Prologue

A shriek of pain ripped the night.

Claws flashed silver as the cats fought, writhing and snarling at each other. Their eyes luminous and glowing eerily. The space between the trees was packed with cats, and their yowls echoed through the dark woodland. The clearing was so crowded that, from above, with the moonlight glimmering on once-glossy fur clumped with blood, the forest floor seemed to be covered with a heaving sea of cats.

From above, hidden and silent in the dark branches, two eyes gleamed. Waiting for his chance, the cat watched his enemies. Waiting for one to come near. His claws slid from their sheaths, sinking through the bark of the branch where he crouched as though it were as fragile as a leaf.

Then, swift as a flash of lightning, he was gone. He dropped like a stone from the tree, plunging down with claws outstretched. The force with which he landed made the cat beneath him crumple, his legs folding helplessly beneath him, leaving him vulnerable to the merciless SkyClan cat.

The cat slowly dug his claws through the ThunderClan warrior's fur, feeling them meet flesh. The warrior spat and squirmed beneath him, fighting to get free. The SkyClan cat's lip curled, exposing sharp white teeth. How weak. Fierce satisfaction surged through him and he slowly brought his head down to the other's ear.

"Your Clan will pay for everything," he hissed, his voice soft and as full of venom as a snake's. "Nothing will suffice what you – all of you – have done to me." His claws raked over the shape beneath him, and the SkyClan warrior felt again that wild satisfaction as blood flowed over his paws. Still, it was not enough to please the hunger for revenge that burned inside him. If anything, it made him even more furious, even more desperate to extinguish it. He knew how far he would have to go until that thirst was quenched.

And he welcomed it.

But no – a terrified cry split the noise of the battle. The SkyClan tom's ears flew up. His eyes widened in horror. Not again. StarClan, no.

He was leaping away through the battle, the ThunderClan cat forgotten. Fear choked him, lapping at his insides and blurring everything with a black fog of dread. But the tom knew, however much he dreaded it, he must be there.

She was dying. He couldn't just run away like a frightened kit. But still, some part of him quailed at the thought of looking into one more cat's blank and sightless eyes, where he could remember seeing love and warmth directed at him.

"Dapplesong!" the voice tore from his throat of its own accord. The cat had nothing more in his mind: he only wanted to get to her, to find her before the last breath left her body. His muscles merely worked to serve his purpose. Everything else was beneath his notice.

Why should he care? What else could there be to take note of, when Dapplesong was in peril? The warrior weaved through the fighting cats, until he reached her. He stopped dead, his paws frozen in their tracks. Dapplesong lay sprawled in a pool of her own blood. Long gashes rippled over her soft tortoiseshell fur, marring her beauty. The queen's face was filled with pain and, beyond that, a strange calm.

"Dapplesong," the cat repeated her name, but this time his voice came out as a hoarse whisper. Nevertheless, her cloudy green gaze flicked towards him. Her soft look alone was enough to let the tom stumble forward to her side.

"This is all the doing of StarClan," he spat suddenly, raising livid eyes to glare at the heavens above. "Why must they take everything I love away from me?"

"No," Dapplesong rasped. Her flanks heaved as she tried to gather the strength to speak. But she knew, like he did, that her life was seeping away from her as steadily as the blood trickled from her wounds. "No," she repeated again. Every word seemed to have to be dragged from her, and it took every scrap of strength she had left. "Isn't StarClan's fault." Her breathing was coming in sharp gasps, and she panted the words.

"It isn't," the tom agreed suddenly, his eyes growing hard. Tiny flames leapt in their amber depths, smouldering cold orange fire. "It's the other Clans' fault. They will pay for everything." He bent his head down to touch noses with her. "I promise," he whispered. "I will avenge your death."

The light faded from Dapplesong's eyes. The warrior drew back, anger thundering through him. Spinning around, he leapt back into the battle with his claws unsheathed and teeth bared. He slashed and tore at his enemies with blind fury. Everything was shrouded in a red mist, and a strange rushing noise in the SkyClan cat's ears drowned out all other sounds.

The other Clans would pay. Every single last one of them.

And the he didn't care how far he went to avenge all his loved ones.