The Fourth Apprentice

Jayfeather heard his paws retreating up the spiral path; his scent faded. Breathing hard, Jayfeather turned to Honeyfern and realized that he could see her. She was sitting at the edge of the pool, with starlight shimmering in her pale tabby fur. Rows and rows of starry cats had appeared behind her, clustering around the Moonpool and up the sides of the hollow. Jayfeather didn’t dare look at them too closely, in case he saw Hollyleaf among them. Or didn’t-which might mean she was somewhere much, much worse.

Instead, he padded up to Honeyfern. “Thankyou,” he panted. “I thought I was going to join you in StarClan for sure.”

Honeyfern twitched her tail. “It isn’t your time yet, Jayfeather,” she replied. “You still have much to do.” Stretching forward, she gave his ear a friendly lick. “Thank you for saving my sister.”

“Can she see you?” Jayfeather asked, with a glance at Poppyfrost, who was crouched a little way up the spiral path.

Honeyfern shook her head sadly. “Please tell her that I miss her just as much as she misses me. And I will love her kits as if they were my own.” Her eyes glowed with love and sympathy as she went on. “Berrynose does love her. He’s just scared of losing her as he lost me. I am watching over both of them.”

Dipping her head once more, she melted back into the crowd of starry warriors. Another cat came forward, her tousled fur like smoke in the starlight.

“Yellowfang,” he sighed.

“I know who was helping Breezepelt,” the former medicine cat told him, without wasting time on any greetings.

“You do? Who was it?”

Yellowfang blinked her amber eyes. “You don’t need to know that yet. But his presence is a sign of great trouble to come.”

Jayfeather’s belly twisted. “What do you mean?”

“Honeyfern fought beside you today,” Yellowfang meowed. “And so will every warrior of StarClan when their turn comes. But the empty hearts of our enemies have filled up with hatred and hunger for revenge, and that gives them strength that cannot be measured.”

Jayfeather stared at her in horror.

“The forces of the Dark Forest are rising.” Yellowfang’s voice vibrated with foreboding. “I am afraid that it will take a power greater than StarClan to defeat them.”

CHAPTER 21

Lionblaze and Toadfoot lowered Rippletail’s body into the hole they had scraped out under an oak tree. Beyond the undergrowth, Dovepaw could just make out the pool behind the dam, glittering in the morning sunlight. She hoped that Rippletail’s spirit was down there now, swimming and fishing just as he had wanted to.

Rage burned like a slow fire in her belly. Rippletail shouldn’t have died on this journey! She wanted revenge on the beavers now, wanted it like a starving cat longed for a bite of fresh-kill. We have to destroy the dam! The water belongs to the Clans!

As she stepped up to the edge of the grave and began to push soil and leaf mulch down onto Rippletail’s body, she paused to listen to the beavers. They were moving around quietly inside the lodge, and she imagined them smug and gleeful because they’d chased off the cats in such an easy victory.

Lionblaze’s voice distracted her from her thoughts. “We can’t fight the beavers again.”

“I told you so,” Woody muttered from where he sat on one of the oak tree’s gnarled roots.

Lionblaze flicked an ear to show the loner he had heard, but he didn’t reply. “We need to find a different way to free the water,” he went on.

Petalfur looked up from covering her Clanmate’s body. Her eyes were still stunned with grief, but her voice was hard and determined. “We could try luring the beavers away.”

“And then what?” Toadfoot asked.

“Then we destroy the dam,” Petalfur replied.

“But it’s huge!” Tigerheart objected. “It would take days. We can’t keep the beavers away for that long.”

“We don’t have to destroy it all.” Petalfur sounded confident. “If we can move enough of the top branches that the water spills over, the force of the stream will wash the rest of the logs away.”

Dovepaw nodded. “I see,” she mewed. She supposed that a RiverClan cat would know what she was talking about when it came to water. She cast her senses as far as the dam, feeling for the way the trunks and branches were woven together, and she realized that Petalfur’s idea might work.

“We must do it quickly,” Whitetail put in, with a glance up at the sky. “The weather is going to break soon, and besides”-her gaze flickered to Petalfur-“we need to get back to our Clans to tell them what’s happened.”

“That’s true,” Lionblaze agreed.

“I know what we can do!” Tigerheart was looking around the clearing. “Let’s practice moving these fallen branches. If we figure how to do that without losing our balance, we’ll be able to dismantle the dam much quicker.”

Toadfoot gave his Clanmate a nod of approval. “Good idea.”

Dovepaw was impressed, too. Tigerheart could be annoying sometimes, but she had to admit he wasn’t stupid.

When they had finished filling in Rippletail’s grave, the Clan cats scattered through the clearing and began trying to lift the branches. To Dovepaw’s surprise, Woody went to help Petalfur. “I shouldn’t have let you attack the beavers,” he muttered as he stood beside her and helped her roll a moss-covered log. “I should have known they were too strong for you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Woody,” Whitetail called to him. Petalfur said nothing, just concentrated on rocking the heavy branch onto its side.

Dovepaw followed Lionblaze across the clearing to a lightning-split tree trunk lying on the ground. Shock slashed through her when she saw that he was limping. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Lionblaze nodded. “I don’t get hurt in battles, remember?” he hissed. “But I can’t let the others know that.”

Dovepaw sighed. “I wish we didn’t have to keep everything a secret.”

“It’s for their own good.” Lionblaze turned to face her, pinning her with his compelling amber eyes. “They have to let us help them, and they might not do that if they think we’re different.”

Dovepaw glanced over her shoulder at the other cats, who were spread out over the clearing, struggling with logs. Would they really be afraid of me if they knew what I can do? Probably, she decided sadly. After all, if I hadn’t sensed the beavers, we would never have come, and Rippletail would still be alive.

She and Lionblaze began to roll the log; it was heavy, and the grass growing up around it made it hard to shift.

“Let’s try flipping it over,” Lionblaze suggested. “You go to that end, and I’ll lift it up from here.”

“Okay.” Dovepaw gave the log a doubtful glance. It’s so big! And some of the logs on the dam are even bigger!

She watched as Lionblaze thrust his paws under one end of the log and started to heave it upward. “I’m going to push it up from this end,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “You keep it steady, then push from your end and it should go over.”

Dovepaw tried to get a grip on the log, but as soon as it started to move, her paws slipped; the log banged her chin as it dropped to the ground again. “Sorry,” she puffed. “Let’s try again.”

But the second attempt was no better. This time the log rolled over toward Dovepaw, and she barely saved her paws from being crushed as she sprang backward.

Lionblaze lashed his tail in frustration. “I can’t move it on my own,” he snarled, though Dovepaw knew that he