Sunrise

“Lionblaze!” Dustpelt called. “Help me with the barrier, please. You can take Foxpaw and Icepaw into the forest to collect brambles.”

“Coming,” Lionblaze replied. He paused briefly to touch noses with Hollyleaf, then raced off to round up the two apprentices.

Daisy and Millie were gathering their kits together and bundling them back toward the nursery. “Don’t any of you dare go near that part of the cliff,” Millie meowed sternly. “You heard what Firestar said.”

“We won’t.” Blossomkit’s mew was high-pitched with fear, and all the kits looked unusually subdued.

Whitewing was following them back to the nursery when Birchfall bounded over to her and pressed his nose into her shoulder. “You will be careful, won’t you?” he fretted.

The white she-cat blinked at him, her eyes full of love. “Of course I will. You don’t have to fuss.”

Birchfall angled his ears toward Berrynose, still crouched silently over the body of Honeyfern. “I won’t lose you to StarClan,” he insisted. “Not for a long, long time.”

Whitewing and Birchfall leaned into each other, their pelts brushing and their tails twined together.

Hollyleaf stood still as the rest of the cats moved away. She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to go and comfort Cinderheart, but she didn’t dare disturb Honeyfern’s grieving kin. She had begun to pad uncertainly toward the warriors’ den when Leafpool trotted up to her.

“Hollyleaf, could you help Brightheart to put the herbs away?” she asked. “Jayfeather and I are going to check the queens and kits for signs of shock.”

“Sure.” Hollyleaf was relieved to have something to do. She retrieved Jayfeather’s share of the catmint and carried it to the medicine cats’ den, where Brightheart was already sorting through her bundle of stems. Hollyleaf joined her; it was good to breathe in the scent of herbs that drifted around the den; it reminded her of when she had been Leafpool’s apprentice. I used to get worried when I couldn’t remember which herb was which. If only that was all I had to worry about now!

“I wish we knew a herb to cure snakebite,” Brightheart murmured sadly as her forepaws flicked through the leaves, deftly stripping off any that were shriveled or damaged.

Hollyleaf nodded, but she knew that no amount of wishing would bring Honeyfern back. Her ears flicked up at the sound of a cat brushing past the bramble screen; she glanced over her shoulder to see Leafpool coming in.

“I need some poppy seeds for Daisy,” the medicine cat explained. “She’s getting hysterical.”

“I can’t say I blame her,” Brightheart mewed. “If I had kits now, I’d be terrified.”

Leafpool collected the seed in a leaf wrap and was about to leave the den when Firestar put his head around the brambles.

“Yes?” Leafpool asked; there was an edge to her tone that Hollyleaf didn’t understand.

“We need to make sure the snake isn’t a threat to us,” Firestar meowed quietly.

Leafpool blinked, puzzled. “What do you want me to do? I can’t summon the snake out of its hole.”

“No,” Firestar replied, “but you can make sure that it never reaches the main part of the camp. I want you to put deathberries around the place where the snake came from.”

Hollyleaf felt her paws freeze to the ground as soon as the Clan leader mentioned deathberries. She exchanged a shocked glance with Brightheart. Every cat knew that Leafpool refused to have deathberries in the camp because they were so dangerous.

“Firestar, you know—” the medicine cat began.

“Explain to the kits, and to every single cat, what the berries are and why they mustn’t be touched or eaten,” Firestar interrupted her. “They’ll understand. We have to do this. I will not lose another cat this way.”

Leafpool hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. “Very well. Jayfeather and I will collect some today. But I don’t like it,” she added more forcefully. “If the deathberries don’t kill the snake within one moon, we’ll have to try something else.”

CHAPTER 18

Lionblaze led Foxpaw and Icepaw into the forest to collect brambles. He felt numb; the terrible scene kept repeating itself endlessly behind his eyes.

Was there anything I could have done? If I’d been quicker…maybe if I’d leaped for the snake I could have killed it first.

Both the apprentices were still trembling with fear, spooking at every leaf rustle, as if they thought that a snake might be hiding in every hollow. And for all I know, they’re right.…

“I can’t believe we’ve got Sol and a snake in the camp,” Icepaw mewed, jumping aside with her fur bristling as an oak leaf drifted to the ground beside her.

“I wonder if Sol summoned the snake to kill Honeyfern,” Foxpaw added, his voice shaking.