Eclipse

“Where are the rest of them?” hissed a WindClan cat from the far side of the clearing.

“And who in StarClan’s name is that?” came a murmur from the RiverClan cats.

All the Clans shifted anxiously as the ShadowClan leader padded to the center of the clearing. Sol followed, trotting lightly over the sandy earth.

Jaypaw was surprised by the sense of calm flowing from Blackstar’s pelt. The ShadowClan leader had seemed so lost and worried when they’d seen him in the camp. What had happened?

“I bring news,” Blackstar began.

“I hope ShadowClan’s all right,” Hollypaw whispered.

“Shh!” Brackenfur silenced her as Blackstar went on.

“ShadowClan will no longer attend Gatherings.”

An astonished silence fell on the clearing. Whatever the other cats had been expecting, this wasn’t it.

“We no longer believe that StarClan hold all the answers.

It was living cats who found the lake. It is living cats that hunt prey to keep themselves alive, and it was a living cat who predicted that the sun would vanish.”

He means Sol.

Onestar was stunned. “He predicted the sun would disappear?”

Amazement flooded through the cats like water washing through grass.

“I did no more than warn it would happen.” Sol’s mew was humble.

“How did you know?” Leopardstar demanded.

“How did you not know?” Sol answered. “You, after all, are the ones who share with StarClan.”

Barkface stepped forward. “They didn’t warn us.”

“And they didn’t warn me,” Sol meowed. “I merely followed my instinct and listened to my own voice of experience. You, of course, are entitled to believe in whatever you want…”

“What’s he saying?” Hollypaw gasped. “Does he think beliefs can be chosen like prey from the fresh-kill pile?” Her pelt seared Jaypaw’s where they touched. He flinched from her, lost in his own disappointment.

Sol was meant to be helping us! What is he doing with ShadowClan?

There was the sound of soft paw steps padding over the dry ground.

“They’re leaving.” Lionpaw sighed. “I guess that means Sol isn’t going to help us after all.”

As Blackstar and Sol swished away through the ferns, frightened whispers broke out among the Clans.

“Who was he?”

“Where did he come from?”

“Can it be true?”

Jaypaw felt his own Clan move restlessly around him, their pelts sparking with fear as they brushed against one another.

Firestar had padded to the middle of the clearing. “We must stay calm,” he called to all of them.

“Calm?” Onestar’s mew was filled with contempt. “Even you can’t change this, Firestar.”

Firestar bristled with anger. “I never said I could!”

“We mustn’t quarrel.” Leopardstar stepped in. “This is too important. We are three Clans now.”

“Three Clans!” Ashfoot gasped. The WindClan deputy paced around the leaders. “But there have always been four.”

“If ShadowClan rejects StarClan,” Mistyfoot ventured, “does that mean they can no longer be warriors?”

“Have they given up the warrior code?” Hollypaw’s breath was coming in fast gulps.

They’ve given up more than the code. Jaypaw glanced at the sky.

“Is the moon still shining?”

“It’s bright and clear,” Lionpaw assured him.

What is StarClan doing? Don’t they care what has happened?

“These are troubling times,” Leopardstar meowed. “We cannot even trust the sun to shine. Is it so surprising that Blackstar has lost faith in StarClan?”

Her words seemed to fill the clearing with an icy chill. No cat challenged her, tried to say that she was wrong, that their faith was worth fighting for. Sol warned that the sun would disappear, and it did. Where did that leave StarClan? Whispering to one another in frightened mews, the cats began to melt into the undergrowth.

“Come on.” Lionpaw was nudging Hollypaw. ThunderClan was leaving.

Hollypaw stumbled forward as if she had forgotten how to walk. Jaypaw pressed against her, guiding her path through the ferns.

“Are ShadowClan really not warriors anymore?” Poppyfrost asked.

“I suppose that’s for StarClan to decide,” Birchfall told her.

As Jaypaw waited for his turn to cross the tree-bridge, he tried not to let the urgent mews of his Clanmates unsettle him. He had to think this through. But they chattered on, crowding his thoughts.

“If StarClan hid the sun when we fought,” Dustpelt growled, “what will they do now that Blackstar has turned their back on them?”

“They haven’t covered the moon,” Brackenfur pointed out.

Thornclaw leaped onto the bridge. “Perhaps they’ll turn their backs on us all!”

As Jaypaw crossed the fallen tree, the warrior’s words buzzed like bees in his mind. StarClan had said nothing about the sun, or Sol. Perhaps they had given up on watching over the Clans below.

Jaypaw felt Lionpaw’s tail touch his shoulder as they padded along the WindClan shoreline. “Slow down,” he whispered.

Jaypaw eased his pace and let his Clanmates push on ahead until they were out of earshot. Hollypaw hung back with him, her paws dragging over the shingle.