“Help!” wailed Petalkit before a wave pushed her under.
Mapleshade launched herself off the stone and paddled furiously toward her kits. A pale shape bobbed in front of her. She reached out and managed to hook one claw into sodden fur. It was Patchkit. His eyes were closed.
“Wake up!” Mapleshade screeched. “You have to swim!”
A faint mew came from somewhere beside her. Mapleshade lifted her head and peered through the waves. Larchkit was clinging to a branch that hung into the river. Gripping Patchkit in her jaws, Mapleshade battled her way over to the tree. She tried to boost Patchkit out of the water but he was too heavy and he slipped out of her grasp.
“No!” Mapleshade yowled as he vanished into the black river.
Larchkit lost his grip on the branch and splashed into the water beside her. Mapleshade sank her teeth into his scruff but the pull of the current was too strong. Larchkit was ripped away from her and swept away with just one tiny cry.
“Mapleshade! Mapleshade! Grab hold of the branch!” There was a frantic shout from the shore.
Mapleshade saw Appledusk wading into the river, his fur fluffed up in alarm. He gestured with his tail to the overhanging tree. “Hold on and I’ll drag you out!”
Mapleshade was only dimly aware of hooking her claws into the branch beside her. She felt herself being dragged through the water, and then strong jaws were in her pelt, hauling her onto the stones. Appledusk loomed over her. “What in the name of StarClan are you doing? Where are the kits?”
Two more shapes appeared beside him. “What is a ThunderClan cat doing in the river?” asked one. Mapleshade recognized the voice of Splashfoot, a young tom.
“Is it Mapleshade?” asked his companion.
“I think so, Eeltail,” mewed Splashfoot. He peered closer, his pale gray fur glowing in the failing light.
“My kits,” Mapleshade rasped. “Save… my kits…”
Appledusk’s face appeared above her, his eyes huge with horror. “Are you telling me the kits are in the river?”
Mapleshade nodded, too weak to speak.
Eeltail was already bounding along the shore. “If kits are in there, they are going to be in big trouble!” she called over her shoulder. Splashfoot raced after her.
Appledusk crouched beside Mapleshade. “I will find them, I promise,” he whispered. Then he raced away from her.
Mapleshade closed her eyes. StarClan, help my kits, she prayed. None of this is their fault. Take me if you must, but please, spare them.
She lay still, feeling the water run off her fur, until she heard paw steps crunching over the stones.
She lifted her head and saw Appledusk approaching. In the darkness, she couldn’t see his expression.
“Did you find them?”
“Yes,” he meowed. “We found them.”
Mapleshade hauled herself to her paws. “Where are they?”
Wordlessly, Appledusk turned and led her downstream. He pushed his way into a dense clump of reeds and beckoned Mapleshade forward with his tail. Eeltail and Splashfoot were standing over three small dark shapes. Eeltail looked up, her eyes brimming with pity. “I’m so sorry,” she mewed.
“We couldn’t save them.”
A ghastly shriek split the air. Mapleshade wondered where the noise was coming from until she realized that her mouth was wide open. She shut her jaws with a snap and took a step toward her kits.
Her legs buckled and suddenly she was lying beside them, desperately licking each one in turn.
“Wake up, little ones,” she urged. “We made it across the river. You are safe now!”
But the bodies rolled limply under the strokes of her tongue, and three pairs of eyes stayed closed.
Mapleshade pressed her muzzle against Patchkit’s cold cheek. “You promised you would never leave me,” she whispered. You promised you would keep me safe. His voice echoed inside her head.
“I’m sorry!” Mapleshade wailed. “I was trying to find us a new home. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“What are you talking about?” Appledusk sounded stunned. “Do you mean that you deliberately tried to cross the river? In the middle of a flood?”
Mapleshade twisted around to look at him. “ThunderClan threw us out,” she explained. “We had nowhere else to go.”
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but we need to take these kits to Darkstar,” meowed Eeltail.
“He needs to know about this.”
For a moment Appledusk looked as if he was going to disagree, then he nodded. “You’re right.
Come on, we’ll take one kit each. Mapleshade, follow us.”
The RiverClan warriors gently picked up the drenched little shapes and carried them slowly back along the shore. Mapleshade stumbled behind them, too numb to think clearly. Beside them, the river had calmed and lapped at the shore like a cat’s tongue, making soft, comforting noises in the still air.
Mapleshade waited for Appledusk to send the other warriors on ahead, to find some excuse to be alone with her so they could mourn their kits together before facing the rest of his Clan. But he didn’t turn back to look at her. He hasn’t even asked what I named them.
The warriors threaded between tall reeds on a narrow path of dense brown soil. It opened into a clearing which was raised up from the water by heaps of more soil on top of tightly woven branches, like a huge nest. Mapleshade caught the glint of many pairs of eyes watching from among the reeds and her wet fur bristled.
An orange she-cat ran up to Appledusk. Mapleshade recognized her at once; it was Reedshine, the warrior who had been fussing over Appledusk at the Gathering.
“Did someone fall in the river?” Reedshine gasped. “Are you okay?”
The RiverClan warrior set down Petalkit’s body as gently as if she were sleeping, and touched his tail to Reedshine’s flank. “I’m fine. I need to speak with Darkstar.”
Reedshine stayed where she was, her gaze flicking to Mapleshade and back again. “Why is she here? What’s going on, Appledusk?”
There was a stir of movement at the far end of the clearing, and Darkstar stepped out of the reeds.
All the cats fell silent.
Appledusk stepped forward. “Three kits have drowned in the river,” he announced.
Ask me their names! Mapleshade screeched silently.
Appledusk looked at his paws. “I… I am their father.”
Mapleshade held her breath. This was Appledusk’s chance to plead for mercy on her behalf, to explain that Mapleshade deserved to be given a place in RiverClan because she had borne his kits.
Darkstar’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “What do you mean, Appledusk? What are you talking about?”
“I’m so sorry, Reedshine,” Appledusk whispered. “Please forgive me.”
Reedshine twitched the tip of her tail. “Forgive you for what?”
Mapleshade looked at the concern in Reedshine’s eyes and felt something inside her turn to ice.
This was not just a Clanmate to Appledusk.
Appledusk bowed his head and went on. “Many moons ago, I met with Mapleshade in secret.”
There was a gasp from his Clanmates, and one of them, a rumpled old tabby, hissed, “Traitor!”
Mapleshade kept her gaze fixed on Darkstar. She has to take pity on me. I have lost my home and my kits. I have nothing left except Appledusk.
“You knew about these kits?” Darkstar asked. The tip of her tail was twitching.
Appledusk nodded, and Reedshine let out a soft wail. “Mapleshade told me she would raise them in ThunderClan,” Appledusk meowed. “I… I knew I had made a mistake so I said nothing to my
Clanmates.”