A tingle in Jayfeather’s paws told him that the strange herb was important. “Did Leafpool tell you what it was?”

Mousefur stretched, shaking her pelt. “No. I never asked her. When I complained about the taste, she just took away what was left. She said it hadn’t been meant for me anyway.”

“What was it like?” Jayfeather pressed, moving across to Longtail to check his pelt.

“Odd, but not unpleasant,” Mousefur mewed. “I’d have clawed Leafpool’s ears off if she fed me something disgusting! It tasted cold, like frost on fur, and fresh like grass, even though it was dry and dusty—from right at the back of Leafpool’s store, I’d guess.”

“How weird.” Jayfeather gave the twig another crack. “It’s not like Leafpool to get herbs muddled up.”

Mousefur snorted. “She was all over the place, trying to help Squirrelflight care for you kits! The fuss she made, any cat would think Squirrelflight was the first queen ever to give birth!”

“Really…” Jayfeather murmured.

Quickly finishing his examination of Longtail’s fur—and finding a real flea, which he crunched between his teeth—he said good-bye to the elders and headed into the forest to gather moss. As he tugged mouthfuls of it from between the roots of a tree, he wondered what Mousefur’s mystery herb could have been. It was strange that Leafpool hadn’t told Mousefur what the herb was or who it had been meant for. And stranger still that Leafpool, who was always so careful, had made a mistake.

I need to find out what the herb was, Jayfeather thought, gathering up his moss to carry it back to the camp.

When he returned to the medicine cats’ den, he found that Leafpool had already gathered more bedding while he was talking to the elders. “Did you go to RiverClan to find that moss?” she demanded. “Or have you been mooning about in the forest again?”

“Uh…no.” Jayfeather dropped his bundle and started to arrange it in his own nest. “I thought I’d check on the elders first.” When Leafpool didn’t respond, he added, “Mousefur told me a weird story. She said you gave her a funny-tasting herb once, mixed up with her tansy.”

A pulse of alarm came from Leafpool, but she mewed, “I don’t remember that. When was this?”

“Oh, a long time ago.” Something told Jayfeather not to be too specific. He didn’t want his mentor to know that he had been asking questions about his birth. “Do you know what it was?”

Leafpool let out an annoyed hiss. “How am I supposed to know that? For StarClan’s sake, do you think I don’t have more important things to worry about?”

“I was just—”

“If you’re so bored that you have to start asking about something that happened last leaf-bare, I can soon find you something to do. We’re still short of moss in here, so you can get on with that.”

“Okay.” Jayfeather was glad to leave. But I never mentioned last leaf-bare, he thought as he padded across the clearing. He had sensed his mentor’s fear, too. Leafpool was lying. She knows what the herb was, and she knows it’s important. I must be getting close to the truth—and Leafpool doesn’t want me to find it.