The Fourth Apprentice

“I know.” Firestar sighed. “Secrets never stay hidden forever. It takes a good deal of courage to face the truth.” He paused with a brooding look, as if he was remembering something long past. “You don’t need to punish Leafpool any more than she has already been punished,” he went on. “She has lost everything she ever loved. And Squirrelflight has lost her mate. Do you think that’s easy for her?”

They both deserved it! It took all Lionblaze’s self-control not to hiss the words aloud. His anger threatened to overwhelm him; he didn’t want to think about what Leafpool might be feeling.

“I take it that’s not what you came to talk about?” Firestar asked, tilting his head to one side.

Lionblaze seized on the change of subject, glad to speak to his leader as a warrior of ThunderClan, not Firestar’s troubled kin. “Have you heard the story Dovepaw told, about the brown animals blocking the stream that marks the ShadowClan border?”

Firestar nodded.

“I think she might be right,” Lionblaze continued.

The ThunderClan leader blinked in surprise, opened his jaws to speak, then seemed to consider the possibility more carefully. “If she is, I don’t see how she knows,” he replied. His eyes narrowed, and Lionblaze suppressed a shiver at his piercing green gaze. How much does Firestar know about us?

“StarClan might have sent her a dream, I suppose,” Firestar mewed after a moment. “She didn’t mention that to you, did she?”

Lionblaze wished he could have said yes. It would be such a convenient explanation. But lying to his Clan leader would create more problems than it would solve. “No, she didn’t,” he replied.

“Hmm…” Firestar’s whiskers quivered; he was obviously thinking deeply. “What she says makes sense,” he continued eventually. “I don’t mean about the brown animals. But there could be something blocking the stream so that the water doesn’t reach us anymore.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lionblaze was relieved to have a good reason for believing Dovepaw that meant he didn’t have to reveal the truth about her senses.

“There’s nothing in our territory,” Firestar went on in a murmur, half to himself. “And there can’t be anything in ShadowClan’s territory either, or they would have unblocked it.”

“It must be much farther upstream,” Lionblaze mewed. “Let me take a patrol to investigate. There might be something we can do.”

“No, it’s too dangerous.” Firestar shook his head. “We don’t know what might have caused the blockage. Besides, we would need to travel through ShadowClan territory. Blackstar would claw our ears off, and I couldn’t blame him.”

“So every cat has to suffer without water?” Lionblaze challenged him. “Jayfeather is doing his best to keep the Clan going, Firestar, but there’s a limit to what any medicine cat can do. Much more of this, and cats are going to die of thirst.”

“I know.” Firestar let out a long sigh that told Lionblaze of his despair more clearly than words. “But journeying upstream…it’s too much to take on, when we don’t know for sure that the stream has been blocked.”

“Then what are we going to do? Sit around waiting for rain?” Lionblaze’s anger was flaring up again, until he felt as if it would shrivel every hair on his pelt. “StarClan hasn’t sent us any messages to tell us when the drought might end. It’s time we took our destiny into our own paws!” Frustrated, he scraped his claws along the rock floor of the den. Words hovered, unspoken: You know that I’m more powerful than StarClan! Why won’t you believe me when I tell you we can fix this? But Lionblaze managed not to say them out loud.

“Very well, then,” Firestar responded wearily. “If you’re convinced that Dovepaw is right, I’ll let you look into it. There doesn’t seem to be anything else we can do to help. But I still won’t allow a patrol of ThunderClan cats to travel upstream alone. You would never reach the blockage, even if it exists.”

“But—” Lionblaze began.

“I said alone,” Firestar interrupted. “If ShadowClan would join us, the mission would be a lot less dangerous. In fact, it would be best if we could form an expedition from all the Clans. Four Clans working together would be much stronger than one patrol alone.”

“Would they agree?” Lionblaze asked doubtfully.

“We’re all suffering from the lack of water.” Firestar sounded more energetic now, as if the plan was renewing his strength. “Why shouldn’t we all do something about it?”

Lionblaze shrugged. He found it hard to imagine Blackstar, Leopardstar, and Onestar agreeing to send warriors off into the unknown when life was so tough around the lake. But maybe they were desperate enough to consider it. And if it’s the only way to ease the drought, he decided, I’m sure I won’t be the only cat who’s up for it.