Veil Of Shadows

Puddleshine didn’t seem offended at Rootpaw’s abrupt words. “We did look around,” he replied. “But when we didn’t find him, I thought he had gone on ahead.” He heaved another deep sigh. “Shadowsight has always been an unusual cat . . . a special cat. At first I hoped he had just wandered off and would be back soon, but that seems less and less likely now.” He gave his tail a single lash, and his voice was unsteady as he went on. “You might blame me for not doing more, but you can’t blame me more than I blame myself. I shouldn’t have left him alone. And I should have given him better support when he was . . . when he was here.”

Hearing the pause, Rootpaw realized that Puddleshine believed Shadowsight was probably dead. His suspicions of the medicine cat faded; hearing him now, no cat could doubt that Puddleshine was truly upset.

But is he right? Rootpaw wondered. Is Shadowsight dead?

It was terrible, but Rootpaw kept coming back to the dreadful possibility that another cat had killed Shadowsight. And the obvious culprit was the false Bramblestar. Rootpaw believed that the false Bramblestar had tried to kill Sparkpelt by having her attacked by dogs, because she had defied him. Shadowsight was the cat who had received the codebreaker visions, and so he supported the impostor’s efforts, but recently he had begun to back away from the idea of exile. Did Bramblestar believe that he could get his way more easily if Shadowsight wasn’t around?

Rootpaw shivered as if he had suddenly walked into a shower of icy rain. Would the fake Bramblestar really murder a medicine cat? And if he did, am I in danger too? What would he do if he discovered that I can see the real Bramblestar’s spirit?

Together the three cats padded on through the trees until they reached the ShadowClan camp. As soon as they pushed through the bushes and brambles at the top of the hollow, Rootpaw could see how many cats were crowded into the space, and how tense they were feeling.

Squirrelflight and Cloverfoot were both trying to assign cats to hunting patrols, and as Rootpaw padded closer he could hear how icily polite they were being to each other.

“Remember that the exiled cats can’t hunt near the borders,” Cloverfoot meowed. “There’s too much risk that they’ll be spotted.”

“Of course,” Squirrelflight replied through clenched teeth. She looked like she wanted to say, Tell me something I don’t know.

At the far side of the hollow, loud yowls of complaint were issuing from the warriors’ den.

“Get your paw out of my ear, you stupid furball!”

“You can’t put your nest there—that’s my space!”

“Leave my bracken alone!”

Puddleshine let out a sigh and exchanged a glance with Frecklewish. “You can’t blame them,” he mewed. “There isn’t enough room here for so many cats.”

Frecklewish nodded. “And with Bramblestar acting so unpredictably, who knows whether he’s going to stop with the codebreakers? I fear it’s only going to get worse.”

Near the entrance to Tigerstar’s den, Crowfeather stood by himself, his disapproving gaze raking across the camp. “I should have expected that ThunderClan and ShadowClan wouldn’t be able to get along,” he meowed, not speaking to any cat directly, but loud enough for several cats nearby to hear him. “Not even when it’s in every cat’s best interest. I ran things much better as WindClan’s deputy, but I won’t poke my whiskers in if no cat cares to ask for my help.”

While he was speaking, Tigerstar emerged from his den, casting an annoyed glance at Crowfeather as he padded past him to greet Frecklewish and Rootpaw.

“This won’t do,” he began abruptly. “I can’t put up much longer with ShadowClan being the shelter for all the outcast warriors. There are just too many cats in the camp.” With a brusque nod to Frecklewish, he continued, “What’s the news in SkyClan? Leafstar’s the only other leader with enough sense not to listen to Bramblestar’s demands. Do you think she’d be able to give shelter to some of these cats?”

Frecklewish exchanged a doubtful glance with Rootpaw, then shook her head. “Leafstar has decided that SkyClan will go along with Bramblestar for now,” she replied, “as long as there’s no evidence of Bramblestar hurting any cat. That means that, officially at least, it’s four Clans against one. I’m sorry, Tigerstar, but this isn’t a good time to try to move the exiled cats out of ShadowClan territory.”

For a moment Rootpaw was afraid that the ShadowClan leader would explode in a burst of fury. But then Tigerstar’s tail drooped with frustration and weariness, and Rootpaw noticed for the first time how thin and anxious he looked. Glancing across the camp, he spotted Dovewing near the fresh-kill pile; she looked just as ill as her mate.