"It wil be," Jayfeather promised.

Al three cats slid out of the camp through the dirtplace tunnel, clinging to the shadows so as not to alert Poppyfrost, who was on watch. Then Jayfeather led them through the trees in the direction of the WindClan border.

"It's freezing out here," Hol yleaf complained. "I'm not going another paw step until you explain."

"Okay." Jayfeather turned to face his littermates. "I know who our father is." He hesitated, almost knocked over by the sudden surge of feelings that came from his brother and sister. He took a deep breath and went on. "It's Crowfeather."

For a few heartbeats there was silence. The emotions that churned out of his littermates now were so complex that Jayfeather knew he could never unravel them.

"We're half-Clan?" Hol yleaf choked out at last.

"How do you know about this?" Lionblaze sounded baffled.

"Yel owfang came to me in a dream," Jayfeather explained. "She told me it was time we knew the truth, and she brought me a crow's feather."

"But that stil might not mean..." Hol yleaf's protest died away. Al three cats knew the meaning of the sign. There was no point trying to pretend it wasn't true.

"Does Crowfeather know about this?" Lionblaze demanded.

"Is that why Leafpool had to keep us a secret?"

Hol yleaf put in.

Their questions battered at Jayfeather. "I don't know," he told them. "We have to talk to Crowfeather.

Come on."

The three cats headed silently through the forest.

Drops from the recent heavy rain spattered their pelts as they brushed through the undergrowth. A chil breeze sprang up, ruffling their fur. Above his head, Jayfeather could hear the first chirps of waking birds.

His mind was spinning. How could this have happened? Their mother was a medicine cat, their father a WindClan warrior. Both of them should have known they could never be together.

How can we be part of the prophecy when we should never have been born?

Padding along by Jayfeather's side, Lionblaze was sending out steady surges of rage, a burning fury toward those cats who had abandoned the warrior code and piled up a heap of lies for the kits who were born as a result. On his other side, Hol yleaf was dazed, her whirling thoughts stil too difficult to read.

At last Jayfeather could hear the gurgling of the border stream and taste the scent of fresh water. "It's stil early," he remarked, "but we might spot their stil early," he remarked, "but we might spot their dawn patrol."

They drew to a halt on the bank of the stream.

Jayfeather's legs were trembling with weariness; he would have liked to sink down into the long grass at the water's edge, but he knew he had to confront his father standing on his paws.

Birdsong grew louder around them, and the bitter cold of night gradual y eased. At last Jayfeather caught a whiff of WindClan scent; at the same moment Hol yleaf exclaimed, "There they are!"

"Owlwhisker, Gorsetail, and Weaselfur," Lionblaze meowed. "Wait here. I'm going to talk to them."

"Wait-" Jayfeather protested as he heard Lionblaze leap across the stream, but his brother was gone, too angry to worry about crossing the border.

"What do you think you're doing?" Owlwhisker demanded.

Al Lionblaze's suppressed rage came out in his voice. "Fetch Crowfeather. Now."

"What?" Weaselfur exclaimed indignantly. "Who do you think you are, tel ing us what to do?"

"Yeah," Gorsetail added. "Get back into your own territory, or we'l tear your fur off."

A low growl came from Lionblaze; Jayfeather pictured him looming over the three WindClan cats, his golden fur fluffed out until he was twice his size.

"Just do it!" he ordered.

"Okay," Owlwhisker mewed, his voice shril as he tried to conceal his fear. "But you can wait on your own side of the border."

Jayfeather heard the WindClan warriors bounding away, then a thud as Lionblaze jumped back across the stream and landed beside him. His claws tore up the grass as they waited, as if his fury had to find some kind of outlet.

Jayfeather's bel y churned when he caught the scent of an approaching WindClan cat on the breeze. Just one: Crowfeather had come alone. He could feel Hol yleaf quivering beside him; her tail kept twitching, brushing against his pelt.

At last Crowfeather's voice came from the other side of the border. "What do you want?"

Words choked in Jayfeather's throat as the three littermates faced the WindClan warrior across the stream. He heard a sharp intake of breath from Hol yleaf.

But Lionblaze didn't hesitate. "Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight are not our parents," he declared.

"Leafpool is our mother and you are our father."

There was a pause. Then, "Don't be mouse- brained," Crowfeather snapped. "That's impossible."

He sounded so certain that for a heartbeat Jayfeather wondered if they could possibly be mistaken. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into Crowfeather's mind. A tangle of undergrowth faced him, and he realized that he was standing at the top of the cliff above the stone hol ow. Leafpool was clinging to the edge, her face upturned pleadingly as Crowfeather grabbed her by the scruff and hauled her back to safety.

Then he glimpsed them crouched together under a bush, and heard Crowfeather meow, "Come away with me, Leafpool. I'l take good care of you, I promise." Now the two of them were trekking side by side up a long slope of moorland, then in a hol ow, talking to Midnight the badger. "I have to go back,"

Leafpool mewed.

Caterwauling ripped through Jayfeather's vision and he glimpsed the stone hol ow ful of warring badgers, while his Clanmates attacked them fiercely. Last of al , Leafpool faced Crowfeather in the clearing, among the debris of the battle. "Your heart lies here," Crowfeather murmured; Jayfeather could hardly believe the warrior could sound so gentle. "Not with me. It was never truly with me."

The vision had taken no more than a moment, but when Jayfeather let go of the WindClan warrior's mind, he was sure that Yel owfang's sign had not deceived him. Just as he was sure that Crowfeather had no idea he had fathered Leafpool's kits.

"It's true," he meowed. "You didn't know, did you?"

"No...." For a heartbeat, Crowfeather sounded dazed. Then Jayfeather felt anger growing within him. "I have one mate," he snarled. "Her name is Nightcloud. We have one son, Breezepelt. I don't know why you've come to me with these lies. Go home, and don't come back. Why should I care about ThunderClan cats? You mean nothing to me.

Nothing!"

Jayfeather heard a gasp from Hol yleaf, and the sound of Lionblaze's claws scraping against stone.

Calmly he faced his father. "The truth is out now,"

he warned. "None of us can hide from it again."

CHAPTER 27.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of pain, and when Hol yleaf final y curled up in her nest, her dreams were ful of darkness. Thick undergrowth surrounded her, leaving scarcely a glimpse of the sky. She heard cats yowling at a distance, but however fast she ran toward them, she never managed to catch up with them.

When she woke to see dawn light filtering through the branches of the den, she stil felt exhausted, as though she had real y been running through that dark forest. She staggered to her paws and prodded Lionblaze.

"What are we going to do?" she demanded in an urgent whisper as her brother blinked up at her. "I can't go on like this!"

"I don't know." Lionblaze gave a quick glance around the den, as if he was afraid that some cat would overhear. "We'l talk later." He pushed his way out through the branches; convinced that he was trying to avoid her, Hol yleaf fol owed hard on his paws.

"Hol yleaf! Lionblaze!" Brambleclaw spotted them as soon as they emerged from the warriors' den.

"Sandstorm is taking out a hunting patrol. Can you go with her?"

"Sure," Lionblaze meowed, swerving across the clearing to where Sandstorm waited beside the deputy with Berrynose and Hazeltail.

Hol yleaf was stil dazed as she fol owed, as if her paws belonged to some other cat. How could she fit into the Clan's everyday routine, now that she knew the terrible secret of her birth? She felt as if the sky should have cracked open or the moon fal en down into the hol ow.

"Don't forget, it's the Gathering tonight,"

Brambleclaw reminded them. "The Clan needs to eat wel before the journey."

"We wil -don't worry," Sandstorm promised, her whiskers twitching as she signaled to her patrol with her tail and headed for the camp entrance.

Hol yleaf fol owed, but she couldn't concentrate on hunting. Pain dazzled her mind like lightning splitting the sky. She had built her life on the warrior code, and now it had failed her. It didn't matter anymore; it had been broken too many times. Squirrelflight had broken it by lying; Crowfeather, by fal ing in love with a medicine cat; but most of al , Leafpool had shattered the code and trampled it into dust. She had betrayed her Clan, her duty as a medicine cat, and her kits.

A mouse darted out in front of Hol yleaf's paws and instinctively she leaped on it, her claws sinking into the soft body. A picture of Leafpool flashed in front of her eyes in a pulsing red haze, and she tore at the prey, imagining that she was clawing the life out of the cat she hated so much.

"Hol yleaf, stop!" Hazeltail's voice was shocked.

"What are you doing?"

Hol yleaf's vision cleared. She saw her paws dripping with scarlet: The prey she had caught was reduced to a red pulp. There was nothing left to take back to the fresh-kil pile.

Fury surging through her, she rounded on Hazeltail. "Stay out of my fur!"

Hazeltail backed away, her eyes wide and scared, then whipped around and plunged away into the bracken.

After the hunting patrol returned, Hol yleaf was too disturbed to stay in the camp. She didn't want to talk anymore, especial y not to Lionblaze or Jayfeather.

Instead she headed out alone, down to the lake and then along the WindClan border until she reached the ridge and could look out across the rol ing moorland.

Somewhere out there was the WindClan camp and the cat who was her father. His WindClan blood ran in her veins. But I don't feel half-WindClan!

Hol yleaf knew her home was under the trees, hunting mice and squirrels. The WindClan rabbits looked scrawny and tasteless from running across the hil s. She hated the open spaces and the unrelenting wind.

Gazing out across her father's territory, she yowled silently, No! No! No!

As shadows fel across the stone hol ow, Firestar cal ed together the cats who were going to the Gathering. Hol yleaf padded up to join Jayfeather and Lionblaze, deliberately not looking at Squirrelflight and Leafpool a few paces away.

Graystripe, Brambleclaw, and Sandstorm bounded up, fol owed by Cinderheart, Poppyfrost, and Berrynose.

"Let's go," Firestar meowed. "And the less we say about Sol, the better, okay?"

He led them down to the lake and along the edge of the water, splashing through the border stream.

Hol yleaf felt every hair on her pelt prickle with disgust as she set paw on WindClan territory. I don't belong here! I want nothing to do with WindClan!

More rain had fal en earlier in the day, but now the clouds had cleared away, leaving the ful moon to shine brightly. Hol yleaf stopped and stared up at it.

Do you approve of what I'm going to do, StarClan?

With every paw step she was alert for the sight or scent of WindClan cats. She wondered if Crowfeather had been chosen to go to the Gathering. Why should it matter? she thought fiercely. He's nothing to me. Nothing!

Just ahead of her, Firestar was flanked by Graystripe and Sandstorm. "You know, I stil miss Fourtrees," Sandstorm murmured. "The moon seemed brighter there, somehow."

Firestar gave her an affectionate nudge. "You sound like an elder!"

Sandstorm swatted at him with her tail. "You wait.

I'l be the crankiest elder the Clans have ever seen.

Mousefur wil seem sweet and gentle next to me!"

"And hedgehogs wil fly," Graystripe meowed. "But I miss the old forest, too," he added. "It's the place we were born. These younger cats wil feel just the same about the lake. Isn't that right?" He glanced over his shoulder at Lionblaze and Hol yleaf.

Lionblaze managed a brief nod, but Hol yleaf couldn't reply at al . Sheer envy surged over her, jealousy of these cats who knew where they belonged, who had good memories of living by the warrior code, season after season.

They don't know it's all a lie!

The horseplace was dark and silent when the ThunderClan cats padded past. There was stil no sign of WindClan; Hol yleaf assumed they had already made their way to the island.

When they reached the tree-bridge, they found RiverClan in the middle of crossing; Firestar held back his warriors with a polite nod to Leopardstar.

While she waited, Hol yleaf flexed her claws in and out, her bel y churning.

This will be a Gathering none of them will ever forget!

Leaping from the roots at the other end of the tree-bridge, she paused to taste the mingled scents of the other three Clans.

"We're the last," Cinderheart meowed, landing beside her. "We'd better be quick."