Yellowfang murmured agreement as she watched the two cats go through the motions of hunting: tasting the air, sniffing around the roots of trees, crouching to creep up on tangles of bramble or clumps of fern. She kept watching, her heart pounding, as a rat poked its head out, then edged its way into the open. It was soon joined by another, then a third, then more. They crept forward, almost as far as the silver mesh. Their glittering gaze was fixed on the cats who were apparently too stupid to notice them.
But Raggedstar and Foxheart clearly knew they were there. Skillfully they moved farther away, tempting the rats away from the safety of the heaps. Once they were well clear of the silver mesh, Brokentail, Cloudpelt, Blizzardwing, and Finchflight leaped out of their hiding places. Raggedstar and Foxheart sprang forward, until the rats were surrounded.
“Prepare to die!” Brokentail snarled.
“Don’t let them out!” Brackenfoot yowled. “But keep far enough back so they can watch what happens!”
“Flea-pelts!” Brokentail taunted the captured rats, springing forward to score his claws down the flank of the nearest, then darting out again. “Crow-food eaters!”
The rest of the patrol copied him, driving the rats together into a tight knot and wounding them while staying out of reach of their claws. Yellowfang dug her claws into the ground. “Get on with it, before something goes wrong!” she muttered.
A heartbeat later, two rats, terrified and desperate, sprang out of the huddle and leaped upon Foxheart. Yellowfang stared in disbelief at how precise their movements were, like trained hunters. Foxheart let out a screech and crumpled to the ground, blood gushing from her neck.
“No!” Raggedstar yowled.
In the same instant, Brokentail and Cloudpelt leaped on the two rats who had attacked Foxheart, breaking their necks and tossing them into the air. Raggedstar hurled himself into the center of the knot of rats, his Clanmates only a heartbeat behind, their claws slashing and tearing. The orderly plan broke up into a chaos of shrieks and blood.
“Great StarClan!” Runningpaw whispered.
Even Yellowfang was awed as she watched the slaughter, the rats struggling to escape only to be clawed back. They hurled themselves on the warriors, who met their onslaught with teeth that ripped into them and left the rats twitching as their blood soaked into the snow.
Within moments it was over. The last of the rats that had been tempted out were dead and the ShadowClan warriors stood over them, panting. Apart from Foxheart, who lay ominously still, none of them seemed to have serious injuries. Raggedstar called Brackenfoot and the others out of the Carrionplace, while Brokentail worked himself underneath Foxheart’s body and draped her over his shoulders. He was covered in blood but as far as Yellowfang could see, it all belonged to the rats.
“We won,” Runningpaw mewed, sounding stunned.
“Yes,” Yellowfang agreed grimly, gazing at Foxheart’s body.
The elders and the few cats who had remained in the camp gathered around as the warriors returned. Yellowfang spotted Rowanberry looking in horror from the entrance to the nursery as Brokentail laid Foxheart’s body in the middle of the clearing. A flash of joy warmed Yellowfang at the sight of her sister’s kits, Cinderkit and Stumpykit, peering out curiously beside their mother.
Foxheart’s mother, Poolcloud, dashed out of the warriors’ den and flung herself to the ground beside her daughter. “StarClan, no!” she wailed. “Why did you have to take her?”
Wolfstep followed his mother out and crouched beside her, pushing his nose into his sister’s blood-soaked fur. “Good-bye,” he rasped. “We were so proud of you. You would have made a great leader.”
Cloudpelt, who shared a father with Wolfstep and Foxheart, padded over to her and bowed his head. “She died like a warrior,” he meowed.
Yellowfang took her place beside Foxheart’s head. “We will keep vigil for her,” she announced.
Raggedstar stayed for a short time beside the body of his deputy, then vanished into his den, reappearing as the moon rose above the trees. Leaping onto the Clanrock he summoned the Clan, though most of them were already in the clearing, clustered around Foxheart.
