Chapter ten: Exile
"Let all cats old enough to hunt their own prey gather beneath the Highrock for a clan meeting," Bluestar yowled, her eyes somber. Cats emerged from their dens, eyes wide when they spotted Whitestorm being held prisoner and the body of Fireheart.
Speckletail sat outside the nursery, her two young kits, Snowkit and Mistlekit, sat beside her, confused.
"Kits shouldn't be present for this meeting," Bluestar told the golden queen, who nodded and shooed her kits back inside.
"What happened?" Graystripe asked. "How did this happen?"
"Fireheart was murdered," Bluestar announced. "By none other than Whitestorm, one of our most loyal warriors." Bluestar paused in her speech as yowls of shock and anger rose from the crowd.
"What proof do you have?" Willowpelt demanded.
"Whitestorm's fur was found in a tree that Fireheart likely was pushed from. Whitestorm's fur was also found under Fireheart's claws," Bluestar explained. "Yellowfang states that his injuries suggest he fell from a great height. We found Fireheart's scent in the same tree where Whitestorm's fur was found."
"But none of my own scent, I take it?" Whitestorm demanded.
"A wise cat such as yourself would take steps to conceal their scent," Bluestar said curtly. "How do you explain your fur being found on the branch above Fireheart's scent was strongest? How do you explain how your fur got under his claws?"
"Anyone smart enough to not be caught would frame someone else to cover their own tracks!" Whitestorm yowled, desperation in his eyes.
"So you admit you tried to frame someone else? I noticed you tried to pass blame onto your former apprentice, the very cat who discovered you and the body," Tigerclaw's eyes were amber slits of hatred.
"No!" Whitestorm exclaimed. "Please, believe me, I found the body, and my fur was placed to frame me! How else do you explain the absence of my scent at the crime?"
"I thought we covered that," Lionheart growled. "You hid it."
"Then how come my pelt holds no sign of trying to hide it?" Whitestorm challenged.
"You cleaned your pelt, obviously," Sandstrike snarled from where she sat beside Fireheart's body. "You've been around a while, you've been part of ambushes. Fireheart is dead, and the blood is on your paws!"
Bluestar took a deep breath. "Whitestorm, you have one last chance. Thunderclan, we will hold a vote to decide who we believe is guilty. If you accuse Whitestorm, sit beside the elders' den. If you believe this was the fault of some other cat, sit under the Highrock."
"How do we know Fireheart didn't just fall, and the fur was old?" Willowpelt asked in a final effort to defend her mate.
"How did the white fur get under his claws?" Bluestar reasoned. Willowpelt nodded glumly and went to sit beside the elders' den with an apologetic glance at Whitestorm. Whitestorm had more supporters than Sandstrike had expected, including Lionheart and a few elders. He had a reputation in Thunderclan, but it wasn't enough to save him.
"The clan has spoken," Bluestar addressed Whitestorm directly, hatred clear in her voice. "The only reason I don't kill you where you stand is because of what you have done for this clan in the past. I wish your ambition hadn't gotten in your way, but it's too late now. I exile you from Thunderclan. If you are seen in our territory after sundown today, my warriors will have permission to kill you, or at the very least treat you like any other intruder."
Sandstrike saw tears build in Whitestorm's yellow eyes. The large tom hastily used a paw to wipe his face, and when he looked up at Bluestar again, his face was full of fury. "I've never done anything but be the best warrior I could for my clan, and now you doubt my word. One of you framed me after you committed the crime yourself, and you'll pay. Come forward now, or I promise I'll try to destroy Thunderclan until my last breath, and the true murderer will pay anyway."
"You claim innocence, but threaten your clan!" Sandstrike spat. "Get out of here, you Starclan's cursed, mouse-hearted piece of fox-dung! I swear to Starclan I'll kill you if you don't get your tail out of here now, Fireheart deserves vengeance!"
Funny, how a false accusation drives our most loyal warrior to insanity, Sandstrike thought as she watched her former mentor turn tail and slowly leave the camp.
"Tigerclaw, Runningwind," Bluestar said, her voice no longer full of authority. In fact, she sounded downright shaken. "Go after him, but be careful. I just want you to make sure he leaves."
"And if he doesn't?" Tigerclaw asked, unsheathing his long claws.
"Kill him," Bluestar said flatly. She looked towards the forest, her blue eyes swimming with regret. "I shouldn't have let him go, but I guess a part of me still thinks of him as my kin."
"He is a codeless, clanless cat," Sandstrike growled. "He has no kin, not any longer. Any bonds I had with him as his apprentice he has severed, just as he has severed Fireheart from life."
Sandstrike watched as Runningwind and Tigerclaw left the camp.
"Are you going to be okay?" Goldenflower asked her daughter.
"With time," Sandstrike murmured. "But I think I'd like some sleep before the vigil." Goldenflower's eyes were round with pity, and silently lay her tail on her daughter's shoulder before going to share tongues with Fireheart's body for the last time. Sandstrike went to her nest, dropping the emotional mask she had on. She tucked her nose under her tail and let herself slip into the Place of No Stars.
"You've got acting talent, I'll give you that," Mapleshade said appreciatively as Sandstrike got to her paws.
"Was that entertaining enough for you?" Sandstrike teased.
"Wasn't bloody enough," Thistleclaw grumbled. "Maybe next time you do more of what you did at Sunningrocks."
"Can't please everyone, can I?" Sandstrike asked sharply.
"Well, I think it was wonderful, but Thistleclaw has always had bad taste," Mapleshade cast a scathing glance over her shoulder at the gray warrior. "Now why don't we plan on getting rid of Lionheart?"
"Never a dull moment," Sandstrike remarked. "You don't let me bask in my glory for long, do you?"
"You see, doing that tends to lead to arrogance, and arrogance leads to underestimation," Mapleshade sounded like she was explaining the warrior code to a kit. "And if you underestimate your opponent, you'll end up dead, or caught in the act of murder."
"Young cats always assume they know everything," Thistleclaw added.
"Oh, and you do?" Sandstrike snapped. "Last I checked, you have a hard time seeing the clans. Training living cats makes it easier, but you can't see into the future, and you can't change it either. You don't have Starclan's divine power of sending signs and storms."
"Yet we can send nightmares," Thistleclaw snarled.
"Again, you think you know everything we can't do," Mapleshade smirked. "How do you think a warrior like Crookedstar rose to power? He was an average, loyal warrior, only he looked uglier. The only thing that made him stand out was his horrid jaw and how he overcame it, but others have overcome worse. Had I not given Hailstar a sign, he would never have become deputy, and later the leader."
"Then why not send a sign to Bluestar to tell her to make Tigerclaw deputy? We have Fireheart and Ravenleap out of the way, why do we have to muddy the waters more? Why must I continuously get my claws dirty for the sake of Tigerclaw?" Sandstrike asked.
"You chose to support him out of ambition," Houndleap pointed out. "You told him you'd help him in securing the deputy position-"
"Knowing that it'd be easy to ensure you were his deputy if something happened to Bluestar," Silverhawk interrupted. He continued in a barely audible mutter, "Not that it's worked well before."
"You got yourself into this mess," Maggottail concluded. "And you're in far too deep to get out. I suggest," his blue-gray eyes turned flinty, "That you follow through." He unsheathed his claws and brought them to his muzzle to study. "If you don't… something unfortunate might happen."
"That unfortunate event being Tigerclaw's downfall?" Sandstrike snapped.
"Do you want that?" Mapleshade snarled. "Why don't I just inform him now how disloyal you are? All this talk about betrayal-"
Sandstrike raised her voice. "All I ever asked was why Tigerclaw can't do the work himself. He had Longtail kill Ravenleap, I killed Fireheart, and Bluestar dealt with Whitestorm. All I want to know is why he can't do it himself and kill Lionheart."
"Have you considered that it'd be suspicious if Tigerclaw went on patrol with Lionheart but returned alone, and took the deputy position? The smart cats would question if it had really been an accident," Sparrowfeather hissed.
"So you want to cast suspicion on me," Sandstrike growled. "What if I'm caught? What if I'm killed? You wouldn't care, would you?"
"The only reason I'd care is that you'd die and come here, and I'd have to suffer through your whining until I fade," Mapleshade sneered. "It's your life, your clan. Why should I care what happens to Thunderclan?"
"I don't know, maybe because it was your clan?" Sandstrike suggested sarcastically.
"Was my clan," the transparent tortoiseshell spat. "They are as dead to me as the kits they killed. They are to blame for my kits' deaths, and I will always want them to suffer. That's why I enjoy watching you commit these crimes, it damages your clan and could lead to severe consequences later."
Sandstrike was silent for a moment before her anger boiled up. "You've set all this up so you can get revenge for an event that happened lifetimes ago! Any cat who was alive at that time, whether or not they had a paw in your kits' deaths, are long gone in Starclan! Why do you still care?"
"I've got nothing else to do in this stinking forest than argue with you and think about my life! And you know what always comes up first? The events that lead to my death," Mapleshade yowled. "The only thing I can still do is care about the cats who committed acts against me, while everyone else, even the cats who wronged me and were cruel to me, went to Starclan!"
"Except for me…" Muttered a sulky voice at the back of the growing crowd of Dark Forest warriors.
"You deserve nothing less than an eternity in this wretched place!" Mapleshade roared at a speckled golden she-cat, spittle flying from her jaws. "You let my kits drown!"
"I couldn't swim," the she-cat retarted as she got to her paws and left, the shadows swallowing her hungrily. Mapleshade turned back to Sandstrike.
"You will follow our orders and do as Tigerclaw tells you to, or you will spend the rest of eternity exiled here with the rest of us. One night you might walk here in your dreams, but will never again walk in your own paws. It would be so easy…" Sandstrike saw a frenzy of tortoiseshell fur flash in front of her eyes, while large paws gripped her shoulders and pushed her to the ground. Foul smelling, matted fur filled Sandstrike's vision. In the blink of an eye, the ginger warrior was at the complete mercy of the Dark Forest she-cat, who had her jaws around Sandstrike's throat.
"It would be so easy just to kill you on the spot," Mapleshade finished, releasing her grip on Sandstrike's throat while keeping her on the ground.
"But we have no other puppet to aid Tigerclaw," Thistleclaw continued for her. "That's all you are to us, Sandstrike. Darkstripe is too dimwitted for us to trust, and Longtail is already at his turning point in his alliance with this murder plot."
Longtail clearly has the right idea, Sandstrike thought sourly.
"You can continue to use me," Sandstrike said submissively, with a touch of veiled hostility. "But once Tigerclaw has what he wants, I'm cutting the strings. You get what you want, and I'm free of you."
"Very well," Mapleshade glared at her. "But only time will tell if you earn your freedom. In the meantime, return to the vigil. We've wasted too much time arguing, we'll discuss our plan after the vigil."
Sandstrike felt her consciousness slipping away from the rotting, starless forest and back into her body. When she blinked, her eyes closed on the Place of No Stars and opened to the living world.