Leafpool glanced at him, am used. “I’m sure you can handle it. But don’t worry. I’ll send
Alderpaw straight home.”
Jayfeather nosed his way past Alderpaw and followed Leafpool down the rocks. “I’d better help you choose the herbs. I don’t want you leaving m e with nothing but a pile of stale tansy.”
Alderpaw began to follow, but he felt Bramblestar’s tail flick against his spine. “Wait.”
Alderpaw glanced back in surprise as Bramblestar dipped his head to Rowanstar. “You should leave now. Your Clan must need you at this tim e. Leafpool will travel to your camp as soon as she can.”
Rowanstar nodded. “Thank you for your help,” he meowed form ally. Alderpaw wondered what it had cost him to come to ThunderClan for assistance. ShadowClan cats were not known for swallowing their pride. Chin high, Rowanstar padded past Alderpaw and leaped down the tum ble of rocks. He crossed the clearing, avoiding the curious gazes of Whitewing, Brightheart, and Cloudtail, and disappeared through the thorn tunnel.
Alderpaw faced Bramblestar expectantly. Why had he asked him to wait? Did he have news of Violetkit after all?
“I’m sending a patrol.” Bramblestar’s mew was soft, his gaze flicking past Alderpaw as though checking for twitching ears am ong the cats in the clearing below. But Whitewing and Brightheart were talking to each other, heads close. Cloudtail had followed Rowanstar out of camp, and Lily heart and Daisy were dozing while the kits clambered along the fallen beech. Bramblestar went on: “To search for Sky Clan.”
Alderpaw’s heart leaped. Thank StarClan! His quest to find Sky Clan had failed. Vicious rogues had driven the long-lost Clan from their home in the gorge. He’d found one Sky Clan survivor, but Darktail, the rogues’ leader, had killed him, and there was no sign of his Clanmates.
StarClan’s prophecy had been hard to understand from the beginning: Embrace what you find in the shadows, for only they can clear the sky. But it had led to the quest: Bramblestar and Sandstorm had been convinced that they must find Sky Clan. Instead Alderpaw and Needlepaw had found Twigkit and Violetkit, abandoned in a shadowy tunnel. Every one believed now that the two motherless kits would “clear the sky,” but Alderpaw couldn’t help wondering if they needed to find Sky Clan after all. He wanted to finish the quest he had started. “Can I go?”
“I’m sending Squirrelflight, Lionblaze, and Cinderheart,” Bramblestar told him. “We need you here.”
“But they don’t even know Sky Clan exists,” Alderpaw pointed out.
Only Firestar and Sandstorm had known the truth. Asham ed that the Clans had driven Sky Clan from the forest long ago, Firestar had shared the secret only with the cat he had trusted m ost. But Sandstorm had told Bramblestar, and now Alderpaw, Sparkpaw, Cherry fall, and Molewhisker knew too. Surely Firestar wouldn’t want the secret spread any further?
“I told them,” Bramblestar confided. “They couldn’t search for a Clan they’d never heard of.
But they’re under strict orders to keep it to them selves. As far as the rest of the Clan will know, they are going to search for Twigkit’s mother.”
Alderpaw tensed. “Then Twigkit mustn’t hear about it. I don’t want her getting her hopes up.”
When he’d found Twigkit and Violetkit, they were only a few day s old. No queen would abandon kits so young and helpless unless she had no choice, or was dead.
Bramblestar shifted his paws. “The Clan will be as worried as you about getting Twigkit’s hopes up unnecessarily. No cat will want to tell her any thing. All Twigkit will know is that a patrol is out… patrolling.”
Alderpaw glanced at the top of the hollow, remembering the long j ourney to the gorge. “Do you think they’ll find Sky Clan?”
“Only StarClan knows.” Bramblestar blinked at Alderpaw. “You’d better get back to your duties. It looks like som e cat is waiting for you.”
Alderpaw glanced over his shoulder, following Bramblestar’s gaze. He expected to see Jayfeather beckoning him impatiently. Instead he saw Twigkit, shifting her paws impatiently at the edge of the clearing, her eyes fixed on him. How long had she been there? Had she overheard their conversation?
As Bramblestar turned toward his den, Alderpaw scram bled down the tum ble of rocks.
Twigkit scampered across the clearing to m eet him. “Leafpool says you’re going to ShadowClan.” Her eyes were bright with excitem ent. “Can I come?”
Alderpaw blinked at her, wishing she could. She hadn’t seen her sister since they’d been separated, half a moon ago. He wondered for a m om ent whether to ask Leafpool or Bramblestar for permission. Then he im agined Jayfeather scowling. Take a kit to treat a dying cat? What nonsense! He would never allow it.
“Can I?” Twigkit asked again, lifting her front paws hopefully.
“No,” Alderpaw told her regretfully. “You’re too young to leave camp.”
Sadness glistened in Twigkit’s green eyes.
“I’m sorry —” Alderpaw began. But before he could finish, Twigkit hared toward the nursery.
“Wait there!” she called to him. “I won’t be long!”
He watched her go, wondering what she was up to.
Beside the honey suckle wall of the elders’ den, in a dip that caught the m orning sun, Graystripe was washing com frey pulp into Millie’s fur. Millie’s eyes were half-closed, pleasure showing in the slits as he worked the herb into her spine. Alderpaw dipped his head as he caught Graystripe’s eye.
Graystripe lifted his m uzzle, green pulp staining his jaws. “Let m e know if you need help gathering more com frey before the frosts come,” he meowed. “I m ay not be fast enough for m ice these day s, but I can stalk herbs.”
Millie purred. “You can hunt m ice as well as any warrior,” she told him.
“Why bother,” Graystripe asked, “when I can let the youngsters catch them for m e?”
Twigkit squeezed out of the narrow entrance of the bramble nursery. Alderpaw could see that she was carry ing a red feather between her jaws.
She trotted toward him and laid it carefully at his paws. “Will you give this to Violetkit?”
“A feather?” Alderpaw looked at it, a pang in his heart. It seem ed a sm all offering, but Twigkit was staring at it excitedly.
“Violetkit found one before they took her away,” she told Alderpaw. “She kept it in our nest because she thought it was so pretty. This isn’t the sam e one. Lily heart threw the other one away when she was clearing out the old bedding. But I found this one at the edge of the camp the other day, and I knew Violetkit would like it.” She stared at Alderpaw eagerly. “You’ll take it to her, won’t you? And tell her it’s from m e?”
Guilt prickled through Alderpaw’s pelt. If it weren’t for the prophecy StarClan had shared with him, the Clans wouldn’t have squabbled over the kits. They’d still be together, not in different
Clans. They could play together instead of sending feathers by m essenger. At least they’re alive.
Alderpaw shook out his pelt. If it weren’t for the prophecy, he and Needlepaw might never have found them, and they’d have died, alone in the wild.
He licked Twigkit fondly on the head. “Of course I’ll give it to her. And I’ll tell her that you’re thinking of her.” As Twigkit nuzzled his cheek, purring, he picked up the feather and headed toward the medicine den.
ShadowClan scent, tinged with the sharp sm ell of pinesap, filled Alderpaw’s nose. The bundle of herbs between his jaws was m aking his tongue tingle.
A ShadowClan patrol, led by Tawny pelt, m et them as he and Leafpool crossed the border.