Warriors: Power Of Three 5 - Long Shadows (6 page)

“I’ll go and fetch some more,” Jaypaw offered instantly.

“That would be a big help,” Leafpool mewed. “Take another cat with you—no, not because I think you can’t manage on your own,” she added as if she knew he would start bristling. “Two of you can carry twice as many stems.”

“Okay. Shall I take the other catmint to Millie first?”

“No, I’ll do that. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back with fresh supplies.”

When Jaypaw emerged into the clearing, the first cat he located was Poppyfrost, crouched by the fresh-kill pile. He hurried over to her.

“Are you busy?”

Poppyfrost gulped down a mouthful of vole. “Not very,” she replied. “Brightheart suggested I might help clear the bedding out of the warriors’ den—there’s so much of it now, and it’s a hard job when there are only two apprentices. But to be honest, I wouldn’t mind an excuse not to do it.” She swallowed the last of the prey and rose to her paws. “What do you want me to do?”

Jaypaw explained about Briarkit and the need to fetch more catmint.

“Poor little scrap,” Poppyfrost mewed sympathetically. “Of course I’ll help. Let’s go!”

She bounded across the clearing to the tunnel, leaving Jaypaw to follow. Once through the tunnel he caught up to her, and they headed for the abandoned Twoleg nest. Jaypaw felt his paws prickle at the memory of the battle; though the scents of blood and fear had faded, the screeches of fighting cats still echoed in his head. He steered Poppyfrost away from the tunnel where the WindClan cats had invaded ThunderClan territory; he didn’t want to think about what it meant if there was another entrance into the underground caves where he had first met Rock.

He began sniffing for catmint as they approached the Twoleg nest, but instead of the sharp, clean scent of the herb all he could pick up was a musty smell.

“Oh, no!” Poppyfrost halted abruptly.

“What’s the matter?”

“The catmint. Oh, Jaypaw, it’s almost all gone!”

“Gone? It can’t be!”

Poppyfrost bounded forward and Jaypaw followed. He felt soft, thick grass under his paws, then a strip of churned soil where the Twolegs had once grown plants. The musty smell was all around him now, mingled with the occasional hint of fresh leaves.

“What can you see?” he demanded.

“It’s all squashed,” Poppyfrost replied, her voice filled with distress. “The stems are broken down, all black and rotten.”

Jaypaw felt a dark space of fear open up inside him. “That won’t help the sick cats.”

“I know. It must have happened in the battle.”

Jaypaw lashed his tail. “I bet WindClan and RiverClan did this deliberately.”

“Surely no cat would be that cruel?” Poppyfrost meowed.

Jaypaw worked his claws furiously into the earth and felt torn stems beneath his claws. “We’ll have to tell Firestar. They can’t get away with this!”

“No—wait.” Jaypaw had been ready to dash back to camp, but Poppyfrost stopped him with her tail across his chest.

“Cats were fighting all around here. The catmint probably just got trampled.”

Jaypaw grunted; she might be right, but that didn’t stop him from being suspicious. Still, it was more important to see if he could find any fresh catmint for Briarkit and Millie.

Reporting to Firestar could wait.

Tasting the air carefully, he managed to identify a few new shoots of catmint poking through the ground, but they were very small, and there weren’t many of them. He began to bite carefully through each stem.

Poppyfrost was moving around close by, rustling among the leaves. “I’m pulling all the broken stems away,” she explained.

“That way the new ones will have room to grow.”

“Good idea,” Jaypaw meowed. “I’ll help you. Pick any of the new stems you come across, and put them with mine.”

He began clawing away the dying stems and the fallen leaves that clogged up the new growth. He imagined the sun warming the battered plants, encouraging them to shoot up again. But soon it would be leaf-bare, when nothing grew.

Could they wait until newleaf for fresh catmint?

At last there was nothing more they could do. Jaypaw and Poppyfrost divided their gleanings between them, though one cat could easily have carried all they had managed to find.

Then they headed back to camp.

“What happened?” Leafpool’s voice, sharp with worry, greeted Jaypaw as soon as he rounded the bramble screen.

“What took so long? Why haven’t you brought back more than that?”

Jaypaw dropped the herbs at her paws. “This is all there is.”

“What?”

Poppyfrost padded up beside him and added her stems to the pile. Quietly she explained what they had found near the Twoleg nest.

“This is terrible!” Leafpool exclaimed. “That’s the only catmint I know of in our territory.”

“Then you’ve got to give it all to Briarkit.” Jaypaw hardly recognized the cat who had spoken, the voice was so harsh.

Then he detected Millie’s scent, and guessed that she had come to be with her kit. “I’ll be fine, Leafpool, honestly.” She broke off in a bout of coughing.

Jaypaw didn’t believe her. She sounded even sicker than the last time he had spoken to her, and he could sense Leafpool’s fear for her.

“I’ll go and report to Firestar,” Poppyfrost murmured, slipping out of the den.

“You’re not fine, Millie.” Leafpool’s worry made her sound sharp. “Look at all the stuff you’ve coughed up. You have greencough. You’ll have to stay here, where Jaypaw and I can look after you.”

“But what about Bumblekit and Blossomkit?” Millie’s voice rose to a wail that ended in another spasm of hacking coughs.

“Daisy can’t manage to feed them as well as her own.”

“I’m not arguing with you,” Leafpool retorted. “Daisy will have to manage. Besides, Briarkit is already ill. Do you want to give greencough to the other kits as well?”

Before Millie could reply, paw steps sounded at the mouth of the den, and Jaypaw recognized Graystripe’s scent. “What’s going on?” the gray warrior demanded. “Millie, I could hear you coughing from the other side of the camp.”

“She has greencough,” Leafpool told him. “No—stay where you are!” She brushed past Jaypaw, who pictured her blocking Graystripe from hurrying to his mate’s side. “Do you want to catch it, and spread it to every cat in the camp?”

There was a pause in which Jaypaw picked up Graystripe’s swirling anger and fear for Millie. “All right,” the gray warrior meowed at last. “What can I do to help?”

“Go and talk to Daisy,” Leafpool replied. “She’ll have to feed all four kits in the nursery, because there’s no way I’m letting Millie out of here. Rosekit and Toadkit are eating fresh-kill, so that should help.”

“Okay.” Graystripe sounded relieved that there was something he could do. “I’ll make sure she gets enough prey—and I’ll fetch some for all of you, too. Just tell me if there’s anything else you want.”

“Thanks, Graystripe,” Leafpool mewed.

“I love you, Millie,” Graystripe called out to his mate.

“Don’t worry about the kits. I’ll visit them every day.”

Millie’s only reply was an exhausted murmur; she was worn out by coughing. Jaypaw heard her draw Briarkit close to her belly. “Feed well, little one,” she whispered. “Get strong, and you’ll soon be better.”

“I could take some borage to Daisy to help her milk to come,” Jaypaw offered.

“Fine, but wait here first with Millie and Briarkit,” Leafpool instructed him. “I have to tell Firestar that we have greencough in the camp.” She whisked out of the den.

Jaypaw padded to the cleft to check the supply of borage leaves. They were running low, too, but he knew where he could find more. He set aside enough leaves to take to Daisy, and set to work chewing up their pitiful supply of catmint, ready for Millie and Briarkit.

We need more, but I don’t know where to find it. And if these are the only two cats we have to treat before newleaf, then I’m a mouse.

By the time Leafpool returned, a cool dusk breeze stirred the brambles at the entrance to the den. A crisp half-moon floated above the hollow, its tip just clear of the tallest trees.

“It’s time to go to the Moonpool,” she mewed fretfully. “If only the sky would cloud over! I don’t want to leave Millie and Briarkit.”

“You don’t have to go,” Jaypaw pointed out. “You’re right, you’re needed here. I can go by myself.”

“Oh, but . . .” Leafpool’s protest died away.

Jaypaw made himself stay still and quiet as he listened to her silence. He wanted to add that she was too tired to go; she had exhausted herself taking care of the sick cats, and if she insisted on making the journey she would probably fall off the mountain. But Jaypaw knew better than to tell his mentor that; if he suggested she wasn’t capable, Leafpool would be even more determined to prove she could do everything.

“Apprentices don’t usually go without their mentor,” Leafpool murmured, half to herself. “But I can’t see it would matter for once. You know the way . . . and I have to stay with Millie and Briarkit.”

Yes! Jaypaw stopped his paws from pushing him up into a triumphant leap.

“All right,” Leafpool decided at last. “But be careful. And don’t get into an argument with Willowshine.”

Would I? Mothwing’s apprentice wasn’t Jaypaw’s favorite cat, but he had enough sense not to brush her fur the wrong way when he was the only cat representing ThunderClan.

“I’ll be off, then,” he mewed.

“Right . . . and Jaypaw, if you happen to scent any catmint—”

“I’ll bring it back with me,” Jaypaw promised, though he knew how empty the promise was. There was nowhere else in ThunderClan territory where catmint grew. Perhaps they would need to travel farther from the lake if they were to find enough of the herb to save the sick cats.

Jaypaw slid out through the thorn tunnel and stalked into the forest.

The night scents and noises seemed sharper than ever, just because he was on his own. There were no other cats to fuss over him, and if he tripped over a branch or put his paw into a hole, he could recover just fine by himself.

By now the territory was familiar, especially since he had taken part in the battle. Soon he had left ThunderClan territory behind and was climbing the rocky ridge. Ahead of him he scented other cats, and identified them as Willowshine from RiverClan and Barkface from WindClan with his apprentice, Kestrelpaw. Littlecloud wasn’t with them.

The scents quickly grew stronger, and Jaypaw realized that the other medicine cats were waiting for him to catch up. He halted in front of them, dipping his head. “Greetings.”

“Greetings, Jaypaw,” Barkface meowed. “How’s the prey running?” He sounded awkward, and Jaypaw picked up a strong sense of regret, as if the WindClan medicine cat wanted to apologize for the hostility between their Clans.

Jaypaw dipped his head in acknowledgment of what the older cat couldn’t say out loud. “Fine, thanks.”

“And where’s Leafpool?” Willowshine added.

“She couldn’t come,” Jaypaw replied. “She had stuff to do.”

Even though medicine cats lived by different rules, he didn’t want to tell the other Clans that ThunderClan had greencough in the camp. It made them sound weak.

Surprise came from all three cats, with an edge of annoyance from Willowshine.

“I had to wait until I had my name before Mothwing allowed me to come here alone,” she mewed.

I bet Mothwing lets you come alone all the time now. It’s a wasted journey for her. Jaypaw itched to make the retort, but he stopped himself. The RiverClan medicine cat didn’t believe in StarClan; she could spend the night of the half-moon in her den without all the trouble of the journey to the Moonpool.

“It doesn’t look as if Littlecloud is coming,” Barkface muttered. “I thought he at least would stay faithful to StarClan.”

He’s trying, Jaypaw wanted to tell him, but there was no way he could reveal his expedition into ShadowClan territory. Littlecloud had protested against what Sol was telling his Clan, but it hadn’t made any difference. ShadowClan had turned their back on their warrior ancestors, and Blackstar must have forbidden his medicine cat to come to the meeting.

“Perhaps he can share tongues with StarClan from his own territory,” Willowshine murmured.

“And maybe StarClan will show us what to do about Sol,”

Jaypaw suggested, though privately he didn’t think it was likely.

Barkface grunted agreement. “We’d better go on without him. We’re wasting moonlight.”

Jaypaw could hear the sound of falling water and the soft pad of paw steps as he followed the others down the spiral path to the Moonpool. He felt very close to Rock and Fallen Leaves and the other ancient cats as he felt his paws slip into the hollows they had made so long ago.

I hope I get a good dream tonight, he thought. It’s about time.

Ever since his vision in ShadowClan territory and his talk with Leafpool he had hoped to meet the strange badger Midnight again. If she didn’t come here, in this special place under the half-moon, then maybe she didn’t mean to come at all.

The other cats were settling down at the edge of the pool.

Jaypaw took his place beside Barkface. Kestrelpaw crouched on the other side of his mentor, while Willowshine found a spot farther around the rim of the water.

Jaypaw stretched out his neck and dipped his nose into the Moonpool; its cold touch shivered through him. Curling up, he let sleep take him.

When he opened his eyes he found himself on a rough stretch of open ground; a precipice plunged down at his paws and he took a pace back, dizzy from his glimpse of the depths.

Wind whined among the rocks, and Jaypaw dug his claws into the gritty soil, scared that he might be blown away. Dim light illuminated the mountaintop; peering around him, Jaypaw couldn’t decide whether it was twilight or early dawn. He thought at first he was alone until something moved on top of one of the boulders, and he recognized the bald, distorted body and unseeing eyes of Rock.

“You’re here!” Jaypaw gasped. “Do you have something to tell me?”

Rock shook his head. “I have brought someone who wishes to meet you.”

A black shape loomed up behind Rock, moving slowly into the open. Jaypaw gripped even harder with his claws, and his neck fur began to bristle. He was gazing into the berry-bright eyes of the badger.