As sleep surged over him, Bramblestar found himself walking beside the lake-a lake shrunk back into its old boundaries. Pale sunlight glinted on the water, turning it to silver, the surface ruffled by a gentle breeze. Bramblestar looked around, expecting to see Firestar. Instead the wispy shape of an enormous cat began to appear on the other side of the lake, taller than the trees, broader than a Twoleg den, the tips of her ears reaching up to the clouds. As the figure grew more solid, Bramblestar saw that it was a dark gray she-cat with a broad, flat face and amber eyes. Not Firestar, but Yellowfang!

The former medicine cat stood at the edge of the lake, and at her paws the silver water turned red with blood: swirls of blood that rose to the surface of the water until the whole lake was scarlet.

Bramblestar's eyes stretched wide. "Is that how much blood is going to be spilled?" he whispered.

"Blood does not have to mean death," Yellowfang meowed, her voice echoing from the hills. "It can bring more strength than you can imagine."

"What do you mean?" Bramblestar protested. "I don't understand!"

But Yellowfang didn't reply. Her form began to fade again, and at the same moment the scarlet water rose and flooded over Bramblestar, sweeping him off his feet. He struggled, flailing his paws, but the water choked him in its salty grip and he sank into a swirling darkness.

Bramblestar jolted awake, trembling. Faint moonlight spilled into the tunnel. He felt a paw on his shoulder, gently calming him, and looked up to see that Jessy had left her nest and was bending over him.

"Was it a bad dream?" she murmured.

"More than that," Bramblestar muttered, staggering to his paws. "I need to speak with the medicine cats."

"You can talk to me if you want," Jessy offered.

"No, this is medicine-cat stuff." Seeing Jessy's hurt expression, Bramblestar added, "I'll tell you later."

He picked his way through the sleeping cats, heading farther down the tunnel to where the medicine cats slept. Jayfeather roused at the sound of his approach, though Leafpool remained curled up, sunk deeply in sleep.

"What do you want?" Jayfeather asked as Bramblestar reached his side.

"I need to talk to you and Leafpool."

Jayfeather whisked out his tail to block Bramblestar as he reached out a paw to shake Leafpool's shoulder. "Let her sleep," he warned. "She was up earlier to give Sandstorm some tansy for her cough. We can wake her later if we need her."

Bramblestar nodded. "Let's talk outside."

In the open, he took a long breath of the clear, cool air. The night was calm and quiet, with not even a faint breeze to stir the branches. The moon was floating above the trees, beginning to swell toward full.

"Leafpool and I have missed a medicine-cat meeting at the Moonpool," Jayfeather remarked. "But I doubt many of the others were there. RiverClan is still cut off, and we don't know what the floods are like in the mountains."

"I hope we can get to the next Gathering," Bramblestar mewed. "We've already missed one. Have you had any omens about the water going down?"

Jayfeather shook his head. "Not a whisper. Only the signs of the waterline dropping below the sticks on the slope."

Bramblestar sighed. "I suppose we can only wait. But meanwhile," he continued, trying to feel more optimistic, "the kittypets are settling in well. Especially Jessy. Did you hear how much fresh-kill she brought in from her last patrol?"

Jayfeather gave him a sidelong glance, his narrowed blue eyes so sharp that it was hard to remember he was blind. "You're spending a lot of time with Jessy. . . ." he murmured. "You shouldn't let any cats think you care more for the kittypets than your Clanmates."

For a moment Bramblestar was outraged. I raised this cat! I licked him warm when he was a kit, and comforted him when he got a thorn in his pad. And now he's making comments about my private life! Then he remembered that Jayfeather wasn't a kit anymore. He was ThunderClan's medicine cat, with every right to poke his nose into his Clan leader's business.

"All the kittypets need my time if they're to fit into the Clan," he responded, aware that he wasn't being entirely truthful.

Jayfeather hesitated for a moment, and Bramblestar braced himself for a stinging retort. But then the medicine cat shrugged, as if he too wasn't comfortable talking about Jessy. "Did you bring me out here to enjoy the night air?" he meowed.

"No," Bramblestar replied. "I had a dream. . . ." Struggling to find the right words, he told Jayfeather about Yellowfang's appearance beside the lake, and the blood that had risen when her paws touched the water. He repeated the mysterious words she had spoken. "She said, 'Blood does not have to mean death. It can bring more strength than you can imagine.' Jayfeather, what do you think she meant? Is there going to be another terrible battle? Was Yellowfang trying to warn me?"

Jayfeather twitched his whiskers. "It doesn't sound like a warning of doom," he admitted. "It's more like . . . something strong. It's obviously connected with that other dream you had, about Firestar," he continued. "'When water meets blood, blood will rise.'"

"And what does that mean?" Bramblestar asked tartly. "Why can't StarClan tell us something clearly, instead of talking in riddles?"

"StarClan tells us as much as they want us to know," Jayfeather retorted. "And sometimes even they don't hold all the answers. You can't expect them to know everything. Sometimes they are just cats, like us. Trust your own instincts, Bramblestar. That's why StarClan made you leader, because they had faith in you."

Bramblestar returned to his nest, and this time his sleep was untroubled by dreams. When he woke, sunlight was pouring in through the tunnel mouth, and most of the nests around him were empty. He sprang to his paws, alarmed that he had overslept.

"Take it easy, Bramblestar."

At the sound of Jessy's voice Bramblestar turned to see the brown she-cat sitting in her nest with her tail wrapped neatly around her paws.

"I told the others not to disturb you," she mewed. "I know you were awake during the night."

"That's kind of you," Bramblestar responded, half-appreciative and half-annoyed, "but a Clan leader can expect to have broken nights."

"But you're not just a Clan leader," Jessy pointed out, rising to her paws and padding over to Bramblestar. "You're a cat, too. You need to look after yourself as well as everyone else."

Bramblestar touched his nose to her ear. "Maybe you're right."

He padded out into the clearing with Jessy following him, to discover that the first patrols had already gone out. Squirrelflight was heading down the slope with b.u.mblestripe, Berrynose, and Rosepetal behind her.

"Squirrelflight!" Bramblestar called, pleased that he had caught her. "I need a word with you."

His deputy halted and turned to b.u.mblestripe. "You lead the patrol," she ordered. "Check the water levels, then try hunting over toward WindClan. We haven't been there for a day or two." She watched the patrol leave before bounding over to Bramblestar. She looked faintly surprised when she saw Jessy with him, but gave the she-cat a polite nod. "How can I help?"

Bramblestar glanced around, spotting Graystripe beside the fresh-kill pile and beckoning him over with a wave of his tail. "Are any of the other senior warriors still here? I need to speak with all of them."

"Cloudtail and Thornclaw are on a border patrol," Squirrelflight replied. "Brackenfur and Dustpelt went to look for more branches for the dens, but they only just left. I'll see if I can catch them." She shot off into the undergrowth.

While he waited for her to return, Bramblestar went back into the tunnel, where he found Sandstorm talking to Purdy. For once she was telling him a story. "So Firestar-he was Firepaw then-was hunting in the old forest and he came upon this skinny old gray she-cat . . ."

"Sandstorm, I need you outside for a moment," Bramblestar meowed.

"Sure." Sandstorm rose to her paws. "I'll finish the story later, Purdy."

The elder looked up at her, blinking. "See that you do," he purred. "You spin a good yarn."

Sandstorm stifled a mrrow of amus.e.m.e.nt. "Praise indeed!"

Bramblestar padded farther down the tunnel, where he found Jayfeather hauling himself out of his nest, his jaws parted in a ma.s.sive yawn. Leafpool was still asleep.

"Jayfeather, I've called a meeting," Bramblestar meowed. "Come and join us outside."

When he emerged into the clearing again, followed by the medicine cat, he saw Squirrelflight returning with Dustpelt and Brackenfur. They all gathered together at the foot of the mudpile.

Jessy was standing nearby, her eyes bright with interest, but she didn't join the others, as if she wasn't sure if she was invited.

"Jessy," Bramblestar mewed, "could you find Frankie and Minty and help them practice their hunting moves?"

"Sure," Jessy replied, heading off cheerfully with her tail in the air.

"So what's all this about?" Squirrelflight asked when the kittypet had gone.

"I think I can guess," Brackenfur growled.

Graystripe nodded. "The badgers, right?"

Bramblestar told them about his patrol the day before, and how they had found badger scent and the evidence of a battle just inside ShadowClan's extended hunting grounds. He added what he hadn't even told Graystripe and Brackenfur yet: his conversation with Tawnypelt and her plea for help.

"Are you completely mouse-brained?" Dustpelt growled when he had finished. "You know how much trouble we got into with Rowanstar when we fought off those kittypets."

"Yes, let ShadowClan fight their own battles now," Brackenfur agreed.

Bramblestar had expected to get this response, but at the same time he couldn't bear to picture his sister and her Clan struggling against the badgers alone. "What do you think, Graystripe?"

"I know how you feel, Bramblestar," Graystripe began, "but none of us want to fight again. Look how badly injured Lionblaze was. You could easily lose warriors if we take on the badgers. Is that what you want?"

"But the badgers are very close to our territory," Squirrelflight reminded the others. "If we don't deal with them now, we could be storing up trouble for later."

"True." Dustpelt raised one hind paw and scratched his ear. "But we can meet that trouble when it happens."

A cough shook Sandstorm's body before she spoke. "Remember the time the badgers attacked us in the stone hollow?" she rasped. "What if we fight them and they follow us back here? We're barely surviving as it is."

"So what you're all saying," Bramblestar mewed, "is that we should deal with the badgers if they interfere with our hunting, but not before?"

Murmurs of agreement came from all the cats, though he thought Squirrelflight remained doubtful. He knew he couldn't argue anymore. "Okay," he decided, "I see your point. But I want to lead a patrol up there now, to see if there are any new developments. We'll have to keep a close watch on ShadowClan territory from now on. The first sign that those badgers are crossing into our adopted territory, we have to be ready for them."

No cat objected to that. Bramblestar led them all out, except for Sandstorm, who went back to finish her story for Purdy. For once the graceful she-cat didn't ask to go with the warriors, but seemed happy to go back to the tunnel.

By now the forest beyond the border was becoming familiar to the ThunderClan cats. Bramblestar was aware of the moment when they reached the invisible boundary with ShadowClan. There were no scent markers, but fresh scents of the rival Clan drifted to his nose from close by.

"This is weird," Brackenfur muttered. "Do you think these borders could ever become permanent?"

"You mean, extend our territory out here and still keep it safe?" Dustpelt sounded doubtful. "Could we even do that?"

"Let's hope we don't have to," Bramblestar meowed, dismayed at the thought of trying to keep such a long border efficiently patrolled.

As the patrol padded along the edge of ShadowClan territory Bramblestar began to pick up new scents of blood and fear, along with the strong reek of badger. His pelt p.r.i.c.kled. "There must have been another fight since yesterday."

"That's not our problem," Dustpelt reminded him sharply.

"Especially if Rowanstar hasn't asked for our help," Graystripe added. "We could find ourselves fighting ShadowClan as well as the badgers."

With no evidence that the badgers had come any closer to ThunderClan hunting territory, Bramblestar knew there was nothing to do but turn around and head back to camp. His anxiety for ShadowClan and Tawnypelt was growing with every sign of conflict, yet he didn't know what he could say to his Clanmates to change their minds.

Desperate for a quiet place to think, when he reached the camp he climbed the slope until he could sit alone above the tunnel entrance. Warmed by the sun on his shoulders, he looked down at his Clanmates.

Lionblaze had just entered the clearing at the head of a hunting patrol. They were loaded down with prey: two squirrels, a blackbird, and more mice than Bramblestar could count. Lionblaze had recovered from his wounds, and his golden tabby pelt gleamed in the sunlight. When he had dropped his catch on the fresh-kill pile he padded up to Cinderheart, touched noses with her, and gave her ears a loving lick. The two cats withdrew to a sunny spot and stretched out together to share tongues.

Jayfeather was out in the weak sunshine too, taking Briarlight through her exercises. Bramblestar was pleased to see that she had regained some of her strength; she was fast and nimble on her front paws. She was practicing pulling herself up on the low-hanging branch of an elder bush, then letting herself roll onto her back with a yowl of triumph.

"What? What's all the yowlin' about?" Just below Bramblestar, Purdy rushed out of the tunnel. "Is it badgers? Just let me at 'em!"

"It's okay, Purdy," Millie rea.s.sured him. "It's only Briarlight." She turned to Graystripe, her eyes glowing with pride. "Just look what she can do!"

Briarlight repeated her exercise, while her mother and father stood close together to watch, their pelts brushing. Bramblestar felt his heart warmed, his troubles fading for a moment.

Movement behind Bramblestar distracted him and he turned, expecting to see Jessy. But the newcomer was Squirrelflight.

"You're going to take us into battle against those badgers, aren't you?" she mewed, coming to sit beside him.

Bramblestar nodded; until that moment he hadn't realized that he had made the decision.

"Why would you risk your own Clan to help Tawnypelt and ShadowClan?" Squirrelflight asked.

Bramblestar thought of the scene he had just watched in the clearing. He knew that it might be destroyed if he went ahead with his plan. But it didn't change a thing in his mind.

"Because I'd do anything to help my sister," he meowed, meeting his deputy's green gaze. "As would you."

As he spoke, Bramblestar finally understood why Squirrelflight had lied to him about the kits. He had already forgiven her, because he knew that she had been trying to do the best for every cat, but only now did he appreciate the impulse that had made her build so much upon something that wasn't true. "That's why you did what you did, isn't it? You took Leafpool's kits because you loved her."

Squirrelflight nodded, her eyes so full of feeling that he guessed she couldn't find words to answer.

"I have nothing but respect for your courage," he told her. Looking down into the clearing again, he saw Lionblaze sprawled contentedly beside his mate, and Jayfeather happily bossing Briarlight around. "We raised three fine cats," he mewed, remembering Hollyleaf's brave death when she sacrificed herself to save Ivypool.

He and Squirrelflight sat in silence, gazing down at their kits and their other Clanmates, cheerful in the sunlight below. Bramblestar felt Squirrelflight's fur touch his, and he felt closer to her than he had for seasons, as if the glow of sunshine was enfolding them.

"I'll support you, Bramblestar," Squirrelflight murmured. "If you want to take ThunderClan into battle on ShadowClan's behalf, I will be with you."

CHAPTER 29.

Bramblestar scrambled to the top of the mudpile. "Let all cats who are old enough to catch their own prey join here outside the tunnel for a Clan meeting!" he yowled.

The cats who were already outside looked up at him curiously, then cl.u.s.tered closer together at the foot of the mudpile. Leafpool emerged from the tunnel with Sandstorm and Purdy. Daisy and the apprentices trotted out of the undergrowth carrying b.a.l.l.s of moss, which they dropped near the tunnel entrance before sitting down to listen. Jessy sprang down from the branch of a tree, where she had been practicing climbing techniques with Frankie and Minty.

Bramblestar looked down at his Clan and took a deep breath. They aren't going to like what I have to tell them.

"Cats of ThunderClan," he began. "I've thought hard about this, and I've come to a decision. It's possible that ShadowClan will drive out the badgers by themselves, but if that doesn't happen within the next quarter moon, then we will help them."