Millie narrowed her eyes at Bramblestar. “If she dies, I’ll never forgive you.”
Bramblestar dipped his head to her. “Millie, I promise you that I’ll get Briarlight out, or die trying.”
Millie held his gaze for a moment longer, then turned away with Leafpool. The two she-cats vanished up the path.
“I can climb the cliff too,” Jayfeather announced.
“No, I need you to help with Briarlight,” Bramblestar replied. “No cat knows as much about her condition as you.” And I don’t want a blind cat dangling off the cliff face. “Dustpelt, I’ll need your help too,” he continued. “And it would be good to have Brackenfur.”
He yowled the order to the top of the cliff, and a few moments later the golden-brown warrior appeared, treading sure-footedly along the path.
Squirrelflight scrambled down after him. “What’s going on?” she called.
“We need to find a different way out of the hollow,” Bramblestar explained. “I thought we might use some kind of branch to float Briarlight and Purdy and Jayfeather out on the floodwater.”
“Great StarClan, that’s risky!” Brackenfur exclaimed. “Do you want us to find a branch?”
“I have one in mind,” Bramblestar told him. “The memorial branch with the claw marks for the cats who fell in the Great Battle.”
Jayfeather let out an outraged yelp. “Can’t you use a different one?”
“It’s by far the longest and strongest piece of wood in the camp,” Bramblestar pointed out. “Besides, if we use it, perhaps our fallen Clanmates will be able to help us. If ever we needed StarClan, it’s now.”
Dustpelt and Brackenfur exchanged a glance, as if they were wondering whether their mates were watching over them.
“We’ll get it,” Dustpelt meowed.
The memorial branch had fallen on its side, but it was still visible, poking up out of the water below the Highledge. Brackenfur and Dustpelt waded over to it and dragged it back to the bushes where the other cats waited.
“It’s not floating very well,” Brackenfur remarked dubiously.
“That’s because the water’s too shallow here,” Bramblestar meowed. “We need to push it farther out.”
Dustpelt and Brackenfur maneuvered the branch away from the cliff face, until they stood in water that lapped against their shoulders. “It’s fine here!” Brackenfur called.
“Come on, then, this way,” Squirrelflight urged the other cats.
“You don’t have to do this,” Bramblestar murmured to her as they guided Purdy, Jayfeather, and Briarlight toward the branch. “You should go back up the cliff to the others.”
Squirrelflight turned a green glare on him. “You annoying furball, if you think you can send me—”
Bramblestar interrupted her by resting his tail on her shoulder. A spark of warmth woke inside him at his deputy’s courage and bold spirit. “That’s no way to talk to your Clan leader,” he purred. “Come on, I won’t argue.”
Squirrelflight snorted. As they headed into deeper water, Briarlight was hardly able to keep her head above the surface. With her hind legs dragging behind her, she could only raise herself on her forelegs, and the floodwater washed around her muzzle.
Bramblestar pushed through the swirling water until he was alongside her. “Here, hang on to me.” He tried to hide his wince of pain as Briarlight dug her claws into his shoulder. She managed to raise her head a mouse-length, but with her added weight Bramblestar could hardly make any headway through the water. His paws sank into mud, and the young she-cat’s body dragged at him.
“Wait,” Squirrelflight mewed. “I’ve got an idea.”
She splashed over to the side of the hollow where Brackenfur and Dustpelt kept their den-building supplies, and came back with a bundle of twigs clamped in her jaws. “Here, Briarlight, shove these under your belly. They should hold you up a bit.”
Briarlight let go of Bramblestar while Squirrelflight thrust the twigs into place. To Bramblestar’s relief they boosted her a little way out of the water, enough for her to keep her muzzle clear and drag herself forward.
The other cats were waiting for them beside the memorial branch. Pushing it ahead of them, they waded toward the camp entrance. Water was gushing in from the flooded lake, the strong current threatening to sweep them off their paws. For a moment Bramblestar wondered if they had enough strength to push their way against it, and he kept an especially close eye on Briarlight.
There was a squawk from Jayfeather as he lost his balance, the cry cut off abruptly as his head went under. Bramblestar plunged toward him and dived below the surface, wondering if he would be able to find him in this chaos of water. Then a thrashing tail hit him in the ear. Bramblestar lashed out a paw and sank his claws into sodden fur. He dragged Jayfeather upward; the medicine cat’s head broke the surface and he began coughing up mouthfuls of water.
“Thanks,” he spluttered, managing to stand again. “I really hate water!”
The current swirled and bubbled around them as they forced their way through the gap. Outside the camp the flood stretched in all directions. All Bramblestar could see was tossing water with debris floating in it and trees looming out of it, their roots, trunks, and even some of the lower branches swallowed up by the rising lake.
“Okay,” he meowed. “This is where you climb onto the branch.”
“I don’t think this is goin’ to work,” Purdy muttered, eyeing the branch.
“Come on,” Squirrelflight encouraged him. “Twolegs do this all the time. We’ve seen them floating on the lake in those flat things with pelts sticking up to catch the wind. If they can do it, so can you! You’re not telling me you’re more stupid than a Twoleg, are you?”
Purdy grunted and began hauling himself onto the branch while Brackenfur and Dustpelt steadied it. To Bramblestar’s surprise, once Purdy was crouching on top of the stick, he balanced quite easily, and turned his head to give Squirrelflight a smug look.
“Reckon I could teach Upwalkers a thing or two,” he purred.
Jayfeather climbed quickly onto the branch once Bramblestar showed him where to put his paws, his light weight making it easier for him. But it was a struggle for Briarlight to haul herself up. She couldn’t move her hind legs; when Bramblestar shoved them onto the branch they fell off again. The water tugged at them, threatening to sweep Briarlight away.
“What should I do?” she wailed.
For a horrible moment Bramblestar didn’t have an answer.
Then Squirrelflight exclaimed, “Wait!”
To Bramblestar’s alarm she turned around and headed back into the camp, half wading and half swimming as the current swept her along.
“You can’t go back in there!” Bramblestar yowled after her.
Squirrelflight’s voice came faintly back through the wind and the rain. “I’ll be fine!”
Bramblestar’s heart thumped painfully as he waited for her return. He sagged with relief when he saw her battling her way back through the water. She was dragging something with her; as she drew closer he saw that it was the ivy tendril they had used to lower Purdy down the cliff.
“We can use this to tie Briarlight to the branch,” Squirrelflight panted as she came up to the others. “Quick, lift up her hind legs.”
Once Bramblestar was holding Briarlight’s legs in position, Squirrelflight took the twisted ivy stems in her jaws and dived underneath the branch, coming up on the other side. Brackenfur grabbed the tendril and wrapped it around Briarlight, ready for Squirrelflight to carry it under the branch again.
“That feels secure,” Briarlight meowed when they had repeated the move a few times. She looked tiny and fragile, her pelt slicked flat with water and her blue eyes huge as moons. Her front paws were wrapped around the branch, claws dug into the pale wood.