The Fourth Apprentice Read online

  Jayfeather twitched his whiskers. “I know,” he replied. “But only Lionblaze and I will understand that. As far as the other cats are concerned, this was a dream. Understand?”

  Dovepaw hesitated. “I don’t like lying to them,” she meowed.

  Jayfeather could feel her bewilderment, and he understood that her supersharp senses were perfectly natural to her. But she was being way too stubborn and narrow-minded. Frustration stabbed at him, sharp as a thorn. “Don’t you want to be special?” he demanded. “Don’t you like being chosen for a destiny greater than your Clanmates?”

  “No, I don’t!” Dovepaw spat back at him, then seemed to remember who she was talking to. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t like keeping secrets from my Clanmates, that’s all.”

  “Then don’t talk about it,” Jayfeather advised. He sensed that the apprentice was about to go on arguing, when he scented Brightheart approaching. Dovepaw took the chance to scamper away across the clearing to where her sister was sitting outside the apprentices’ den.

  “Hi, Jayfeather,” the she-cat called. “Do you want me to go and collect some traveling herbs for the journey?”

  “Thanks, Brightheart, that would be great,” Jayfeather replied. His mind began to race. He knew Brightheart was waiting for him to tell her what herbs she needed to look for.

  Mouse dung! I’m not sure I can remember.

  This would be the first time he had prepared the traveling-herbs mixture on his own. He tried to think what Leafpool had done when Brambleclaw and the rest left to search for Sol, but he was distracted by another, deeper worry. I wish Lionblaze and Dovepaw weren’t both going on the quest. What if they don’t come back? The prophecy will never be fulfilled if I’m the only one left!

  He scented Leafpool as she padded past on her way to the fresh-kill pile. His pelt burned to ask her about the traveling herbs, but he forced his mouth to stay shut. She’s not a medicine cat anymore! She turned her back on that when she let herself fall in love with Crowfeather.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled to Brightheart. “Just give me a couple of moments.”

  He could always ask Cinderheart, to see if her half-buried Cinderpelt memories would be able to tell her the list of herbs. But that might cause more problems than it solves. Cinderheart has no idea that she was once ThunderClan’s medicine cat.

  “It’s okay,” Brightheart mewed cheerfully. “I think I can remember the mixture, from when I ate the traveling herbs before I went to the Moonstone, back in the old forest. Let me see…there’s sorrel in it, isn’t there, and daisy? I remember that because I hate the taste!”

  “That’s right.” To Jayfeather’s relief, his memory was coming back. “And chamomile’s another…”

  “And burnet!” Brightheart finished triumphantly. “That’s all, isn’t it? I’ll get onto it right away.”

  “Thanks, Brightheart.” Jayfeather dipped his head. “The best place for sorrel is beside the old Twoleg path. And you’ll probably find chamomile in the garden behind the Twoleg nest.”

  “Great!” The she-cat whisked away. “Hazeltail! Blossompaw!” she called. “Do you want to come with me and look for herbs?”

  When the three cats had vanished into the thorn tunnel, Jayfeather sensed Leafpool still crouched beside the fresh-kill pile. A surge of emotion jolted him, so powerful that it almost carried him off his paws. Before he could stop himself, he was flung into Leafpool’s memories.

  He was looking through her eyes as she hurried through long grass and undergrowth, her heart pounding. The pungent taste of traveling herbs was in her mouth. The scents around her were strange to Jayfeather, and he realized that this memory must belong to the old forest, before the Clans were driven out. Leafpool was struggling with an agony of fear; Jayfeather sensed that she was completely focused on her sister. There was something that she didn’t want Squirrelflight to do….

  Then Leafpool pushed her way through the branches of a bush and confronted Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight. Jayfeather was surprised by how much smaller and younger the cats looked. This was before the Great Journey. Leafpool and Squirrelflight must have still been apprentices.

  Leafpool padded forward and laid her mouthful of leaves down in front of her sister and Brambleclaw. “I brought you some traveling herbs,” she murmured. “You’re going to need them where you’re going.”

  Brambleclaw’s eyes widened with outrage, and he began to accuse Squirrelflight of giving away their secret to her sister. What secret? Jayfeather wondered.

  “She didn’t need to tell me anything,” Leafpool promised. “I just knew, that’s all.”

  Jayfeather flinched. Leafpool and Squirrelflight had a connection he had never appreciated before—and now Leafpool was terrified that her sister was going away, and that they might never see each other again. This is the beginning of the quest! Jayfeather realized. When the six cats went to find Midnight and learn the message StarClan had given her.

  He listened through Leafpool’s ears as Squirrelflight poured out the whole story of Brambleclaw’s dreams, and of the meeting with cats of other Clans. He was aware of Leafpool’s deepening dismay, a chaos of feeling he could not penetrate, as if even in her memories there was something she was hiding. Leafpool tried hard to persuade Squirrelflight not to go, but Jayfeather could tell that she knew she had no hope of changing her sister’s mind. Squirrelflight hasn’t changed much, then! At last, sadly, Leafpool had to accept that Squirrelflight was leaving.

  “You won’t tell any cat where we’ve gone?” Squirrelflight insisted.

  “I don’t know where you’re going—and neither do you,” Leafpool pointed out. “But no, I won’t say anything.”

  She watched as Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw licked up the traveling herbs, then in a sudden rush of anxiety tried to teach her sister everything she had learned from Cinderpelt, so that they could find the right herbs to help them while they were on their journey.

  “We will come back,” Squirrelflight promised.

  Then the memory dissolved, and Jayfeather was sightless again, back in the clearing. As the rush of Leafpool’s emotion died away, he sensed her watching him from the fresh-kill pile. She had deliberately given him this memory.

  I know how you feel. I felt like this, too.

  No, you didn’t! Jayfeather flashed back angrily. You and Squirrelflight weren’t part of a prophecy. If she hadn’t come back, perhaps it would have been better for every cat.

  She rose to her paws and padded away, toward the warriors’ den. The air as she left was sharp with sadness. For a couple of heartbeats Jayfeather was almost betrayed into sympathy. The memory had been so clear, and Leafpool’s emotions so raw. He shook his head, trying to toss the weakness away.

  If you’d told the truth in the beginning, you could have helped us with the prophecy. Hollyleaf might still be here. But she’s gone now, and we have to do it on our own.

  The sun was well above the trees by now, its rays burning down into the hollow as if the air had turned to flame. Jayfeather’s paws itched to be doing something, but with Brightheart out collecting herbs he couldn’t justify leaving the hollow.

  I’ll check the edges of the hollow for snakes. With every cat so excited, they’ll never remember to keep a lookout.

  As he padded across the clearing, he remembered the dreadful day when Honeyfern had been bitten by a snake that slipped out of one of the holes at the bottom of the cliff. There was nothing he or Leafpool could do to save her from the poison. Later, as the young cat’s kin grieved for her, he and Leafpool had stuffed a mouse with deathberries and pushed it into the hole in the hope that the snake would eat it and die. But the venomous creature hadn’t taken their bait. Jayfeather suspected it was lurking around, waiting for another chance to strike.

  As he worked his way along the rock wall, checking that all the holes were still securely blocked with stones, Jayfeather picked up Purdy’s scent and realized that the old loner was stretched out on the flat-topped rock, n
ear where the snake had appeared. He could hear the old cat’s rhythmic snoring, which ended abruptly in a snort as if Jayfeather’s paw steps had disturbed his nap.

  “You want to be careful up there,” Jayfeather meowed, halting beside the rock. “You know the snake—”

  “I know all about the snake, young ’un,” Purdy interrupted. “And there’s no sign of slippery creatures around here. I’ve been watchin’.”

  “That’s great, Purdy.” Jayfeather bit back a comment about how clever Purdy was to keep watch for snakes in his sleep. “But I’ve still got to check.”

  “I’ll help you.” Purdy flopped down from the rock, staggered to find his balance, and padded to Jayfeather’s side. “I reckon you youngsters need some cat wi’ a bit o’ experience to show you what’s what.”

  Oh, sure, Jayfeather thought as he went on checking the snake holes, pulling out bits of stone to give each opening a good sniff before he pushed the stone back and checked that the blockage was secure.

  Purdy padded alongside him, offering helpful comments like, “You missed a gap there,” just as Jayfeather was feeling around for a stone that would fit the space, or, “Are you sure you gave that hole a proper sniff?”

  Jayfeather gritted his teeth. “Quite sure, Purdy, thanks.” StarClan help me not to claw his ears off!

  “You’ll miss your brother, I’m guessin‘,” Purdy went on. “But he’ll be back before you know it, mark my words. It was just the same, y’know, when Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw went off to find Midnight.”

  “Squirrelflight,” Jayfeather corrected the old loner. Don’t you start as well! I’ve just had enough of that from Leafpool!

  “I remember the first time I met them,” Purdy rambled on. “They were so young and so brave! I reckoned they all had bees in their brain, travelin’ so far. But see how wrong I was? They found this place to live, after the Upwalkers wrecked their old home.”

  Jayfeather, flat on his belly in front of a suspicious-smelling hole, just grunted in agreement.

  “Not that I ever had no trouble wi’ Upwalkers,” Purdy continued. “My Upwalker was right friendly. I’d got him well trained, see. He was ’specially good when the weather turned cold and huntin’ was difficult. Always somethin’ tasty to eat, an’ a fire to sit beside…”

  Jayfeather let the old loner’s voice fade into the background of creaking branches and buzzing insects. He wished that the older cats would stop going on about the quest to find Midnight. He wanted to yowl out the words of his own prophecy so that every cat could hear it.

  This is more important than anything that happened in the past!

  “Okay, Purdy,” he mewed, interrupting a long and convoluted story about a fox. “We’re done here. Thanks for your help.”

  “Any time, young ’un.” Jayfeather heard Purdy clambering back onto the flat-topped rock and settling himself in the sun. “You don’t get foxes now like the ones when I was young…” he murmured drowsily.

  As Jayfeather padded back toward his den, he heard Lionblaze and Dovepaw practicing battle moves beside the thorn barrier. He stopped, listening to Dovepaw leaping at Lionblaze and slicing her claws through the air, barely a whisker from his fur. Suddenly the quest was real. Lionblaze and Dovepaw would be gone the next morning, and the thought terrified Jayfeather more than he would have thought possible.

  Just find these animals, and come back, he begged. Whatever we have to do for the prophecy to come true, I can’t do it on my own.

  CHAPTER 11

  Dovepaw stood on the rocks at the mouth of the stream that marked the border with ShadowClan. Even though the sun had only just cleared the horizon, the stones were hot under her pads, and the island at the far side of the lake was veiled in a shimmering haze of heat. The journey was about to begin—the quest that she had set in motion when she heard the animals that were blocking the stream—but Dovepaw couldn’t push down her misery at leaving her sister behind. Before dawn, when Lionblaze had come to rouse her in the apprentices’ den, Ivypaw had curled up and pretended to be asleep so that she didn’t have to say good-bye.

  Beside Dovepaw, Brambleclaw and Lionblaze were mewing quietly together. Not wanting to listen in on their conversation, Dovepaw let her senses range farther. She spotted a patrol of RiverClan warriors circling the pool of brackish water in the middle of the lake; they looked hungry and scared. Listening briefly to their complaints about the heat, she pushed her awareness farther still, and focused on the cats in the RiverClan camp. Soon she managed to identify Mistyfoot, Reedwhisker, and the golden-furred medicine cat, Mothwing, whom she had seen at the Gathering.

  “I’ve done everything I can for Leopardstar,” Mothwing was meowing anxiously. “But she still hasn’t recovered from losing her last life.”

  Mistyfoot shook her head. “She hasn’t had the chance to get her strength back. But there must be some herbs you can use to help her, Mothwing?”

  “The herbs are all dried up.” The medicine cat’s mew was quiet. “I’m afraid Leopardstar is going to lose this life as well.”

  There was a stunned silence. How many lives does Leopardstar have left? Dovepaw wondered. At last the quiet was broken by Reedwhisker. “Then we have to hope that Firestar’s plan works, and the cats we send find out what has happened to the water.”

  The sound of paw steps on the other side of the stream jerked Dovepaw back to her surroundings. Three cats had emerged from the dried-up grass on the opposite side of the stream and were padding down the stretch of pebbles to join her and her Clanmates.

  Brambleclaw stepped forward to meet them. “Greetings, Russetfur,” he meowed.

  The dark ginger she-cat just grunted in response.

  “She’s the ShadowClan deputy, isn’t she?” Dovepaw whispered to Lionblaze. “She looks really old!”

  “She was one of the cats who made the Great Journey,” Lionblaze murmured in reply. “But she’s still a formidable warrior. Don’t let her hear you calling her old!”

  “These are ShadowClan’s chosen cats,” Russetfur meowed, waving her tail toward the younger warriors who had followed her down to the stream.

  The two cats stepped forward and nodded to the ThunderClan patrol. Dovepaw recognized the golden tabby pelt of Tigerheart, Tawnypelt’s son, from the Gathering, but the other warrior, an older dark brown tom, was a stranger to her.

  “Who’s that?” she whispered to Lionblaze.

  “Toadfoot,” her mentor told her. “He made the Great Journey, too, but he was a kit then.”

  “Wow! Kits made the Great Journey?”

  Lionblaze nodded, but he motioned with his tail for Dovepaw to be quiet as Russetfur spoke again.

  “Don’t forget you’ll be traveling through our territory to begin with,” she growled. “Don’t even think about stealing prey, because my warriors will be watching you.”

  Lionblaze let his gaze sweep across the burnt grass on either side of the stream. “What prey would that be?” he asked pointedly.

  Russetfur bared her teeth in the beginning of a snarl. “Don’t get clever with me, Lionblaze. And just because this quest was Firestar’s idea, don’t start thinking that ThunderClan cats are in charge.”

  “No cat thinks that,” Brambleclaw mewed soothingly. “That wasn’t how it worked on the first journey. They’ll figure things out for themselves on the way.”

  Russetfur let out a snort. “What was Firestar thinking, choosing an apprentice?” she demanded, with a glare at Dovepaw. “What use will she be?”

  Dovepaw bristled. I’m the one who knows about the animals blocking the stream!

  A moment later her eyes flew wide with shock as Lionblaze meowed defensively, “She has to come. She’s the one who knows why the stream is blocked.”

  Brambleclaw took a step forward, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at Lionblaze. His jaws opened, but he didn’t speak. Dovepaw guessed that he wanted to say, “Mouse-brain!” but couldn’t in front of the other Clan cats.

  “She knows?” Toa
dfoot looked disbelieving. “How does she know?”

  Lionblaze gulped, seeming to realize his mistake. “Oh, she…uh…yeah, she had a dream from StarClan,” he explained awkwardly. “They told her all about it.”

  “Yeah, and hedgehogs fly,” Toadfoot muttered.

  Dovepaw stood up straighter and tried to look strong and capable, only to cringe when her belly let out a huge rumble. Oh, no!

  Russetfur rolled her eyes, and Toadfoot flicked his ears contemptuously, but Dovepaw picked up a sympathetic glance from Tigerheart, and she started to feel a little better. Maybe at least one of the ShadowClan cats was friendly.

  Lionblaze touched her shoulder with his tail-tip and angled his ears across the lake to point out three more cats approaching from the direction of RiverClan. As they drew closer, Dovepaw recognized Mistyfoot, along with a young gray-and-white she-cat and a dark gray tabby tom.

  “Petalfur and Rippletail,” Lionblaze whispered in her ear.

  Mistyfoot dipped her head toward the other deputies, but she didn’t approach. The three RiverClan cats stopped a little way off, waiting with a wary, reserved look on their faces. Dovepaw guessed that even though Leopardstar had been persuaded to let her warriors join in the quest, none of the RiverClan cats were happy about it.

  Toadfoot let out a disdainful sniff and leaned over to murmur something to Tigerheart. Dovepaw picked up his soft words. “What a scrawny lot! Leopardstar must be saving her strongest warriors to guard the lake.”

  Dovepaw wasn’t sure he was right. True, Petalfur and Rippletail looked hollow and ungroomed, but that seemed to be true of every cat in RiverClan. She wished the ShadowClan cats weren’t so unfriendly. This journey won’t be much fun if we can’t even greet one another!

  Russetfur raked her claws through the dried mud of the riverbed. “Where is WindClan?” she meowed impatiently. “I’ve got better things to do than stand here all day.”

  Looking past the ShadowClan deputy, Dovepaw spotted three cats racing down the hillside in WindClan territory and heading out across the dried-up lake. Ashfoot, the WindClan deputy, was in the lead, with two she-cats behind her: a small white one and a younger light brown tabby.