Chapter 238: Shadow of Darkhaven.

"Her mouth felt as dry as burnt wood, her spine involuntarily shivered and she felt as if there was a ball of worms wriggling in the depths of her stomach. 'If you don't do something right now, at this very moment, you'll never see your babies alive again.' a fuzzy, but strong voice in her head said to her."

-Trefoil, Orchid's tale

The trip back to Darkhaven was highly eventful, as Spartina tried to sneakily dispose of her partners. At first, she considered trying to defeat them in combat, but this proved to be impractical: while she was obviously the strongest rabbit out of the four, she still remained alone against three. She therefore decide to try some more clever schemes.

She tried leading the patrol into a stoat's den, but it was the stoat who died. She tried pushing Feldspar into the pit again, framing Shale for it (the two had spent a while arguing over who would claim credit for the discovery of the outsiders' warren). However, Orchis intervened, rescuing Feldspar again and threatening to kill them both if they didn't acknowledge that he was the one who had made the discovery (which was true). On several occasions, Spartina also tried taking the patrol away from Darkhaven, but Orchis always steered them back towards the right path.

As time went by and they got ever closer to Darkhaven, the more hopeless the situation seemed to Spartina. Shortly after sunset, once they reached the edge of the pit, she decided to make a final, desperate attempt: push them over the edge. She was about to kick Orchis when she realized that Campion was staring right at her. She could not kill anyone in the presence of witnesses, or she would have to eliminate them too; three victims could easily spiral into the whole warren. Her thoughts were interrupted by Woundwort's voice:

-"What are you all doing, back so soon? You weren't supposed to return until late tomorrow."

-"I found..." Shale started to say, only for Orchis to growl, making him rephrase his sentence. "That is, WE found the location of the outsiders' warren."

-"No we didn't," Spartina said: by this point, she was completely out of ideas. She instantly regretted lying like this: it would only delay the inevitable, and put her at risk. Her statement provoked a few gasps from the other patrollers.

-"Vervain would call you a traitoress, like Bigwig was a few seasons ago," Orchis mumbled.

-"Do you even believe what you're saying?" she mumbled back.

-"What she means is, Orchis did the whole job," Feldspar quickly added. "WE didn't find it, HE did." This nitpicking over words may have saved her life, Spartina thought.

-"There, you see!" Woundwort gave a rare smile. "This is the sort of amazing thing you can accomplish when you are properly motivated. We leave to attack at dawn. Now get some sleep, you'll need all the strength you can get before you attack."

-"We won't be able to sleep very well out here..." Shale whined.

Woundwort glanced down at the battle pit, then back at his owsla.

-"Because I'm in a good mood, and it will help you all get some much-needed sleep, I will let you all go back down there, one last time." He turned to the others, who were fighting each other as part of their training. "That goes for all of you! I don't want you lot falling asleep in battle, so do it now, before we leave."

Most rabbits abandoned their training instantly, apart from a few who seemed to want to kill their opponents; these had to be forcibly separated by Woundwort. As everyone made their way to the bottom of the pit, Woundwort mentally noted who came by; all rabbits seemed to be present, except the Speaker of the Past, who was still missing in action. But he didn't care: there was no real purpose in bringing her along for the battle, since she would not be able to fight anyone, except maybe young kittens (and even then, she would probably refuse). Not to mention her nonsensical rambling, which might end up distracting the others.

-"Spartina, before you go," he said, turning to the doe as she walked by, "what's the status on your student?"

-"She'll be ready for tomorrow morning."

-"Good. Now get some sleep. Also, Orchis, since you're the one who found the outsiders' warren, I need you to tell me all about its location, and what defences they have."

Lady May, of course, would not be ready: she would never be able to fight, especially with her injury, which had yet to heal. And Spartina would not be going to sleep. She had one last hope: the ultimate weapon that she had been searching for. She could only hope she would find it in time to use it before the battle...

Spartina spent the next few hours digging all over the pit, as fast as she could, no longer bothering to fill the holes again after each one came up empty. If someone asked what she was doing, she would say she was sharpening her claws ahead of the next day's battle.

Gilia was running, utterly terrified. Even now that Spartina had helped her escape, her chances of survival were questionable, she thought, without the amazingly talented Blueberry to protect her. She should have waited for him...

She was in such a hurry to get away that she did not pay attention to her surroundings, apart from the general direction: west, as per Spartina's instructions. When she saw the shape of another rabbit in front of her, she did not have the time to stop, change direction, or even try to figure it out who it was, before she crashed into them. She instantly assumed the worst: this was the end, the Darkhaveners had found her again, she would never see her family again. As she looked up, however, she saw that this rabbit was not from Darkhaven: it was captain Holly.

-"Gilia! There you are!"

Gilia looked around her: she had not stumbled upon the Darkhaveners as she had initially thought, but instead among her friends and family. Her siblings were all there, as well as Blueberry, patrol leader Pipkin and...her father.

-"Gilia," the latter said as he picked her up and hugged her.

After everything Gilia had gone through, she really appreciated this being with her family once again. Now that she was safe, she could finally express her emotions, and started to cry.

-"What happened to you?" Hazel asked a few minutes later, still holding her.

-"The Darkhaveners got me," his daughter said between sobs. "But Spartina helped me escape."

As soon as he put her back down, she was tackled by her siblings.

-"Oh I'm so glad you're alive!"

-"We thought you were dead!"

-"No we didn't, we never doubted our sister's survival abilities!"

-"Still, she's alive and that's a good thing."

-"Why are you all talking as if she wasn't there?"

-"She's right, we should be hugging her instead."

The other adults were looking at the scene with smiles.

-"We've been looking for you everywhere," Holly said. "It is great news that we found you alive."

-"El-ahrairah was with you," Vesper added.

-"The celebrations can wait until we're back home," Bigwig said, never one for deep emotional displays. "But first, one question: why did you run away from the rest of your patrol? That violates every owsla rule that me and Pipkin taught you."

Gilia tried to regain her composure. The mission had failed before it even started, but she could not betray Blueberry. Therefore, she made up an alternate explanation for her behaviour, that would hopefully sound plausible.

-"We were at the farm, and I...I went to the far side of the lettuce patch, alone. Reckless, I know, I shouldn't have done that, but I encountered the cat, so I fled. And accidentally ran into the Darkhaveners, yes...and Spartina helped me escape. She pretended to be guarding me while the others went looking for grass to tie me up, and I ran."

The last part of this explanation was true, but the first part erased all mentions of Blueberry's involvement, not to mention that the cat only arrived after Gilia was gone. As she looked at the others, however, she saw that her siblings were all frowning, and Blueberry was in the back, looking away guiltily.

-"We know," Snowdrop said.

-"We all know," Vesper said sadly. "Blueberry told us everything, so we could find you."

Gilia's ears dropped to the sides of her head, as she realized that her secret was out, and she had been caught in a lie.

-"I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

-"Not yet," her father said. "But once we are back at the warren, we will have a long discussion."