"He didn't raise a single claw to help us," the old tom growled. "He wasn't even there to watch! He just strol ed in here while we were licking our wounds."

"What happened then?" Brackenfur asked.

Jingo twitched her ears. "If he'd admitted he was wrong, it might have been different. But he insisted that we were the ones who decided to fight, and it wasn't his fault that we lost. Then he sat down and started washing himself, and asked Jet to bring him some food."

"If I hadn't held Jet back, he might have ripped Sol to pieces," Hussar added.

Birchfal 's whiskers twitched. "I wish he had!"

Jingo looked surprised, but she didn't ask the young warrior what he meant. "So we asked Sol to leave," she meowed. "We would have driven him out if we had to, but he just told us we were making a mistake and went without a fight." She sighed.

"Maybe he was right. I don't know anymore."

"No, she was right," Birchfal muttered into Lionblaze's ear. "They're better off without Sol, and so are we!"

Jingo rose to her paws, yawned and stretched, then sat down again. "That's al we can tel you. Now tel us what you know."

Brambleclaw and Brackenfur exchanged a glance; it was Brackenfur who spoke first. "Sol came to the forest where we live," he began. "It must have to the forest where we live," he began. "It must have been after he left you. He went to stay with ShadowClan-a group of cats who live near us- and he persuaded them to stop believing in the warrior code and the spirits of their warrior ancestors."

The Twolegplace cats glanced blankly at one another. Clearly they had never heard of StarClan or the warrior code.

"He can be very powerful when he's trying to persuade you," Jingo murmured.

Lionblaze flashed a glance at Hol yleaf. They knew better than most cats how persuasive Sol could be.

Maybe Sol was right, Lionblaze couldn't help thinking, in spite of his horror at what the dogs had d o ne . Maybe these cats shouldn't blame him because they lost the battle. He flexed his claws, imagining what he would do if he came face to face with one of the dogs. Maybe they should have trained harder.

"So are you looking for Sol because of what he did to...to ShadowClan?" Jingo asked.

"No, it's because another warrior-" Birchfal began eagerly. Lionblaze's bel y churned at the thought of discussing Ashfur's murder.

Brambleclaw raised his tail to silence the younger warrior. "We just need to talk to Sol about something that happened recently," he stated calmly. "Have you seen him?"

"No, and we don't want to," Pod growled.

Hussar muttered an agreement, but Lionblaze noticed that Speckle was looking wistful, as if she had better memories of Sol.

"I haven't seen Sol." Chirp, who had remained quietly by the door, spoke suddenly, startling Lionblaze. "But I heard he's back."

Hussar scraped his claws hard against the floor.

"He wouldn't dare!"

"Not here," Chirp explained, "but on the other side of Twolegplace. Where a cat cal ed Purdy used to live."

"We know Purdy!"

Lionblaze exclaimed, remembering the old loner who had guided them on part of their journey to the mountains.

"Thanks, that's a great help," Brambleclaw meowed. "We'l go and look for him there."

"It's too late to go now." Jingo rose to her paws and leaped lightly off the soft boulder to land beside Hussar. "You can stay here for the night."

Brambleclaw dipped his head. "Thank you."

"You can eat with us," Jingo continued. "Come on, Hussar, help me carry the prey."

The two cats left and returned a moment later loaded with fresh-kil , which they shared among al the cats. Speckle jumped down from her boulder to join them, and her kits scrambled after her; she picked out a mouse for them and they squabbled happily over it.

"This isn't what Sol would have taught them,"

Lionblaze murmured to Hol yleaf as he crouched to eat a blackbird. "Remember how he told ShadowClan that every cat should feed themselves?

He said it was a sign of weakness for any cat to depend on another."

Hol yleaf nodded. "These cats obviously have a fresh-kil pile somewhere, and they hunt for cats who can't hunt for themselves. They're almost like a Clan."

"It looks like they're better off without Sol." But as Lionblaze spoke, he knew that some of these cats wouldn't agree with him. He had felt the pul of Sol's charm, his quiet authority and sense that he knew exactly the right thing to do. Jingo and the others must have felt it too, and missed the loner when he was gone. Lionblaze thoughtful y ate his blackbird. It was plump and juicy, but it had a taint of the Thunderpath about it, and he would have found it hard to choke down if he hadn't been so ravenous.

When they had finished eating, Speckle's kits started to bat a scrap of leaf around, squealing and tumbling over one another in their excitement. Frisk, the biggest and boldest of the four, batted the leaf toward Lionblaze.

Some of Lionblaze's tension melted away as he batted the leaf back to the kit. This was almost like playing with the kits back in the stone hol ow.

Speckle's litter were big and strong, almost ready to become apprentices.

Soon they should be learning to fight and hunt, he thought. Do these cats have the skills to teach them properly?

Hol yleaf joined in the game, too, chasing the leaf and pouncing on it until al four kits col apsed, panting, beside their mother.

"They're fine kits," Lionblaze gasped, flopping down on the floor in front of Speckle. "They'l grow up down on the floor in front of Speckle. "They'l grow up to be strong cats."

"I hope so," Speckle murmured. She bent over Frisk, licking his rumpled fur. Then she looked up again. "Whatever you think Sol has done, you're wrong."

Lionblaze's bel y lurched as he glanced at his sister; Hol yleaf's green eyes were wide with alarm.

How much does this cat know?

He was too startled to reply. After a couple of heartbeats, Speckle went on quietly: "Sol never gets his own paws dirty. If something has happened, another cat did it-maybe at Sol's bidding, maybe not. You won't be able to accuse him of anything."

There was a yearning in her voice; even though she knew the damage Sol had done here, she clearly wanted him back.

"Is Sol the father of your kits?" Hol yleaf asked, reaching out her tail to touch the brown queen's flank.

Speckle shook her head. "Their father left when the dogs started to become a problem." She hesitated, then added almost defiantly, "I wanted them to be Sol's. I know that the other cats say he betrayed us, but we were the ones who decided to fight the dogs. Sol didn't force us to do anything."

No, he just made it seem as if you couldn't do anything else. Lionblaze couldn't speak the words aloud to Speckle. It was obvious she was stil deeply in love with the loner.

He and Hol yleaf exchanged another glance.

Neither of them had mentioned Ashfur, but Lionblaze knew that the gray warrior's death must be weighing on his littermate's thoughts, just as it was on his own.

Speckle bent her head and went on grooming Frisk. "If Sol came back," she mewed between licks, "I'd be very glad to see him."

CHAPTER 12.

Jayfeather shifted uncomfortably on the bare earth.

How was any cat supposed to sleep without a proper nest? But Leafpool had kept him so busy the day before that there had been no time to search for fresh moss. "It'l do the den good to be aired out,"

Leafpool had said. Huh! Jayfeather wriggled again, feeling a cold dawn wind ruffle his pelt.

The sound of a cat brushing past the bramble screen brought him properly awake. He picked up Leafpool's scent, and the smel of the moss she carried in her jaw. At last! But why didn't she ask me to help? Jayfeather's paws itched with irritation that Leafpool seemed determined to do even the most basic tasks without him. Does she think I'm too incompetent even to carry moss?

But there was no point in protesting. Jayfeather stumbled out of the scoop where his nest should have been and helped Leafpool arrange the moss near the trickle of water, where sick cats slept.

"Do you want me to fetch more?" he offered.

His mentor's only reply was a grunt that could have meant anything. Jayfeather wanted to ask her what was biting her, but he knew she wouldn't tel him anything. She'd probably claw my ears off just for asking, he muttered to himself. The only way I'll get any answers-about my own past and what's going on with Leafpool-is if I look for them myself.

While he pushed the moss tidily into place, Jayfeather cast his mind back to his earliest memories. His littermates' absence stabbed him like a claw. We might find out a lot more if we could share what we remember!

He recal ed a long, cold journey, stumbling through snow that reached up to his bel y fur, fol owing his mother's scent.

No-Squirrelflight's scent! Pausing with a pawful of moss, he tried to think himself back into that snowbound forest. He strove to distinguish each individual scent: his own, Lionblaze's, Hol yleaf's, Squirrelflight's...and there was another! Another adult cat, a warm and bulky shape. He'd never remembered this detail before, but another cat was definitely there, just ahead of Squirrelflight, forcing a way through the snow....

Who was that? Jayfeather wondered. Did two cats bring us back to the hollow?

He needed to ask another cat, one who had been in ThunderClan when Squirrelflight brought her kits to the hol ow. But it had to be a cat who wouldn't get suspicious about his questions or tel the rest of the Clan what he had been asking.

Well, there's one cat who doesn't gossip....

"I'l go get more moss," he meowed, rapidly shoving the last pawful into place.

Without giving Leafpool a chance to protest, he brushed past the bramble screen and into the clearing. But instead of heading for the thorn tunnel, he darted across to the elders' den under the hazel bush.

"Mousefur!" he cal ed, ducking under a trailing strand of honeysuckle.

The skinny brown elder was curled up near the trunk of the hazel. "I hope your tail's on fire or foxes are invading the camp," she rasped, stifling a yawn.

"Or that you've got another real y good excuse for waking me up."

"Sorry," Jayfeather mumbled. Mouse dung! That's a great way to start....

"Don't worry," Longtail mewed peaceably. The blind elder was sitting by Mousefur's side; Jayfeather heard the rasp of his tongue as he gave himself a thorough wash. "Mousefur has been asleep for ages. It's time she woke up."

Mousefur let out an annoyed hiss. "Wel , what do you want?"

"I've come to check you for fleas," Jayfeather explained, thinking fast. "One of the apprentices brought some back from patrol." He hoped neither of the elders would think to mention his lie to any other the elders would think to mention his lie to any other cat.

"I haven't been scratching," Mousefur meowed.

"But you can check my pelt anyway." She settled herself comfortably with her paws tucked underneath her. "Be careful you don't miss any," she added as Jayfeather began probing her thick, ungroomed fur.

"You've been Leafpool's apprentice for long enough."

Jayfeather bit back an irritated retort as he realized this could be the opening to the conversation he wanted. "That's true," he mewed. "It was the middle of last leaf-bare when I was born, wasn't it?"

"The coldest leaf-bare I remember," Longtail agreed. "I remember how thick the snow was. The whole Clan was stunned when Squirrelflight came back to the hol ow with three kits! She said they'd been born earlier than she expected, which is why she didn't have a chance to get back to the nursery, but even stil , what queen plans to have kits in the dead of leaf-bare?"

"Thank StarClan she had Leafpool with her,"

Mousefur added, twitching her ears as Jayfeather parted the fur on her head. "She'd have been in big trouble otherwise."

Leafpool! Jayfeather stopped running his claws through Mousefur's pelt. So Leafpool was the second cat he hadn't been able to identify. She'd never said anything to him about being with Squirrelflight when he was born....

Locating a bit of twig on the ground, he snatched it up behind Mousefur's back and cracked it in his teeth. "That's one flea you don't need to worry about," he meowed. Trying to sound as if the answer didn't matter very much, he added, "Do you remember anything else about Squirrelflight bringing us home?"

"Not a lot," the elder replied. "It was so cold and snowy, we spent most of our time asleep that leaf-bare. I do remember how surprised every cat was that Squirrelflight hadn't realized how close she was to having her kits when she went away. But then, she was always scatterbrained, right from when she was a kit."

"Did you notice anything...odd about that time?"

Jayfeather asked, cracking the twig again. He hoped Mousefur wouldn't think she was infested with fleas.

"Odd?" Mousefur snorted. "Most of what the Clan does these days seems odd to me."

"I remember," Longtail put in. "It was around then that Leafpool fed you that funny-tasting herb."

Jayfeather's ears pricked. "What funny herb?"

"Oh, how should I know?" Mousefur muttered.

"Leafpool brought me some tansy, as usual. I think she expects me to live on the stuff every leaf-bare.

And this weird-tasting stuff was mixed in with it."

A tingle in Jayfeather's paws told him that the strange herb was important. "Did Leafpool tel you what it was?"

Mousefur stretched, shaking her pelt. "No. I never asked her. When I complained about the taste, she just took away what was left. She said it hadn't been meant for me anyway."

"What was it like?" Jayfeather pressed, moving across to Longtail to check his pelt.