Lionblaze slapped his tail over her mouth. “ShadowClan!” he hissed. “Hide!”
All three cats dived for cover into a bramble thicket. Hollyleaf spat in annoyance as a thorn pierced one of her pads, and she tried to lick it out as ShadowClan scent wreathed around her.
“Ivytail, Smokefoot, and Owlpaw,” Lionblaze reported, peering out through the bramble tendrils. “They’re patroling the border. I hope they didn’t scent us.”
No challenging yowls came from the patrol, and the scents gradually died away, leaving only the smell of the border markers.
“I guess it’s safe to come out now,” Lionblaze mewed after a few heartbeats. “Let’s get back into our own territory as quickly as we can.”
He took the lead, racing over the rough grass, weaving his way around hazel thickets and clumps of fern, until they flashed past their own border markers and drew to a panting halt several fox-lengths into ThunderClan territory.
“We’d better hunt on our way back,” he told them. “That way we can pretend we went out to restock the fresh-kill pile.”
Jayfeather nodded. “And I’ll look for yarrow. If I come back empty-pawed, Leafpool will want to know why.”
Though she did as Lionblaze suggested, padding softly through the undergrowth with her ears pricked and her jaws gaping for the first scent of prey, Hollyleaf’s pelt crawled with resentment. We shouldn’t have to lie and deceive like this! Why can’t we be proud of what we can do?
While stalking a squirrel, she thought about how she could make Sol tell them the name of their father. I’d do anything. Anything! she thought fiercely. She remembered how easily her jaws had met in Ashfur’s throat….
No, don’t think of that! Ashfur had to die because he would have ruined everything. He’s not important now. We’re the ones who matter!
Hollyleaf’s claws tore at the mossy ground under her paws; alerted, the squirrel started up and shot to safety in the nearest tree.
“Mouse dung!” Hollyleaf spat.
“What’s the matter with you?” Lionblaze asked, padding up with a blackbird in his jaws. “Do you expect the prey to come and throw itself onto your claws?”
Hollyleaf shrugged and turned away. When our father learns who we are, he’ll be so proud of us! Maybe he doesn’t even know about us! Maybe he’s always wanted kits, and now he has three warriors to be his kin for the rest of his life.
Closer to the camp, she managed to catch a mouse, though she had to admit to herself that it looked ready to die of old age and hadn’t even tried to run. Prey was scarce, and by the time they reached the stone hollow she and Lionblaze hadn’t caught anything else, but Jayfeather had found a clump of yarrow and now padded along with a bunch of the herb in his jaws.
When Hollyleaf pushed her way into the clearing, followed by her littermates, she spotted Spiderleg, Birchfall, and Hazeltail clustered together near the fresh-kill pile.
“I don’t think Sol’s gone,” she heard Birchfall meow as she padded across with her prey. “He’s lurking about somewhere.”
Hazeltail shivered. “I hope not. I knew all along we should never have brought him back.”
Spiderleg shrugged. “He can’t do any more harm. Let him go where he likes.”
“And kill more cats?” Hazeltail’s neck fur rose. “That’s mouse-brained!”
“If he’s here, our patrols will find him,” Birchfall reassured her, touching her shoulder with his tail. “And Firestar—”
He was interrupted by a call from Dustpelt, who came bounding over from the barrier around the snake’s hole. “I’m alerting every cat,” the brown tabby warrior meowed. “That mouse with the deathberries hasn’t been touched. The snake must be still around.” He dashed off to warn Brambleclaw and his patrol, who had just appeared through the tunnel.
A sense of power thrilled through Hollyleaf from ears to tail-tip. ThunderClan had never felt so alive! Every cat was working together to face the threats that surrounded them. There was nothing they couldn’t do! And I could do anything too, if I could lead them!
“Hollyleaf.” The black she-cat started as Leafpool spoke behind her; dropping her prey on the fresh-kill pile, she spun around to see the medicine cat with Squirrelflight at her side.
“We need to talk,” Squirrelflight mewed.
Hollyleaf stared at Leafpool, her heart suddenly thundering in her chest. Is she going to tell the others what I did?
Then Leafpool gave a tiny shake of her head, and Hollyleaf relaxed.
“What do you want to say to us?” Lionblaze asked; he had come up to deposit his prey in time to hear what Squirrelflight had said.
“Yes, what have we got to talk about?” Jayfeather added, his challenging tone muffled by his mouthful of yarrow stems.
“Not here,” Leafpool murmured with a glance at the cats close by. “Come with us into the forest.”
Hollyleaf hesitated, exchanging a glance with Lionblaze. He seemed to be waiting for her to decide. Then she nodded. “Okay. We’ll talk to you.”
When Jayfeather had deposited the yarrow in the medicine cats’ den, Squirrelflight led the way into the forest as far as a huge oak tree with moss-covered roots.
“Well?” Jayfeather demanded, an edge to his tone. “What’s this all about?”
Squirrelflight and Leafpool gave the three littermates a long look. Hollyleaf realized that although they were such different cats, the expression in their eyes was the same. She didn’t want to recognize it; she didn’t want to admit that it was love.
Finally Squirrelflight took a deep breath. “Leafpool is your mother,” she began, “but I want to say that I couldn’t have loved you more if I had given birth to you myself. We raised you together, and surely that’s what matters.”
“You raised us to believe in a lie!” Hollyleaf hissed, not giving her brothers a chance to respond. “We have nothing to say to either of you.” Ignoring the shocked looks on Lionblaze’s and Jayfeather’s faces, she added, “Come on. There are no mothers here. A mother would love her kits enough to tell them the truth.”
She stood for a moment longer, savoring the anguish her rejection had called up in the two she-cats, then whipped around and began stalking back to the camp.
“Hollyleaf, wait!” Lionblaze called.
Hollyleaf glanced over her shoulder; fury surged through her and she bared her teeth in a snarl. “Come on!”
Lionblaze bounded after her, followed a heartbeat later by Jayfeather. “This is mouse-brained,” he protested. “We could at least talk. They might be prepared to tell us things we need to know.”
“Like the name of our father?” Hollyleaf snapped, not breaking stride. “No, there’s no point in asking them. We’d only get more lies.” She lashed her tail, trying hard to dismiss Squirrelflight and Leafpool from her mind. “Sol will tell us,” she declared.
“Bring the moss over here,” Hollyleaf directed. “Whitewing’s kits will come soon, and she needs a really comfortable nest.” Since the disastrous meeting with Sol the day before, she had struggled to put her sense of betrayal out of her mind and concentrate on her Clan duties, but she couldn’t manage it. How could she make herself a good warrior when she knew she should never have been born at all? Every cat knew that medicine cats weren’t allowed to have kits. She and her littermates were nothing more than a mistake. One that Leafpool had been too ashamed to own up to. Maybe their real father would feel differently….
The nursery seemed full of queens and wriggling kits as Foxpaw and Icepaw staggered through the entrance with huge balls of moss. Whitewing was curled up nearby.
“Thanks, Hollyleaf,” she mewed. “You’ll make a great mentor when you have an apprentice of your own.”