Swallowkit whimpered but didn’t try to escape again.
“Come on,” Lionpaw urged.
Jaypaw waded through the shallows. His paws throbbed with dread as he felt the tug of the river.
“Ready?” Lionpaw mewed.
“Yes!” Hollypaw answered.
Jaypaw tensed. “Jump!”
He hurled himself into the rushing torrent. Heatherpaw tugged on his tail as the water swirled her downstream. The current dragged him under and he was lost in his dream of drowning again, choked by the tumbling water with the bodies of cats all around him and his ears filled with roaring.
Chapter 20
Water roared in Hollypaw’s ears as the pale light of the cave faded from sight. The river dragged her into the tunnel, the current pulling her under. Her lungs screamed for air. She fought the urge to suck in water and kept her jaws firmly clamped around Thistlekit’s tail.
Rock scraped her ears and she felt air on her face as the river swirled her upward. She drew a quick breath before the river dragged her down once more.
A body brushed hers and was swept away. Thistlekit struggled, raking her nose with thorn-sharp claws. She resisted the urge to fight, trusting Jaypaw, letting the flood carry her, feeling stone graze her flanks as the water tossed her against the sides of the tunnel.
The roaring grew louder till she thought her ears would burst.
Then peace.
The current let her go and the noise died away. She strained to see through the darkness. Was that light? Bright dots sparkled in the distance. Was StarClan waiting to welcome her?
Her head swam and blackness pressed in on the edges of her consciousness. She fought her way upward, frantically seeking the surface, praying that she wouldn’t find rock above her. With a final desperate effort she pushed up and up until she thought the whole world must be water.
Suddenly, she burst through the surface of the lake, startled by the chill of the wind as it swept her face and filled her nose and ears. They had made it! She gasped and spluttered, drawing in lungful after lungful of cold, wonderful air.
Blinking water from her eyes, she saw that the dots were stars, glimmering through wind-torn clouds. The rainstorm was moving away.
Thistlekit thrashed in the water beside her, fighting to keep her head above water. Hollypaw grasped the kit with her forepaws, let go of her tail and grabbed her scruff, paddling with her hind legs to keep both their heads out of the water.
She forced herself to relax, letting the water support her and working her paws in a steady rhythm that held them afloat.
Thistlekit coughed and wheezed, trembling against her chest.
Hollypaw scanned the dark surface of the lake for the others. Joy sparked in her belly when she saw Lionpaw’s golden head bobbing a few tail-lengths away. Sedgekit was clinging to his back, eyes shining in the moonlight.
Bubbles exploded near him, and Breezepaw burst to the surface with Swallowkit.
Jaypaw? Heatherpaw? Panic started to grip Hollypaw. Had they made it? She heard splashing behind her and she twisted around, dragging Thistlekit so fast he squealed with surprise.
Jaypaw and Heatherpaw were flailing beside each other, their paws spraying water as they fought to stay afloat.
“Jaypaw!” she called.
“We’re okay!” Heatherpaw coughed.
Hollypaw swam toward them, kicking out with her hind legs, surprised to find herself swimming like a RiverClan cat.
“The shore’s over there!” She could see it not far off and, reaching Jaypaw, she nudged him toward it.
Heatherpaw was splashing toward Lionpaw. Why wasn’t the WindClan apprentice trying to help her own Clanmate?
Then she realized that Lionpaw was thrashing in the water, ducking his face under. As he came up for a breath, she saw his eyes were wild with panic.
“Sedgekit’s gone!” he yowled.
Heatherpaw dived beneath the surface. Hollypaw held her breath, treading water as Lionpaw ducked under again. Had the current dragged the kit back down into the black, bottomless water?
Suddenly, Heatherpaw bobbed up, Sedgekit between her jaws. The kit’s paws flapped wildly. He was alive!
Lionpaw broke the surface, his eyes lighting as he saw Sedgekit. He swam to Heatherpaw’s side and grasped the kit’s tail between his teeth, and together they headed for the shore. Hollypaw swam beside Jaypaw, casting an eye back to make sure Breezepaw was still managing. The black WindClan apprentice was pounding through the water with Swallowkit’s scruff in his jaws and his eyes fixed on the shore.
Hollypaw’s muscles burned with exhaustion, but she didn’t dare stop moving. With Thistlekit’s fur blocking her mouth, every breath was a struggle, but she kept her gaze pinned on the shoreline and pushed on. At last, she felt pebbles graze her hind paws and, reaching down, touched the bottom with a forepaw. Thank you, StarClan!
Wading from the water, she dropped Thistlekit in the shallows and stood panting for a moment, struggling to get her breath back. Heatherpaw and Lionpaw already lay farther up the shore, their flanks heaving while Sedgekit crouched beside them, vomiting water onto the pebbles.
Pebbles clacked behind her as Jaypaw followed her out of the lake.
“How did you know it would carry us into the lake?”
Hollypaw gasped.
“It… it made sense,” Jaypaw mewed between coughs. He splashed onto the beach, and Thistlekit stumbled after him.
Breezepaw was struggling out of the shallows a few foxtails along the shore. Swallowkit dangled from his jaws, her paws flailing as she fought to be put down.
“We’re all safe!” Hollypaw breathed. She padded to Lionpaw and Heatherpaw, her trembling paws slipping on the wet pebbles. “Are you two okay?”
Lionpaw lifted his head. “Only half-drowned.”
A purr burst from Heatherpaw. She flicked Lionpaw with her dripping tail and got to her paws. “We’d better get the kits back to camp.”
Hollypaw glanced up the beach. Brambles and ferns crowded the shoreline, the forest dark behind them. This was ThunderClan territory. “Let’s take them to Leafpool,” she suggested. “It’s nearer and we need to make sure they’re okay.” Sedgekit was still coughing up water. Thistlekit had collapsed beside him, and though her eyes were open, her breathing was rapid.
“Hollypaw’s right.” Jaypaw joined them. “They need treatment for shock.”
Swallowkit hurried toward them, Breezepaw at her side.
“That was the horriblest thing I ever did!” She shook the water from her fur.
“You wait till you taste Leafpool’s medicine,” Jaypaw warned.
Breezepaw’s eyes glittered with suspicion. “Leafpool?”
“The ThunderClan camp’s closest,” Heatherpaw told him.
“We should get them treated.”
Breezepaw stared at Swallowkit. There was blood on her fur where the rocks had scoured her pelt. “Okay,” he agreed.
Jaypaw pricked his ears. “Listen.”
Threatening yowls rang through the night air. Hollypaw stiffened as she recognized her father’s voice, countered by the menacing growls of WindClan cats.
“It’s coming from the forest border,” Jaypaw mewed.
Had their disappearance made things even worse?
“There’s going to be a battle if we don’t get back soon!”
Hollypaw gasped.
Lionpaw leaped to his paws. “We can show them the kits.
If they know they’re safe, there doesn’t need to be a fight.”
“Are we going to the battle?” Swallowkit’s eyes grew wide as an owl’s.
“I can help fight!” Sedgekit mewed.
“There won’t be a battle if we get there quickly,” Hollypaw mewed. Sedgekit had no idea that he’d helped cause this mess, or that he’d be fighting some of the cats who’d just saved him. “Do you think you can make it?”