ROWANTHORN
They tracked them almost as far as Clawtower, the sacred mount where all Clans gathered in peace under the full moon. In the weak dawn light, he could see the dark ridge of trees along its unnatural lip, like an ancient great tree trunk that once might've shadowed the whole sky, only to be cut at the stump.
Great claw marks grooved down its sides, as if left by some monstrous mountain-sized cat. On the hilltop were the sacred hollow of trees, and the four jagged outcrops where each leader could gather and speak.
The shadow of Clawtower against the fiery stars tumbling from Silverpelt themselves made cats stop and gasp and hide their eyes in fear, or else stand transfixed by the sight. To him, he felt his heart swell from the blessing, chasing the distant stars on the horizon, and the two cats he hunted.
It's a wonderful sign.
Maybe they thought they could find safety there. Or beyond there, in some other Clan's camp, or beyond there, in the wildernesses never explored by Clan cats.
The trees thinned as they approached the border, and saw the two of them now, bounding through the tall sawgrass. Rowanthorn let up a loud yowl, doubly renewed strength and stamina pumping through his limbs; his followers echoed the cry, fanned out behind him like a flock.
Greeneyes was first to stumble, and he let Nightbird fall on the she-cat, tumbling and spitting in the grass and soon ringed by LeafClan warriors. Rowanthorn kept on, hawk-like focus on the other brown tabby she-cat ahead of her, his hunter instinct igniting in his brain.
Drawing in a pace closer, a pace closer, and pouncing, he dug his claws into her haunches. They tumbled over and over in the grass, the blood-faced moon and weeping stars streaking cloud-strewn skies, spinning around them.
Rowanthorn finally came up on top, holding his prey down in the grass.
She let up a yowl, and Greeneyes too. Nightbird was dragging his charge by the scruff, although she clawed and spit as they hauled the two queens together, forming a tight circle of LeafClan warriors around them.
"Traitors and codebreakers, all of you," Briarstalk growled from underneath Rowanthorn's weight, spitting up at him. "You too, Elderheart?"
"You'll all be banished until the end of your days!" Greeneyes yowled.
Rowanthorn let his weight off Briarstalk and stepped back with a whipping tail, letting her to her paws, but there was still no escape for either of them.
He had them both in his claws now.
"Briarstalk and Greeneyes," Rowanthorn said, gaze switching between them. "I'm returning to my Clan, while you're defecting from yours. For that reason, you are both exiled."
Briarstalk gave an enraged hiss. "With what authority do you exile us, you rogue? You, lying fox-heart! You are not even permitted to breathe the air or stand on the ground you tread on."
"Elderheart, you're limp as feathers on a fish," Greeneyes said. "What do you say to this, deputy? Does this loner lead LeafClan now?"
Elderheart just stood silent and stone-faced. So too the rest of LeafClan stood by in quiet complicity.
"Let me tell you why your mangy pelts will never be scented in this territory again," Rowanthorn went on, as if he could not hear. "You have misled Rosestar at every turn, turning him away from the warrior code, and helped harden his heart against me and so many of our clanmates. All these schemes and plots, they always seem to find their wellspring from one of you. And it was one of you who told him to exile me, was it not?"
Briarstalk just bared her fangs in another hiss.
"You're as full of empty wind as the HillClan moor," Greeneyes said. "Your own lies and bloodiness made you an exile. That's always what made you so dangerous."
Rowanthorn lashed his tail. "And more than that," he continued, "you've disrespected our clanmate by sneaking around with her mate in the twilight hours." That earned a few murmurs, a few mrrows of amusement from the gathered warriors, and pure venom from both she-cats. "So be gone, and let any LeafClan warrior who catches you on our hunting grounds challenge you as a rogue and a trespasser."
"You poisonous, bunch-backed toad!" Briarstalk yowled. "Rosestar was given nine lives, Rosestar was Stormstar's deputy, Rosestar is our leader! Only Rosestar has the power to exile me, and our only crime is loyalty to him! You spit on our warrior traditions with your pride."
"Don't speak to me of warrior traditions," Rowanthorn answered. "You'll go. Now."
Briarstalk and Greeneyes looked around at them wildly, but stood their ground, crouching, claws unsheathed.
"I won't. Death is more welcome to me than your return to LeafClan, Rowanthorn," Briarstalk said.
"Our warrior ancestors know who is right," Greeneyes said, but her voice still trembled in fear. "Rosestar will have your pelt."
Have your wish then. Nightbird lunged in without another word, dragging Greeneyes to the grass by her throat, twisting and clawing at the air. Then her legs jerked, twitching, and fell still, blood splotching the white patches in Nightbird's dark coat.
Rowanthorn and Briarstalk jumped at each other, crashing in a tumble of limbs and fur, claws and teeth, the stars weeping over them.
He felt claws rake against his flank, his face, even swiping at his soft underbelly and making him roar in pain. The other LeafClan warriors merely watched as they tumbled together, and finally his teeth clamped on a limp, and then Briarstalk's windpipe.
His teeth grazed over the soft flesh over her throat, and clamped hard until the iron taste of blood filled his mouth. She batted her paws against his side, over and over again, until the blows lost strength, lost speed, and then stopped moving.
He rose with a bloody muzzle, the two queens dead at his paws, and LeafClan gathered around him with silent gazes.
If treason didn't spot his heart before, didn't it now? Rosestar would call it murder. There was no turning back over the border, no unsaying his words, or pouring blood back into those gaping wounds. Gazing up, he let it sink into his head that the moon and the sun couldn't share the same sky.
There could either be a Rosestar in LeafClan, or a Rowanthorn in LeafClan.
He reminded himself of the sign of his destiny, amazing and terrible in the sky above him.
"Elderheart," Rowanthorn said at last, "you say Ivyflower watches over LeafClan camp?"
Elderheart could have been carved from stone, with a hard set expression. "She does."
"Please send word back that there is no danger to her, or to any cat in camp." Rowanthorn watched Elderheart's shoulders relax, assenting with a dip of his head. "But let them know what took place here, and how we dealt with these codebreakers."
Elderheart gave a gesture of his tail tip, and Beethorn, with eyes lingering on the two bodies, hastened away into the darkness. The other warriors looked at him now, but the air was different now. He almost felt like Rosestar on the Hollow Ash, innumerable eyes watching him, and he realized they waited for him to speak.
"Now for Rosestar, and Duskstar, and all their HillClan friends," Rowanthorn said. "We'll set our Clan right and show our leader the error of his ways."
Just a while more to work, and then a while to rest.
Yes, to rest in his own nest again after so long. That was why he was here. He lifted his eyes to the tailed stars above, feeling the countless searing eyes of StarClan somewhere above, masked now by the daylight. He prayed that meant they were still with him.