Veil Of Shadows

Rootpaw fell silent for a moment as a rush of optimism flooded through him from ears to tail-tip. For so long, he’d been the only one who could communicate with Bramblestar’s ghost, and his failure to find him had made Rootpaw feel helpless and alone. Having his whole Clan participate would take so much of the weight off his shoulders.

“Of course I will,” he replied. It was wonderful to finally have something new to try. Maybe all hope wasn’t lost after all.

“Great!” Tree purred. He bounded the couple of paces back to the medicine cats’ den, stuck his head inside, and called, “Frecklewish, Fidgetflake, we need you!”

With the two medicine cats following him, exchanging bewildered glances, Tree raced across the camp to the Tallstump and called for Leafstar.

The Clan leader emerged and leaped up onto the top of the stump. “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Tallstump for a Clan meeting!” she yowled.

Taken aback, Rootpaw padded up to his father as the rest of the Clan gathered around them. “Wait, we’re doing this right now?” he whispered. He felt his optimism from a moment ago waver. Even though his powers had proven useful, he knew there were still cats in his Clan who thought of him and his father as weird. Calling on their Clanmates to join a ritual to summon the dead probably wouldn’t help. “I didn’t realize it was going to happen so fast,” he mewed nervously. “I was hoping we could take some time to ease them into the idea. . . .”

“We don’t have time,” Tree told him. “It has to be at sunset.”

“Tree is going to lead us in a ceremony from the Sisters,” Leafstar announced when the Clan had assembled. “We hope it will bring the spirit of the true Bramblestar back to us.”

Doubtful muttering arose from the Clan. “The Sisters?” Sandynose exclaimed. “Why are we bothering with that weird bunch?”

Just as I feared, Rootpaw thought, feeling embarrassed. If the Clan thought Rootpaw and Tree were weird, of course they’d think the same of their kin, the Sisters.

“Yeah,” Sagenose agreed. “Those rogues don’t know anything that the Clans don’t know!”

“Like Bramblestar’s ghost is real anyway,” Sandynose added.

“Quiet!” Leafstar ordered, with a stern look at the two toms. “This may not work, but at least we’re going to try.”

The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon as Tree and Rootpaw stepped into the center of the clearing, with their Clanmates in a circle around them. Though Fidgetflake nodded at him supportively, Rootpaw sensed the reluctance of the other gathered cats and felt more exposed than ever.

“Tonight we sing to guide the spirit of Bramblestar back to us,” Tree announced, his voice ringing clearly across the camp. “We know he has much to tell us, and we will try to help him on his journey to regain his body. Bramblestar, come to us!”

Tree threw back his head and let out an eerie, high-pitched wailing. It was met by a stunned silence from the other cats, and Rootpaw spotted several of them exchanging skeptical looks.

Then Violetshine stepped forward and joined in the wailing, nervously at first, then more confidently as she matched her voice to her mate’s. Her participation seemed to shift the mood of the circle. They might have thought Tree and Rootpaw were strange, but they respected Violetshine. If she took the ritual seriously, maybe they would too. Encouraged, Rootpaw joined his voice to his parents’. Then Hawkwing padded up to support them, followed by Needleclaw and Fidgetflake. Soon many others were wailing, their voices shivering upward as the stars began to appear.

Rootpaw felt that the sound was stretching out across all the lake territories, calling Bramblestar to them. This is going to work, Rootpaw thought, hope rising inside him. It has to. If Bramblestar is anywhere nearby, he will come.

Even as the last of the sunlight died, the song continued. Rootpaw gazed around while the rest of the cats went on with their wailing. He was sure that Bramblestar would come if he could, but there was no sign of him.

Tree fell silent, looking questioningly at Rootpaw, who could only shake his head sadly. But he wasn’t ready to give up yet. At last Rootpaw broke out of the circle and searched more and more desperately for Bramblestar around the edges of the camp and inside the dens. Please, Bramblestar, show yourself! he urged silently, but the ThunderClan leader was nowhere to be found. The voices grew more ragged, then finally faded into silence. Full darkness had fallen, and Bramblestar had not come.

Rootpaw gazed around and saw deep disappointment on the faces of his Clanmates; Leafstar in particular sat with her shoulders drooping and her gaze fixed on her paws.

“I’m sorry!” Rootpaw’s voice was shaking. He had let himself believe that this could work, and now he felt like even more of a failure than before. “I tried so hard, and it was no use.”