Ivypaw writhed on the bottom of the river, bubbles escaping her mouth. Mapleshade was pushing the air from her chest. She fought wildly, kicking out with her legs, hoping to knock Mapleshade away. Ivypaw’s lungs screamed. Blackness edged her vision. She fought the urge to suck in water.
Then her flailing hind legs struck a rock. It budged, barely the width of a whisker. Ivypaw flailed again, harder. The stone shifted, then gained speed. Mapleshade’s paws shifted as the rock rolled away. With a mighty shove, Ivypaw pushed upward, wrenching herself free as the she-warrior lost her balance.
Desperate for air, Ivypaw forced herself to stay beneath the water. She struck out with her paws and began swimming underwater as far from Mapleshade as she could. As the riverbed sloped up, she followed the curve, emerging from the water on the far bank. She slithered onto the mud, gulping for air.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Mapleshade splashing around in the river, searching the riverbed with floundering paws. Low as an otter, Ivypaw crept up the bank and slunk between the trees. When she was sure the shadows hid her, she collapsed, panting, onto the ground and coughed up a lungful of black water. Exhausted, she closed her eyes.
“Ivypaw?”
Dovepaw!
She looked up, relief swamping her as she saw the edges of her nest and her sister’s face peering anxiously over its woven stems. Early dawn light was beginning to filter through the ferns.
“Are you okay?”
Ivypaw coughed again, her chest burning. “Yes,” she rasped. “I’m okay now.” She never wanted to go back to the Dark Forest, not ever. “How was the Gathering?”
“I need to ask you something.” Dovepaw was looking anxious. The Clan was beginning to stir outside the den.
“What?”
Dovepaw leaned closer as Ivypaw sat up. “Tell me about Tigerheart again.” Her ears twitched. “Is he really training in the Dark Forest?”
Ivypaw lowered her gaze. “Yes,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Dovepaw sighed. “I don’t think he ever loved me.”
Ivypaw jerked up her muzzle. “Don’t say that!”
Dovepaw shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“I do!” Ivypaw leaped out of her nest and pressed against Dovepaw. “Tigerstar tricked him just like he tricked me!”
Dovepaw stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“It was all a lie—”
“Wait!” Dovepaw cut her off. “Lionblaze and Jayfeather need to hear this, too.”
Ivypaw stared at her sister. What was she talking about? What did they have to do with it?
“Just trust me.” Dovepaw nosed Ivypaw to her paws and jostled her out of the den.
Jayfeather was padding from the warriors’ den with a bundle of withered herbs in his jaws. He seemed to sense Dovepaw, because he turned his blind gaze on them and narrowed his eyes. Then he tucked the herbs under a stone by the den entrance and hurried over.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“We’re fine,” Dovepaw told him. “Where’s Lionblaze?”
“I’m here.” The golden warrior was bounding down the tumble of rocks from Highledge.
“We need to talk,” Dovepaw hissed. She headed for the entrance with Jayfeather and Lionblaze on her tail.
What’s going on? There seemed to be as many secrets here as there were in the Dark Forest.
Dovepaw led them up the steep slope outside the entrance, forged her way through the drifted snow, and hopped over a fallen tree. The ground behind was clear where the trunk had held back the drift. Dovepaw crouched against the rotting bark as Jayfeather and Lionblaze settled beside her. Ivypaw balanced on the trunk for a moment before jumping down next to them. They huddled together, cocooned from the bitter wind.
“Go on, Ivypaw,” Dovepaw prompted. “Tell them.”
Ivypaw looked from Jayfeather to Lionblaze. Their pelts were pricking with expectation. She took a deep breath and began. “I’ve been visiting the Dark Forest in my dreams.”
“Tell us something new,” Jayfeather grunted.
Ivypaw blinked. “Tigerstar’s been training me,” she went on, trying to squash the butterflies leaping in her belly. “And Hawkfrost. They told me they wanted me to be a great warrior so I could protect my Clan.”
“And you believed them?” Lionblaze snapped.
Dovepaw turned on him. “Let her tell you!” she snarled.
Ivypaw glanced gratefully at her sister. “Tigerstar said that he was loyal to ThunderClan. That he’d been born ThunderClan and he’d never stopped feeling like a ThunderClan cat.”
Jayfeather was nodding slowly. “Okay.”
“I just wanted to be as good as Dovepaw,” Ivypaw explained. “I wanted to be so good that everyone would notice me, too.”
She was relieved to see Lionblaze’s gaze soften. “You’re a good apprentice, Ivypaw, and you’re going to make a fine warrior. Don’t try competing with your sister.”
Why not? The old jealousy sparked beneath Ivypaw’s pelt. What’s so special about her? “It’s over now. I know the truth. Tigerstar and his warriors are planning to attack all the Clans. They want to destroy us. I’m never going back to the Dark Forest.” She felt bone tired as tension eased from her muscles.
“How will you stop?” Jayfeather’s mew took her by surprise.
“Stop what?”
“When you go to sleep, do you choose to dream about the Dark Forest?” Jayfeather pressed.
Ivypaw narrowed her eyes. “I… I guess not. I just wake up there,” she admitted.
Jayfeather sat up. “Good.”
What do you mean? What if I wake up there again, without wanting to? Ivypaw felt sick. “W-why is that good?”
“Because you’re going to spy for us,” Jayfeather declared.
Ivypaw started to tremble. “But I don’t want to go there again.”
“Too late.” Jayfeather shrugged. “You joined the Dark Forest. Do you think Tigerstar’s going to let you go after training you so hard?”
“But I don’t want to train anymore!”
Jayfeather wasn’t listening. His blind blue eyes seemed to be boring into hers. “They don’t know you’ve changed your mind, do they?”
Ivypaw shook her head, unable to speak.
“Then you must keep training with them and tell us everything you find out.”
Ivypaw’s chest throbbed. “You want me to spy on them?”
“Of course.” Jayfeather smoothed his whiskers with a paw. “You were ready to betray us. Why not betray them?”
Dovepaw sat up sharply. “She didn’t know she was betraying us—”
Jayfeather interrupted her. “She was training with Tigerstar,” he snapped. “How was that ever going to be good for ThunderClan?”
Lionblaze tucked his tail over his front paws. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Ivypaw felt as if she were caught in another terrible dream.
“But only,” Lionblaze went on, “if Ivypaw agrees.”
Ivypaw felt Mapleshade’s paws on her shoulders, pressing her down into the riverbed. “No!” She just wanted to be an ordinary apprentice again, fetching moss for Mousefur and Purdy, learning to hunt in a real forest with real cats. “I’m not going back.”
“You may not have the choice,” Jayfeather muttered.
Dovepaw’s tail was flicking. “Let me talk to her on my own. Please.” Lionblaze dipped his head and leaped up onto the trunk.
“Come on,” he called to Jayfeather. “Let’s leave this to Dovepaw.” Jayfeather gave a small sigh and followed his brother.
As their paw steps crunched away through the snow, Ivypaw looked at her sister. “What’s going on?”
Dovepaw settled back into a crouch. “There’s something that you still don’t know.”