Farther along the wall, Jingo halted; peering past her, Hollyleaf saw that one of the wooden sections had been swung back, leaving a gap between their stretch of wall and the next. As if at a signal, a flurry of barking broke out somewhere behind them, and a gust of wind brought the scent of dogs.

“We’ll have to jump,” Jingo decided. “Get back a bit; leave me space for a running start.”

Once the Clan cats had shuffled backward, Jingo bounded along the wall and took off from the end in a powerful leap, landing neatly on the other side. The Clan cats glanced at one another; Hollyleaf could see that Hazeltail and Birchfall were both looking nervous.

“I’ll go next,” she meowed, deciding it would be better to get this over with than to watch her Clanmates go ahead of her. She hurtled along the wall and into the air before she could think about the wide gap and the nearby dogs.

Her paws hit the red stone of the wall and Jingo jumped forward to steady her.

“Well done,” the brown tabby mewed. “Move along to give the others space.”

Hollyleaf squeezed past her, turning in time to see Brackenfur leaping easily across the gap. Birchfall followed him; the young warrior’s front paws landed on the wall, but his hind paws dangled down. His eyes were huge with fear as the barking grew louder and two dogs raced round the corner. Quick as lightning, Brackenfur grabbed Birchfall’s scruff in his teeth and hauled him the rest of the way; his tail whisked up just in time, out of reach of the leading dog’s teeth.

Birchfall shuddered. “Thanks, Brackenfur. I thought I was dog food for sure.”

Hazeltail was shivering on the other side of the gap, gazing down in terror at the barking dogs as they reared up on their hind legs and scrabbled at the wall. “I can’t, Brambleclaw,” she whispered. “I just can’t. I know I’ll fall.”

“No, you won’t,” the Clan deputy assured her. “You’re good at jumping. You’ll be fine.”

“If you fall, I’ll leap down and fight the dogs,” Lionblaze promised.

With a despairing look at both of them, Hazeltail moved back a couple of fox-lengths and bounded up to the end of the wall. Both dogs hurled themselves at her as she leaped, but she cleared the gap with a tail-length to spare, and was welcomed on the other side by a quick lick on her ear from Birchfall.

Lionblaze followed and then Brambleclaw, and the cats set off again, with the dogs pacing alongside a fox-length below, whining and yelping in frustration at not being able to reach their prey. Hollyleaf wondered if there was any way of shaking them off. The Twolegplace wouldn’t last forever. Sooner or later they would have to come down to the ground, and then they would be ripped to pieces.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

A new voice came from up ahead: Hollyleaf spotted a huge blue-furred tom standing nose to nose with Jingo. He had the sleek, well-fed look of a kittypet, but his neck fur was beginning to fluff up and his blue eyes were unfriendly.