Warriors: Power Of Three 2 - Dark River (26 page)

Jaypaw heard Leafpool’s fur brush the heather as she crossed the border. He padded quickly after her and pressed against her. It was exciting to be traveling to the WindClan camp, but he suddenly felt vulnerable. An icy chill swept his fur as clouds blocked out the sun.

“Keep your chin high,” Leafpool whispered. She let her pelt brush his all the way to the camp, guiding him over the unfamiliar ground. Jaypaw only stumbled once when Leafpool didn’t warn him in time about a trailing branch of gorse.

Soon he smelled brambles and a stronger scent of WindClan. He sensed space beneath him as the ground dipped away in front of them. They had reached the camp.

“Stay close,” Tornear warned.

Jaypaw walked step-by-step with Leafpool as the WindClan warrior led them into a swath of bramble, through a twisting, turning tunnel that led down into a hollow. He could hear Nightcloud’s breath behind him as she brought up the rear. Then wind stroked his whiskers; they were out of the tunnel. For a moment he felt overwhelmed by the jumble of scents that filled his nose and mouth: warriors, apprentices, kits, nursing queens, herbs, rabbit. . . .

They must be in the center of the camp. A fresh wind tugged Jaypaw’s fur. Watchful gazes stabbed his pelt.

“It’s that blind cat from ThunderClan.”

“What are they doing here?”

“Shall I fetch Barkface?”

The WindClan cats were emerging from their dens.

Jaypaw could feel curiosity, hostility, and even fear throbbing in the air.

Tornear was whispering to a young tom. Jaypaw strained to hear but before he could make out the words, the tom hared out of the camp.

“Onestar is out hunting,” Tornear announced. “You’ll have to wait.” He raised his voice to address his curious Clanmates.

“They’ve come to see Onestar!”

“Onestar?”

Alarm and suspicion rippled around the clearing. Jaypaw pricked his ears. This was not a Clan determined to expand their territory. They were frightened and confused. His belly tightened. Frightened cats were unpredictable. “Should we speak to Barkface instead and leave?” he murmured to Leafpool.

But Leafpool didn’t seem to hear. Her attention was flitting around the camp, as though she were searching for something or someone. Suddenly, an intense emotion sparked from her, almost making Jaypaw flinch. Excitement?

Grief? Anger? He couldn’t tell.

“You look well, Crowfeather.” Leafpool’s calm mew didn’t betray the storm raging in her mind.

Jealousy spiked behind Jaypaw. Nightcloud’s pelt was bristling.

“What are you doing here, Leafpool?” Crowfeather’s mew was curt and quiet. What is he feeling? Jaypaw studied the warrior’s mind but found it barbed with wariness.

“Firestar sent us to speak with Onestar,” Leafpool explained.

“He’s not here.”

“We know.” Leafpool sat down.

Jaypaw felt the first drop of rain dab his nose.

The brambles rustled and a few moments later paws pounded into the clearing. Onestar. Jaypaw recognized Whitetail and Weaselfur with him.

“What’s this about?” the WindClan leader demanded.

“Firestar sent us,” Leafpool meowed.

“Why?” Onestar paced warily around them. “Are you in trouble?”

“No.”

“Then why come here?” Onestar halted so close to them that Jaypaw could smell the rabbit blood on his breath. “Does Firestar still think there’s some kind of special relationship between our Clans? Because there isn’t!”

“Firestar understands that.”

Jaypaw was impressed with how calm Leafpool sounded, even though he could feel her trembling against him.

“Firestar doesn’t want to shed blood over our shared border,” she went on.

“Why did he attack our apprentices, then?” Onestar’s tail swished through the air.

“WindClan warriors unsheathed their claws first,”

Leafpool meowed. “We were only defending the border they crossed.”

“It was our prey!” Tornear hissed.

Yowls of agreement rose around the clearing.

“Not once it’d crossed the border,” Jaypaw hissed.

Leafpool’s tail brushed his mouth. She shifted, her pads squelching against the slippery earth. The rain was beginning to fall steadily. “We didn’t come here to argue!”

“Then why did you come?” Onestar growled.

“To talk.”

Tornear tore at the ground. “Was Firestar too mouse-hearted to come himself?”

“Firestar didn’t want to provoke you by sending a warrior patrol,” Leafpool explained. “He wants to soothe the situa-tion, not inflame it.”

Crowfeather was circling them. “Then he shouldn’t have sent anyone!”

Anger surged through Leafpool; Jaypaw felt it hot against his pelt. “Not every cat hides from his responsibilities!” she hissed.

Crowfeather halted. “Are you saying that’s what I would do?” His whiskers brushed Jaypaw’s face as the WindClan warrior leaned in toward Leafpool.

“Get out of the way!” Onestar hissed, nudging Crowfeather aside. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Firestar wants to know if RiverClan has invaded your territory.” Leafpool was growing impatient. “Is that why you’ve been hunting so close to our border? Are you being forced into ThunderClan territory or do you simply want to take our land because you are foolish enough to believe you can?”

Jaypaw was shocked by her fierceness. He felt Onestar freeze; Leafpool had surprised the WindClan leader too.

Angry whispers darted between the watching cats. The air seemed to crackle like greenleaf lightning as the rising wind drove the rain harder into the camp. Jaypaw tensed, waiting for Onestar’s answer.

“RiverClan has not invaded our lands,” Onestar began slowly. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t. Does Firestar expect us to wait until they do? Does he think we should sit around like fat voles waiting to be pounced on?”

“But you are not voles,” Leafpool snapped. “Why not defend your RiverClan border instead of threatening ours?”

“We will defend what borders we have to,” Onestar retorted. “And take what territory we need.”

“You don’t even know that RiverClan is going to invade,”

Leafpool pressed. “Why threaten us?”

Tornear growled. “You sound like a blackbird singing the same song over and over again!”

“Barkface could speak to Mothwing at the next Moonpool gathering,” Leafpool suggested, her mew suddenly coaxing.

“He can find out exactly what RiverClan intends. It may turn out you have nothing to be afraid of.”

“We aren’t afraid!” Crowfeather hissed.

“Then why won’t you listen to reason?” Leafpool pressed.

“You are honorable warriors. Why let yourselves be driven by suspicion instead of truth?”

“Listen to her!” Weaselfur sneered. “Trying to steal time for her Clan with clever words.”

“WindClan fights with claws not words,” Tornear warned.

Jaypaw bristled. “It’s like trying to show worms to moles!”

he hissed. “They’re too blind to see beyond their own noses.”

“We’re too blind?” Weaselfur mocked.

“Wait!” Onestar ordered. “Perhaps she’s right. Perhaps we should give RiverClan a chance to explain what’s going on before we do anything.”

“A chance to invade, more like,” Tornear growled.

“You saw how desperate RiverClan looked at the Gathering,” Crowfeather argued. “And every patrol we see looks hungrier than the last. We can’t trust them!”

“But they haven’t invaded yet,” Onestar pointed out.

“They crossed the border,” Tornear reminded him.

“Only once.”

Jaypaw sensed the WindClan leader’s mind slow. He was thinking.

“We can’t let them drive us into unnecessary bloodshed,”

Onestar murmured.

Suddenly, a panicked yowl split the air beyond the camp wall. The dripping brambles shook and a WindClan queen skidded into the clearing. “My kits are gone!” she screeched.

“Sedgekit?”

“Thistlekit?”

Alarmed mews filled the camp.

“Sedgekit, Thistlekit, and Swallowkit!” panted the queen.

“All of them! Disappeared!”

“When did you last see them?” Onestar demanded.

The queen was fighting for breath. “I left them in the nursery and went to stretch my legs. They weren’t there when I came back, so I went looking for them. They’ve wandered out before, but not far. But this time there’s no sign of them. Their trail heads toward the RiverClan border and then just disappears. A hawk’s carried them off, I know it!”

“Calm down, Gorsetail.” Onestar was bristling but his mew was steady. “You can’t be sure. No hawk’s ever taken more than a single kit before. We must send out a search party.”

Suddenly, paws pounded through the entrance tunnel.

“Onestar!” Ashfoot pelted into the clearing. Jaypaw scented Breezepaw and Heatherpaw behind the WindClan deputy. “We’ve just seen a RiverClan patrol heading back into their territory.”

“They’ve been on our land!” Breezepaw spat.

“And there was rabbit blood where they’d been,” Heatherpaw added.

Terror flared from Gorsetail. “Are you sure it was rabbit blood?”

“What?” Confusion clouded Heatherpaw’s mind.

“My kits have disappeared!” Gorsetail wailed.

“You think the RiverClan patrol might have taken them?”

Heatherpaw sounded horrified. Her thoughts began whirling like leaves caught in a wind. Jaypaw tried to read them but they were moving too fast. He only knew that at their center something dark hovered, a sense of blackness that made his blood turn to ice. She knew more than she was letting on.

“You must leave.” Onestar had turned back toward Leafpool.

“You’re not going to attack RiverClan, are you?” Leafpool gasped.

“We’ll do what we must to get our kits back!” Onestar hissed.

“But you don’t know they’ve taken them,” Jaypaw objected. “A moment ago you thought it was a hawk.”

“That was before RiverClan crossed the border.”

“But they may have had good reason!”

Ashfoot growled. “To steal our kits!”

“But why—”

Onestar cut Leafpool off with a snarl. “Go home!” Jaypaw flinched as the WindClan leader leaned in close. “You can tell Firestar that it’s too late. You’ve wasted your time trying to protect RiverClan. We’ll attack at once!”

Lionpaw shivered. The rain had reached right to his skin. He dropped his vole on the fresh-kill pile and shook the water from his pelt.

“Good hunting,” Ashfur congratulated him. “You’ve improved a lot these past days. It seems like your mind is on your training again.”

Lionpaw blinked at his mentor. It had been a good hunting patrol. He, Ashfur, Stormfur, and Brook had caught nearly enough to feed the whole Clan and it was great to feel ener-getic again, a little faster, a little sharper than his Clanmates, as though StarClan guided his paws. But his heart still ached when he thought of Heatherpaw. He missed being a DarkClan warrior.

Stormfur tossed a wet blackbird onto the pile.

“Something’s wrong.” The gray warrior glanced anxiously around the clearing. Beside him, Brook narrowed her eyes.

Cinderpaw was tugging twigs toward the thorn barrier where Cloudtail was stuffing them into gaps. Poppypaw and Mousepaw were hurriedly patching the nursery with fresh brambles. Their rain-soaked pelts were spiked, their tails bushed out. Thornclaw and Spiderleg were circling the edge of the camp, staring up through the rain at the walls.

Thornclaw flicked his tail toward a rift in the cliff face where the rocks jutted out. “We should reinforce the top there. It’s too easy for cats to climb down.”

Lionpaw’s belly tightened. He scanned the clearing. Had Jaypaw returned safely from his mission? He felt relief wash his pelt as he saw Jaypaw emerge from the dirtplace tunnel.

Leafpool was calling to him from the medicine den entrance. “We need more dock.”

“I’ll find some,” Jaypaw answered at once.

“Not by yourself,” Leafpool meowed.

Jaypaw nodded. “I’ll take Hollypaw with me.”

Lionpaw’s paws throbbed with unease. His brother normally bristled with rage at any suggestion that he couldn’t manage by himself. Now he accepted it without a murmur.

“Don’t go far from camp,” Leafpool warned.

“Lionpaw! Have you heard?” Honeypaw was charging toward him, her eyes stretched wide. “There’s going to be a battle!”

Lionpaw hurried to meet her. “When?”

“WindClan is going to attack RiverClan right now,”

Honeypaw panted.

Lionpaw flattened his ears. “Has RiverClan invaded WindClan territory?”

Honeypaw shook her head. “RiverClan stole three WindClan kits,” she mewed. “WindClan are going to get them back. We have to be ready to fight!”

Lionpaw tensed. There weren’t many kits in WindClan right now. Could they be the same three who had followed Heatherpaw? “Are you sure RiverClan took them?”

“RiverClan was hunting in WindClan territory when the kits went missing,” Honeypaw told him.

“But it doesn’t make sense.” Lionpaw’s mind was whirling.

“Who cares if it makes sense?” Honeypaw trotted around him. “There’s going to be a huge battle anyway.

Leafpool said so.”

Sorreltail was heading toward them, eyes clouded with worry. “You’re jumping ahead of yourself, Honeypaw,” she meowed.

“We have to be ready,” Honeypaw argued. “Who knows what WindClan will do next?”

Lionpaw backed away from the two cats, his heart pounding. Had RiverClan really stolen the kits? There was another way off the moor, one their Clanmates didn’t know about.

What if the kits had found the tunnels?

He jumped as a voice sounded behind him. “You should eat,” Spiderleg was stretching, flexing his muscles. “You must be ready for battle at any moment.”

“But WindClan is fighting RiverClan, not us!”

“Anything could happen,” Spiderleg growled. “RiverClan might chase WindClan off the moor. They might decide to accuse us of taking the kits instead. Leafpool told Firestar that WindClan is desperate enough to do anything.”

Lionpaw froze. I must find the kits! I must stop this! But what about his Clan? He ought to be thinking about defending them. He should be helping fortify the camp like Cloudtail and Cinderpaw, or joining a patrol to check the border. He couldn’t go off and search for kits. What if WindClan attacked while he was gone?