Veil Of Shadows

Bramblestar gazed around the Clan as they settled around him. “ThunderClan is very lucky indeed,” he announced in that honeyed voice that Bristlefrost instinctively mistrusted, her pelt prickling at the sound. “Now that Jayfeather has been exposed as a codebreaker and sent into exile, we have been gifted with another medicine cat.”

Bristlefrost could see her own confusion reflected in the eyes of her Clanmates. Another medicine cat? Why has Alderheart said nothing about this? She knew that medicine-cat apprentices were recognized when they had a vision or some kind of communication with StarClan. But StarClan isn’t communicating with any cat right now. So what is Bramblestar meowing about?

She felt even more confused a heartbeat later as Bramblestar went on. “Flipclaw will become our new medicine-cat apprentice!”

“Flipclaw?” their mother, Ivypool, exclaimed in disbelief, at the same moment as Flipclaw blurted out, “Me? No way!”

Bramblestar turned his amber gaze on Flipclaw. “Do you doubt yourself?” he asked. “Just now, I heard you talking about a prophetic dream you had.”

“Prophetic?” Flipclaw blinked in bewilderment, while confused muttering came from the other assembled cats. “I’m not sure the dream was prophetic. At least, I hope it wasn’t! It was just weird. . . .”

Bramblestar padded forward until he stood close to Flipclaw, staring straight into the younger cat’s eyes. “Are you sure about that?” he purred. “You recalled being preyed on by birds. Birds that live in the sky, with a strange sparkle in their eyes. Come on, Flipclaw! What else sparkles and lives in the sky?”

For a moment Flipclaw stared blankly at the Clan leader. “Stars . . . StarClan?” he choked out at last.

Bristlefrost spotted movement at the corner of her eye and turned her head to see Alderheart padding forward from the medicine-cat den. His eyes were wide with surprise.

“That doesn’t sound like any vision I’ve ever heard of,” he meowed as he crossed the camp to join the false Bramblestar. “Even what Shadowsight saw was clearer than that!”

Bramblestar let out a hiss of exasperation, his tail-tip twitching to and fro. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Alderheart,” he snapped, “StarClan isn’t sharing traditional visions with us. We have to look harder for guidance! Flipclaw’s dream makes perfect sense to me.”

“Enlighten us, then,” Alderheart murmured.

“The birds are StarClan,” Bramblestar responded. “For seasons they have fed us, nourished us with their wisdom. But now things have changed. They have become angry, vengeful. Until we do as StarClan has demanded, the Clans will suffer. We will be their prey!”

Bristlefrost felt every hair on her pelt prickle with horror at the interpretation the impostor was placing on what had clearly been a silly dream. Alderheart opened his jaws to comment, then shut them again with a snap.

Flipclaw, too, obviously shared Bristlefrost’s feelings, his eyes wide with dismay.

“But Bramblestar . . . I don’t feel any pull to be a medicine cat,” he mewed nervously. “Isn’t that something StarClan has to call a cat to be?”

Bramblestar curved his tail forward to rest it on Flipclaw’s shoulder. “As StarClan isn’t speaking to the Clans,” he began, “the only link we have to what they want is through me, the leader they approved for ThunderClan. And I want you, Flipclaw, to be the new medicine-cat apprentice. After all, we need one,” he continued, raising his head to address the rest of the Clan. “What if something happens to Alderheart?”

Gazing at Alderheart’s sudden wary expression, Bristlefrost could see that the medicine cat recognized the impostor’s words for the threat they were. Once Flipclaw is able to treat sick cats, Bramblestar can get rid of Alderheart anytime he wants.

“This is ridiculous!” Alderheart meowed, his voice full of bitterness. “Bramblestar, how is this in keeping with the code that you’ve been enforcing so fiercely?”

Bramblestar turned toward him, his muscular body looming over the slighter medicine cat. “I am the leader!” he snarled. “I make the decisions!”

His tail bushing out with fury, he stormed off toward the tumbled rocks, heading for his den. But before he reached it, he halted, glancing back over his shoulder. “Bristlefrost, follow me!” he snapped.

Bristlefrost’s heart began thumping hard with alarm. Does he know that I was listening to him and Alderheart in the medicine cats’ den? Am I in trouble?

But her only choice was to obey the false leader. She was aware of her Clanmates staring at her as she climbed the tumbled rocks in his paw steps and reached the entrance to his den.

“Come in, come in,” Bramblestar mewed testily. “I need to talk to you.”