“Is Briarlight okay?” Alderheart asked her.

“Yes, she’s settled in again,” the brown she-cat replied. “But I have to tell you . . . I vomited while we were up in the tunnel. And my belly aches really badly.”

Oh, no, not another one, Alderheart thought. Aloud he mewed, “You need watermint, and—”

He broke off as the skies opened again and without any warning rain began falling in torrents, a renewed storm even fiercer than the one before. Alderheart’s pelt was soaked in heartbeats.

“Quick, into the den!” he yowled, turning to the other cats. “Squeeze inside and—”

An enormous crack interrupted him, and another claw of lightning crashed down, impossibly bright and leaving Alderheart half blinded and stumbling through the puddles. As his vision cleared, he saw orange light flaring into the sky.

Fire had struck again, but this time it was much closer. The ominous glow was lighting up the sky over the territories of WindClan and RiverClan.

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Twigpaw stuck her head out of the nursery and gazed out into the storm. She could make out Alderheart at the opposite side of the camp, yowling louder than the thunder that echoed and echoed around the stone hollow.

“Bramblestar! Bramblestar!”

The Clan leader was already racing down the tumbled rocks.

“Fire!” Alderheart yowled again, dashing to meet his Clan leader in the center of the camp. “It’s not the one I saw at first, in Velvet’s Twolegplace. This is on the other side of the lake. WindClan or RiverClan might need our help.”

Twigpaw shuddered, sure that this was the storm StarClan had warned them about. Memories of her vision at the Moonpool haunted her. Has lightning struck another Clan’s camp?

Velvet, the long-haired kittypet, appeared from the medicine-cat den and joined Alderheart and Bramblestar, mewing in shock. As the thunder died away, Twigpaw could hear what they were saying.

“If Alderheart’s treated your wounds, perhaps you should head back toward the Twolegplace,” Bramblestar mewed curtly. “If Clan cats are hurt, we may need the space in the medicine cats’ den.”

“No, they can’t,” Alderheart objected. “Velvet knows about healing, and if the fire’s as out of control as it looks, then some of the RiverClan cats might be injured. Leafpool and Jayfeather are still sick, so we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Bramblestar agreed reluctantly. “And there’s no time to stand around arguing. We have to go now!”

Twigpaw raced out into the storm, ignoring the mud that splashed up around her, and skidded to a halt beside her Clan leader. “I want to go!” she gasped.

“And me!” another voice piped up behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder, Twigpaw saw that Finpaw had followed her. She gave him an approving flick with her tail, admiring the young tom’s courage.