Oh, StarClan, now what do I do?
“What are you doing out of your den?” Crowfeather asked, fixing the apprentice with a stern glare. With any luck, he didn’t hear anything.
“I only went to make dirt,” Hootpaw excused himself. “But I was so excited to see that you’ve come back — and you’ve found Nightcloud!” The apprentice gave a little bounce. “That’s so great!”
“So you were listening to me and Heathertail!”
For a heartbeat, Hootpaw looked chastened. “I didn’t mean to spy,” he insisted. “I want to come with you! Please, Crowfeather!”
Crowfeather was briefly tempted. He knew how much Hootpaw cared for his former mentor, just as Featherpaw, surprisingly, cared for him. And Hootpaw had learned his battle moves well; he could be an asset if they ran into trouble.
But then Crowfeather realized that it was quite impossible. And he’d had enough of taking apprentices into danger.
“Absolutely not,” he replied. “Take another warrior’s apprentice on a dangerous mission?” It’s a secret mission, too, he reflected. A banished cat sneaking an apprentice out without his leader’s approval! “You must have bees in your brain,” he finished.
Hootpaw’s tail drooped and he blinked in disappointment. “Please, Crowfeather,” he repeated. “I’ll do everything you tell me.”
“I’m telling you no.” Crowfeather slid forward, so close to Hootpaw that his nose almost touched the top of the apprentice’s head. Being tough with him now is the best way to protect him. “And if you breathe a word of this to Onestar,” he continued, “I’ll personally make sure that you wish you’d never left the nursery. Got it?”
Hootpaw’s eyes were wide and scared. “Got it, Crowfeather.” He wriggled out from under the bush and streaked off, back toward the camp.
Crowfeather watched him go, shaking his head a little. He’s got great spirit, he reflected. He’ll make a fine warrior one day. And I’ll do all I can to make sure that Nightcloud is around to help him do it.
While Crowfeather waited for his Clanmates to return, the sky cleared and the moon shone down on the snowy moor. Crowfeather let out a purr of satisfaction; their journey would be much easier if they could see where they were putting their paws — provided they got away without any cat spotting them.
When Heathertail reappeared with Breezepelt padding in her paw steps, the light was bright enough for Crowfeather to see how battered and exhausted they both looked. Their tails and shoulders were drooping; Heathertail’s pelt was matted with twigs, and Breezepelt had a scratch on one foreleg.
He wondered if they were even in any shape to go through with the plan.
“What happened to you?” Crowfeather asked, emerging from his hiding place under the bush. “Has there been trouble?”
Heathertail shook her head. “We spent the whole day lugging stones and brush around to plug up the tunnel entrances,” she told Crowfeather. “It’s exhausting work.”
“And after all that, we didn’t have time to do them all,” Breezepelt complained. “Onestar insisted on stopping when the sun went down. That means the stoats can still get out, so it was all for nothing. I feel like every scrap of skin has been scraped off my pads.”
“It’ll be fine.” Heathertail gave Breezepelt a friendly nudge. “We can finish tomorrow.”
Crowfeather had listened to their news with mounting anxiety. “Are you sure you’re fit for this?” he asked. “It’s a long way to the Twolegplace.”
There was a determined gleam in Breezepelt’s eyes as he gazed at his father. “I could do more than this for Nightcloud,” he meowed. “We have to find her.”
“It’s the least we can do,” Heathertail agreed.
A trickle of pride in the two young cats began to flow through Crowfeather, like a frozen stream beginning to melt. The determined look on Heathertail’s face filled him with confidence. She would definitely be a useful cat to have around on this journey. But what about the camp? he wondered. She’s supposed to be keeping watch.
He tilted his head, thinking hard, when the sound of paw steps swishing through the snow behind him made him start. He swung around to see Hootpaw and his mentor, Gorsetail, looming up out of the darkness.
Crowfeather felt every hair on his pelt beginning to rise. “What in StarClan’s name are you doing here?” he demanded in a low voice. “Hootpaw, I told you not to tell any cat.”
“You told me not to tell Onestar,” Hootpaw reminded him, as bright and confident as ever. “But I told Gorsetail. I reckoned you’d have to let me come if I had my mentor’s permission.”
“And has she given it?” Crowfeather angled his ears toward Gorsetail. “Are you as bee-brained as he is?”
“Bee-brained yourself,” Gorsetail retorted coolly. “I’m not the cat who’s showing his face here after being banished from the Clan. And yes, Hootpaw has my permission — on one condition.”
“And what’s that?” Breezepelt growled, taking a pace toward the gray-and-white she-cat.
“That I get to come with you too,” Gorsetail replied.
Crowfeather’s eyes widened in shock. Gorsetail wants to help?
“Don’t look so surprised,” the she-cat mewed. “I respected Nightcloud as much as any cat.”
Crowfeather stared at his Clanmate, hardly knowing what to say. He hadn’t forgotten that Gorsetail had once said that the Clan would be better off if Breezepelt were killed by a badger. Though lately her attitude seemed to have relaxed, she still wasn’t a cat Crowfeather wanted with him on a dangerous expedition.
It was Heathertail who broke the silence, giving Crowfeather an irritated nudge. “For StarClan’s sake, let them come! If we stand here arguing, some cat will hear us, and we won’t be able to go at all.”
Crowfeather could see the sense in that. “Okay, you can come,” he meowed. Privately he still wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to take so many cats, especially when they had to cross a rival Clan’s territory. And if Onestar found out, it would surely cause problems. Not to mention, the camp would be unguarded for a little while. But then, he told himself, the more noses, the more chance of finding Nightcloud. We have to take the risk.
Hootpaw leaped right off the ground in his excitement. “If we meet any stoats, I know what to do,” he boasted, landing on his hind paws and striking out with both forepaws against an imaginary stoat.
“If we meet any stoats, you’ll stay beside me and do as you’re told,” Gorsetail responded, with a severe look at her apprentice.
“Sure, Gorsetail!” Hootpaw’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened in the slightest.
Let’s hope we don’t find any stoats, Crowfeather thought as he took the lead away from the camp. But we will find something. I just hope that something is Nightcloud.
Surprising himself, he couldn’t stifle a pulse of excitement at the thought of seeing her again.
Chapter 22
Crowfeather led the way across the moor, guiding his patrol in a wide half circle to avoid the tunnels. “I don’t want to risk meeting the stoats,” he murmured. “They’ll be even more angry with WindClan after you blocked up the entrances.”
Even so, he couldn’t help feeling a prickling of tension in his pads as they passed by, remembering once again Kestrelflight’s vision. He saw dark water rush out, swelling and tossing until it could engulf all the Clans.