Dovewing nodded and took a step back to let the old cat shuffle closer to Mousefur’s head. She closed her eyes in pain as Purdy’s tongue rasped over his denmate’s pelt. What will he do without you, Mousefur?
Beside her, a silver-and-white she-cat was picking leaf scraps from Hollyleaf’s fur. Dovewing pressed her flank against her sister. “Are you okay, Ivypool?”
The silver-and-white cat nodded without looking up. “I’m alive, aren’t I? Thanks to Hollyleaf.” Ivypool traced her muzzle over Hollyleaf’s back. “If it hadn’t been for her, Hawkfrost would have killed me. Hollyleaf gave her life for mine!”
Dovewing winced at the tremor in Ivypool’s voice. “Remember that Hollyleaf is watching you now,” she murmured. “She will never regret what she did.”
From the other side of Hollyleaf’s body, Daisy nodded. She was untangling the long black fur with her claws, teasing out the knots as gently as if Hollyleaf could feel every tug. “Hollyleaf died as a true warrior,” she agreed.
Dovewing looked around at the sound of paw steps. Brackenfur was pacing across the clearing, his tail flicking. “Has anyone seen Sorreltail?” he called.
Brightheart emerged from the remains of the elders’ den, the white patches on her fur glowing in the half-light. Muffled sounds of her three kits came from deep within the crushed branches.
“Is it safe to come out now?”
“Have those dead cats gone? They were bad!”
“Ow! Dewkit’s treading on me!”
Brightheart glanced over her shoulder. The skin on her ravaged face was taut and red from strain. “Wait there!” she meowed. “You can come out soon, I promise.” She turned back to Brackenfur. “I saw Sorreltail go into the nursery. You should try there first.”
“Thanks.” Brackenfur trotted toward the clump of brambles, miraculously intact thanks to Ferncloud’s courage.
Dovewing shook her head, trying to clear the buzzing from her ears. Something’s wrong, she thought. The hair along her spine rose. I should be able to hear Sorreltail—but I can’t.
“Are you feeling all right?” Ivypool asked.
Dovewing didn’t take her eyes from the nursery as she watched Brackenfur slip inside. “I’m fine,” she murmured.
“No.”
Brackenfur’s single word dropped like a stone into the hush of the clearing. Dovewing was at the entrance to the nursery before she realized her paws were moving. Brackenfur was standing at the edge of Sorreltail’s nest, looking down at his mate’s unmoving body. The air was thick with the stench of blood, and Dovewing felt it sticky and liquid beneath her pads.
A tiny dark tabby head with white patches popped up from behind Sorreltail, her blue eyes huge and worried. “We can’t wake her!” Lilykit squeaked. “We tried and tried but she’s still asleep!”
Her sister Seedkit appeared. Her pale ginger fur was fluffed in all directions, making her look like a hedgehog. “Is she really tired from the fighting, do you think?”
“Tired…” Brackenfur whispered without lifting his gaze from Sorreltail’s sweet face. The she-cat’s eyes were lightly closed as if she had just dozed off.
“Lilykit, Seedkit, come with me,” Dovewing urged, her voice coming out as a croak.
The kits scrambled over Sorreltail’s body. “Sorry, Mama,” Lilykit mewed when her paw slipped into Sorreltail’s ear.
Dovewing tried not to flinch when she saw that the kits’ belly fur was soaked with blood. She glanced sideways at Brackenfur, but he hadn’t noticed. His legs had crumpled beneath him and he was curled around Sorreltail’s head, pressing his muzzle against her.
“Wake up, my love,” he murmured. “Our kits need you. We can’t lose you now.”
Dovewing nudged the kits toward the entrance. “I think Papa is sad,” Seedkit chirped. “Shall I stay and make him feel better?”
“No, let’s leave him be,” Dovewing urged. She followed the kits into the clearing. Several cats were waiting outside, eyes wide and anxious. Brightheart let out a gasp when she saw the bloodstained little cats. As she bounded forward, she called over her shoulder, “Cloudtail? Tell our kits to stay where they are.” Her mate trotted to the remains of the elders’ den while Brightheart pulled Lilykit and Seedkit to her belly with her tail and began licking their soiled fur. Over their heads, she met Dovewing’s gaze with a question in her eyes. Dovewing nodded. Brightheart bent over Sorreltail’s kits and drew them closer.
Squirrelflight padded over. “What’s going on?”
“Sorreltail is dead,” Dovewing meowed, each word dragged out with claws sharp as thorns.
Cherrypaw visibly swayed on her paws, and Whitewing closed her eyes with a grimace of pain. Squirrelflight looked baffled. “But… but she was fine. She didn’t say anything about being hurt.” The dark ginger cat looked around at her Clanmates. “Didn’t anyone notice she’d been injured?”
Sandstorm walked forward, her eyes still wet with grief for Firestar. She rested her tail on Squirrelflight’s shoulder. “If she was injured that badly, we couldn’t have done anything to help her.”
Squirrelflight lashed her tail. “We could have tried!”
There was a wail from inside the nursery. “Sorreltail! Don’t leave me!”
“I’ll go to him,” Millie offered, slipping into the brambles. “He shouldn’t be alone at this time.”
Graystripe stepped forward. With a shock, Dovewing realized he looked old and tired. “The Dark Forest has claimed another victim,” the warrior declared. “May Sorreltail watch over us from StarClan.” He bowed his head.
Squirrelflight paced anxiously around the cats. “I told you all to check yourselves for injuries. Have you done it yet? I won’t have any other cats die on me!”
Dovewing felt a stab of guilt as she licked at the scratch on her flank. She should get it treated before it got infected. She headed toward the medicine cats’ den. Inside, Spiderleg was helping Leafpool pad the gaping bite wound in Foxleap’s belly with crushed leaves. Foxleap lay very still, only the flickering of his eyelids proving that he was alive.
Leafpool looked up. “Are you hurt, Dovewing? Can it wait?” Her amber eyes were huge with distress.
“Sorreltail died,” Dovewing meowed.
Leafpool jumped up, almost tripping over Foxleap. “What? She didn’t tell me she was hurt!”
“She didn’t tell anyone,” Dovewing whispered. “I think she just wanted to be with her kits.”
The medicine cat’s shoulders slumped. “There is nothing I can do for her now. Let me finish treating Foxleap, then I’ll bring some herbs and cobweb outside to treat you and anyone else that I haven’t seen yet.”
Dovewing padded back to the clearing. The three bodies of her fallen Clanmates were surrounded by little knots of their kin and closest friends. Ivypool was hunched beside Hollyleaf, licking the soft black fur on her shoulder. Bumblestripe was next to his father at Firestar’s body. The pale gray tom caught Dovewing’s eye and twitched his ears, as if offering to join her instead, but Dovewing shook her head. Graystripe needed him more right now.
Cloudtail and Berrynose were picking through the remains of the warriors’ den, trying to drag out scraps of bedding. As Dovewing watched, Squirrelflight went over to them and told them to stop.
“We’ll get nothing done tonight,” she meowed, sounding calmer now, more like a Clan deputy. “We should all get some rest before Brambleclaw returns.”
He’ll be Bramblestar by then, Dovewing thought. She found a patch of clean sand close to the tree stump where apprentices loved to practice leaping and settled down. Curling her tail over her front paws, she looked up at the pale stars and tried to spot the new warriors of StarClan that had been born this night. But the stars were nothing more than cold glints of light in a depthless sky, and Dovewing felt no comfort from them. Did we really win the battle? Because this doesn’t feel like a victory.