Suddenly the weight was lifted from Mapleshade’s belly and she opened her eyes to see the she-cat being hauled away by Bloomheart and Seedpelt. Mapleshade staggered to her paws. Blood pooled in her eye from a torn eyelid, and her cheek stung from a well-aimed blow. All around her, the cats hissed and muttered.
Frecklewish shook off the warriors and glared at Mapleshade. “You have betrayed my brother’s name!” she spat. “You have betrayed us all with your lies and your disloyalty. You don’t deserve to be called a warrior and nor do those… those half-Clan creatures.” She curled her lip toward the three kits, who cowered beneath the ferns. “Their father killed Birchface and Flowerpaw! Get them out of here!”
Mapleshade shook scarlet droplets onto the grass. “Why does it matter who their father is?” she demanded furiously. “I have given ThunderClan three fine kits. I am a queen and I should be treated with respect. StarClan knows we need more warriors, and here they are!” Have my Clanmates gone mad, that they would turn against me like this?
Oakstar bounded down from Highrock and stood in front of her. His yellow eyes gleamed with hatred and he thrust his head forward until his breath blew hotly on Mapleshade’s muzzle. “Have you forgotten that Appledusk murdered my son and Flowerpaw? Of all the cats, why did you have to choose him? You cannot possibly expect my forgiveness.” He stepped back and raised his head.
“You have betrayed the warrior code and lied to your Clanmates. We will not raise these kits within the walls of our camp, nor the boundaries of our territory. Take them and leave. You are no longer a warrior of ThunderClan.”
Mapleshade stumbled backward. “You can’t mean that! These kits belong to ThunderClan! You have to let us stay!”
Oakstar shook his head. “No, I do not.” He gazed around at the Clan. “Ravenwing told me about an omen he received, a mysterious stream of water that washed three pieces of reed into his den.
Reeds don’t belong in our territory, and certainly not in the heart of our camp. These kits will bring nothing but danger!”
“Get rid of them!” screeched Frecklewish. “Drive them out!”
“Oakstar’s right, they don’t belong here,” growled Bloomheart.
Mapleshade stared at the gray tabby in horror. “You were my mentor, Bloomheart! You know I would never betray my Clan!”
“You already have,” he replied gruffly. “I am ashamed of you.” He turned away, and Mapleshade felt her heart break into pieces.
“I will never forget this,” she hissed, slowly turning to glare at each one of her Clanmates. “You have betrayed me and my kits. You will live to regret this day forever, ThunderClan, and that is a promise.” She stalked over to her kits and swept her tail around them. “This is no longer our home,” she told them. “Come.”
She prodded them back through the gorse tunnel and up the path. Petalkit fell over and grazed her nose on a stone, but was too tired to protest. She simply picked herself up and stumbled on as if she knew there was no point in complaining. Mapleshade felt her heart break a little more.
“Why don’t they like us anymore?” whimpered Patchkit as they headed into the trees. It had started to rain, and fat drops thudded onto the ferns around them.
“Because they’re mouse-brained, bat-blind, and fox-hearted,” Mapleshade hissed.
“Those are bad words!” Larchkit mewed. “You’re not supposed to say them!”
“It’s the truth,” Mapleshade answered grimly.
“What were they saying about our father?” Petalkit asked. “Don’t they like Birchface either?”
Mapleshade felt an overwhelming urge to lie down and slip into the darkness of sleep. “I’ll tell you everything later,” she promised. “First we must get across the river.”
“We’re going swimming again?” chirped Patchkit. “But that RiverClan cat said we had to stay away from the water.”
“Everything is different now,” Mapleshade murmured.
When they emerged from the shelter of the trees, the rain was pelting so hard that Mapleshade could hardly keep her eyes open.
“I don’t want to go swimming anymore,” Larchkit moaned. “I want to go home.”
“I wish we were in the nursery.” Petalkit sniffed. “It’s too wet to be outside.”
“We have no home!” Mapleshade snapped. She had to raise her voice over the pounding of raindrops on the shore. “Forget about ThunderClan and the nursery.” She stared at the river. The tops of the stepping-stones were just visible among the wind-stirred waves. “We don’t have to swim all the way,” she told the kits. “Do you see those rocks? We just have to swim from one to the next until we get to the other side.”
“But then we’ll be in RiverClan!” Patchkit squeaked. “We’re not supposed to go there!”
“It’s all right,” Mapleshade mewed, trying to sound calm. “Your father will be pleased to see us.”
Larchkit tipped his head on one side. “I thought our father was dead!”
Mapleshade took a deep breath. “Remember that nice RiverClan cat who helped Patchkit today?
He is your father. Not Birchface.”
Larchkit wrinkled his nose. “But that doesn’t make sense. Our father can’t be from RiverClan.
We’re ThunderClan cats!”
“You’re half RiverClan,” Mapleshade told him. “That’s why you liked the water so much today.”
The three kits’ eyes stretched wider until they were like moons. “Is that why our Clanmates are mad at us?” asked Petalkit.
“Yes,” mewed Mapleshade. She felt the hackles rise along her spine. “But they are wrong,” she growled. “They’ll change their minds soon and until then, we’ll live in RiverClan. Everything will be okay.” She nudged Petalkit closer to the river. “Come on, we need to cross before it gets dark.”
The little brown kit hung back. “I don’t want to!” she wailed. “There’s too much water!”
“You’ll be fine,” Mapleshade insisted. She herded Larchkit and Patchkit alongside their sister.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Patchkit looked over his shoulder. “Promise we’ll be okay?”
“I promise.”
The ginger-and-white tom stepped bravely into the waves. Almost at once the water washed over his head but he fought his way up, spluttering. His littermates followed him. Mapleshade watched the three small heads bob to the first stepping-stone. They scrambled out and stood belly-deep in water, shivering.
“Wait for me!” Mapleshade called. “I’m coming!” Gritting her teeth, she waded into the river.
The water sucked at her fur, chilling her to the bone. She forced herself to strike off from the shore and churn her paws, propelling herself toward the stepping-stones. I have to do this for my kits, she told herself, hating every moment.
Suddenly there was a roar from somewhere upstream. “Swim faster!” screeched Petalkit.
“Something’s coming!”
Mapleshade glanced sideways to see a wall of water bearing down on her, sweeping branches and debris ahead of it. She paddled furiously but the current was dragging her away from the stones, not toward them. “Hold on!” she screeched to the kits as the wave crashed over her head.
Mapleshade was thrust to the bottom of the river by the force of the flood. Branches thudded against her and when she opened her eyes, she saw nothing but bubbles and churned-up pebbles. With her chest screaming for air, she clawed her way to the surface and burst out, gasping. Her flailing front paws struck something hard; unsheathing her claws, she managed to haul herself onto the rock.
Somehow she had made it to the first stepping-stone. She looked around.
The kits had gone. Mapleshade stared into the water in horror. My kits! Where are you? Any hopes that they had struck out for the second stone vanished when she saw three tiny shapes being swept downstream.