Cold horror flooded over Lionblaze as he realized that the deputy had disappeared. He can’t have drowned. What will we do without him?

Then he spotted Brambleclaw’s dark head break the surface a couple of fox-lengths away from the end of the branch. He was trying to swim, but his efforts were much feebler now.

Waves were tugging at Hollyleaf and Hazeltail as they clung to the branch. Hollyleaf’s tail streamed out into the water.

“Get back, but don’t let go!” Lionblaze ordered, his heart pounding as hard as the waves on the shore. Then he raised his voice to a yowl. “Brambleclaw! Over here!”

The deputy heard him and seemed to find new strength. Struggling to keep afloat, he let the next wave carry him up to the branch, then struck out toward it. He managed to fasten his claws into it and haul himself out before the retreating wave swept him back again.

“Fox dung!” he spat, standing on the stones of the gully with water eddying around his paws. “I thought I was on my way to StarClan for sure.”

The cats began to retreat from the hungry water. Brambleclaw scrambled up the gully until he stood beside Birchfall, who was still slumped on the stones with his eyes closed. Only his heaving chest showed that he was alive.

Brambleclaw prodded him with one paw. “Birchfall?”

The young tabby’s eyes opened and he let out a shuddering sigh. “I might have drowned.” His voice shook with fear. “I might never have seen Whitewing again—or our kits!”

“But you’re fine now.” Brambleclaw’s voice rasped in his throat, rubbed raw by the bitter water. “It’s time we started moving.”

The Clan deputy didn’t allow his patrol to rest until they reached the shallow gully that ran along the top of the cliff. Out of the wind, with the waves booming against the cliffs below, they could collapse and try to groom the water out of their fur. Lionblaze winced at the bitter taste of salt, and saw that his Clanmates were making faces as they licked.

“Thanks, Brambleclaw and Brackenfur,” Birchfall mumbled. “You saved my life back there.”

Brackenfur touched the young tom’s shoulder with the tip of his tail. “It’s all over, and thank StarClan, no cat died. Brambleclaw, what do you think we should do next, seeing that Midnight isn’t here?”

Brambleclaw accepted his Clanmate’s tactful change of subject with a flick of his ears. “We’ll keep looking for Sol. There’ll be cats in the Twolegplace who have seen him.”

The hair on Brackenfur’s neck lifted at the mention of Sol’s name. “Yes, he had a look of kittypet about him.”

That cat’s no kittypet. Lionblaze didn’t dare say the words out loud, in case some cat asked him how he knew so much about Sol. He exchanged a doubtful glance with Hollyleaf. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to visit the Twolegplace, and he could tell that his sister felt the same. Hazeltail was looking nervous, too, but it was Birchfall who spoke what they were all thinking.