“Yes?” Leafpool asked; there was an edge to her tone that Hollyleaf didn’t understand.

“We need to make sure the snake isn’t a threat to us,” Firestar meowed quietly.

Leafpool blinked, puzzled. “What do you want me to do? I can’t summon the snake out of its hole.”

“No,” Firestar replied, “but you can make sure that it never reaches the main part of the camp. I want you to put deathberries around the place where the snake came from.”

Hollyleaf felt her paws freeze to the ground as soon as the Clan leader mentioned deathberries. She exchanged a shocked glance with Brightheart. Every cat knew that Leafpool refused to have deathberries in the camp because they were so dangerous.

“Firestar, you know—” the medicine cat began.

“Explain to the kits, and to every single cat, what the berries are and why they mustn’t be touched or eaten,” Firestar interrupted her. “They’ll understand. We have to do this. I will not lose another cat this way.”

Leafpool hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. “Very well. Jayfeather and I will collect some today. But I don’t like it,” she added more forcefully. “If the deathberries don’t kill the snake within one moon, we’ll have to try something else.”

CHAPTER 18

Lionblaze led Foxpaw and Icepaw into the forest to collect brambles. He felt numb; the terrible scene kept repeating itself endlessly behind his eyes.

Was there anything I could have done? If I’d been quicker…maybe if I’d leaped for the snake I could have killed it first.

Both the apprentices were still trembling with fear, spooking at every leaf rustle, as if they thought that a snake might be hiding in every hollow. And for all I know, they’re right.…

“I can’t believe we’ve got Sol and a snake in the camp,” Icepaw mewed, jumping aside with her fur bristling as an oak leaf drifted to the ground beside her.

“I wonder if Sol summoned the snake to kill Honeyfern,” Foxpaw added, his voice shaking.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Lionblaze’s voice came out louder than he’d intended; both apprentices jumped backward. “The snake was just there. It could easily have bitten Sol instead of Honeyfern.”

“I wish it had,” Foxpaw muttered.

Lionblaze didn’t say anything. Hadn’t there been enough death in the Clan already?

He led the apprentices to a bramble thicket near the beginning of the old Thunderpath and crawled underneath to bite the long, thornless stems at the bottom. The two apprentices hesitated at the edge of the stone, blinking nervously.

“Come on!” Lionblaze urged them. “What’s the matter?”

“Are there any snakes in there?” Icepaw whimpered.

“If there are, I’m dead,” Lionblaze replied irritably. “Okay,” he added with a sigh. “I’ll bite through the stems, and you drag the tendrils out.”

For a while they worked steadily, and the pile of bramble tendrils began to grow. Then Foxpaw stopped with the end of a stem in his mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Lionblaze asked. “I need you to get that out of the way so I can reach the next one.”