Birchfall suppressed a mrrow of laughter. “You look as if you’ve swallowed a thistle!” He ducked as Hazeltail swatted at him with her tail. “It’s a good idea,” he added hastily. “I’ll collect some, too, for my kits.”
Hollyleaf left them pulling the sheep pelt off the bushes, and padded back to Purdy. The old cat was reviving, and looked calmer now that the sheep were a safe distance away.
“Do we have we time to hunt?” she asked Brambleclaw.
The Clan deputy’s ears twitched in surprise. “Are you hungry already?”
“No,” Hollyleaf replied, lowering her voice. “I just want one mouse, for the mouse bile. We’ll never hear the last of it if we let Purdy into the camp with all his fleas and ticks.” Raising a hind paw to scratch her side, she added, “I think I might have picked something up from him already.”
“Okay.” There was a glint of amusement in Brambleclaw’s eyes. “But don’t be long. I want to keep going. We’re not far from the lake now. I can feel it in my paws.”
Dusk was falling as the patrol left the fields behind and came to a small Thunderpath. Tasting the air, Hollyleaf breathed in the scent of horses. “The horseplace!” she exclaimed. “We’re nearly home!”
Brambleclaw led the way, slipping under the shining fence and across the expanse of whitish stone, past the Twoleg nest and the horse nests. As they emerged into the field, Hollyleaf looked around for the horses, but there was no sign of them. “They must be shut up in their wooden nests,” she murmured to Lionblaze.
She couldn’t see Smoky or Floss, either, though she picked up their scents. Her paws prickled with urgency; she wanted to be back in the warm familiarity of the stone hollow, and yet she knew that there was no real safety there.
Or anywhere else, she reflected sadly. Where will all the lies and betrayal end?
CHAPTER 15
“Thanks, Jayfeather,” Whitewing purred as Jayfeather dropped a leaf wrap of ragwort in front of her.
The nursery was warm and quiet. Daisy and Millie had taken their kits out for some exercise, leaving the white queen to get some rest.
“Make sure to eat it all,” Jayfeather instructed her. “Your kits will be born soon, and you need all the strength you can get.”
“I know.” Whitewing sighed. “I hope it’s not much longer. I feel huge!”
“You’re fine,” Jayfeather assured her. He said good-bye and pushed his way out of the nursery. The morning was crisp but he could feel the weak rays of leaf-bare sun, melting the night frost.
“Now,” he muttered to himself, “if only Leafpool’s still out looking for yarrow….”
He couldn’t pick up his mentor’s scent when he brushed past the bramble screen into the den, but another cat was there, irritation coming off him in waves.
Mouse dung! Jayfeather thought. Now I’ll have to deal with him.
“Berrynose,” he mewed. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s my tail,” the young warrior told him. “It hurts. And it smells funny.”
Jayfeather sniffed at the stump of Berrynose’s tail, and almost recoiled at the rotting scent. “You’ve got an infection,” he reported.
“How?” Berrynose sounded indignant. “Leafpool said that it healed after I caught it in the fox trap.”
“It did,” Jayfeather agreed. “You must have opened up the wound again. Can you remember catching it on anything lately?”
Berrynose hesitated. “I got stuck in some brambles when I was chasing a rabbit,” he admitted at last.
“That could do it,” Jayfeather mewed. “But there’s nothing to worry about. You need a poultice of marigold, that’s all. Wait there a moment.” He padded into the cave where the herbs were stored, and located the marigold. Chewing up the leaves, he returned to Berrynose. “Keep still while I plaster this on,” he mumbled around the mouthful.
“Can I be excused from duties?” the cream-colored warrior asked hopefully.
Jayfeather was unsympathetic. “No. You don’t patrol or catch prey with your tail. But come back here tomorrow and I’ll put a fresh poultice on.”
“Okay,” Berrynose mewed. “Thanks, Jayfeather. It does feel better.”
Right, Jayfeather thought when he had gone. Now for my plan…He went back into the cave and collected a few leaves of chervil, dandelion, and borage. Bounding across to the elders’ den, he set the leaves down in front of Mousefur.
“Are any of these the herb?” he demanded.
Mousefur let out an annoyed hiss. “What herb?”
Without the bunch of leaves in his mouth, Jayfeather could smell fresh-kill, and he guessed he had interrupted the elders’ meal. “The herb you told me about, the one Leafpool mixed with your tansy.”
“Oh, that.” The skinny elder still sounded grumpy. “What do you want to know for?”
“Just curious.” Jayfeather realized he had sounded too urgent. He didn’t want Mousefur to tell Leafpool what he was doing. “You never know, it might be useful.”
Mousefur let out a grunt and gave the herbs a suspicious sniff.
“Let me try, too,” Longtail offered. “I didn’t taste the stuff, but I might remember the scent.”
“Well?” Jayfeather asked, when both elders had given the herbs a good sniff.
“No, it wasn’t any of those,” Mousefur meowed. “I know these herbs. Leafpool uses them all the time for fever and infected wounds.”
“That’s right,” Longtail added. “Sorry.”
Jayfeather suppressed a frustrated sigh. “Not even this one?” he asked, pushing forward the chervil.
“What part of ‘no’ didn’t you understand?” Mousefur growled, giving his ear a stinging flick with her tail.
“Okay.” Jayfeather gathered up the herbs again. “Thanks. I’ll bring some more later.”
“Give us the chance to finish this rabbit first!” Mousefur called after him as he left the den.
Jayfeather returned to his own den, intent on finding more herbs for Mousefur and Longtail to try. But he had just replaced the chervil, dandelion, and borage in their proper places when he heard Leafpool enter the den behind him. A strong scent of yarrow came with her.
“Jayfeather, what are you doing?” she asked sharply. “Why do you smell as if you’ve been sleeping in our supplies?”
“Uh…I fell over in the store,” Jayfeather stammered. “I got herb dust on my pelt.”
Leafpool let out a long sigh. “Really, Jayfeather, it’s like having a kit in here! And why were you poking around in the store anyway?”
Jayfeather felt his pelt rising at the anxiety and fear that was flooding from his mentor. Why doesn’t she want me looking in the store? he wondered. I’ve as much right to be in there as she has! What is she hiding now?
“I wasn’t poking around,” he retorted. “And I cleaned the stuff up.”
Leafpool sniffed. “Put this yarrow away, then,” she ordered. “I want to go check on Millie’s breathing. She’s out there romping around with her kits, and it might be too much for her.”
Once Leafpool had gone, Jayfeather tidied away the yarrow and slipped out a daisy leaf and a sliver of burdock root. If it’s either of these, I’m a mouse! Making sure that Leafpool was over by the nursery with Millie, he hurried back to the elders’ den.
“You again!” Mousefur muttered. “What is it this time?”
She sniffed briefly at each of the herbs Jayfeather put in front of her, and tasted the daisy leaf. “No,” she mewed. “It wasn’t them.”