“It might work,” Birchfall murmured. “But we’d risk burying her…”
“No, please don’t!” Icecloud’s panicky mew came up from the bottom of the hole.
The sound of more paw steps approaching distracted Lionblaze. He turned to see Jayfeather and Blossomfall skirting the bramble thicket, and headed back up the slope to meet them.
“I heard Spiderleg telling the Clan what happened,” Jayfeather meowed as Lionblaze bounded up. He paused; Lionblaze could tell that he knew this was part of the same tunnel where Hollyleaf had disappeared.
Lionblaze waited until Blossomfall had joined the other cats around the hole. “There’s nothing there apart from Icecloud that I can see,” he whispered. “The mudfall is farther down the slope.”
“You can’t let any other cats go down!” Jayfeather hissed.
“I know that!” Lionblaze retorted. Belly churning again, he led Jayfeather the few paw steps to join the other cats.
“I’m going in,” Foxleap announced. “You can lower me into the hole, I’ll tie the tendril around Icecloud, and then you can pull her up.”
“No,” Lionblaze said as he stepped forward. “It’s too dangerous. I’ll go.”
“What?” Birchfall lashed his tail. “Don’t be mouse-brained! You’re too heavy.”
“And why would it be dangerous?” Foxleap argued, stepping forward to confront Lionblaze. “There’s nothing down there except Icecloud.”
“You don’t know that!” Lionblaze snapped.
Cloudtail had been leaning over the hole, peering curiously up and down the tunnel. Finally he drew back. “Are these the tunnels WindClan used to invade us?”
Lionblaze nodded; a familiar pang of guilt clawed him in the belly as he remembered how he and Heathertail had been the first to discover the network of tunnels.
Foxleap drew in a shocked breath. “Great StarClan! There could be WindClan warriors down there now, waiting to attack Icecloud!”
Cloudtail rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure! WindClan must spend all their time down there, waiting for a ThunderClan warrior to fall in.”
In spite of the white warrior’s scathing words, Lionblaze felt an added urgency among the cats around the hole. A plaintive mew came up from Icecloud in the depths. “Get me out, please!”
“I’ll go,” Dovepaw volunteered, giving Lionblaze a hard stare, as if she remembered how he had told her not to let another cat go down. Does that include me? she seemed to be asking.
Jayfeather nodded. “Better her than another cat,” he whispered to Lionblaze.
“But she’s only an apprentice!” Foxleap protested. Lionblaze could sense that in a couple of heartbeats he would leap into the hole himself, whether he had permission from the senior warriors or not.
“I’m the lightest of all of you,” Dovepaw pointed out. “And all I have to do is jump down and wrap the tendril around Icecloud.” As if the decision had already been made, she turned to Lionblaze and asked quietly, “Is there anything I should look out for?”
Yes, my dead sister. Lionblaze swallowed hard; instead, he answered, “Just keep your eyes open. Cats don’t belong in these tunnels, so we must treat them as hostile territory.”
Birchfall wound the tendril around Dovepaw’s body; then he and Cloudtail lowered her into the hole. Her eyes widened as she vanished over the edge. Lionblaze looked down to see her unwinding the tendril from herself, and wrapping it securely around Icecloud.
“Ready!” she called.
Birchfall and Cloudtail began hauling on the vine. A yowl of pain came from Icecloud, quickly suppressed. “Sorry,” she mewed through gritted teeth. “My shoulder really hurts.”
Slowly the white she-cat was drawn up out of the hole. As soon as she appeared over the edge, Foxleap rushed up and supported her with his shoulder. “Come on,” he meowed. “We’ll get you back to camp and Jayfeather will take a look at you.”
“I’ll be fine,” Icecloud murmured, though she couldn’t put one forepaw to the ground, and her breath was coming in rapid gasps of pain. She leaned heavily on Foxleap as they headed toward the camp.
Cloudtail flanked Icecloud on the other side, glancing back with surprise in his blue eyes when Jayfeather didn’t move. The ThunderClan medicine cat was still leaning over the hole, his head cocked as if he was listening.
“Come on,” Cloudtail urged. “The others can bring Dovepaw up.”
Jayfeather hesitated, then followed.
Meanwhile, Birchfall and Spiderleg had passed the vine back to Dovepaw, and were preparing to haul her up. A moment later she scrabbled her way over the edge of the hole; Lionblaze bent down and tugged her the last tail-length by the scruff.
“Thanks!” Dovepaw panted, shaking earth out of her pelt. “It was horrible down there.”
Lionblaze was dying to ask her what she had seen in the tunnel, but he knew he couldn’t say anything, not in front of the other cats. Besides, if Dovepaw had seen a dead cat down there, they would have heard her screeching back in the stone hollow.
“What are we going to do about this hole?” Birchfall meowed. “We don’t want any other cat falling into it.”
“It’s too big to fill in,” Spiderleg commented. “And if we cover it up, the cover might give way if cats walked on it.”
“Maybe we can put something around it?” Blossomfall suggested.
“Good idea!” Lionblaze gave the young warrior an approving nod. “Let’s pile up sticks to surround it for now. Later on we can figure out how to build something more permanent.”
As they collected sticks and constructed the barrier, Lionblaze’s paws itched with longing to climb down into the hole and have a look around. But the other cats would have asked too many questions. He had to leave with the others when the barrier was finished, though he cast a reluctant glance over his shoulder as he followed them up the slope.
Dovepaw padded alongside him. Lionblaze could feel her curiosity about the tunnel, but he hadn’t decided yet how much he wanted to tell her. To his relief, as they headed for the old Thunderpath, her gaze fell on Spiderleg and she was instantly distracted.
“Oh, no!” she wailed. “I forgot about my assessment. I blew it, didn’t I?”
“I’m not sure,” Lionblaze admitted. “You weren’t at your best when you were hunting, but you did help to save Icecloud. You were very brave, going down into the hole like that.”
Looking dejected, Dovepaw glanced at Spiderleg again, but the black warrior was too far ahead to overhear. Lionblaze wanted to reassure her, but there was nothing he could tell her until he had consulted with Spiderleg. As they entered the stone hollow, Ivypaw dashed across the camp and skidded to a halt in front of Dovepaw.
“What happened?” she demanded. “Where have you been? What’s the matter with Icecloud?” she added. “I saw her limping into Jayfeather’s den.”
“She fell down a hole,” Dovepaw replied, launching into the story of what they had to do to get Icecloud out again.
Hazeltail came bounding up to listen, followed by Cinderheart and Millie. Brightheart and Bumblestripe pushed their way out of the warriors’ den and Molekit and Cherrykit bounced out of the nursery with Poppyfrost chasing after them. Mousewhisker, Berrynose, and Whitewing crowded at the back.
“I heard Icecloud fell into an underground river!” Bumblestripe meowed, interrupting Dovepaw’s story. “And you fell in after her.”
“No,” Whitewing argued. “Birchfall told me it was just a hole.”
“Dovepaw didn’t fall in.” Lionblaze was determined to defend his apprentice. “She climbed in to help Icecloud.”
“Wow, that was brave!” Bumblestripe gave Dovepaw an admiring glance.
“Maybe Icecloud’s back is broken, like Briarlight’s!” Berrynose gasped, his eyes wide with horror.