Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29 As he watched his defeated enemy disappear, Fireheart could not summon up the least sense of triumph. Surprising himself, he even felt a pang of regret. Tigerclaw could have been a warrior whose deeds would have been told to generations of kits —if only he had chosen loyalty over ambition. Fireheart could almost wail aloud at the waste. All around him talk was beginning to break out again, as cats mewed urgently to one another about the startling events. "Who'll be deputy now?" he heard Runningwind ask. Fireheart glanced at Bluestar to see if she meant to make an announcement, but she was slipping around the side of the Highrock toward her den. Her head was down and her paws dragged as if she were ill. There would be no announcement yet. "I think Fireheart should be deputy!" Cloudpaw declared, bouncing with excitement. "He'd do a great job!" "Fireheart?" Darkstripe's eyes narrowed. "A kittypet?" "And what's wrong with being a kittypet?"

第二十九章当火心看着他被击败的敌人消失时，他一点胜利的感觉也没有。 连他自己也惊讶地感到一阵后悔。 虎爪本可以成为一名战士，他的事迹将被代代相传——如果他选择忠诚而不是野心的话。 火心对着这一片荒芜几乎要大声哀号了。 他周围的人又开始议论起来，猫们急切地互相叽叽喳喳地谈论着这件令人吃惊的事。 “现在谁来当副手？”他听见奔风问。 火心瞥了蓝星一眼，看她是否打算宣布什么，但她正悄悄地绕过海岩酒店，朝自己的窝走去。 她低着头，拖着爪子，好像生病了。 目前还不会有任何宣布。 “我认为火心应该当副警长！”云爪兴奋得跳了起来。 “他会干得很棒的！”“Fireheart ?”暗条眯起眼睛。 “kittypet ?”“做一只小猫有什么不好？”

Cloudpaw bristled in front of the much bigger warrior. Fireheart was about to haul himself to his paws and intervene when Whitestorm pushed between Darkstripe and the young apprentice. "That's enough," he growled. "Bluestar will tell us who she chooses before moonhigh. That's the tradition." Fireheart let his shoulders relax as Cloudpaw scampered off to join the other apprentices. He could see that his apprentice didn't realize the seriousness of what had happened. The older warriors, the ones who had known Tigerclaw well, were looking at one another as if their world had just come to an end. "Well now, Fireheart." Graystripe looked up as Fireheart walked over to join his friend and Cinderpaw. "Would you want to be deputy?" There was pain in his eyes, and blood still trickled from his mouth, yet he looked more alive than Fireheart had seen him since Silverstream's death, as if the battle and the exposing of Tigerclaw's villainy had taken his mind off his grief for a moment.

云爪在这个块头大得多的战士面前竖起了鬃毛。 火心正想把自己抓起来干预，却被白风暴挡在了黑条纹和年轻学徒之间。 “够了。”他咆哮道。 "蓝星会在月高之前告诉我们她选了谁。 这是传统。”火心放松了肩膀，云爪跑去和其他徒弟会合。 他看得出他的徒弟没有意识到事情的严重性。 那些年纪大一点的战士，那些和虎爪很熟的人，都面面相觑，仿佛他们的世界刚刚走到了尽头。 “好了，火心。”灰条抬起头，火心走到他的朋友和灰爪身边。 “你想当副警长吗？”他的眼中充满了痛苦，嘴里还流着血，但他看起来比银溪死后火心见过的任何一次都更有活力，仿佛这场战斗和虎爪恶行的曝光让他暂时忘记了悲伤。

Fireheart couldn't prevent a faint prickle of excitement from creeping along his spine. Deputy of ThunderClan! Then he realized how hard a job it would be, to pull these shattered cats together and mold them into a Clan again. "No," he told Graystripe. "And Bluestar would never choose me." He got up, shaking his head as if to put these thoughts out of his mind. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Are those wounds very bad?" "He'll be fine," meowed Cinderpaw. "But his tongue was scratched, and it's still bleeding. I don't know what to do for a scratched tongue. Fireheart, would you fetch Yellowfang for me?" "Sure." The last Fireheart had seen of Yellowfang, she had been dragging Brokentail into her den; she had not reappeared for the condemning of Tigerclaw. He padded across the clearing and into the fern tunnel. As he pushed through the soft green fronds, he heard Yellowfang's voice. Something about it—perhaps its gentleness, so unusual for Yellowfang—made him stay in the shelter of the arching ferns for a moment longer. "Lie still, Brokentail. You have lost a life,"

火心忍不住一阵轻微的兴奋在他的脊背上蔓延。 雷族代表！然后他意识到，要把这些破碎的猫拉到一起，重新塑造成一个部落，这是一项多么艰巨的工作。 “不，”他告诉Graystripe。“蓝星绝不会选择我。” 他站了起来，摇了摇头，好像要把这些念头从脑子里赶出去。 “你感觉怎么样？”他问。 “伤口很严重吗？”“他会没事的，”灰姑娘喵喵地说。 “但他的舌头被抓伤了，还在流血。 我不知道舌头被抓伤了该怎么办。 火心，你能帮我把黄牙找来吗？”“当然。” 上次火心见到黄牙时，她正把布罗肯泰尔拖进她的窝里。她没有在虎爪被谴责的时候再出现。 他蹑手蹑脚地穿过空地，进入蕨类植物的隧道。 当他穿过柔软的绿色叶子时，他听到了黄牙的声音。 它的某种特质——也许是它的温柔，对黄牙来说太不寻常了——让他在拱形蕨类植物的庇护下多呆了一会儿。 “躺着别动，布罗肯泰尔。你失去了一条生命。”

Yellowfang was murmuring. "You're going to be fine." "What do you mean?" snarled Brokentail, his voice weak from loss of blood. "If I've got another life left, why do my wounds still hurt?" "StarClan have healed the wound that killed you," Yellowfang explained, still in the same soft murmur that sent prickles along Fireheart's spine. "The others need the skill of a medicine cat." "Then what are you waiting for, you scrawny old pest?" hissed Brokentail. "Get on with it. Give me something for this pain." "All right, I will." Yellowfang's voice suddenly turned icy cold, and a ripple of fear coursed through Fireheart. "Here. Eat these berries, and the pain will go away for good." Fireheart peered out of the ferns to see Yellowfang dabbing something with her paw. Carefully, deliberately, she rolled three bright red berries in front of the wounded Brokentail, guiding his paw until he could touch them. Suddenly Fireheart was transported back to a snowy day in leaf-bare. Cloudkit was staring at a small, dark-leaved bush that bore scarlet berries,

黄牙在喃喃自语。“你会没事的。” “你这是什么意思？”布罗肯泰尔咆哮道，他的声音因失血而变得微弱。 “如果我还有来生，为什么我的伤口还在痛？”“星族已经治愈了你的致命伤。”黄牙解释道，仍然用那轻柔的低语，刺痛了火心的脊背。 “其他人需要药猫的技能。” “那你还在等什么，你这个骨瘦如柴的老讨厌鬼？”布罗肯泰尔嘶嘶地说。 “继续吧。给我点止痛的药。” “好吧，我会的。”黄牙的声音突然变得冰冷，一阵恐惧传遍了火心。 “在这里。吃了这些浆果，疼痛就会永远消失。” 火心探出蕨类植物，看见黄牙用爪子轻拍着什么东西。 她小心翼翼地、不慌不忙地把三个鲜红的浆果滚到受伤的布罗肯泰尔面前，引导它的爪子，直到它能碰到它们。 突然间，火心被送回了一个光秃秃的雪天。 Cloudkit盯着一棵长着猩红浆果的深色小灌木，

and Cinderpaw was saying, "The berries are so poisonous we call them deathberries. Even one could kill you." He drew breath to call out a warning, but Brokentail was already chewing the berries. Yellowfang stood watching him with a face like stone. "You and my Clan cast me out and I came here," she hissed into his ear. "I was a prisoner, just like you. But ThunderClan treated me well, and at last they trusted me enough to be their medicine cat. You could have earned their trust, too. But now—will any cat trust you ever again?" Brokentail let out a contemptuous hiss. "Do you think I care?" Yellowfang crouched even closer to him, her eyes gleaming. "I know you care for nothing, Brokentail. Not your Clan, nor your honor, nor your own kin." "I have no kin." Brokentail spat out the words. "Wrong. Your kin has been closer to you than you ever dreamed. I'm your mother, Brokentail." The blind warrior made a curious rasping noise in his throat, like a terrible attempt at laughter.

灰姑娘说：“这些浆果有毒，我们叫它们死莓。 哪怕一只也能杀死你。”他吸了口气，想发出警告，但布罗肯泰尔已经在嚼浆果了。 黄牙面无表情地站在那里看着他。 “你和我的氏族把我赶出去，我才到这里来。”她在他耳边嘶嘶地说。 “我曾经是个囚犯，就像你一样。 但是雷霆家族对我很好，最后他们信任我，让我成为他们的药猫。 你也可以赢得他们的信任。 可是现在，会有猫再相信你吗？”布罗肯泰尔发出一声轻蔑的嘘声。 “你以为我在乎吗？”黄牙更靠近他，眼睛闪闪发光。 “我知道你什么也不在乎，布罗肯泰尔。 不是你的家族，不是你的荣誉，也不是你自己的亲人。” “我没有亲戚。”布罗肯泰尔吐出了这句话。 “错了。你的亲人和你的关系比你想象的还要亲密。 我是你的母亲，布罗肯泰尔。” 瞎眼的战士在喉咙里发出一种奇怪的刺耳的声音，像是在拼命地笑。

"Spiders have spun webs in your brain, old one. Medicine cats never have kits." "That's why I had to give you up," Yellowfang told him, seasons of bitterness dripping from each word. "But I never stopped caring… never. When you were a young warrior, I was so proud of you." Her voice dropped to a low snarl. "And then you murdered Raggedstar. Your own father. You killed kits of our Clan, and made me take the blame. You would have destroyed our Clan completely. So now it is time to put an end to all this treachery." "An end? What do you mean, you old…" Brokentail tried to rise to his paws, but his legs gave way and he fell heavily onto his side. His voice rose to a thin screech that chilled Fireheart to the bone. "What have you done? I can't…can't feel my paws. Can't breathe…" "I fed you deathberries." Yellowfang's eyes were mere slits as she gazed at him. "I know this is your last life, Brokentail. Medicine cats always know. Now no cat will ever be hurt again because of you." Brokentail's jaws parted in a cry of shock and

“老家伙，蜘蛛在你脑子里结过网。 药用猫从来没有工具包。” “这就是我不得不放弃你的原因。”黄牙对他说，字里行间流露出四季的苦涩。 “但我从来没有停止关心……从来没有。 当你还是个年轻的战士时，我为你感到骄傲。” 她的声音低沉地咆哮起来。 “然后你杀了破烂星。 你自己的父亲。你杀了我们部落的人，让我背黑锅。 你会彻底摧毁我们的部落。 所以现在是结束这一切背叛的时候了。” “结束了吗?你这是什么意思，你这个老……”布罗肯泰尔想站起来，可是他的腿不能动了，重重地倒在地上。 他的声音上升到一声尖细的尖叫，令火心寒心透骨。 “你做了什么？”我…我的爪子没知觉了。 不能呼吸……”“我喂过你死莓。” 黄牙盯着他，眼睛变成了两条缝。 “我知道这是你最后的一生了，布罗肯泰尔。 医猫总是知道的。 现在再也没有猫会因为你而受伤了。” 布罗肯泰尔震惊地叫了一声，嘴巴张开了