Brambleclaw stared from her to Squirrelpaw. “I thought you said you hadn’t told any cat!” His voice was loud with outrage. “How does she know? You’ve been lying to me!”
“I have not!” Squirrelpaw spat.
“No, she hasn’t,” Leafpaw’s gentler voice added. “But she didn’t need to tell me anything. I just knew, that’s all.”
Brambleclaw shook himself. “You mean, you know everything?” he asked. “About the dreams, and the journey to the sun-drown place?”
Leafpaw turned her serious gaze on him, and he saw unhappiness and bewilderment in the depths of her eyes. “No,” she mewed. “Only that Squirrelpaw is going away.” She hesitated, closing her eyes briefly. “And there will be great danger.”
A pang of pity for her stabbed through Brambleclaw, sharp as a thorn, but he could not afford to give in to it. He had to know what Leafpaw had done with her knowledge.
“Who else knows?” he demanded roughly. “Have you told your father?”
“No!” The flash of anger in Leafpaw’s eyes suddenly made her look very much like her sister. “I wouldn’t tell on Squirrelpaw, not even to Firestar.”
“She wouldn’t, Brambleclaw,” Squirrelpaw added.
Brambleclaw nodded slowly.
“I almost wish I had,” Leafpaw went on, bitterness in her voice. “Perhaps I could have stopped it all, and kept you here.
Squirrelpaw, do you really have to go?”
“I must! This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Don’t you see? It’s a command from StarClan, so it’s not like we’re going against the warrior code.”
She began pouring out to Leafpaw the whole story of Brambleclaw’s dreams, and the meeting with the cats from other Clans. Leafpaw listened, her eyes widening in dismay.
Brambleclaw fidgeted from paw to paw, acutely aware of the passing of time as the daylight strengthened.
“But you don’t need to go!” Leafpaw wailed when Squirrelpaw had finished. “You haven’t been chosen.”
“Well, I’m not going back. I can’t do anything right, as far as Firestar is concerned. Do you know he even told me I might not be fit to be a warrior? I’ll show him whether I’m fit or not!”
Brambleclaw glanced at Leafpaw. She knew as well as he did how useless it was to argue with Squirrelpaw when she had made up her mind. There was something else, too, in Leafpaw’s amber eyes: a hint of trouble, as if she knew more than she was telling.
“But you might not come back.” Leafpaw’s voice shook, and Brambleclaw was reminded even more forcibly that as well as a medicine cat, Leafpaw was Squirrelpaw’s sister.
“What will I do without you?”
“I’ll be okay, Leafpaw.” Brambleclaw was amazed at the gentleness of Squirrelpaw’s voice, and the way that she pressed her muzzle comfortingly against her sister’s side.
“I’ve got to go. You do see that, don’t you?”
Leafpaw nodded.
“And you won’t tell anyone where we’ve gone?” Squirrelpaw pressed.
“I don’t know where you’re going—and neither do you,” Leafpaw pointed out. “But no, I won’t say anything. Just remember that Firestar does love you. He has things on his mind that you know nothing about.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Now take the herbs and go.”
Squirrelpaw dabbed at the packet of herbs, dividing them between herself and Brambleclaw. As they gulped down the bitter-tasting leaves, Leafpaw looked on, her eyes huge and somber.
“Even if you don’t have a medicine cat with you, you can still find herbs as you go along. Don’t forget marigold for wounds,” she meowed rapidly. “And tansy for coughs—oh, and juniper berries for bellyache. And borage leaves are best for fever, if you can find any.” She sounded as if she were trying to pass on the whole of her training in the few moments she had left.
“We won’t forget,” Squirrelpaw promised. She finished the last mouthful of herbs and swiped her tongue around her mouth. “Come on, Brambleclaw.”
“Good-bye, Leafpaw,” Brambleclaw mewed. “You—and the rest of the Clan—take care. If trouble is really coming to the forest, we… we might not be back in time to help you fight it.”
“That is in the paws of StarClan,” Leafpaw agreed sadly. “I will do my best to be ready, I promise.”
“And don’t worry about Squirrelpaw,” Brambleclaw added.
“I’ll look after her.”
“And I’ll look after him.” Squirrelpaw flashed him a challenging look before padding up to her sister and touching noses with her. “We will come back,” she murmured.
Leafpaw dipped her head, sadness clouding her eyes. As Brambleclaw headed once again for Fourtrees, he glanced back to see her watching them, a motionless light brown figure against the ferns. As he raised his tail in a gesture of farewell she turned swiftly, and the undergrowth swallowed her up.
Chapter 12
Leafpaw caught a vole on her way back to the camp, and slipped down the ravine with it clamped in her jaws, hoping that any cat who saw her would think that she had been out on an early hunting expedition. Her mind was still whirling with her sister’s departure, and how the prophecies of StarClan seemed to be gathering around Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw like mist clinging to the branches of a gorse bush.
As she emerged into the clearing she heard Mousefur’s voice raised loudly. “That Brambleclaw is a lazy lump! It’s well past sunrise, and he isn’t up yet. I want him for a hunting patrol.”
“I’ll wake him.” Brightheart, who was sitting with Mousefur near the nettle patch, got up and went into the warriors’ den.
Leafpaw felt a cold knot in her belly at the thought of what would happen when the rest of ThunderClan discovered that Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw had vanished. At that moment, Dustpelt appeared from the nursery and padded over to the apprentices’ den, where Whitepaw and Shrewpaw were sunning themselves.
“Hi,” the brown warrior greeted them. “Have you seen Squirrelpaw? She’s not ill, is she? She’s usually raring to go by now—before I’ve even had time for a piece of fresh-kill.”
Whitepaw and Shrewpaw exchanged a glance. “We haven’t seen her,” Whitepaw mewed. “She didn’t sleep in the den last night.”
Leafpaw saw Dustpelt roll his eyes. “What is she up to now?”
Brightheart pushed her way out of the warriors’ den and bounded across to Mousefur. Leafpaw trotted across to the fresh-kill pile with her vole so that she could hear what they were saying.
“Brambleclaw’s not there,” Brightheart reported.
“What?” Mousefur’s tail twitched in surprise. “Where is he, then?”
Brightheart shrugged. “He must have gone hunting on his own. Never mind, Mousefur. Cloudtail and I will come with you.”
“Fine.” Mousefur shrugged, and as soon as Cloudtail emerged from the den, blinking sleep out of his eyes, she roused Spiderpaw and all four cats left the camp.
Meanwhile, Dustpelt was heading for the fresh-kill pile, irritably calling on StarClan to tell him how he was supposed to mentor an apprentice if she was never where she was meant to be.
“If you see your sister,” he growled to Leafpaw, “tell her I’m in the nursery. And she’d better have a good excuse for going off on her own again.” He snatched up a starling and headed back to Ferncloud.
Leafpaw watched him go before heading for the fern tunnel that led to the medicine cat’s den. She was relieved that Dustpelt had not stopped to question her about Squirrelpaw, but she knew that as time went on and the two cats did not return, there would certainly be questions—lots of them.
And she had no idea at all how to answer.