkled on his pelt as he glanced up at the sky. I understand now, Fluttering Bird! I must draw the cats close—together once more—so that we can grow strong and spread like the Blazing Star.

  CHAPTER 1

  Clear Sky yawned and stretched his forepaws until they trembled. He looked over the edge of his nest. A biting wind sliced beneath the arching root, which usually shielded him as he slept. It nipped his ears, and he narrowed his eyes against its sting as he gazed over the clearing.

  Quick Water was crossing the camp, her fur fluffed up against the cold. A shriveled mouse hung from her jaws. Birch and Alder peeked out from beneath the low, spreading yew. Petal had made their nest beneath its dark green branches after she’d adopted them. Their own mother had been killed, and they hardly remembered her scent. Now Petal was dead too, taken by the sickness that had swept the forest before leaf-bare had come. Birch and Alder had nearly died, but the Blazing Star had saved them.

  The Blazing Star. Clear Sky felt a pang of grief. If only Star Flower had told them about it sooner. It was the only healing herb that could cure the sickness. Now it shaped their future. He stood and shook out his fur as Alder and Birch hurried out to meet Quick Water.

  “Is that for us?” Birch’s eyes were hopeful.

  His sister, Alder, dipped her head to Quick Water. “If you tell us where you found it, we could go and catch our own.” The littermates were almost fully grown, lithe and fast and always eager to hunt. Clear Sky felt proud of the cats they’d become, and was pleased that he’d decided to let Petal take them in.

  “Don’t be squirrel-brained.” Quick Water dropped the mouse at their paws. “We can share this one and hunt together later.”

  Alder and Birch blinked at her gratefully.

  Clear Sky felt a prickle of worry as he watched them crouch close to Quick Water, taking turns to snatch a bite of the skinny prey. Prey was scarce. The sickness had killed much of it, and the forest was eerily silent, even for leaf-bare.

  He shook the chill from his fur and hopped out of his nest. He’d wandered in the forest until dawn and had returned to rest, weary from the cold. The memory of the dream had followed him into sleep. Fluttering Bird wanted the cats to join together. They must be like the Blazing Star and gather like petals around the heart of a flower. He was sure of it. It made sense. If the cold had reached this deep into the forest, it would be bitter on the high moor. And with prey so scarce, the moor cats would surely freeze or starve if they stayed in their hollow. They’d be safer here, sheltered by the trees, hunting together, as Fluttering Bird had ordered.

  He must tell them.

  Perhaps they already know? For the first time he wondered what the spirit cats had shared with the others. Hope flickered in his belly. Perhaps they were ready to unite.

  He slid out from beneath the root, its gnarled bark scraping his spine, and padded across the frozen earth.

  Pink Eyes was crouching in the shelter of the spreading holly, squinting against the wind. Tiny flecks of snow swirled in the air and clung to his fur. Pink Eyes’s tail twitched with annoyance and he drew his paws tighter under him.

  Clear Sky nodded to him. “Where’s Blossom?” he asked.

  The old tom had arrived at the border with the tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat when the moon was only a scratch of silver in the sky, not long after the battle with One Eye.

  “Still asleep,” Pink Eyes answered, flicking his muzzle toward the holly bush. In the shadows beneath, Clear Sky could make out Blossom’s pelt. When she was awake, the young she-cat hardly stood still. She was skittish and full of energy.

  When Clear Sky had first met her, she’d been leaping for a dead leaf as it fluttered toward the forest floor while Pink Eyes sat a few tail-lengths away, his thin white tail curled neatly over two dead mice. He’d stood when Clear Sky had approached and had spoken before Clear Sky had a chance to challenge them for loitering near his border. “May we join your group?”

  There had been a time when Clear Sky would have driven the two strays from his border—especially Pink Eyes, whose sight was so poor he couldn’t see a bird in a tree—but these cats had respected his scent line and kept their hackles soft, and Clear Sky had learned that friends were better than enemies. So they’d joined the group, and Clear Sky was soon glad that they had. Pink Eyes’s weak eyesight had strengthened his other senses. The white tom could hear a mouse in the next glade and smell a rabbit through a patch of wild garlic.

  Alder looked up from her meal, her splotchy gray-and-white pelt pricking where tiny snowflakes had settled along her spine. As she licked her lips, her gaze flashed toward Pink Eyes’s twitching tail. Clear Sky saw mischief light up her eyes. She lunged and grabbed it, rolling onto her back. With a purr, she began pummeling it playfully with her hind legs.

  “Hey!” Pink Eyes turned on her angrily. “Chase your own ta
il!”

  “Why?” Alder froze, her paws in the air, and blinked at him innocently. “I’m not a dog!”

  Pink Eyes glared at her. “And my tail isn’t prey.”

  Birch padded to his sister’s side, his ginger pelt bright in the weak morning light. “I just wish prey was so easy to catch,” he said lightly.

  The old tom snorted and marched away. He circled in a sheltered spot between the roots of an oak, then sat down and stared pointedly at Birch and Alder.

  The brambles at the far end of the camp rattled. Nettle padded through the gap at one side. His thick gray pelt was damp. Acorn Fur followed him, a battered starling hanging from her jaws. Leaf padded after them, carrying a scrawny squirrel.

  “I’ve never seen prey so scarce.” Nettle padded past his campmates and stopped beside Clear Sky. “I don’t know how we’ll make it to newleaf.”

  Anxiety wormed in Clear Sky’s belly. Alder and Birch were staring hungrily at Acorn Fur’s starling. Quick Water’s mouse clearly hadn’t filled their bellies. We must survive! Clear Sky glanced through the trees. Was there more prey on the moor? Suddenly the boundaries he’d fought so hard to establish seemed to trap him. We need to share what we have, not guard it. Fluttering Bird must have known that.

  “I’m going to Gray Wing’s camp,” he told Nettle.

  Nettle’s ear twitched. “Why?”

  Clear Sky shifted his paws. Nettle had fought beside him to keep the boundaries they’d made. What would he say when he heard Clear Sky had suddenly decided that the cats should share their land and live as one group? He would understand once he knew that it was what the spirit cats wanted. But there wasn’t time to explain now. “I want to see Jagged Peak’s kits.” This was true. He hadn’t visited his brother’s litter yet.

  “The weather’s closing in.” Nettle glanced at the thick yellow clouds crowding the treetops. “There’ll be heavy snow before the day’s out, and if the wind picks up—”

  Clear Sky interrupted. “I come from the mountains, remember? I’m used to getting snow in my whiskers.”

  Nettle shrugged. “It’s your pelt.” He glanced across the clearing as Blossom slid out from beneath the holly.