"What?" Leafpool sounded bewildered.

"Eat them! You deserve to die." Hol yleaf crouched, ready to spring, when the medicine cat made no move toward the deadly berries. "I've kil ed once," she snarled. "And I can do it again."

A gleam of some emotion that Hol yleaf couldn't read woke in her mother's eyes. "Hol yleaf," Leafpool meowed. "I have lost my kits, the one cat I loved, and my cal ing as a medicine cat. Which do you think would be easier for me, to die or to go on living?"

There was only one answer to that question.

Silently Hol yleaf stood aside, and Leafpool padded past her and out of the den.

CHAPTER 28.

Jayfeather slid through the thorn tunnel and stood panting in the middle of the clearing. He had raced back from the island as soon as the Gathering broke up, struggling through the mass of bewildered cats to get across the tree-bridge.

He scented Leafpool leaving their den; right now she was the last cat he wanted to talk to. Beyond her, fainter, he picked up Hol yleaf's scent.

What's she doing in our den? What did she say to Leafpool?

Darting across the clearing, he crashed through the brambles and confronted his littermate.

"Hol yleaf! What are you doing here?" Sniffing, he detected another scent. "Why are those deathberries out here?"

"Leave me alone!" Hol yleaf screeched.

Before Jayfeather could dodge, she leaped at him, bowling him over and raking her claws across his shoulder. Jayfeather's legs flailed and his hind paws connected with Hol yleaf's bel y. Her anger and despair flooded over him as she gave him a cuff over the ear and fled out of the den.

"Hol yleaf, wait!" Jayfeather scrambled to his paws and launched himself after her.

When he emerged into the clearing, Hol yleaf was already plunging into the thorn tunnel. Jayfeather raced after her, his bel y fur brushing the ground as he broke out into the forest. The scents of more cats greeted him as the rest of the Gathering patrol returned to the camp.

"Jayfeather, what's wrong?" Lionblaze cal ed out.

He turned and bounded along beside him. "What's happening?" he gasped.

"It's Hol yleaf," Jayfeather panted. "We've got to catch her."

Hol yleaf was heading deep into the forest, crashing through bracken and brambles as if she had suddenly lost her sight.

"Hol yleaf, come back!" Lionblaze yowled. "We need to talk!"

But Hol yleaf didn't slacken her pace. Briefly she burst out onto the old Twoleg path that led past the abandoned den, then veered into the undergrowth again.

"I know where she's going!" Jayfeather panted, feeling a chil run through him. "The old tunnels..."

"But she can't!" Lionblaze sounded terrified.

"Hol yleaf, stop!"

Racing around a bramble thicket, Jayfeather and Lionblaze came face-to-face with their sister; she had halted just inside the mouth of a tunnel halfway up the ridge, above the abandoned Twoleg nest. It wasn't one Jayfeather had used before; there was a stale scent of fox, overlaid with the smel of water and stone drifting from the darkness behind her.

Jayfeather tried to speak calmly. "Hol yleaf, you've got to listen to us."

Hol yleaf didn't seem to hear. "I'm sorry," she meowed softly. "I was only trying to do what was best. I couldn't let Ashfur live! For al our sakes! You understand that, don't you?"

Jayfeather caught his breath. Beside him, he heard Lionblaze gasp, "You kil ed Ashfur?"

If Hol yleaf replied, Jayfeather didn't hear it. Hating his power more than he ever had before, he had reached out to his sister's memories. She was stalking Ashfur along the WindClan border stream, treading lightly, avoiding boulders where her claws might scrape or ferns that would brush against her fur. Ashfur, intent on hunting, never noticed she was there. Hol yleaf fol owed him like a shadow until they came to a place where the bank was steep and slippery, and the stream was a foaming snake far slippery, and the stream was a foaming snake far below. She pounced on him from a rock, gripping his shoulders with her forepaws and twisting her head around to sink her teeth into his throat. Inside the red mist that clouded her senses, Ashfur was nothing but prey, something that had to be kil ed to protect the warrior code and the future of her Clan.

Ashfur clawed feebly at her, but blood was gushing from his throat. His body went limp and Hol yleaf leaped away, letting it crash into the stream. She stood watching it for a while, until the swift-flowing water had washed away the blood.

Then she padded up to a pool of water on top of the bank and rinsed her paws, turning the water red.

Behind her, Ashfur's body bobbed against the bank before floating away downstream.

"He should have been swept into the lake and never seen again." Hol yleaf's voice wrenched Jayfeather out of her terrible memories. "But they found him, and now everything is ruined. I can't stay here."

Despair vibrated in her voice. "I know I did the right thing, but no cat wil ever understand."

There was a patter of paws as she turned and fled down the tunnel. Running forward, Jayfeather could hear the roaring of the river underground, pounding hungrily against the stone.

"Hol yleaf, no!" he yowled. "We can figure this out together-" A deafening rumble interrupted him; it went on and on. He pictured wet soil and rock raining down as the tunnel col apsed, crashing onto his sister, knocking her to the floor, crushing her, burying her....

He darted forward. "Hollyleaf!"

Lionblaze charged into him, knocking him off his paws and pinning him down; Jayfeather writhed furiously underneath him. "Let me up!" he screeched.

"We have to get her out!"

"We can't help her," Lionblaze growled. "The tunnel has col apsed. There's no way we can fol ow her in."

Jayfeather lay stil , panting, as the tumult of fal ing earth and stones died away. In the silence, Lionblaze stepped back and let him clamber to his paws.

Hol yleaf had seen the tunnels as a way to escape her Clan and everything that had gone wrong. Except she hadn't escaped-not in the way she wanted.

"It's over," Lionblaze meowed, his voice shaking.

"I don't understand." Jayfeather was trembling with shock and grief. "She kil ed Ashfur to keep the secret safe. But then she revealed it to every cat at the Gathering."

"It wasn't the same." Lionblaze pressed up against him until Jayfeather felt his brother's dismay mingling with his own. "Hol yleaf couldn't bear the thought of being a medicine cat's kit. She couldn't bear the idea that she was half-Clan. The warrior code meant everything to her, and our birth smashed it to pieces."

"We should have done something," Jayfeather insisted. "What are we going to tel the Clan?"

Lionblaze let out an exhausted sigh. "We can't tel them she kil ed Ashfur. How can we let that be the only thing she's remembered for?"

Jayfeather nodded. After al this, there was one more secret to keep, for Hol yleaf's sake. "Let's say that she chased a squirrel into the tunnel, and it col apsed on her. They can remember her for being a brave hunter, feeding her Clan. They don't need to know the truth-that she was trying to escape from them."

Slowly they began limping back to the camp.

Jayfeather felt a fresh breeze ruffling his fur, and he drew in long, cold gulps of air. A new day was beginning, but al he wanted was to go back to his den, curl up, and try to escape into sleep. How could the sun rise today, after everything that had happened?

Suddenly he halted. "The prophecy!" he burst out.

Lionblaze, who had padded on a few paw steps, stopped. "How can you think about that now?"

"But don't you see?" Jayfeather clawed at the grass. "What happens to the prophecy if Hol yleaf is dead? It said there would be three cats, and now there are only two!"

Jayfeather stretched his cramped limbs and turned his face up to the first feeble rays of the sun.

Al night his Clanmates had kept vigil for Hol yleaf, even though there was no body to be buried. Cats were beginning to stir around him, and a few fox-lengths away he could hear Brambleclaw quietly cal ing together the dawn patrol.

A ful day and night had passed since the Gathering and the death of Hol yleaf in the tunnels.

The day before, Firestar had addressed the shattered ThunderClan from the Highledge.

"Last night Hol yleaf revealed secrets that shocked us al ," he meowed. "But that prey is eaten.

There can be no going back. Instead we must find the way forward, for al of us."

"What about the other Clans?" Dustpelt cal ed out.

"They al know what happened, thanks to Hol yleaf."

"Maybe Hol yleaf should not have spoken out,"

Firestar admitted. "But she has paid terribly. As for the other Clans-they think we are broken. It's up to us to show them that we are not. ThunderClan wil survive!"

Yowls of agreement rose from the listening cats; Jayfeather could feel their shock and distress giving way to a new sense of purpose.

Now he rose, gave himself a long stretch, and sat down to groom his pelt, craning his neck to reach over to the fur on his back. After a few moments he became aware of movement outside the nursery as several of his Clanmates gathered there; he padded across to find out what was going on.

"It's Whitewing's kits," Lionblaze told him. "It's the first time they've left the nursery."

"Their eyes are open!" Whitewing was announcing delightedly as Jayfeather and his brother approached. "Aren't they beautiful?"

A loud squeaking and the patter of tiny paws drew closer and then stopped. Jayfeather felt a powerful curiosity trained on him.

"Hel o, little kits," Lionblaze murmured. "Welcome to ThunderClan."

"This one has such fluffy gray fur," Sandstorm commented. "And the little one's tabby-and-white pelt is so pretty. Have you given them names yet?"

"Yes." It was Birchfal who replied, sounding ready to burst with pride. "We've cal ed the gray one Dovekit, and the tabby-and-white one is Ivykit."

"Those are beautiful names," Brightheart purred.

The ginger-and-white she-cat was sitting close by, with Cloudtail beside her, watching their daughter's kits; Jayfeather could feel their happiness at seeing al their kin healthy and strong. It was brighter than the sun just breaking over the trees at the top of the hol ow.

Another scent wafted past him as Firestar bounded up. "This is good to see," the Clan leader meowed. "They'l be apprentices before we know it."

Jayfeather suddenly felt a jolt in his bel y like a blow from some cat's paw. He clawed at Lionblaze.

"The prophecy..." he whispered.

"What? Get off!" Lionblaze sounded irritated.

"There wil be three, kin of your kin...."

Jayfeather's voice shook as he wondered if he could possibly be right. "Cloudtail is Firestar's kin, Whitewing is Cloudtail's daughter, and now Dovekit and Ivykit.... Don't you see? The prophecy isn't over!

We aren't the only kin of Firestar's kin. It doesn't matter which of Whitewing's kits is the one. There are still three of us!"

Acknowledgments.

Special thanks to Cherith Baldry.

About the Author.

ERIN HUNTER is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As wel as having great respect for nature in al its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior. She is also the author of the bestsel ing Seekers series.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCol ins author.

WARRIORS.

Book One: Into the Wild.

Book Two: Fire and Ice.

Book Three: Forest of Secrets.

Book Four: Rising Storm Book Five: A Dangerous Path.