Lionblaze tasted the air again, and this time picked up a definite trace of cat. Sorreltail was right about where Brackenfur would approach the nest! Angling his ears toward Ivypool, he veered in a slightly different direction to home in on the scent. Moving faster than he could manage in the shadows, Ivypool drew ahead, then raised her tail, warning him to stop. The cat scent was stronger now. Lionblaze strained his ears for signs of movement. At first there was nothing. Then he heard a faint crunching, as if some cat had stepped on a dry leaf.

Ivypool had heard it, too. She gestured with her tail, directing Lionblaze to circle around so that they could attack the other patrol from both sides. Lionblaze slid into the new position and waited under a holly bush at the edge of a bramble thicket. Though he couldn’t see Brackenfur’s patrol, he had a pretty good idea of where they were, and he couldn’t understand why Ivypool was still signaling to him to wait.

He twitched his tail in frustration. What is she playing at?

There was a faint rustling and the first of the patrol—Thornclaw—emerged from a clump of ferns. He was heading for the bramble thicket, and Lionblaze noticed for the first time a narrow path leading through the thorns, in the direction of the Twoleg nest. Thornclaw slid along the path, followed by Birchfall and Bumblestripe. Brackenfur brought up the rear, glancing over his shoulder from time to time as if he was checking that Sorreltail’s patrol wasn’t following them.

No, we’re not, mouse-brain! Lionblaze thought gleefully. We’re already here!

Now he understood Ivypool’s strategy. Glancing at where she crouched in the shelter of a rock, he saw her poised to pounce, and gathered his own muscles, ready for a leap.

The first three cats had entered the thicket, strung out along the narrow path that would only let them pass in single file. Brackenfur paused at the edge for a last glance around. He opened his jaws to taste the air, his eyes suddenly narrowing in suspicion.

Now!

Leaping in the same heartbeat, Lionblaze and Ivypool crashed into Brackenfur and brought him down in a tangle of flailing legs and tails. The ginger tom let out a screech of surprise.

“Got you!” Lionblaze declared. “You’re our prisoner now, right?”

“Right,” Brackenfur admitted ruefully, with Ivypool’s paws planted on his chest.

Yowls came from the bramble thicket. Lionblaze heard Thornclaw’s voice raised in exasperation. “Turn around, for StarClan’s sake. Go back!”

“I can’t!” That was Bumblestripe. “There isn’t room!”

“Fox dung! I’m stuck!” Birchfall snarled. “We’ll have to go forward.”

Amusement bubbling inside him, Lionblaze waved his tail for Ivypool to let Brackenfur stand up. “We don’t need to worry about them for a bit,” he meowed. “Let’s head for the den.”

Now they could race through the forest without worrying about being seen or heard. Lionblaze took the lead as they burst out of the undergrowth, across the stand of pine trees at the back of the Twoleg den, and through a gap in the stone wall.