The sun still shone, but Hollyleaf felt as if ice were creeping through the hairs on her pelt, and she couldn’t stop shivering. “Are you okay?” she asked Lionblaze. “You saw it all happen.”

Lionblaze gave her a bleak nod but didn’t speak.

“Honeyfern will be a great loss to her Clan.”

Hollyleaf started as she heard Sol’s voice, and turned to see that the loner had left his nest. Thornclaw must have left him unguarded when he came to see what was happening. Sol’s amber eyes shone with sadness and his head was bowed as if he genuinely grieved for the young she-cat.

“It’s hard when a life is cut off so early,” he added.

Hollyleaf knew she should send him back to his nest, but she couldn’t summon the energy. All the other cats seemed too distracted by their grief to worry about what Sol was up to.

He might as well stay, she thought. What harm is he doing?

Purdy and the elders had appeared, too, padding up and mingling with their Clanmates.

“There’s nothin’ worse than losin’ a young cat,” Purdy meowed. “She’d all her life stretchin’ in front of her.”

“She was a fine cat,” Mousefur agreed. “The last thing she ever did was fetch me some fresh-kill.”

All the cats were milling around in the center of the clearing, unsure what to do. Hollyleaf was relieved when Graystripe strode into the middle of them, raising his tail for silence.

“Mousewhisker,” he directed, “go and fetch Firestar. He took a hunting patrol toward the old Twoleg nest. Brambleclaw is on a border patrol, so we’ll have to wait for him to come back, as I don’t know where he’ll be right now,” he added as Mousewhisker pelted off. “Leafpool, can you check Briarkit, to make sure she’s okay?”

Leafpool nodded; she looked glad to have something to do. Millie guided her kit over to the medicine cat and waited, her claws scraping the ground and her eyes frantic with worry. Daisy followed, keeping a watchful eye on all the other kits, who seemed as shocked as Briarkit.

As Leafpool sniffed the kit all over, Hollyleaf murmured to Lionblaze, “She must be all right. Honeyfern can’t have died for nothing.”

Finally Leafpool nodded. “She’ll be fine,” she told Millie. “I’ll give her a poppy seed so she gets a good night’s sleep.”

“But what about the snake?” Daisy wailed. “We’ve never had one in the camp before.”

“Yes, what about it?” Millie added. “We’ve got to do something. More cats might die.”

Graystripe turned to Lionblaze. “Show me exactly where the snake struck.”

Hollyleaf followed her brother and Graystripe across the clearing toward the basking rocks. She admired the way the gray warrior had taken over; he must have been a good Clan deputy back in the forest, she realized.

“That’s the crack that the snake came out of.” Lionblaze pointed with his tail toward a deep cleft in the cliff face. “I didn’t see if it went back in there.”