Dark River

“I think you’re great, Heatherpaw,” Lionpaw mewed. He stared at his paws. Why did she have to make this harder?

“But you need to find someone in your own Clan. I need to be the best warrior I can be, and I can’t do that if I’m here every night.”

Heatherpaw flinched as though he’d raked his claws across her nose. “It doesn’t have to be every night.” Her mew was little more than a whisper.

It doesn’t matter how often we meet! I shouldn’t be here at all! “I was looking out for you in the battle today,” Lionpaw told her.

“What if you’d been in that patrol?”

“You could have fought Breezepaw or Harepaw or—”

“Battles aren’t that simple, and you know it!” She must understand! “I can’t pick and choose. I have to defend my Clan. I can’t be worrying about you all the time.” He watched her gaze cloud with grief and his heart twisted with pain.

“That’s it, then?” she mewed.

“Yes.” He wasn’t going to show how close he was to changing his mind, to agreeing to see her once a moon, or maybe twice, or three times. . . . This was what he had to do.

Anger flared in her eyes. “Fine!” she snapped. “I understand now.” She turned away and padded toward the tunnel.

Before she disappeared into the shadows she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes brimming with pain. “I just hope being a warrior is worth it!”

,

Chapter 16

Hollypaw wriggled against Willowpaw, trying to get comfortable.

There was hardly enough moss in this nest for one cat, never mind two. And how could Willowpaw sleep so soundly with the water constantly washing against the rocks?

Rain sprayed the lake, dripping from the overhang, puddling on the floor. Through the entrance to the cave, Hollypaw could see the rocky causeway, slick in the darkness.

She strained to see the ThunderClan shore far beyond it, but the air was murky and she could only just make out the shape of the distant forest against the cloudy predawn sky.

She had been in the RiverClan camp for two days. Leopardstar still insisted it was not safe for her to travel home, but every cat—Hollypaw included—knew she was being kept on the island to stop her from reporting RiverClan’s weakness to her Clanmates. She rolled over, her belly growling with hunger.

“Can’t you keep still?” Willowpaw sighed sleepily.

“Sorry.” Hollypaw’s heart ached. She was so far from home.

Willowpaw must have heard the sadness in her friend’s mew. She sat up and stretched, her eyes glowing sympatheti-cally in the half-light. “You’ll be able to go back soon,” she promised.

“How soon?”

“The dams should be finished in a quarter moon,”

Willowpaw mewed. “And we’ll be able to move back to our old camp. I’m sure Leopardstar will organize an escort for you then.”

A quarter moon! She couldn’t stay here that long! “But what about my Clan?”

“I know they’ll be worried,” Willowpaw commiserated.

“But think how pleased they’ll be when you get back.”

And angry. Hollypaw’s heart sank as she imagined Brambleclaw’s pelt pricking with annoyance; Squirrelflight’s gaze, sharp with disapproval.

“You won’t say anything, will you?” Willowpaw’s eyes grew round. “You won’t tell them about the island and the Twolegs?”

“No, not if you don’t want me to.” Hollypaw could guess why Willowpaw was so frightened about the other Clans knowing how much RiverClan had suffered. It would take at least a moon for them to recover even if they did manage to rescue their old camp.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Everything will be back to normal soon,” Willowpaw sighed.

“Yes.” Hollypaw felt the word catch in her throat.

Everything will be back to normal. She was no longer so sure that an end to RiverClan’s trouble would stop the hostility that had flared between the Clans. It was almost as if the long

peace between the Clans had left the younger cats itching for battle and set the older warriors dreaming of past glories. She thought of the WindClan patrol she had faced with the RiverClan cats. They had bristled with so much aggression.

They hadn’t wanted to hear RiverClan’s explanation. Could this hunger for battle simply vanish like mist in the sunshine?

The sky was lightening behind the clouds. Across the causeway, the cats were stirring on the island. Hollypaw could see pelts moving among the trees, pelts already as familiar as those of her own Clan. Graymist was leading Sneezekit and Mallowkit down to the shore to drink. Mosspelt was heading over the tree-bridge with Beechfur and Pebblepaw. Such a small dawn patrol! Hollypaw knew that most of the warriors’

effort was being channeled into recovering the old island camp.

Mistyfoot padded from the trees and crossed the causeway, a slender fish drooping in her jaws. She dropped it in the puddle at the front of the overhang.

Mothwing lifted her head at the splash and stretched in her nest. “Thanks, Mistyfoot,” she yawned.

Hollypaw knew it was unusual for the Clan deputy to deliver food to the medicine den. She was painfully aware that Mistyfoot had come to check whether Hollypaw had escaped in the night. But she was grateful that Mistyfoot had chosen such a tactful way to do it.

“It’s not much,” Mistyfoot meowed. “But it should see you through the day.”

Hollypaw’s belly growled. The whole day! Food was so scarce

here that some of the warriors went to bed hungry; she was lucky to be fed at all. But thankful as she was that RiverClan were prepared to feed their unwelcome guest, she couldn’t get used to the strange tang of fish and she longed for the musky flavor of forest prey.

“Intruder!” Mosspelt yowled from the tree-bridge.

Graymist instantly began herding her kits back to the island clearing. Hollypaw stiffened, scenting the air.

ThunderClan!

Hope fluttered like a bird in her chest. She strained to see through the drizzle. The dawn patrol were circling a cat on the far shore. Squirrelflight! She recognized her mother’s pelt and felt the same surge of excitement she used to feel when, as a kit, Squirrelflight returned to the nursery after a spell in the warriors’ den.

“You’d better come with me,” Mistyfoot growled. She turned and padded back along the causeway. Hollypaw leaped after her, forcing herself not to race past the RiverClan deputy. Her paws fizzing, she trotted onto the island and followed Mistyfoot to the clearing.

Pebblepaw bounded from the undergrowth. “She’s come to get Hollypaw!”

Behind him, the ferns rustled and Squirrelflight padded calmly into the clearing, flanked by Mosspelt and Beechfur.

Hollypaw tensed. Squirrelflight was alone. Would Leopardstar let them leave together? She glanced nervously toward the Great Oak and saw Leopardstar squeeze out from her makeshift den among the roots. The RiverClan leader was

staring at Squirrelflight; Hollypaw could see uncertainty in her eyes and her golden pelt pricked along her