Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25 Sunhigh had come and gone by the time Hollyleaf and her brothers were able to slip away and head for the old Twoleg nest. Clouds had gathered during the night, and by the time they reached the border of their own territory, rain was hissing down steadily. Once they had crossed the border, Lionblaze led them by a roundabout route through the spindly trees, keeping as far away as possible from the ShadowClan border. All three cats stayed alert for any sign of a ShadowClan patrol. There'll be real trouble if we're caught this time, Hollyleaf thought. When they reached the old Twoleg nest, Sol was sitting in the entrance as if he had been expecting them. "Greetings," he meowed, rising to his paws as the three cats picked their way among the dripping brambles to reach the nest. "I thought you would come today." "Let's get this straight." Hollyleaf drew ahead

第二十五章 冬青叶和她的弟弟们好不容易脱身，动身前往旧两脚兽巢穴时，正午早已过去了。 夜里云层越积越厚，等他们走到自家领地边界时，淅淅沥沥的雨已经下个不停。 过了边界之后，狮焰带着他们绕远路穿过细弱的树林，尽可能离影族边界远远的。 三只猫全都绷紧神经，留意着影族巡逻队的任何踪迹。 这次要是被抓住，肯定会出大麻烦，冬青叶暗暗想道。 他们抵达旧两脚兽巢穴时，日神正坐在入口，仿佛早就料到他们会来。 "你们好，"他喵声道，三只猫踩着滴着水的荆棘丛择路走向巢穴时，他站起身来。 "我就知道你们今天会来。" "我们把话说清楚。" 冬青叶走到了最前面

of the others. "We don't want any more arguments. We'll let you help us fulfill the prophecy, as long as you tell us the name of our father." Sol's eyes glowed as he gazed at her, and Hollyleaf shivered. Once she had felt as if she could spend her whole life looking into this cat's eyes and hearing his voice. Even though she knew how dangerous he was, she still wasn't quite free from the snare of his charm. "Shall we go inside?" Sol offered, as if this was nothing more than a friendly visit. Hollyleaf and the others followed him into the damp interior and shook the raindrops from their pelts before finding a place to crouch on the cracked stones. "You might need to find a new place to stay," Hollyleaf warned the loner. "ShadowClan sent a patrol to report us to Firestar for being outside our territory." "What?" Sol's fur began to bristle. "Blackstar dared to do that? Is he allowed to dictate where cats go outside his own borders?" "Well, he thinks he is," Jayfeather muttered.

。 "我们不想再争执了。 只要你告诉我们父亲是谁，我们就让你帮我们完成预言。" 日神凝视着她，眼睛闪闪发亮，冬青叶忍不住打了个寒颤。 曾经她觉得，自己就算一辈子看着这只猫的眼睛、听他说话都愿意。 哪怕她清楚日神有多危险，还是没能完全挣脱他魅力的陷阱。 "我们进去谈好吗？" 日神发出邀请，仿佛这不过是一场普通的友好拜访。 冬青叶和另外两只猫跟着他走进潮湿的巢穴内部，抖掉皮毛上的雨水，接着在开裂的石头上找了个地方伏下身子。 "你可能得换个地方住了，"冬青叶提醒这只独行猫。 "影族派巡逻队向火星举报我们越界了。" "什么？"日神的毛一下子炸了起来。 "黑星居然敢这么做？ 他还能管得着别的猫在自己领地外面去哪吗？" "呵，他觉得他能管，"松鸦羽低声嘟囔道。

"You were doing nothing wrong!" Sol declared, his fur fluffing up even more and his amber eyes burning. "Blackstar is using this as a way to humiliate ThunderClan." "I'm not sure." Lionblaze was looking uneasy. "I think Blackstar is just being a bit overly keen to prove that he's keeping the warrior code again." Sol gave a snort of contempt. "The warrior code! Belief in StarClan! I can't understand why you cats think all that is so important." Hollyleaf's belly lurched. No! The warrior code matters more than anything! But she knew that she had to stay calm. If they quarreled with Sol, they would lose the chance of discovering who their father was. "I know so much more than StarClan does," Sol continued. "Did they tell you that the sun would vanish? You know very well they didn't. Doesn't that make me more powerful than your warrior ancestors? And if I'm so powerful without a prophecy, then the powers you three share must be magnificent!" Lionblaze's eyes glowed, and Jayfeather was unconsciously flexing his claws in and out.

"你根本没做错任何事！" 日神大声说，他的毛炸得更厉害了，琥珀色的眼睛冒着怒火。 "黑星这么做，就是为了羞辱雷族。" "我不太确定。" 狮焰看起来有些不安。 "我觉得黑星只是太急于证明自己现在遵守武士守则了而已。" 日神鄙夷地哼了一声。 "还武士守则！ 还信仰星族！ 我真搞不懂你们这群猫为什么把这些看得这么重要。" 冬青叶的心猛地一沉。 不可能！ 武士守则比任何东西都重要！ 可她知道自己必须冷静下来。 要是他们和日神吵翻，就再也没机会知道父亲是谁了。 "我知道的可比星族多得多，"日神继续说道。 "星族提前告诉过你们太阳会消失吗？ 你清楚得很，他们没有。 这不就说明我比你们的武士祖先更强大吗？ 要是我没靠预言都这么强大，那你们三个拥有的力量肯定更了不起！" 狮焰眼睛亮了起来，松鸦羽也不自觉地反复屈伸着爪子。

Hollyleaf had to make a huge effort not to be enthralled by Sol's voice. So far he's given us nothing, she reminded herself. His words are nothing but mist and sunshine, impossible to hold down. "That's all very well," she snapped, "but what do we have to do?" "ShadowClan cats are worthless!" Sol went on. "They have no right to their territory—and if they are left alone, they'll soon be invading yours. You need to fake evidence that ShadowClan is stealing ThunderClan prey, so that your Clan leader can launch an attack on them. Once you have ShadowClan's territory, you can invade RiverClan and WindClan." He glanced around, lowering his voice to a deep, vibrating purr as he continued, "That's what absolute power is. Controlling every cat in the territories by the lake!" Hollyleaf stared at Sol, feeling her paws tingle. Was this really what they had to do to gain power —fight against every cat in the rival Clans? She tried to imagine Firestar allowing that to happen, and couldn't. "I don't think—" she began uncertainly.

冬青叶费了好大力气才没有被日神的话迷住。 到现在为止他什么都没给我们，她提醒自己。 他的话不过是雾气和阳光，根本抓不住。 "说得倒是好听，"她打断道，"那我们到底要做什么？" "影族猫全都是没用的废物！" 日神接着说道。 "他们根本不配占有自己的领地——要是放任不管，他们很快就会入侵你们的领地。 你们要伪造证据，证明影族偷了雷族的猎物，这样你们族长就能对他们发动进攻了。 拿下影族的领地之后，你们就能接着入侵河族和风族。" 他环顾四周，压低声音，变成低沉震颤的呼噜声，接着说道："这才是绝对权力该有的样子。 掌控湖区领地上所有的猫！" 冬青叶盯着日神，只觉得爪子都发麻了。 难道他们想要获得力量，真的就得这么做——和所有敌对族群的猫开战吗？ 她试着想象火星会同意这种事，可根本想不出来。 "我不觉得——"她迟疑地开口说道。

But Sol wasn't listening to her. He padded off into a far corner of the den and hauled a rabbit out of the shadows. As he dropped it in front of her, Hollyleaf picked up the scent of ShadowClan mingled with the smell of fresh-kill. "I caught this in ShadowClan territory, and rubbed it on their scent markers," Sol explained. "You can take it back to the camp with you, and tell your Clan that you chased off a ShadowClan patrol." His eyes glinted with cold amusement. "What can ShadowClan do to deny it? Those stupid cats, they'd rather believe in nursery tales about dead ancestors than try figuring things out for themselves. All that nonsense about signs from StarClan!" Hollyleaf glanced at Lionblaze; he was staring at Sol with narrowed eyes, and his neck fur was slowly rising. "You're no different from Tigerstar," Lionblaze growled. "You don't want this for our sake. This is your ambition." Bunching his muscles, he launched himself upward, his claws extended toward Sol. Hollyleaf flung herself at him, just managing to knock him

可是索尔根本没听她说话。 他慢悠悠走到巢穴最远的角落，从阴影里拖出了一只兔子。 他把兔子丢在她面前，冬青叶闻到影族气味混着新鲜猎物的气息。 "这是我在影族领地里抓的，还在他们的气味标记上蹭过了。"索尔解释道。 "你可以把它带回营地，告诉你的族群，你打跑了一队影族巡逻队。" 他的眼睛闪着冰冷戏谑的光。 "影族能拿什么否认这件事？ 那群笨猫，他们宁愿相信关于死去先祖的童话，也不肯自己动脑子想明白。 全是些星族显灵的胡话！" 冬青叶瞥了狮焰一眼； 他眯着眼睛盯着索尔，脖子上的毛慢慢竖了起来。 "你和虎星没什么两样。"狮焰低吼道。 "你做这些根本不是为了我们。 这全都是你的野心。" 他绷紧肌肉纵身跃起，爪子朝着索尔伸了出去。 冬青叶猛地扑向他，好不容易才把他撞

away before he slashed into Sol's pelt. "What are you doing?" she gasped, pinning her brother to the floor. "This isn't part of the prophecy." Lionblaze shook Hollyleaf off and sat up, glaring at Sol. "He just wants to use us. The power is ours, not his!" "You're right." Jayfeather rose to his paws and flicked his tail toward Sol, who had not flinched at Lionblaze's attack or tried to respond to his accusation. "Sol doesn't care about us. He's still fighting his private battle with ShadowClan because Blackstar made him leave their territory. That battle has nothing to do with us. The truth about our father exists somewhere, but this is not the way to find it." Lionblaze rose to his paws. "We're leaving," he announced. "And we're not coming back." Hollyleaf stared at him in disbelief. "We can't!" she protested. "We need to know—" "We don't need anything that Sol can tell us," Lionblaze insisted. "We've been fools to trust him, when we know what he's done to other cats. Can't you see that he just wants war between all the Clans? The prophecy says nothing about that.

开，没让他抓伤索尔的皮毛。 "你在干什么？" 她喘着气把哥哥按在了地上。 "这不符合预言的安排。" 狮焰甩开冬青叶坐起身，怒视着索尔。 "他就是想利用我们。 力量是我们的，不是他的！" "你说得对。" 松鸦羽站起身，甩尾指向索尔，面对狮焰的攻击和指责，索尔既没退缩也没反驳。 "索尔根本不在乎我们。 他还在跟影族打私人仗，因为黑星把他赶出了领地。 这场仗和我们一点关系都没有。 关于我们父亲的真相一定在别处，但这绝不是找真相的方法。" 狮焰站起身。 "我们走。"他宣布道。 "而且我们再也不会回来了。" 冬青叶不敢置信地盯着他。 "我们不能走！" 她抗议道。 "我们得知道——" "我们根本不需要索尔告诉我们任何事。"狮焰坚持道。 我们明知道他对其他猫做过什么，还相信他，真是太蠢了。 你看不出他就想让所有族群开战吗？ 预言里根本没提过这种事。