Warriors: Power Of Three 2 - Dark River (25 page)

“Pretty much the same as us.”

Poppypaw purred. “Don’t let Brackenfur hear you saying that,” she warned. “You’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“Look!” Honeypaw sat up and stared at the medicine den.

Leafpool was leading Cinderpaw slowly out into the clearing.

Cinderpaw was limping, hardly touching the ground with her injured leg, but the rushes and cobwebs were gone. Her leg looked thin, the fur pressed flat against the skin from being bound up so long, but her eyes were bright with excitement.

“Hollypaw!” Leafpool called across the clearing.

Hollypaw leaped to her paws, gulping down a last mouthful of mouse, and hurried to greet Cinderpaw. She flicked her tail over her friend’s ears. “You’re better!”

“Not completely,” Leafpool warned. The medicine cat’s eyes glittered with worry. “But she’s fidgeting around in the den so much, I thought she’d better get some fresh air.”

“Can we go out into the forest?” Cinderpaw mewed.

“No!” Leafpool bristled. She stared at Hollypaw. “I thought you could help Cinderpaw get some gentle exercise.”

She emphasized gentle as though she were teaching Hollypaw a new word.

“Of course!” Hollypaw kneaded the ground.

“Stay in the clearing,” Leafpool ordered. She glanced at Cinderpaw. “And be careful!”

“She’s acting like a badger with sore stripes!” Hollypaw whispered as Leafpool padded back to the medicine den.

“I know,” Cinderpaw purred. “She worries too much. She thinks if I breathe too hard I’m going to be crippled for life.”

Hollypaw sniffed Cinderpaw’s leg. It smelled strongly of comfrey. “How does it feel?”

“Stiff and sort of delicate,” Cinderpaw mewed. “But it doesn’t hurt anymore. I just have to be careful.”

“Can you put weight on it?”

Cinderpaw slowly pressed her pad down onto the ground.

She winced and then her face relaxed. “Not bad.” Gingerly she padded forward, then walked more easily to the middle of the clearing. Stretching out her forelegs she pressed her chest toward the ground. “It’s great to be outside again.”

Hollypaw hurried to the honeysuckle bush where she had left a pile of moss after cleaning out the elders’ den. She tore a small clump away with her teeth and rolled it into a ball.

“Can you still catch?” She tossed the ball across the clearing. Her heart lurched. What if Cinderpaw stretched up to catch it? Could her hind leg take the strain?

Cinderpaw let the ball land in front of her and hooked it up with a claw. “Not if you throw as badly as that,” she retorted. She tossed the moss ball back to Hollypaw.

Hollypaw leaped and batted it back. This time Cinderpaw lifted a forepaw and stretched up on three legs to catch the ball between her teeth.

“Nice one!” Hollypaw raced back to her friend.

“I’ve been practicing in the den with Jaypaw,” Cinderpaw mewed, dropping the ball at her paws.

“He’s been playing with you?” Hollypaw was surprised.

Jaypaw always seemed so serious when he was in the medicine den.

“Sometimes,” Cinderpaw told her. “But only to keep me quiet.” She looked at the ground. “Actually, I don’t think he likes having me around.”

“Nonsense!” Hollypaw mewed. “How can a medicine cat resent his patients?” She butted Cinderpaw on the shoulder.

But she could guess just how grouchy Jaypaw had been with Cinderpaw. If only he could hurry up and learn a bit of kindness from Leafpool!

“Can we play?” Foxkit and Icekit came hurtling from the nursery.

Foxkit swiped the moss ball away from Cinderpaw. His fluffy pelt glowed like autumn leaves in the afternoon sunshine.

“Hey!” Icekit skidded past him, knocking the moss ball away.

Foxkit lunged after her. “I got it first!” He tumbled her to the ground.

Hollypaw darted behind the squirming bundle of orange-and-white fluff and picked up the moss ball. “Now neither of you has it.” She flung it over the two kits, and Cinderpaw reached up with a forepaw and snagged it with a claw.

“That’s the trouble with being no bigger than a hedgehog,”

Cinderpaw teased. “You can only catch worms!” She flicked the ball back over the kits’ heads for Hollypaw to catch.

Icekit and Foxkit leaped into the air, reaching for the ball as it flew over their heads.

“You’ll have to jump higher than that!” Hollypaw called.

“Not if you can’t throw it!” Foxkit dashed at Hollypaw and leaped onto her back. He scrabbled at her fur, making her stagger sideways.

Icekit grabbed the moss ball from her paws. “Trying to steal our prey!” she hissed.

Foxkit dug his claws into Hollypaw’s pelt. “Thief!”

“She must be a WindClan warrior!” Icekit cried, dropping the moss ball and throwing herself at Hollypaw. “Attack!”

“Help!” Hollypaw pretended to yelp in terror as she tus-sled with the two kits but, though she was playing, an icy chill shivered deep in her belly. Even the kits were ready to fight WindClan. The coming battle was waiting like a fox in the shadows.

Jaypaw plucked at the moss in the bottom of his nest, softening it before he curled up for a good night’s sleep. Cinderpaw was already snoring, worn out by her game with Hollypaw. She would be moving back to the apprentices’ den before long, and the medicine de Good n would be quiet again.

Outside, the thorn barrier rustled. The last patrol was returning, their unhurried paw steps a signal that everything was fine.

Jaypaw heard water sloshing. Leafpool was soaking a wad of moss in the pool to leave beside Cinderpaw’s nest in case the apprentice woke thirsty in the night. “I think we should take a look at the catmint by the old Twoleg nest tomorrow,”

she meowed. “I want to see if there’s much new growth.”

“Are we going to pick any?”

“Not yet.” Leafpool’s paws scuffed across the ground as she carried the dripping moss to Cinderpaw’s nest. “But I want to know whether there’ll be a good harvest this year.”

“There’s been enough rain.” Jaypaw tucked his nose between his paws and closed his eyes. “Good night.”

“Sleep well.” Leafpool’s nest crunched as she climbed into it and started washing. The gentle lapping of her tongue began to lull Jaypaw to sleep.

“Leafpool?”

Firestar’s mew woke him with a start. The ThunderClan leader was pushing his way through the bramble entrance.

Jaypaw lifted his head, instantly alert and trying to sense what pulsed beneath their visitor’s pelt.

Unease.

Leafpool jumped out of her nest. “What is it?”

“This concerns both of you,” Firestar meowed.

Jaypaw got up too, not bothering to pretend he hadn’t been listening.

“Is something wrong?” Leafpool whispered anxiously.

Firestar shifted his paws. “I want you both to travel to the WindClan camp tomorrow.”

“The WindClan camp?” Leafpool echoed. “Do you want us to speak to Barkface?”

“No.” Firestar was choosing his words carefully. “Onestar.”

“Why us?”

“Only you can make the journey. If I send warriors, they’ll be seen as a threat.”

“What do you want us to say to him?” Leafpool sounded puzzled.

“I need you to find out what’s going on in WindClan.”

A spying mission! Jaypaw felt a surge of excitement. He wants us to find out their weaknesses. But something wasn’t right. He could detect no scheming in Firestar’s mind. Only honest anxiety.

“I’ve just been speaking with Mousefur,” Firestar explained. “She seems to think Hollypaw is right and that all this talk of battle has grown out of gossip and guesswork. I need you to find out whether RiverClan has actually invaded WindClan territory.”

Jaypaw blinked. “What difference does that make?”

“If there’s going to be a battle with WindClan, I want it to be for a good reason,” Firestar replied.

Leafpool swished her tail over the ground. “But if they cross our border, isn’t that reason enough?”

“Yes,” growled Firestar, “but we might be able to stop them from crossing the border from now on.”

“They’ve already done it once and gotten away with it,”

Jaypaw pointed out. He ignored Leafpool’s hiss of warning; apprentices weren’t meant to speak to the Clan leader in that way.

“That could have just been a mistake.” Jaypaw felt Firestar’s amber gaze warm his pelt. “Their apprentices would not be the first to stray onto another Clan’s territory.”

He means Hollypaw!

Firestar went on. “It makes sense for WindClan to invade us if RiverClan has taken their territory. But what if Onestar leads an attack just because he’s afraid that RiverClan might take his territory? Blood would be shed for no reason.”

“I don’t understand what you think we can do.” Leafpool plucked at the ground. “If we find out that RiverClan hasn’t invaded, do you want us to ask Onestar not to fight? Won’t that make us look weak?”

Firestar stiffened. “You must make it clear that we are ready to fight if we have to,” he meowed. “I’d just rather fight a battle driven by real need, not empty fears.”

“But still, you want us to persuade Onestar not to attack us unless he has no other option?” Leafpool pressed. “Won’t we look like cowards?”

Anger flashed from Firestar’s pelt. “We’re not cowards,”

he snapped, “but why should we fight pointless battles to prove it?”

Dawn was bright but cold. A pale sun peeped over the forest at the top of the hollow but Jaypaw could smell rain on the wind. He waited at the camp entrance while Firestar gave his final orders to their escort. Brambleclaw and Dusltpelt were going to accompany them to the WindClan border and wait for their return.

Leafpool pressed against him. Jaypaw could still sense doubt darkening his mentor’s thoughts. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yes.” Jaypaw’s tail twitched with excitement. There was more to being a medicine cat than picking herbs and looking after sick cats after all. The future of the Clan could depend on what he and Leafpool found out.

There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.

“Come on, then.” Brambleclaw padded through the thorn tunnel. Leafpool headed after him and Jaypaw followed, leaving Dustpelt to fall in behind. He could feel the warrior’s dark pelt bristling with uncertainty. Dustpelt thought that Firestar was being hasty, that it was too soon to let WindClan know they would rather avoid a battle. Brambleclaw’s thoughts were harder to read, his mind clouded by doubt one moment, brightened by hope the next.

The patrol padded wordlessly over the ridge and down into the open moorland, which stretched into WindClan territory. Dustpelt was the first to voice his disquiet as they reached the border. “Are we just going to sit and wait for a WindClan patrol to ask us if we need help?” His mew was scathing.

“Yes,” Brambleclaw growled.

Dustpelt paced up and down, re-marking the bushes, irritation flashing from him so fiercely that it made Jaypaw’s fur stand on end. How humiliating to wait for permission from WindClan to go any farther.

“Perhaps Jaypaw and I should go on by ourselves,” Leafpool suggested. “That’s what we’d do if we needed to speak with Barkface.”

Jaypaw nodded. They were medicine cats. They might as well take advantage of their special freedom to travel.

“No.” Brambleclaw’s mew was firm. “You’re not going to speak with Barkface, and it’s too soon after our run-in with that WindClan patrol for you to walk into their territory without them knowing. My duty is to make sure you’re safe.”

His fur brushed the grass as he sat down. “We’ll wait.”

Jaypaw sniffed the air. The sun was warming the earth and he could smell heather budding and young rabbits. Suddenly, he stiffened: A musky tang edged the wind. “WindClan cats are coming.” He recognized the scents of Harepaw and Tornear. There were two more cats with them. Their scents were familiar but he couldn’t yet name them.

“It’s Nightcloud.”

Jaypaw felt tension spiking from Leafpool as she identified the WindClan she-cat. He knew there was some connection between his mentor and Nightcloud, who was the mate of Crowfeather. He had felt it thicken the air between them before, but he had no idea what it could be. As he probed Leafpool’s mind, his paws pricked with surprise. Was that jealousy?

“Tornear, Harepaw, and Owlwhisker are with her,” Dustpelt murmured. “Not bad, though I would have preferred it if Tornear had stayed in his nest.” Dustpelt’s pelt tickled Jaypaw’s flank as the warrior fluffed out his fur defensively.

“Relax,” Brambleclaw ordered. “They mustn’t think we’re showing any sign of aggression.”

“Because we’re begging a favor,” Dustpelt muttered under his breath.

“Silence!” Brambleclaw hissed. Then he raised his voice.

“Tornear!”

Hostility slammed against Jaypaw like a wave as the WindClan cats spotted the ThunderClan patrol. The air seemed to crackle around him and he tensed, suddenly afraid.

“What do you want?” Tornear’s mew was accusing.

Fur brushed heather as the WindClan patrol approached.

Jaypaw sensed Brambleclaw squaring himself to meet the WindClan cats. “Leafpool and Jaypaw wish to speak with Onestar.” Brambleclaw’s mew was calm, neither hostile nor yielding.

Surprise pulsed from Tornear’s pelt. “What for?”

“They wish to speak with Onestar,” Brambleclaw repeated.

Jaypaw felt suspicion wake in the WindClan cats’ minds.

He guessed they were looking at one another, wondering how to respond. Could they turn away medicine cats?

“Just Leafpool and Jaypaw?” Owlwhisker growled.

“We will wait here for them,” Brambleclaw assured him.

Silence hung in the air, like a hawk stalling before a dive.

“Then Owlwhisker and Harepaw will wait with you,”

Tornear meowed slowly.

He’s going to let us cross the border! Jaypaw dug his claws into the grass, eager to get going.

“Can I trust you to see them safely to the camp and back?”

Brambleclaw asked.

Tornear snorted. “Of course you can!”

“Leafpool,” Brambleclaw meowed, “if you’re not back by sunhigh, we’ll fetch a patrol and come looking for you.” His mew was thick with warning aimed at the WindClan cats.

“She’ll be back,” Tornear growled.