Dark River

Chapter 19

“I’ll go first.”

Jaypaw hardly realized he had said the words out loud until he heard Breezepaw snort scornfully.

“You’re blind!”

“And you can see perfectly in the dark, I suppose!” Hollypaw snapped.

Jaypaw sensed Breezepaw bristle, but the WindClan cat didn’t argue. He was glad, because he was on the verge of turning tail and fleeing back along the tunnel to the forest, where rain pattered on leaves and earth and didn’t collect in cold stone tunnels to sweep away everything inside them…

All he could think of ever since he set foot in the first tunnel was racing for his life, terrified, with Fallen Leaves. Images filled his mind: the dark tunnel, the roaring of the water, the shock as the wave hit him and swept him up like a leaf caught in a storm, gasping for air and finding only water to breathe.

Don’t think about it! At least this time there would be no glimmers of light to distract him; instead he could focus on his instincts.

Lionpaw stepped out of the way to let Jaypaw pass. As Jaypaw brushed past him, he felt relief flooding from his brother’s pelt. He thinks I’ll do better in the dark than he will. I hope he’s right. Cold air blasted over him, making his whiskers tremble. But the breeze carried something else, whispers he felt rather than heard, flooding from deep inside the tunnel like the pulsing of blood in his veins. He padded into the tunnel, feeling the darkness swallow him up. This wasn’t darkness he was used to. Blind in the forest, he could feel the warmth of the sun on his pelt, smell the fresh tangs that flavored the air, hear the wind that rustled the leaves. This darkness was suffocating, musty, and cold, pressing against his fur and filling his nose and mouth. Nothing but blackness, thick as fur, soft as water, drawing him in.

The rock beneath his paws was covered in fine silt, the walls so narrow they grazed his pelt as he crept slowly forward.

“Can’t you go any faster?” Breezepaw’s mew was as jagged as the walls.

“Shh!” He tried to block out the fear pulsing from the other cats, and padded on, feeling the path slope downward, the tunnel widen, cold air jab his pelt as they passed under a slit in the roof. Was this really the right way? The draft flowing through the tunnel like water carried no kit scent, only forest air seeping through fissures in the roof.

Suddenly, a pelt brushed his flank.

Jaypaw bristled. “I’m leading, Breezepaw!” He barged the cat away.

“What are you talking about? I’m back here!” Breezepaw snapped from behind.

Hollypaw’s nose brushed his tail-tip. “There’s no one near you, Jaypaw.”

Surprised, Jaypaw tasted the air. A new scent bathed his tongue. Not a Clan scent, but still faintly familiar. He tasted the air again, his pelt pricking with unease as the other cat pressed against him, matching him step for step.

“I will walk with you, my friend, as you once walked with me,” the voice whispered in his ear.

Fallen Leaves! Jaypaw’s heart lurched. The memory of a great, black wave engulfing him made him stop dead. He fought the urge to turn and run, to pelt back to the cave and the forest and the safety of the open sky.

“I could not leave you here to walk alone, when you walked with me like a brother.”

Jaypaw blinked, trying to see. “Am I dreaming?”

“No,” Fallen Leaves whispered. “I have come to help. I know where the kits are.”

“Why have we stopped?” Breezepaw mewed crossly from behind.

Hollypaw’s nose flicked Jaypaw’s tail. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he told her, then he lowered his mew to less than a whisper, breathing the words so that only Fallen Leaves could hear. “Have you seen them?”

“I know where they are.” Fallen Leaves pressed his pelt to Jaypaw’s, urging him forward. “But we must hurry.”

Jaypaw resisted. “Why should I trust you? You couldn’t even get yourself out of these tunnels!”

“I have walked them ever since,” Fallen Leaves murmured sadly, “and I know them better than the moors above us.”

Jaypaw steadied his breath. “You’ve really seen the kits?”

“They are alive, but they are cold. We must hurry.”

Instinct alone might not be enough down here. Touching his tail to Fallen Leaves’s flank, Jaypaw let the tom guide him forward into a tunnel that branched to one side. The passage sloped steeply down; Jaypaw’s pads slipped on the floor. The rock was slick with rain.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Breezepaw called.

“Can you still smell them?” Lionpaw asked anxiously.

“They went this way,” Jaypaw replied.

Fallen Leaves swerved again, nudging him toward another tunnel. “Duck!” he warned. Jaypaw dipped his head just in time, squeezing through a shallow gap.

“Keep down!” he warned his Clanmates as he wriggled beneath the pressing rock. The gap grew lower and lower until he was scrabbling on his belly.

“This feels like a dead end!” Hollypaw panted as she squeezed after him.

“It opens up in a moment,” Fallen Leaves promised in Jaypaw’s ear.

Jaypaw smelled the sweet scent of heather and felt rain on his face. There must be an opening in the roof ahead. He slithered out of the gap, relieved to feel space around him.

“Which way now?” Heatherpaw’s fur brushed the rock as she squirmed out after him.

“There are three tunnels,” Lionpaw told him.

Jaypaw tasted the air, but there was no scent of the kits.

“This way,” Fallen Leaves whispered. Jaypaw felt his whiskers brush rock on either side as he let Fallen Leaves guide him into another tunnel.

“How do you know we’re going the right way?” Breezepaw’s mew was sharp, but Jaypaw could sense the panic throbbing beneath his pelt. It came from every cat, filling the darkness with a suffocating dread that Jaypaw tried to block from his mind.

“I can smell them,” he lied. He mustn’t let their fear overwhelm him. Listen to Fallen Leaves!

The tunnel twisted and veered upward, then widened. Air filtered through a gap overhead. The patter of paw steps slowed behind him.

“I knew it was a dead end,” Heatherpaw sighed, stopping.

Jaypaw halted. A boulder was blocking the tunnel ahead.

He sensed its unyielding bulk.

“We’ll never get past that,” Breezepaw mewed.

Rain pounded overhead, dripping through a gap into the tunnel and echoing off the rocks as Jaypaw sniffed the wet stone. He ran his nose along the boulder, following its smooth contours until his whiskers touched the tunnel wall.

A tiny gap opened between boulder and wall, too small to squeeze through.

“Now what?” Breezepaw snapped. “Do you think you can lead us back?” He didn’t sound convinced. “Or did you just bring us here to show us this boulder? Let me guess, it’s a special StarClan rock and it’s going to tell us where the kits are.”

“Shut up!” Heatherpaw hissed at her Clanmate.

“Why?” Breezepaw snarled. “We’re lost underground! Do you want me to thank him?”

“Shh!” Hollypaw mewed suddenly.

“I’ll say what I like!” Breezepaw retorted. “Just because he’s your brother—”

“I can hear something!” Hollypaw hissed.

“What is it?” Lionpaw’s pelt was tingling with excitement.

Jaypaw strained to hear.

A tiny squeaking sound, just louder than the rain, echoed ahead of him.

The kits?

“Anyone there?” he called.

The squeak turned into an excited mewling.

They were behind the boulder!

Jaypaw felt Fallen Leaves breathe in his ear. “I told you I’d help you find them.”

“I think I can climb over it!” Lionpaw mewed. Jaypaw heard claws scrabbling against stone as his brother clambered over the boulder. Shallow water splashed faintly when he jumped down the other side.

“They’re here!” His joyful mew echoed around the tunnel.

More claws scraped against rock as Hollypaw, Heatherpaw, and Breezepaw scrambled over to join him.

“Thank StarClan we found you!” Heatherpaw purred.

Paws splashed and a frightened mew answered her. “We couldn’t climb back over!”

“We thought we were stuck forever!”

“We’ll take you home,” Breezepaw reassured them.

“Go on, Swallowkit,” Heatherpaw urged. Tiny claws scraped stone and a soggy bundle of fur slid clumsily down onto the ground beside Jaypaw.

“Are you okay?” he asked. The rain was pounding harder.

They had to get out quick.

“I’m fine but—”

Breezepaw’s mew interrupted her. “Your turn, Sedgekit.”

Fur brushed rock and another kit thudded lightly on the floor. Jaypaw reached out his nose to the newest arrival. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

Jaypaw swept the two kits together with his tail, pressing against their sodden pelts to warm them.

Breezepaw landed beside him. Jaypaw stiffened. He was holding the third kit in his jaws. She was barely breathing and when Breezepaw laid her on the ground, she didn’t move.

“Thistlekit went to sleep and now she won’t wake up!”

Swallowkit wailed.

Jaypaw pushed the trembling kits against Breezepaw and crouched beside the limp, wet body at his feet. She was cold, shivering with small convulsions. Jaypaw began to massage her body with his paws, trying to rub some warmth into her pelt.

Heatherpaw slithered back over the boulder. “Is she okay?”

“Help Breezepaw warm the other two!” Jaypaw ordered.

“We’re hungry!” Sedgekit’s mew was muffled by Heatherpaw’s fur.

“It serves you right for wandering off!” Heatherpaw scolded. She sounded cross but Jaypaw could feel her fearful gaze jabbing his pelt as he worked on Thistlekit. Rain dripped down harder through the gap in the roof. The silt had turned to slimy mud around his paws. He rubbed Thistlekit more urgently. He had to get them out of here.

Lionpaw and Hollypaw leaped down from the boulder.

“Do you know the way out?” Swallowkit asked, trembling.

“Of course we do,” Breezepaw declared. “We found our way in, didn’t we? Getting out will be even easier.”

He doesn’t believe that.

“We’ll get out,” Jaypaw mewed softly. He waited for Fallen Leaves to whisper encouragement but he only felt the quiver of the young tom’s tail against his flank.

Thistlekit began to cough and fidget beneath his paws.

Warmth was seeping back into her body. She struggled to her paws. “You found us!” she gasped.

Hollypaw folded herself around the shivering kit. “Did you think we’d leave you in this horrible place?”

Surprise pulsed from the kit. “You’re from ThunderClan.”

“We’ve been helping your Clanmates to find you,” Hollypaw explained.

“You’ve caused a lot of trouble,” Breezepaw growled.

Lionpaw’s tail swished over the floor. “We can worry about that once we’re out.”

A noise like rushing air suddenly filled the tunnels.

“The rain’s getting harder,” Hollypaw mewed.

“That’s not rain,” Lionpaw murmured. “It’s coming from inside the tunnels.”

“Inside?” Sedgekit squeaked.

“What is it?” Breezepaw demanded.

Jaypaw felt sick. He knew what it meant. “The river is overflowing.”

Lionpaw darted to Jaypaw’s side, pelt bristling with alarm.

“How do you know?”

Jaypaw closed his eyes. “I’ve heard it before. The tunnels are going to flood.”

Energy exploded from Lionpaw. “We’ve got to get out of here!” Swallowkit squealed as he snatched her up in his jaws.

“Breezepaw, Heatherpaw, take the other two,” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

“I’ll lead,” Jaypaw mewed. He had brought them here. He had to get them out. He pelted back along the tunnel. Fur brushed stone and claws skittered after him.

Fallen Leaves fell in beside him and matched the rhythm of his stride.

“You’ve got to get us back to the cave!” Jaypaw hissed.

“I will,” Fallen Leaves promised. The young tom’s paws made no sound on the tunnel floor as they raced onward, but his pelt was hot with fear and his mind flashed with memories that echoed in Jaypaw’s mind: paws churning through muddy water, struggling against currents too strong to fight, gasping for air and finding only water, disbelief as the world closed in and life ebbed from his body. He’s remembering how we drowned!

Jaypaw pushed on harder, ducking just in time to squirm under the low roof. He wriggled forward, the rock scraping his spine, his claws splintering against the stone. Struggling out the other side he paused, waiting until he heard the others emerge. The kits squealed with fear and pain as they were dragged over the rough stone.

“Nearly there!” Jaypaw encouraged. The tunnel was sloping upward now. Water washed his paws. One more twist, another turn. He could smell the scent of fresh air. He burst into the cave, hope springing in his belly.

We’ve made it! He could feel Fallen Leaves trembling with relief beside him.

Ahead, the river was roaring.

Lionpaw shot out behind him. “Take Swallowkit!” He thrust the kit at Jaypaw.

Jaypaw snatched her in his teeth.

“What’s he doing?” Hollypaw exploded from the tunnel with Heatherpaw and Breezepaw.

Jaypaw heard water splash as Lionpaw plunged into the river.

“Lionpaw!” he yowled, dropping Swallowkit. He strained to hear over the roaring of the water. “Can you see him?” he begged Hollypaw.

“He’s swimming!”

“He’s crazy!” Breezepaw gasped.

“I’m okay!” Lionpaw coughed as he struggled, splashing, from the far side of the river.

“How are we going to get the kits across?” Heatherpaw called.

“There’s no point!” Lionpaw yowled back. “The tunnel’s blocked!” Panic edged his mew. “The rain has washed soil into the entrance. There’s too much mud to dig through.”

“What about our tunnel?” Heatherpaw called.

Breezepaw bounded away as Lionpaw splashed back across the river.

“Blocked, too! Boulders have fallen from the roof!”

Breezepaw called from the WindClan tunnel. “It’s like a waterfall in here. We’d never get the kits up it!”

“We have to try!” Heatherpaw screeched.

“I don’t think there’s enough space at the top to get through,” Breezepaw argued. Fear made him angry. “If a kit got swept down over the rocks, it might die!”

“We have to do something,” Hollypaw yowled.

Jaypaw pressed against Fallen Leaves, trying to read his thoughts, but the young tom’s flank seemed to be fading, and Jaypaw’s shoulder passed with a shiver through the soft fur.

“Fallen Leaves?” he hissed.

“I’m sorry!” Guilt and grief hung like mist in the air.

Jaypaw suddenly felt cold where the tom’s warm body had been. Panic gripped him and time seemed to slow. For a heartbeat Jaypaw glimpsed a pair of amber eyes.

“Wait!” he called. “Come with us!”

Fallen Leaves blinked, his gaze filled with sorrow. “It’s not my time to leave,” he mewed faintly and then he was gone.

Not again!

“Are we going to die?” Sedgekit’s terrified mew rose above the torrent.

Jaypaw’s mind whirled as he tried to work out some way to escape. Water sprayed his face as the river frothed and bub-bled against the cave walls. Lionpaw pressed him back with the others until they were huddled on a narrow strip of earth, water snapping at their paws.

Help us!

Blood roared in Jaypaw’s ears.

Could StarClan hear him down here?

Suddenly, a silvery light glowed at the edge of his vision, like moonlight creeping across a night-black forest. Jaypaw looked up and saw a smooth ledge near the top of the cave. A cat was sitting there. It was the cat from his dream, with twisted claws, balding pelt, sightless bulging eyes. The cat who had sent Fallen Leaves into the tunnels to die.

The cat looked straight at Jaypaw.

Anger rose in Jaypaw’s chest. Have you come to watch us die too?

A shadow moved beneath the cat’s paws. He was rolling something toward the lip of the ledge. Something long and slender and smooth. Jaypaw’s fur stood on end. The stick from the lake!

Its markings were clear in the moonlight and, as Jaypaw stared in confusion, the cat lifted his paw and held a trembling claw over a row of scratches. Five long and three short.

Jaypaw gasped. Those scratches weren’t there before! He had counted the marks so many times he knew them by heart.

Five warriors and three kits! He means us !

Jaypaw stared, panic-stricken, into the old cat’s eyes. Are we going to die?

The cat bent his head to look at the stick before slowly lowering his claw and running it through the scratches. With a rush of hope, Jaypaw understood.

We’re going to survive!

The cat nodded.

A paw clapped him sharply on the ear. “Stop staring at nothing and help us think!” Breezepaw snarled.

The vision disappeared and Jaypaw was in darkness once more. He turned to the others, his pelt bristling with excitement. “There’s a way out of here!” he mewed. “I know it!”

“What is it, then?” Lionpaw demanded.

“I’m not sure,” Jaypaw admitted. “Let me think for a moment.”

“Thinking won’t move boulders!” Heatherpaw screeched.

“We’re trapped!”

“We could wait till the cave floods and swim up to the hole in the roof,” Hollypaw suggested.

“It’s too small to escape through,” Breezepaw growled.

“And the kits might drown!” Heatherpaw pointed out.

Jaypaw shook his head. There was something at the edge of his thoughts. An idea he could sense but not reach. The stick! It had been here in the cave. But he’d found it by the lake. How did it get out?

Water splashed at his paws. He recoiled, then froze. He pictured the river reaching up to the stick, lifting it, washing it away. Of course! The river must flow out into the lake.

“We’ll have to swim!” he cried.

“Swim where?” Lionpaw spluttered.

“The river runs into the lake. It’ll carry us there!”

“But it disappears underground!” Breezepaw hissed.

“It comes out in the lake!” Jaypaw insisted.

“We’re not RiverClan. We can’t swim!” Heatherpaw wailed.

Lionpaw pressed against Jaypaw. “Will this really work?”

“There’s no other way.”

“If you say we must do it, then we have to trust you,” Hollypaw mewed.

“Yo u might!” Breezepaw growled.

“If we don’t do something, we’re all going to drown!”

Heatherpaw screeched.

Hollypaw kneaded the ground. “Let’s try it!”

Swallowkit squealed in terror. “I’m not going in the water!”

“We’ll hold you by your tails,” Lionpaw promised. “We won’t let go.”

“By our tails?” shrieked Thistlekit.

“If we hold you by your scruffs, we’ll swallow too much water,” Lionpaw mewed. “You’ll have to keep your head afloat by paddling with your forepaws like this.” Water spattered from his paws as he churned the air, showing the kits how to paddle.

“I’m scared,” Heatherpaw whispered.

“It’s going to be okay.” Lionpaw dropped onto four paws and pressed against the WindClan cat. Jaypaw was close enough to hear him whisper into her ear, “Our time together will be something I remember even when I’m with StarClan.”

Heatherpaw trembled. “There will be no borders between us there.”

Jaypaw blinked, startled by the emotion flooding between them. Then light flickered in his vision and he saw the old cat again.

Leave now!

He thought of all the cats who had ventured into this place; their fear and hope seemed to whisper in the air around him. The scratches on the stick had marked their fate.

Did the new lines really predict the Clan cats would survive?

He had to believe that they did.

“We have to go!” he ordered.

“Line up at the edge of the river,” Hollypaw instructed.

“Lionpaw, you take Sedgekit, I’ll take Thistlekit, Breezepaw can take Swallowkit.”

“What can I do?” Heatherpaw asked.

“Hold on to my tail,” Jaypaw mewed. “We’ll help each other.”

“Okay,” Heatherpaw agreed. He felt her take the tip of his tail lightly in her teeth.

“I’m not going!” Swallowkit’s paws splashed through the shallows as she tried to make a run for it. She shrieked as Breezepaw grabbed her and dragged her toward him through the water. “Don’t worry, Swallowkit,” he soothed. “I won’t let go. There’s no way I’m going to let you drown.”

Swallowkit whimpered but didn’t try to escape again.

“Come on,” Lionpaw urged.

Jaypaw waded through the shallows. His paws throbbed with dread as he felt the tug of the river.

“Ready?” Lionpaw mewed.

“Yes!” Hollypaw answered.

Jaypaw tensed. “Jump!”

He hurled himself into the rushing torrent. Heatherpaw tugged on his tail as the water swirled her downstream. The current dragged him under and he was lost in his dream of drowning again, choked by the tumbling water with the bodies of cats all around him and his ears filled with roaring.