As soon as she emerged from the fern tunnel, Yarrowleaf halted, her legs shaking as she gazed around. Violetshine could see she was finding it hard to accept how things had changed, and that she was making her way into a totally strange camp and strange Clan.

At the far side of the camp, in a quiet corner near the nursery, Rowanclaw and Tawnypelt were sharing tongues, not looking like leaders or senior warriors at all. Yarrowleaf stared at them for a moment, then let her head droop.

“This is terrible . . . ,” she hissed to herself. “I feel so responsible. . . .”

As she spoke, Tawnypelt lifted her head and spotted the two ShadowClan cats. Instantly fury flooded her green eyes and she sprang to her paws. “I thought I smelled a traitor!” she snarled.

Before any cat could react, Tawnypelt raced across the camp and came to a halt in front of Yarrowleaf. Her claws were out, with one paw raised to strike. For a heartbeat she froze, as if she had just realized that Yarrowleaf was expecting kits. Then she lowered her paw, but her gaze still glittered angrily. “This is all your fault!” she spat. “You and the other deserters. It’s because of you that ShadowClan fell!”

The other ShadowClan cats in the camp also rose to their paws. Snowbird and Scorchfur bounded across to Yarrowleaf and stood beside her, supporting her. Violetshine remembered that she was their kit. Juniperclaw padded up and touched noses with his littermates, Sleekwhisker and Strikestone. More of the lost Clan gathered around and stood in shocked silence, waiting for what would happen.

“Things were so bad with the rogues,” Yarrowleaf began hastily, as if she was desperate to explain. “Spikefur, who was my mentor, is dead, and I realized that I wanted to come home to ShadowClan to have my kits.”

“But this isn’t ShadowClan anymore.” Leafstar’s voice joined the debate. “It’s SkyClan.”

Every cat turned to see Leafstar standing at the entrance of her den in the hollow cedar tree. Calm and unhurried, she jumped down and padded over to the group of cats surrounding the newcomers.

Before she reached them, Tawnypelt broke away and raced across to confront her. “Don’t let them in!” she meowed. “They’re traitors who attacked and killed their own Clanmates. They’re unforgiveable! They—”

Leafstar raised a paw to silence Tawnypelt. As she joined the group, Yarrowleaf thrust her way through the cats who surrounded her and stood trembling in front of the SkyClan leader.

“Please take us in,” she begged. “We’ve nowhere else to go, and we have kin here.”

“You should have thought of that before you betrayed your Clanmates,” Tawnypelt growled.