Squirrelflight lowered herself onto her belly and pulled one of the mice close. “Eat,” she whispered to Leafstar.
Leafstar ignored her, sitting straighter and staring at her captors.
She hoped that the SkyClan leader wouldn’t start a fight. Didn’t she realize they only had to play along until they had the chance to slip away, or until their Clanmates came to free them? Why risk hurting another cat or getting hurt themselves?
As she bit into her mouse, she watched the Sisters relax. They shared prey and tongues like Clanmates. Moonlight swallowed a mouthful of vole. Beside her, Snow was eating a shrew. With a sigh, the queen shifted onto her side to ease the weight away from her swollen belly. She blinked calmly at Squirrelflight. “I hope you will find your stay with us comfortable. It seems better to enjoy the company of others rather than resist it. The Sisters don’t like violence, and we avoid it when we can.”
“The Clans avoid violence too, when possible,” Squirrelflight told her. “Peace is better for every cat.”
Tempest had settled beside the young toms. She looked up from the mouse she was eating. “How long will it be before your Clan wonders where you are?”
“A quarter moon at least,” Squirrelflight told her. She guessed that Bramblestar would send a patrol sooner, but rescue would be easier if the Sisters weren’t expecting it.
Leafstar huffed beside her. “My Clan will be missing me already,” she meowed pointedly. “They’ll send out a search party. It won’t take long for them to find me.”
As Squirrelflight swallowed back frustration, Tempest glanced at Moonlight, alarmed. “Perhaps we should let them go. We don’t want trouble.”
Moonlight hooked up another vole with her claw. “There won’t be trouble. Keeping these cats will send an important message to their Clans.”
The tabby-and-white tom beside Tempest frowned. “What message?”
“That we don’t fight easily, but we don’t scare easily either,” Moonlight told him. “And they’re less likely to start anything if it might endanger their Clanmates’ safety.”
The tom scowled at Squirrelflight. “If they hurt us, we hurt you!”
Moonlight blinked at him coolly. “Keep your claws sheathed, Stone.” She glanced at Tempest. “Your kit reminds me of his father.”
Tempest’s tail twitched self-consciously. “He’s young, that’s all.”
The tom looked like an apprentice, not yet fully grown, but old enough to be a skillful hunter and fighter. The tom beside him looked the same age. He was white with tabby splotches on his legs.
“Are you brothers?” Squirrelflight asked. Stone nodded.
“I’m Grass,” his brother added.
Squirrelflight looked at the only other tom in the group. He was moons younger than the other two—barely more than a kit—and ginger, like the she-cat beside him. The she-cat nodded to her. “I’m Furze,” she said, “and this is my kit, Creek.”
Squirrelflight greeted her, then leaned toward Leafstar. “Have you noticed that there are no grown males here, only youngsters?”
“Now that you mention it …” Leafstar narrowed her eyes. “I wonder what happened to their fathers.”
“Maybe they ate them.” Squirrelflight glanced at Leafstar, joking, yet she couldn’t help feeling that the absence of adult toms was strange.
Moonlight pointed to a yellow she-cat crouching beside the juniper. “That’s Sunrise.” Sunrise nodded as Moonlight’s gaze flicked past her, toward two young ginger-and-white she-cats sharing a thrush a tail-length away. “They’re Flurry and Sparrow. Hawk’s their mother.”
Leafstar jabbed her mouse with her paw. She hooked it up and inspected it. “We don’t need to know every cat’s name,” she mewed. “We won’t be here long.”
Moonlight glanced at her thoughtfully for a moment, then returned to her vole as though dismissing the SkyClan leader’s claim.
They finished their meal in silence. Squirrelflight was aware of the Sisters snatching watchful glances at her as they ate. Some of them clearly weren’t comfortable with Moonlight’s decision to keep them. But Sparrow and Flurry stared with open curiosity, and Squirrelflight couldn’t help warming to the pair. They reminded her of apprentices, eager to start training.
Dusk was creeping over the valley. As shadow swallowed the hillside, Squirrelflight glanced around at the bushes encircling the camp. There were gaps here and there where she and Leafstar could slip out. The Sisters would have to sleep eventually, and it might be possible to sneak past even the most careful guard. Once they were out of the camp and in the thick undergrowth of the valley, it would be hard to follow them. Her thoughts flitted back to ThunderClan. Bramblestar would be worried that she hadn’t returned. She felt guilty about asking Sparkpelt to keep her secret. It wouldn’t be easy for her daughter to sleep while her father fretted. Perhaps she’d tell him, and Bramblestar would be angry. Would he send a search party straight away? No. Even if he was angry with her for coming, he’d respect her enough to let her finish the mission she’d started and only worry when she hadn’t returned in a day or two.
Moonlight beckoned Tempest with a flick of her nose and, when the she-cat hurried to speak with her, murmured something first to Tempest and then to Snow. The white cat got to her paws and followed Tempest across the clearing. They stopped in front of Squirrelflight and Leafstar.
Tempest nodded toward the juniper bush. “Moonlight says you’re to sleep there.”
Snow hung back, watching through narrowed eyes as Squirrelflight and Leafstar stood and padded toward the juniper bush.
Leafstar glanced over her shoulder at the white she-cat. “I don’t care how big she is,” she hissed to Squirrelflight. “If she snarls at me again, I’ll claw her fur off.”
Tempest stopped beside the juniper bush. “She’s protective of her campmates, that’s all.” She blinked apologetically at Leafstar. “And she doesn’t trust strangers.”
Squirrelflight sniffed the bush. The warm scent of bracken hung around it. Tempest nodded to a small gap between the branches. “You’ll find nests inside. Snow will guard the entrance. If you need anything, ask her and she’ll let me know.”
Squirrelflight dipped her head. “Thank you.”
Leafstar pushed past her and strode inside.
“Do you have to make this difficult?” Squirrelflight followed her in. The entrance opened into a small den. Bracken and moss were piled at the edges. It had clearly been slept on. “Cats have given up their nests so that we can sleep comfortably.”
“They wouldn’t have to if they let us go.” Leafstar sat on one of the piles and curled down stiffly into the moss. “I don’t know why you’re treating them like friends.”
“Why make this any more uncomfortable than it is?” Squirrelflight mewed irritably. “Besides, I saw a gap beside the dogwood that looks like it might lead to a track through the brush. I doubt we’ll get past Snow tonight, but if we play along, the whole group might be less watchful and we’ll be able to slip away tomorrow.”
“‘Play along,’” Leafstar grunted. “I thought we were warriors.” She turned her back on Squirrelflight and tucked her nose into the bracken, grumbling. “Held hostage by a bunch of rogues.”
Squirrelflight settled onto the bracken beside her. She sympathized with the SkyClan leader. It was humiliating to be kept prisoner here, but conflict could be dangerous, not just for them. What if Moonlight’s unborn kits were hurt in the fight? She rested her muzzle on her paws and closed her eyes. Tired after the long trek into new territory, she pushed worries from her mind and let herself sink into sleep.