“Like you helped my kits?” Mapleshade growled. “Never! I hope you die in agony!”
Frecklewish yowled again, a wordless shriek of pain. Almost at once paw steps thrummed toward them through the trees.
“Frecklewish, is that you?” called Bloomheart.
Mapleshade slipped into a clump of bracken at the far side of the clearing. She knew she should flee before the patrol arrived but she wanted to watch Frecklewish die. With a crackling of undergrowth, Bloomheart and two other ThunderClan warriors, Seedpelt and Thrushtalon, burst into the clearing.
“Keep watch for snakes!” Bloomheart ordered. His Clanmates spun around and scanned the rocks. Bloomheart bent over Frecklewish, who was curled on the ground with her paws over her eyes. “It’s all right, Frecklewish, we’re here now.”
“My eyes!” wailed Frecklewish. “I can’t see!”
Bloomheart lifted his head. “Oh StarClan, if ever we needed Ravenwing, it is now! Why did you take him from us?” Then he shook himself and faced his Clanmates. “Seedwhisker, we need soaked moss, as fast as you can. We have to wash the venom out of her eyes. Thrushtalon, fetch every scrap of fennel you can find in the medicine stores. We have to try to save Frecklewish’s eyesight.”
The two warriors darted away. Bloomheart placed his paw on Frecklewish’s flank. “Lie still,” he meowed. “We’re doing everything we can.”
“But ThunderClan doesn’t have a medicine cat!” Frecklewish whimpered. “Am I going to die?”
“Not on my watch,” Bloomheart vowed.
Mapleshade felt bile rise in her throat as her former mentor soothed the cat who had watched her kits drown. Frecklewish’s eyes were a seeping, clouded mess. Even if she survived, she would never watch anything again. Mapleshade knew she had to leave before the rest of ThunderClan rushed to help Frecklewish. She crept through the undergrowth to the thickest part of the forest, then raced back to the Twoleg fence. Cries of alarm filtered through the trees as more warriors arrived at Snakerocks.
The sounds faded as Mapleshade scrambled over the fence and crouched on the bare brown earth, panting.
Only one voice echoed in her ears now: Patchkit, her tiniest, most defenseless kit. “Help me, Mama!”
Her daughter, Petalkit, had found peace with the attack on Frecklewish. Like Larchkit, her desperate cries had been silenced. For a moment Mapleshade’s breath was crushed beneath a wave of grief for the son and daughter she might never see again. Then she clenched her jaw and pictured the final cat who had to suffer for the death of her kits.
“Not long now, Patchkit,” she vowed. “Soon you will be free!”
Chapter 8
As dusk fell, bringing with it a cold, damp wind, Mapleshade jumped down from the fence into the forest and followed the boundary along the edge of Twolegplace. Raindrops pattered around her as she reached the pine trees, whose spindly trunks and whispering needles gave little shelter.
Mapleshade padded softly over the forest floor, staying well outside the ThunderClan border as she skirted the Treecutplace—silent and dark now—and plunged back into dense undergrowth. Brambles scraped her pelt and blocked her way, but Mapleshade kept pushing through, ears pricked for the first sounds of the river.
By now the rain was falling more heavily, rattling the leaves and stalks around Mapleshade’s ears. She gasped when she suddenly emerged from a clump of stiff grasses to find herself at the top of a steep bank with the river sliding past, thick and black and deadly, just a tail-length below. She scrambled backward with a hiss. For a moment she thought she saw three small shapes twisting and tumbling in the water, but it was only a reflection of starlight.
Mapleshade stared at the reeds growing on the far shore. Somewhere in there was the RiverClan camp, perched like a bird’s nest above the sodden ground. If she strained her ears past the sound of the rain, she could almost hear the murmurings of cats as they settled down for the night. Mapleshade pictured Appledusk lying in his den with Reedshine curled beside him, her orange pelt merging with his soft brown fur. The hair rose on Mapleshade’s neck and she bared her teeth. Appledusk will regret the day he met me! All those times he said he loved me, all the promises he made—they were nothing but lies! He never wanted my kits, so he let them drown. He could have saved them, I know he could have!
Behind her, the sky was lightening above the trees. Dawn was a while off, but Mapleshade felt more comfortable traveling in darkness, so instead of giving in to the urge to sleep, she picked her way downstream along the bank. There was a ridge of little stones stretching across the river down here—she had used them to cross to meet Appledusk on the other side once. There was no way
Mapleshade was going to swim across the river, but she could wade if she had to.
She reached the stones, invisible in the dark but recognizable by the way the noise of the river changed as it flowed over them. Shuddering, Mapleshade jumped down the bank and waded in. Her belly fur was instantly soaked and she gasped at the cold. She forced her legs through the current, feeling the water tug against her and splash her flanks. The river was much slower and shallower than when she had tried to cross with her kits, but she still hated every paw step, and she hissed with relief when she hauled herself onto the far bank. She lay there for a while, panting, as the water trickled from her fur. It had stopped raining but the sky was thick with clouds and the wind was growing stronger, scented with more rain to come.
Mapleshade forced herself to stand and keep going. Plunging into the reeds, stiff and springy so that they flicked her face and tripped her tired paws, she pushed forward until she detected RiverClan border marks, then retraced her steps so that she was following the edge of the territory safely out of scent-range. Dense reeds gave way to softer undergrowth dotted with low, slender-branched willow trees. Her belly rumbled but she didn’t dare hunt in case it alerted the RiverClan cats. Sounds carried too easily on this side of the river.
Gradually the ground became firmer and drier beneath her paws, and the air filled with green, leafy scents rather than the taint of fish. Mapleshade reached a dense stand of trees, leafier and sturdier than the other willows. The territory border was just close enough that she could look down from the branches and watch for passing cats. With a sigh as she recalled just how much time she had spent up a tree recently, Mapleshade clawed her way up the nearest trunk and eased her way onto one of the lower boughs. Without knowing the habits of RiverClan warriors, she hadn’t been able to think of a plan to trap Appledusk alone. She would just have to learn what she could from watching.
Mapleshade fluffed up her fur against the cold and waited. She was rewarded quite soon by a cluster of paw steps crackling nearer: an early hunting patrol, chattering and crashing through the undergrowth as if they wanted to alert all the prey to their approach. Mapleshade curled her lip, thinking of ThunderClan’s stealth. The patrol passed right under her branch without noticing her.
Before their noise had faded, more cats approached. The breeze carried a scent that made
Mapleshade’s nostrils flare. A heartbeat later, the bracken parted to reveal a pale brown cat, broad-shouldered beneath his thick, glossy fur. Appledusk! Once again, StarClan had brought Mapleshade’s prey right to her paws.
But then the stalks rustled and a plump gray apprentice bundled out. He crouched down and leaped forward, stubby front legs outstretched. Appledusk shook his head. “You need more height than that, Perchpaw,” he chided. “You must be prepared to fight full-grown warriors when you go into battle.”