“Okay.” There was a glint of amusement in Brambleclaw’s eyes. “But don’t be long. I want to keep going. We’re not far from the lake now. I can feel it in my paws.”

Dusk was falling as the patrol left the fields behind and came to a small Thunderpath. Tasting the air, Hollyleaf breathed in the scent of horses. “The horseplace!” she exclaimed. “We’re nearly home!”

Brambleclaw led the way, slipping under the shining fence and across the expanse of whitish stone, past the Twoleg nest and the horse nests. As they emerged into the field, Hollyleaf looked around for the horses, but there was no sign of them. “They must be shut up in their wooden nests,” she murmured to Lionblaze.

She couldn’t see Smoky or Floss, either, though she picked up their scents. Her paws prickled with urgency; she wanted to be back in the warm familiarity of the stone hollow, and yet she knew that there was no real safety there.

Or anywhere else, she reflected sadly. Where will all the lies and betrayal end?

CHAPTER 15

“Thanks, Jayfeather,” Whitewing purred as Jayfeather dropped a leaf wrap of ragwort in front of her.

The nursery was warm and quiet. Daisy and Millie had taken their kits out for some exercise, leaving the white queen to get some rest.

“Make sure to eat it all,” Jayfeather instructed her. “Your kits will be born soon, and you need all the strength you can get.”

“I know.” Whitewing sighed. “I hope it’s not much longer. I feel huge!”

“You’re fine,” Jayfeather assured her. He said good-bye and pushed his way out of the nursery. The morning was crisp but he could feel the weak rays of leaf-bare sun, melting the night frost.

“Now,” he muttered to himself, “if only Leafpool’s still out looking for yarrow….”

He couldn’t pick up his mentor’s scent when he brushed past the bramble screen into the den, but another cat was there, irritation coming off him in waves.

Mouse dung! Jayfeather thought. Now I’ll have to deal with him.

“Berrynose,” he mewed. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s my tail,” the young warrior told him. “It hurts. And it smells funny.”

Jayfeather sniffed at the stump of Berrynose’s tail, and almost recoiled at the rotting scent. “You’ve got an infection,” he reported.

“How?” Berrynose sounded indignant. “Leafpool said that it healed after I caught it in the fox trap.”

“It did,” Jayfeather agreed. “You must have opened up the wound again. Can you remember catching it on anything lately?”

Berrynose hesitated. “I got stuck in some brambles when I was chasing a rabbit,” he admitted at last.

“That could do it,” Jayfeather mewed. “But there’s nothing to worry about. You need a poultice of marigold, that’s all. Wait there a moment.” He padded into the cave where the herbs were stored, and located the marigold. Chewing up the leaves, he returned to Berrynose. “Keep still while I plaster this on,” he mumbled around the mouthful.