Warriors: Power Of Three 1 - Sight (30 page)

“Very well,” Leafpool agreed. “I’ll go and ask her.”

Jaypaw knew she’d travel faster without him. “I’ll stay here and look after the sick cats,” he offered.

Leafpool leaned down and touched her muzzle to his.

“Thanks, Jaypaw.”

“I’ll do my best,” he mewed briskly. Then he realized that he would be responsible for every one of his Clanmates while Leafpool was away. The thought struck him like a kick to the belly.

Leafpool entwined his tail with hers. “Rely on your instincts, Jaypaw. They are sharper than any cat’s.”

He nodded, taking a deep breath. I know all the herbs, he reminded himself. And this is a chance to prove that I can help my Clan.

“Brightheart will help you if necessary,” Leafpool went on.

“She’s worked with me before.”

Jaypaw’s tail pricked. Brightheart was the last cat he wanted watching him struggle to help his Clanmates. But he wasn’t going to let Leafpool know that.

“We’d better get going,” Leafpool meowed to the two WindClan cats.

Firestar padded over to block the entrance before Leafpool could head out. “I want Thornclaw and Brambleclaw to go with you,” he meowed.

“But we’re medicine cats,” Leafpool pointed out. “No cat will dare stop us.”

“You’re going to have to skirt the lake around ShadowClan territory,” Firestar pointed out. “I don’t trust ShadowClan right now.”

“Very well,” Leafpool meowed. She waited impatiently while Firestar called Thornclaw from the warriors’ den, and then the patrol raced out of the camp like rabbits.

Sandstorm came up to Jaypaw. “Can I help with anything?”

He didn’t know where to start. The medicine den was full, feverfew was running short, and he was so hungry he could hardly think straight.

“The mouse!” He suddenly remembered. “I was going to take it to the nursery for the kits.”

“I can do that,” Sandstorm meowed. “You go back to the medicine den.”

Her steady mew calmed him. “Thanks,” he murmured.

He returned to the den to find that Poppypaw’s fever had risen even more. Mousefur’s breathing was so shallow he had to press his muzzle to her flank to feel it. Ferncloud was begging for water, and the bedding stank.

StarClan, help me! Jaypaw closed his eyes for a moment.

Summoning all his strength, he went to fetch a wad of soaked moss for Ferncloud.

“Sandstorm told me you need some help.” Brightheart’s voice sounded from the den entrance.

“Yes.” Jaypaw’s ears twitched nervously, but for the first time in days he felt no anger flash from the one-eyed warrior.

“Can you help me clear out the old bedding?” he asked.

“I can do the bedding by myself,” Brightheart told him.

“You see to your patients.” Something small and sweet-smelling thudded at his paws. “Sandstorm said you should eat this.” Brightheart had tossed him a piece of the mouse.

He shook his head.

“You have to keep your strength up,” Brightheart insisted.

“While Leafpool’s gone, you are responsible for the whole Clan.”

Which meant that until Leafpool returned with catmint, there was nothing he could do except watch his Clanmates die. Jaypaw felt the same hopelessness as when he flailed his claws at Owlpaw in the battle against ShadowClan, never sure where his enemy would lunge from next.

“Eat the mouse,” Brightheart prompted.

“Okay.” He wasn’t going to act like a mewling kit. Did he want every cat to know he couldn’t cope? They already thought he was useless; they didn’t have to think he was weak and scared too!

Jaypaw gulped down the morsel, and then, while Brightheart started tugging out the foul bedding, he chewed up mouthfuls of feverfew and tried to persuade Poppypaw to swallow some. “Come on,” he urged her. “Just taste a little.”

Poppypaw pushed him away with a burning paw. “I can’t swallow,” she rasped.

“You must try.”

Jaypaw suddenly felt another pelt against his. He smelled Sorreltail, Poppypaw’s mother.

“She’s worse, isn’t she?” the she-cat mewed.

“Leafpool’s gone to WindClan to ask for catmint,” Jaypaw told her.

“But will Poppypaw survive until she returns?” Sorreltail’s mew cracked with grief.

“I’ll make sure she does,” Jaypaw growled. He tried to stop his paws from trembling as he pushed the feverfew under Poppypaw’s nose yet again. He had been a medicine cat apprentice for less than a moon. Could he really keep a promise like that?

“Come on.” Brightheart nudged Sorreltail. “Jaypaw will do what he can. You should go hunting with Brackenfur. The more fresh-kill we have, the stronger the Clan will be.”

As the one-eyed warrior guided her Clanmate out of the medicine den, Jaypaw rubbed the feverfew pulp onto Poppypaw’s lips, hoping that some of it would find its way into her fever-racked body. For StarClan’s sake, eat this and get better!

Jaypaw woke with a start. He had dozed off without meaning to. The silence of night lay heavily on the forest. An owl hooted far away as Jaypaw struggled to his paws. He felt light-headed with hunger and exhaustion, but he had to check on the sick cats.

Brightheart was sleeping at the entrance to the den. Her steady breathing comforted him as he picked his way around the sick cats. Mousefur was shivering, and he pulled fresh moss over her to keep her warm, though heat pulsed from her body. Ferncloud murmured the names of her kits, and Whitewing fidgeted uncomfortably in her sleep. Jaypaw sat and listened. Something was not right. He ducked down beside Poppypaw. Her breathing had slowed.

Jaypaw’s heart began to race. He slid into the nest beside her and pressed his body against hers. She was unnaturally still. Fear gripped him; he had promised Sorreltail that he wouldn’t let her die. He focused on Poppypaw’s breathing and let his body relax. Then he steadied his breath until it fell into the same slow rhythm as hers. He closed his eyes, and the world opened up before him in shades of black, white, and silver, washed with moonlight. He could see the pale shape of Poppypaw padding through a forest. He recognized the trees and the undergrowth and the feel of the leaf-strewn earth underneath his paws at once. Poppypaw mustn’t come here!

“Poppypaw!” He hurried to catch up to the apprentice, and she turned to gaze at him.

“I’ve never been to this part of the forest before.” She sniffed the air. “It doesn’t smell like home. Do you know where we are?”

“Yes,” Jaypaw whispered.

“It’s strange,” Poppypaw mewed. “Whatever herbs you gave me must have worked, because I don’t feel sick anymore.”

Jaypaw didn’t reply. How was he going to bring Poppypaw back from this place? He padded wordlessly beside her, terrified of losing sight of her.

“The trees are so tall and leafy, and the undergrowth is thicker than anything.” Poppypaw obviously didn’t realize that Jaypaw could see it for himself. “Can you smell all the scents of prey? It’s like greenleaf here!”

“We’ve got to go back!” Jaypaw told her.

“But it’s so beautiful.”

“You shouldn’t be here!” I promised Sorreltail!

The trees opened before them.

“Stop!” Poppypaw gasped. “There’s a drop in front of us.”

Jaypaw could clearly see the hollow below them, the Moonpool cradled at the bottom like liquid starlight. In this place everything was connected, and the forest led all the way into the mountains. Jaypaw’s heart sank when he saw the shining pelts of StarClan gathered around the slopes.

“There’s a pool at the bottom,” Poppypaw breathed.

“There are cats all around it. . . .” Her mew trailed away. “It’s StarClan, isn’t it? Does that mean I’m dead?”

Jaypaw’s throat went dry.

“Am I dead?” she repeated more urgently.

“Not yet.”

Jaypaw spun around when he heard Spottedleaf ’s voice.

“Coming here with her was very brave,” murmured the tortoiseshell cat.

“I promised her mother I’d keep her safe,” Jaypaw told her.

Poppypaw’s eyes clouded with confusion as she stared at Spottedleaf. “Who are you? Have you come to guide me to StarClan?”

“No!” Jaypaw growled. “Come back to the Clan with me, Poppypaw. I’ll take you home.”

“It’s okay, little one,” Spottedleaf meowed. “You can go with Jaypaw. There is a place here for you, but not yet.”

Stretching forward, she touched her muzzle first to Poppypaw’s and then to Jaypaw’s. “Take her home,” she whispered.

Thank you! “Follow me,” he told Poppypaw, and, turning away from the glittering hollow, he led her back into the forest.

Brightheart’s voice cut through the air. “Jaypaw!”

He blinked open his eyes into darkness. “Brightheart?”

“I thought you were ill too,” Brightheart whispered. “Your breathing was so slow.”

Poppypaw!

He leaped to his paws and pressed his ear against her flank.

She was still sleeping, but her breathing was deeper, steady and strong.

“How is she?” Brightheart asked.

“Better than she was.” Jaypaw sighed, closing his eyes with relief.

“I woke up and found the two of you hardly breathing.”

Jaypaw could feel Brightheart’s gaze burning his pelt. “I’m glad you’re all right.” She brushed her tail briskly over the den floor. “Dawn’s nearly here. I’ll go and find Sorreltail.

She’ll be relieved to hear the news.”

As Brightheart padded out of the den, Jaypaw felt fresh energy tingling through his paws. He leaned down and whispered in the apprentice’s ear, “I promised I would save you.”

Poppypaw stirred. “Jaypaw? Is that you?” Her voice was weak and whispery. “I had the strangest dream!”

Jaypaw tensed. He couldn’t let the other cats know what he had done to bring Poppypaw back from StarClan. “I expect it was because of the fever,” he soothed her.

“Maybe.” Poppypaw sounded uncertain. “I was in a forest I’d never seen before, but it felt like home. There were other cats there—and you, Jaypaw! You said I didn’t have to stay. . . .”

Jaypaw turned away. “It was just a dream. You’re better now. That’s all that matters.”

“Leafpool’s here!” Brackenfur’s cry filled the hollow, and Jaypaw raced from the den. He could smell the catmint already, and knew that Leafpool had brought plenty.

She was hurrying toward him, fragrant leaves bunched in her jaws. Thornclaw and Brambleclaw followed, carrying more. They dropped them at the den entrance while Jaypaw followed Leafpool inside.

“We left Weaselfur and Kestrelpaw at the lake,” she told him when she had put down the catmint. “Mothwing had plenty. She gave us enough to cure all our sick Clanmates. She said she’d have sent some earlier if she’d known.”

And who would have told her? thought Jaypaw. Not StarClan. He began to help Leafpool dose the sick cats.

Sorreltail nosed her way into the den, relief and gratitude flooding the air around her. “I don’t know how you did it, but I know you helped Poppypaw survive the night.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “Thank you.”

Jaypaw felt Leafpool’s tail gently flick his flank. “I knew you’d be fine without me,” she meowed.

As Jaypaw pressed another pawful of catmint beneath Whitewing’s nose, he heard Leafpool slip out of the den. The medicine cat had been quiet since she returned. Not just because she was busy tending to the sick cats—Jaypaw could sense that something was troubling her. He lifted his muzzle, intrigued, as the brambles swept back into place after her.

“Eat these slowly,” he advised Whitewing. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

He nosed his way out of the den and sniffed. Leafpool was sitting below Highledge with Firestar. Quietly, he hurried into the clearing and ducked down behind the halfrock. The two cats were sharing words in hushed whispers.

“There’s sickness in all the Clans,” Leafpool told Firestar.

“Greencough and whitecough. The frosts have taken their toll on prey in every territory, and all the Clans are weakened by hunger.”

“Even ShadowClan?”

“Littlecloud joined us to fetch catmint,” she answered. “He told me that they had lost an elder.”

Sadness pulsed from Firestar. “It’s been a hard leaf-bare for every Clan.”

Jaypaw pricked his ears. He could tell that Leafpool had not said all that she meant to. Then Leafpool whispered so quietly that Jaypaw had to stretch forward to hear.

“There’s a lot of bad feeling in the Clans,” she murmured.

“A feeling that this run of cold weather and sickness and poor prey is more than just bad luck.”

Jaypaw’s blood pounded, and Leafpool’s mew was suddenly swamped by the murmuring of distant voices that rang in his ears, voices from all four Clans around the lake. . . .

StarClan doesn’t want us to stay here! The new territories can’t support us all. What if the sickness spreads?

The whispers of doubt crowded his mind. He pressed himself to the earth and closed his eyes. Was StarClan punishing the Clans, and if so, why?

Hollypaw twitched her nose. Something was different. The air smelled damp and warm.

Happily, she stretched in her nest, pushing against Hazelpaw’s back with her hind paws.

“Get off!” Hazelpaw complained.

“Can’t you smell it?”

Hazelpaw yawned. “Smell what?”

“It’s warmer!” Hollypaw jumped out of her nest.

She ducked out of the den and screwed up her eyes against the light. The frost had gone. The clearing was damp where the ice had melted, the bushes dripping, and sunshine was already filling the camp with pale yellow. At the top of the cliffs, the trees seemed wrapped in a green haze. Newleaf had arrived at last.

Firestorm was grooming Sandstorm below Highledge. His bones looked sharp beneath his pelt as he crouched to lick Sandstorm’s ears, but his tail flicked happily. Icekit and Foxkit squealed with delight as Birchfall and Berrypaw chased them in circles outside the nursery. Ferncloud rested beside Daisy at the den entrance, clearly enjoying the morning’s warmth.

Her eyes were clear, and only a little crust around her nose betrayed that she had been so ill. Poppypaw was on the mend too, recovering in the elders’ nest with Mousefur, though she wouldn’t be well enough to go to the Gathering tonight.

Hollypaw heard paws pounding through the thorn barrier, and Thornclaw charged into camp at the head of a patrol. A mouse dangled from his jaws. Whitewing followed him, carrying a small chaffinch, and Ashfur and Lionpaw came in last, each carrying a vole.