The flickering stars gave her no answer.

Hollyleaf padded along the ridge until she reached her own territory and could plunge back into the trees. When she arrived in the stone hollow, everything was quiet. The Gathering patrol had not yet returned, and the other cats were asleep, except for Brightheart, on watch beside the entrance. Hollyleaf brushed past her, ignoring the she-cat’s greeting.

She stalked across the clearing in the bright wash of moonlight and entered the medicine cats’ den. Her heartbeat quickened when she saw there was no sign of Leafpool. I know what I’m going to do. All this is Leafpool’s fault.

Crawling right to the back of the storage cave, she found the leaf wrap with the deathberries and drew it out carefully. She placed it on the floor of the den and unfolded the leaf so the glossy red berries were exposed. They had begun to shrivel, but she knew they still held their deadly poison.

Hollyleaf sat beside the berries, wrapped her tail over her paws, and waited. Soon she heard a slow paw step outside, and Leafpool brushed past the bramble screen and stood in front of her.

“Hollyleaf.” She didn’t sound surprised to find her daughter there. Her eyes were full of weariness and sorrow. “It’s all right,” she mewed. “I forgive you.”

“What!” Hollyleaf sprang to her paws. “You forgive me? You’re the one who needs forgiveness! You abandoned your kits! You let us grow up in a web of lies, and now the warrior code might be broken forever because of your stupid, selfish actions.”

“Do you think you need to tell me that?” Leafpool asked, still with the same exhausted calm. “I can only tell you how much I love you. I’m so sorry for what I did.”

“And you expect me to forgive you?” Hollyleaf snarled. “Well, I don’t. I never will.” Fur bristling, she padded around Leafpool until she blocked the entrance to the den. “See those deathberries? You’re going to eat them—or I’ll make you!”

“What?” Leafpool sounded bewildered.

“Eat them! You deserve to die.” Hollyleaf crouched, ready to spring, when the medicine cat made no move toward the deadly berries. “I’ve killed once,” she snarled. “And I can do it again.”

A gleam of some emotion that Hollyleaf couldn’t read woke in her mother’s eyes. “Hollyleaf,” Leafpool meowed. “I have lost my kits, the one cat I loved, and my calling as a medicine cat. Which do you think would be easier for me, to die or to go on living?”

There was only one answer to that question. Silently Hollyleaf stood aside, and Leafpool padded past her and out of the den.

CHAPTER 28

Jayfeather slid through the thorn tunnel and stood panting in the middle of the clearing. He had raced back from the island as soon as the Gathering broke up, struggling through the mass of bewildered cats to get across the tree-bridge.