“And why would it be dangerous?” Foxleap argued, stepping forward to confront Lionblaze. “There’s nothing down there except Icecloud.”

“You don’t know that!” Lionblaze snapped.

Cloudtail had been leaning over the hole, peering curiously up and down the tunnel. Finally he drew back. “Are these the tunnels WindClan used to invade us?”

Lionblaze nodded; a familiar pang of guilt clawed him in the belly as he remembered how he and Heathertail had been the first to discover the network of tunnels.

Foxleap drew in a shocked breath. “Great StarClan! There could be WindClan warriors down there now, waiting to attack Icecloud!”

Cloudtail rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure! WindClan must spend all their time down there, waiting for a ThunderClan warrior to fall in.”

In spite of the white warrior’s scathing words, Lionblaze felt an added urgency among the cats around the hole. A plaintive mew came up from Icecloud in the depths. “Get me out, please!”

“I’ll go,” Dovepaw volunteered, giving Lionblaze a hard stare, as if she remembered how he had told her not to let another cat go down. Does that include me? she seemed to be asking.

Jayfeather nodded. “Better her than another cat,” he whispered to Lionblaze.

“But she’s only an apprentice!” Foxleap protested. Lionblaze could sense that in a couple of heartbeats he would leap into the hole himself, whether he had permission from the senior warriors or not.

“I’m the lightest of all of you,” Dovepaw pointed out. “And all I have to do is jump down and wrap the tendril around Icecloud.” As if the decision had already been made, she turned to Lionblaze and asked quietly, “Is there anything I should look out for?”

Yes, my dead sister. Lionblaze swallowed hard; instead, he answered, “Just keep your eyes open. Cats don’t belong in these tunnels, so we must treat them as hostile territory.”

Birchfall wound the tendril around Dovepaw’s body; then he and Cloudtail lowered her into the hole. Her eyes widened as she vanished over the edge. Lionblaze looked down to see her unwinding the tendril from herself, and wrapping it securely around Icecloud.

“Ready!” she called.

Birchfall and Cloudtail began hauling on the vine. A yowl of pain came from Icecloud, quickly suppressed. “Sorry,” she mewed through gritted teeth. “My shoulder really hurts.”

Slowly the white she-cat was drawn up out of the hole. As soon as she appeared over the edge, Foxleap rushed up and supported her with his shoulder. “Come on,” he meowed. “We’ll get you back to camp and Jayfeather will take a look at you.”

“I’ll be fine,” Icecloud murmured, though she couldn’t put one forepaw to the ground, and her breath was coming in rapid gasps of pain. She leaned heavily on Foxleap as they headed toward the camp.

Cloudtail flanked Icecloud on the other side, glancing back with surprise in his blue eyes when Jayfeather didn’t move. The ThunderClan medicine cat was still leaning over the hole, his head cocked as if he was listening.