The far side of the Twoleg territory was also bordered by a wooden fence. Brambleclaw raced toward it, waving his tail for the others to follow. Breathlessly they scrambled up the slippery wood. Hazeltail started to slip back; Brackenfur gave her a shove from below, and Brambleclaw grabbed her scruff to haul her the rest of the way. Hollyleaf realized as she clambered to safety that her paws had left smears of blood on the wood.
For a few heartbeats the dogs jostled one another at the foot of the fence, whining and scrabbling as they tried to reach the cats. Brambleclaw gazed down at them, his back arched and his fur bristling with a mixture of terror and anger. “Leave us alone, flea-pelts!” he hissed.
Suddenly the huge black-and-tan dog broke away from the rest and raced back across the grass to the low part of the fence near the den. The rest of the pack streamed after him and began jumping, back into the alley.
“They’re coming to get us!” Birchfall gasped.
“We can’t stay here.” Brambleclaw’s voice was tense. “Follow me.”
He leaped down as the first of the dogs appeared around the corner, and took off down the alley, his tail streaming out behind him and his belly fur brushing the stones. Hollyleaf and the others pelted after him.
We can’t keep this up much longer! Hollyleaf thought.
Brambleclaw swerved into another gap and immediately halted. The rest of the patrol piled into his back. Hollyleaf gazed ahead, terror pounding through her. This alley was a dead end. Straight in front of them was a high wall built of the same red stone as the Twoleg nests, and almost as tall. We’ll never climb that!
Brambleclaw leaped up at the wall but fell back, his straining paws nowhere near the top. Hollyleaf knew that Hazeltail would never manage it. And the hedge on either side looked too thick to get through.
“You go on,” Hazeltail mewed bravely, even though she was shaking with fear. “Don’t worry about me.”
Brackenfur touched her shoulder with his tail-tip. “We can’t keep going,” he murmured. “We’re all too exhausted. There’s nowhere left to go.”
“What about there?” Hollyleaf had spotted a group of tall, shiny objects like very smooth boulders, standing together in one corner. Scents of Twoleg rubbish hung around them. She gestured toward them with her tail. “We can hide.”
Brackenfur glanced around for other cover, but there was none. He nodded swiftly. “Go!”
Brambleclaw guided Hazeltail into hiding and shoved Birchfall after her into the narrow space beside the shiny boulders. Hollyleaf and Lionblaze followed, leaving Brackenfur and Brambleclaw to crouch on the outskirts of the space, their ears and whiskers twitching as they waited for the dogs to appear.
Hollyleaf was crowded up against Hazeltail; she could feel her Clanmate trembling and hear the whimpers of terror that she tried to stifle.
“I know I’ll never see my kits,” Birchfall murmured. “I just hope Whitewing is okay.”
Pounding footsteps and loud yelping announced that the dogs had reached the alley. Hollyleaf could smell their stink even over the scents of the Twoleg rubbish. I guess that means they’ll be able to scent us, too.
Then she felt Lionblaze pushing his way past her, toward the opening where Brackenfur and Brambleclaw were crouching. With a shock like a rush of icy water, she realized that he was going out to fight the dogs.
“No! You can’t!” she hissed.
“I can!” Lionblaze insisted, turning glowing amber eyes on her. “I won’t get hurt, you know I won’t.”
He pushed his way to the edge of the silver boulder, squeezing past Brambleclaw and Brackenfur, and ignoring the Clan deputy when he asked what in StarClan’s name Lionblaze thought he was doing.
“Lionblaze, no!” Hollyleaf screeched. “Stop!”
CHAPTER 11
Lionblaze heard his sister screeching, but he ignored it. He knew, with every hair on his pelt, that he could fight the dogs. He could feel his blood pumping hot and fierce through his veins, and every fighting move he had ever learned was at his claw-tips.
The dogs seemed to approach in slow motion. He had all the time he needed to watch the drool waving from their lips and their paws pounding over the ground. His gaze flicked from one to another.
I’ll take out that black-and-tan one first. When it falls, it’ll trip the thin gray one, and the white one too, if I’m lucky. Then I’ll go for that yapping little horror with the black paws….
He was dimly aware that his Clanmates were yowling behind him, but he still didn’t respond. This is my fight. I’m the only one who can save them!
Lionblaze braced himself to leap, spotting the surprise in the leading dog’s yellow eyes. “You didn’t think a cat would turn and fight!” he taunted. “Well, now’s your chance to learn!”
His last words were drowned by a shattering crash; he glanced behind to see that one of the silver boulders had toppled over, sending a silver disc spinning across the ground. It rolled into the pack of dogs; they swerved to avoid it, the rush of their attack halted.
To Lionblaze’s surprise, a dark brown tabby she-cat popped up from behind the fallen boulder, closer to the fence than the terrified Clan cats were. “Quick!” she meowed. “Help me push this one over.”
She reared up, resting her forepaws against the side of the next shiny boulder. Brambleclaw sprang up beside her, and together they pushed. The boulder crashed over like the other one, the silver disc on top of it spinning away. Twoleg rubbish spilled out from inside.
The dogs were yelping in frustration, scrabbling at the boulders in their efforts to get around them and sink their jaws into their prey.
“Come on!” the strange she-cat ordered. “It won’t hold them off for long.”
She dove through a narrow gap at the bottom of the hedge that had been hidden by the silver boulders, and the patrol followed her at full pelt, racing across a wide stretch of pale gray stone.
Renewed barking made Lionblaze glance over his shoulder as he fled. The small brown-and-white dog and the thin gray one had pushed their way through the gap and were bounding across the expanse of stone.
“They’re coming!” he gasped.
“This way!” the she-cat mewed tersely. She led them down a narrow path between two high fences and halted beside a small hole with jagged edges. “Through there.”
Birchfall bundled through first, followed by Hazeltail and Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze squeezed through after them. He let out a yowl of alarm as he crashed hind legs over head into brittle grass. Head spinning, he staggered to his paws to see Brambleclaw already beside him and the strange she-cat scrambling through the hole.
“Brackenfur?” he asked anxiously.
A screech answered him as the ginger tom hauled himself through the fence, paws flailing as he tugged at his tail. “Fox dung!” he gasped, collapsing on the grass. “That flea-ridden brute bit me!”
Brambleclaw gave his Clanmate’s tail a quick sniff; Lionblaze could see that some of Brackenfur’s fur had been stripped off, but there didn’t seem to be any blood.
“You’ll be okay,” the deputy decided. “Where now?”
The she-cat’s reply was drowned out by a flurry of barking. The fence creaked and bent as the dogs flung themselves against it.
In the Twoleg nests around them, lights began to appear in the dark holes in the walls. Lionblaze heard a Twoleg shouting angrily, but the dogs went on barking and pounding at the fence. His belly lurched when he saw that the small brown-and-white dog had stuck its head through the gap and the wood around it was starting to splinter.
The dark tabby she-cat darted forward and slashed her claws at the dog’s nose. Yelping, it pulled back.