“Oh, come on!” Tawnypelt padded up to her mate and nudged him with her shoulder. “We all know what Darktail and his Kin were like. And none of us realized how much of a threat he was at first—even you.”
Rowanstar glared at his mate for a moment longer, then shrugged. “Very well, they can come back,” he meowed. “But if they put one paw out of line…”
A relieved chorus of sighs came from the ShadowClan cats.
“We won’t!”
“Thank you, Rowanstar!”
Alderheart watched with satisfaction as the returning warriors gathered around their leader, then turned to examine the RiverClan prisoners. All four of them lay on the ground, their chests heaving and their paws limp with exhaustion. Alderheart was surprised they had been able to fight so bravely.
Mistystar was crouching beside them, and she looked up anxiously as Alderheart approached. “Are they badly hurt?” she asked.
It was her deputy, Reedwhisker, who replied. “We’re fine,” he croaked, managing to raise his head a little. “That was the best thing we’ve ever done, sinking our claws into those mange-pelts.”
Looking more closely at each of the RiverClan warriors in turn, Alderheart was relieved to see that none of their injuries were serious. One of Reedwhisker’s ears was bleeding, Mintfur and Brackenpelt were both missing small clumps of fur, and Icewing had a long scratch on one shoulder, but it was reassuringly shallow.
“They’ll be okay,” Alderheart reassured Mistystar. “We’ll get those scratches cleaned up and then put on a poultice of marigold.”
“But what happened?” The voice was Bramblestar’s; he came padding up with Squirrelflight, Scorchfur, and the young tabby she-cat who was a stranger to Alderheart.
“It looked like Violetpaw had planned to put Darktail and his closest kin to sleep with poppy seeds,” Scorchfur replied. “But I guess you know all about that. Anyway, her plan didn’t work. Darktail got wind of it somehow and dragged her over to the prisoners’ den.”
“He dragged Needletail out,” the tabby she-cat continued. “Then he took both of them—Violetpaw and Needletail—down toward the lake. I… don’t know what happened to them after that.”
Cold dread began to gather in Alderheart’s belly. He wanted to race off right away and look for his friends, but he knew he had duties here.
“We heard Darktail say that he was going to punish Needletail for what Violetpaw had done,” Reedwhisker mewed hoarsely. “When they’d left, we decided it was time to act. We knew we had to do something to stop Darktail’s evil. So we broke out of our den. Zelda here”—he gestured with his tail toward the young tabby she-cat—“was on guard with Nettle. When we started to fight, Zelda joined in on our side. And so did most of the ShadowClan cats. Then you arrived,” he finished with a nod to Bramblestar. “I have never been so glad to see any cats in all my life.”
“That’s right,” Icewing added. “Thanks to you, we’ve driven Darktail and his rogues out of our territory!”
Alderheart admired the courage of the RiverClan cats, but he felt like he was choking on his worry for Violetpaw and Needletail. Darktail was covered with scratches. He had blood on his pelt. Whose blood was it?
His stomach turned.
“Does any cat know what happened to Violetpaw and Needletail?” he asked.
Reedwhisker shook his head, studying his paws. “Darktail said that Needletail would pay the price for Violetpaw’s betrayal. He dragged them off—and as far as we know, neither of them has come back to camp.”
Alderheart’s legs felt weak with foreboding. They could both be dead! They probably are… And all because I asked Violetpaw for her help!
Squirrelflight gave him a sympathetic look from deep green eyes, as though she could read his thoughts, and pressed her flank against his. “Stay strong,” she encouraged him. “You couldn’t have known what would happen, and giving up now will put all these cats at risk.”
“We have to look for them,” Alderheart whispered.
Squirrelflight gently shook her head. “There’s no time right now,” she mewed. “We have to get these cats back to ThunderClan, to let the medicine cats treat them properly.”
“Excuse me?” Mistystar rose to her paws, looking annoyed. “This is RiverClan territory. There’s no way we’re going to leave it for Darktail to take over again.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Bramblestar told her with a respectful dip of his head. “Darktail will have other things on his mind; he’ll know we’ll be coming for him in ShadowClan next. Besides, your cats need more care than you can give them here, and your medicine cats are still in our camp.”
“He’s right,” Reedwhisker agreed hoarsely. “There’s so much work to be done before RiverClan can live here again.”
Mistystar hesitated for a moment, a look of deep thought in her blue eyes. “Very well,” she meowed at last. “But only for a day or two, until my warriors are fully recovered.”
She whisked her tail, beckoning to some of her other Clanmates to help the former prisoners to their paws. Glancing around the camp, Alderheart saw that every cat was getting ready to leave.
The tabby she-cat, Zelda, padded up to Bramblestar and dipped her head politely. The young black tom was with her. “I’m Zelda,” she mewed, “and this is Loki. We’re kittypets.”
Bramblestar’s ears angled forward in surprise. “You fight pretty well, for kittypets,” he told her, then added, “But what are kittypets even doing here?”
“Darktail brought us into camp,” Zelda explained, “and then he wouldn’t let us go. We thought it was fun at first, until we found out what he was really like.”
“There was another of our friends with us too,” Loki added. “But he was killed when Darktail made us attack RiverClan.” He shivered, his eyes full of sorrow.
Bramblestar nodded understandingly. “And now you’d like to go home?”
“Not yet,” Zelda meowed. “We want to stay until Darktail is defeated. He’s so cruel… We want to be sure that he’s gone for good.”
Loki nodded vigorously. “Can we come with you?”
“Of course.” Bramblestar’s eyes gleamed with approval. “Any cat is welcome who wants to fight against Darktail.”
The sky was growing pale with dawn, and the last warriors of StarClan were fading from the sky, when Alderheart followed Bramblestar and the rest of the warriors back to the ThunderClan camp.
As they crossed ShadowClan territory, they were careful to stay close to the lake, and every cat was alert for any sign or scent of Darktail and his remaining rogues. But the pine forest remained dark and silent.
I wonder if it’s too much to hope for, that the rogues have simply fled, Alderheart thought. It would be great if they never bothered us again! They’ve already given us enough trouble.
But the whereabouts of the rogues weren’t Alderheart’s main concern. Padding along at the rear of the group, he couldn’t put Violetpaw and Needletail out of his mind.
Why would Darktail have taken them to the lake? he asked himself. Was he going to drown them? Alderheart halted for a moment, his breath catching in his throat. Could that be what happened to Dawnpelt and the other missing cats?
Alderheart didn’t feel much relief as he and the rest of the cats splashed through the stream that marked the border with ShadowClan. It was good to be back on familiar territory, but his worries still crowded everything else out of his mind. He wondered whether he should ask Bramblestar if he could take out a patrol and go to search for Violetpaw and Needletail.
I could ask him… but I don’t think he’ll agree. He’ll want every cat to concentrate on getting ready to drive out the rogues.