Cats began to emerge from their dens. They splashed across the clearing, weaving or jumping aside to avoid the fiery debris that still rained down around them.
“Head for the Twoleg nest,” Firestar ordered. “We can shelter there.”
Brambleclaw emerged from the nursery, carrying Bumblekit; Daisy followed him with Blossomkit. Rosekit and Toadkit stumbled along beside their mother. Mousefur padded out of the elders’ den with her tail over Longtail’s shoulder to guide him. Icepaw and Foxpaw, their eyes wild with terror, were shoved toward the barrier of thorns by their mentors.
Hollyleaf looked around for Lionblaze and Jayfeather, but she couldn’t see either of them among the fleeing cats. Jayfeather would need help to get out, she thought, trying to control her fear. And what about Squirrelflight? Her wound was still hurting, and she hadn’t regained her full strength yet.
Struggling through the pelting rain, the glare of flame all around her, Hollyleaf splashed across to the medicine cats’ den. She met Leafpool by the bramble screen, her jaws full of herbs; Jayfeather was just behind her.
“Go and help the others!” Hollyleaf gasped to the medicine cat. “I’ll bring Jayfeather.”
Leafpool gave her a nod of acknowledgement and raced for the tunnel.
“I can bring myself, thanks,” Jayfeather muttered furiously.
“Don’t be a mouse-brain!” Hollyleaf spat back at him.
“There’s fire out there. Now stop complaining and grab my tail.”
Wincing as her brother’s jaws closed around her tail-tip, Hollyleaf turned toward the tunnel. Suddenly Lionblaze loomed up out of the rain.
“You’re here,” he panted with relief. “Let’s go.”
Together the three cats headed for the tunnel. By now the clearing was empty; it looked as if the rest of the Clan, even Firestar, had already left. Will they make it to the Twoleg nest?
Hollyleaf wondered. Or will they scatter into the forest? Is ThunderClan going to break up after all?
She and her brothers were halfway across the clearing when lightning clawed across the sky from top to bottom. The barrier across the entrance to the camp crackled and burst into flame. The tunnel vanished in a throat of fire.
Hollyleaf stopped, frozen in horror. “We’re trapped!”
Staring around wildly, she tried to think what to do. The camp was littered with blazing branches, and more were cascading down from the lightning-struck trees around the hollow. The warriors’ den was already smoldering; there was no shelter there.
“The apprentices’ cave…” she gasped, even though she knew it was too shallow to give any real protection if the fire spread.
“No. Over here.” Squirrelflight’s voice spoke behind her; Hollyleaf whirled around to see her mother waving her tail urgently toward the rock wall. “There’s another way out.”
Hollyleaf was ashamed of the relief that swept over her, as if she was still a kit who needed her mother to look after her. Leading Jayfeather, she followed Squirrelflight around a clump of brambles that grew against the wall of the hollow.
Lionblaze brought up the rear.
To Hollyleaf’s surprise, the rock behind the brambles had crumbled away. Peering up through the rain, she saw straggling bushes and grass growing in cracks, all the way to the top.
“It’s a secret way out of the camp!” she exclaimed. “And we never knew about it!”
“Thank StarClan,” Squirrelflight retorted drily. “You were enough trouble as kits and apprentices, without this.” Then her voice changed, growing tense again. “Jayfeather, you come first. Follow my voice. It’s not a difficult climb.”
“We’ll come behind and catch you if you fall,” Lionblaze assured his brother.
“I’m not a kit!” Jayfeather snapped, though Hollyleaf could see he was shaking with fear.
Squirrelflight scrambled up through the bramble thicket and clung there, calling out to Jayfeather so he could follow.
Jayfeather struggled up behind her, swinging out on a tendril of ivy when his hind paws lost their grip.
“Mouse dung!” he spat, scrabbling to get his balance again.
Squirrelflight went on guiding him upward, her voice calm now, even though she must have been terrified that one of them would fall as they climbed higher.
Hollyleaf and Lionblaze followed. Though Squirrelflight had said the climb was easy, Hollyleaf was convinced that the pounding rain was about to wash her off the rock face, or lightning would strike the thorns she clung to. Darkness, the glare of f lame, and the crash of thunder surrounded her.
She lost sight of her Clanmates, and thought she would never reach the top.
But at last she heard her mother’s voice again. “Well done!”
Teeth met in her scruff as Squirrelflight dragged her onto the top of the cliff. She lay there panting for a moment, watching her mother helping Lionblaze to scramble up beside her. Jayfeather was lying on his side, his eyes closed and his sides heaving.
“Come away from the edge,” Squirrelflight warned. “The rock is crumbling.” She turned, leading the way through the bushes.
Hollyleaf nudged Jayfeather to his paws. “Just a bit farther and then you can rest.”
Her brother bared his teeth in a feeble snarl; she could see that he would never admit how hard he had found the climb.
“You can lean on my shoulder if you like,” Lionblaze offered, coming to stand on Jayfeather’s other side.
“Look, mouse-brain—”
Jayfeather’s annoyed hiss broke off as the whole sky was lit up by a crackling bolt of lightning, stabbing down as if it was going to impale all three cats on its claws. Thunder rolled overhead as the bushes burst into flame.
Hollyleaf let out a yowl of terror. Greedy scarlet tongues licked toward her and her littermates, blocking their path away from the edge of the cliff. Smoke billowed up as rain fell on the bushes; Hollyleaf choked on it and began to cough, but the downpour was easing off, and the remaining flurries weren’t enough to put the fire out.
A wave of heat rolled over Hollyleaf; instinctively she moved back, and felt the rock begin to crumble beneath her paws. Scrambling away, she glanced down, to see the clearing patched with flame and darkness. There was no escape that way, even if they could manage to climb down safely amid the fire and rain.
“What’s happening?” Jayfeather was cowering down under the searing heat. “Which way should we go?”
“We can’t go anywhere. We’re trapped.” Lionblaze’s voice was calm. Flame reflected from his golden pelt and shone in his eyes. “Squirrelflight!” he called. “Are you there? Help us!”
As he spoke a branch edged with flames crashed down from one of the bushes; Hollyleaf dragged Jayfeather out of its path just in time. The littermates huddled together at the very edge of the cliff.
“I’m here!” Squirrelflight’s voice was high-pitched with terror. “I’m going to push a branch through to you. You can run along it to escape before it catches fire.”
“Right. We’ll be ready,” Lionblaze replied.
Hollyleaf felt a jolt of gratitude for her brother’s courage. Without him, she was certain she would have panicked, trapped between the fire and the long drop into the camp. But they would stick together, the three of them, protected by the prophecy as they had always been.
Hollyleaf could hear the sound of something heavy being dragged through the undergrowth beyond the flames. Her burst of confidence blew away like ash.
“She’ll never manage it,” she muttered to Lionblaze. “What about her wound? She’s not strong enough.”
“Squirrelflight will always do what she has to,” Lionblaze replied.
Small tongues of flame were creeping through the grass now; rain hissed down on them, leaving the ground blackened and smoking, but there were always more flames, and the acrid scent of burning filled the air. A blazing leaf floated down onto Jayfeather’s pelt; Lionblaze knocked it off with one paw, adding the reek of scorched fur to the smoke-filled air.