“Wait!” Crowfrost blinked through the rain at the medicine cat. “You’re needed here.”
“I’m the only one who knows what lungwort looks like.” Puddleshine stared at the deputy.
Crowfrost hesitated, then nodded toward Tigerheart. “Go with him. You too, Scorchfur.”
Violetpaw stiffened in surprise as Crowfrost’s gaze flicked to her. “And y ou.”
Joy fizzed in her paws. Crowfrost trusted her enough to send her on this im portant mission!
Scorchfur frowned. “Tawny pelt should come instead of her.” He scowled at Violetpaw.
“Tawnypelt can be trusted.”
Crowfrost scowled. “So can Violetpaw!”
Scorchfur grunted.
“Hurry!” Puddleshine headed for the entrance. “We mustn’t waste tim e.”
Crowfrost flicked his tail toward the medicine cat. “Go with him.”
Violetpaw bounded across the wet clearing, Tigerheart at her tail. Scorchfur raced past her, kicking up m ud as he passed, and ducked out of camp.
As Violetpaw followed them, Tigerheart called from behind. “I’ll lead! I know the quickest route.” He pulled past Violetpaw, Scorchfur, and Puddleshine, heading for the ditches. As he reached each one, he leaped it in turn. Violetpaw raced behind, one eye on Puddleshine as she cleared the gashes in the forest floor. The medicine cat was nim ble, m aking the j um ps with ease.
As the ground sm oothed ahead, she glim psed light. They were nearing the edge of the forest.
Tigerheart broke from the trees first. Violetpaw followed, narrowing her eyes against the driving rain as she left the shelter of the pines. She dodged a bramble, her paws slithering on the wet grass as she hurried toward the lake.
She could see the Twoleg halfbridge reaching into the water. Bey ond it, a stretch of m eadow led to the lower slopes of the m oor.
“Tigerheart!” A loud y owl sounded from behind the patrol.
Violetpaw looked back. A ThunderClan cat was calling from the border. She could just make out the shape on the shore. Dovewing. Another cat was with her. She strained to see. Twigpaw! Her heart leaped. Did her sister know she’d left the rogues and returned to ShadowClan? Has she come here to see me? She thought, with a pang of guilt, about their last m eeting, when she’d refused to help Twigpaw search for their mother. Had Twigpaw gone alone? Had she found her?
Dovewing paced the scent line, staring eagerly at the ShadowClan patrol. Did they have news? Violetpaw turned to Tigerheart. The tabby tom was still charging toward the WindClan border. He couldn’t have heard Dovewing’s call. “Wait!” she y owled.
Tigerheart pulled up and turned to stare at her. “What?”
“Twigpaw and Dovewing!” She j erked her m uzzle toward the ThunderClan cats.
Scorchfur and Puddleshine stopped.
“So what?” Scorchfur’s wet pelt bristled.
Tigerheart seem ed to be avoiding looking toward the ThunderClan cats. “We don’t have tim e.
Let them wait until the next Gathering to chat.”
Violetpaw itched with frustration. She wanted to speak with Twigpaw.
Puddleshine whisked his tail. “We should warn them about the illness,” he mewed. “It spreads quickly. They should know.”
Violetpaw’s heart leaped as the medicine cat bounded toward the ThunderClan border.
Growling impatiently, Tigerheart raced after him.
Scorchfur rolled his eyes. “Medicine cats have no sense.”
Violetpaw hardly heard him. She chased after Tigerheart, wind stream ing though her fur.
“Warn Leafpool.” Puddleshine was already talking to Dovewing by the time she caught up.
The young medicine cat’s eyes glowed with pride. “But tell her I know which herb cures it. Tell her I had a dream from StarClan!”
Twigpaw stared at her paws, a tail-length behind Dovewing. Look at me! Desperately Violetpaw tried to catch her sister’s ey e. Did you look for our mother? Twigpaw was acting as though Violetpaw wasn’t there. Was she still angry? Or perhaps she was asham ed she hadn’t found their mother. It’s okay. I knew there wasn’t much chance. I’m sorry I didn’t help you. She swallowed back the words, her paws hot with frustration.
Dovewing was ey eing Tigerheart. “Thanks for sharing this with us. It was good of you to stop.”
Tigerheart fluffed out his fur. “It was Puddleshine’s idea, not m ine.”
Dovewing returned his gaze coolly. “We thought it was strange to see a ShadowClan patrol heading toward WindClan territory. We thought som ething might be wrong.”
“Well, there is, and now you know.” Tigerheart turned away brusquely.
“Twigpaw?” Violetpaw twitched her ears hopefully, but Twigpaw carried on staring at her paws, her tail flicking restlessly. She clearly wasn’t going to talk.
“Come on, Violetpaw!” Tigerheart’s urgent mew called her away.
Violetpaw threw a last pleading glance at Twigpaw. “I’m sorry,” she m urm ured before turning to race after the others.
Tigerheart and Puddleshine had already reached Scorchfur and were heading for the WindClan border. She glanced over her shoulder.
Twigpaw was staring after her.
Hope flickered in Violetpaw’s chest. If Twigpaw was watching her, she must care. We’ll talk soon! She hoped she’d be able to keep her silent prom ise; there was so much to talk about, but there was no time to worry about it now. Scorchfur had already leaped over the stream that cut between ShadowClan land and the m oor. She pushed harder against the wet grass, closing the gap.
Her lungs were burning as she caught up to the patrol.
The grass felt coarser as brambles gave way to heather, which grew thicker and thicker as the slope steepened. Wind whipped the rain harder against Violetpaw’s pelt. She was relieved as the heather closed around them and she found herself chasing Scorchfur through a narrow gap, rough stem s closing in on either side. The trail twisted one way, then the other. She breathed in the sweet scent of peat and a sour sm ell she didn’t recognize. She’d never been on the m oor before.
Suddenly the heather opened onto a wide stretch of grass. Gorse sway ed on one side, and above she saw the top of the m oor, arched like a spine against the glowering sky.
Tigerheart slowed, Scorchfur beside him. Puddleshine eased his pace and glanced across the slope as though scanning for lungwort.
“Can you see any?” Violetpaw pulled up beside him.
“Hush!” Tigerheart’s hiss m ade her j um p. The tabby tom had halted and was staring at a bank of heather ahead. It rocked in the wind. Violetpaw narrowed her eyes, suddenly wary. Tigerheart was tasting the air. “WindClan cats,” he warned.
Scorchfur shifted beside her.
Violetpaw blinked at Tigerheart. “They’ll understand why we cam e, won’t they?”
“Of course they will.” As Puddleshine padded forward, his ears pricked eagerly, three
WindClan warriors em erged from the heather.
Violetpaw stiffened. Hostility shone in their eyes. The largest tom’s hackles were up.
Puddleshine halted and glanced nervously at Tigerheart.
“Don’t worry.” The ShadowClan tom stepped in front of the medicine cat and faced the WindClan patrol.
“What are you doing here?” The dark gray tom flattened his ears threateningly.
“Hi, Crowfeather.” Tigerheart stood his ground and mewed briskly. “We’ve come on an herb-gathering mission. It’s urgent.”
A black tom with amber eyes padded closer, showing his teeth.
“Wait, Breezepelt,” Crowfeather cautioned.
“Wait for what?” hissed the third tom. His tabby fur was plastered to his lithe fram e by the rain. “We should chase them off our land.”