Veil Of Shadows

The burly tom gazed down at him for a moment, then whipped his head around in Spiresight’s direction, his eyes wide and watchful. For a moment Spiresight froze, almost certain that the cat had spotted him. But a heartbeat later the large tom turned and raced away, vanishing into the undergrowth.

Spiresight gazed down into the ravine, his fear turning to despair; by now the darkness was so deep that he could hardly make out Shadowsight’s body lying on the rocky ground. I refused StarClan so I could watch over my friends. Why was I forced to witness this?

Letting out a wail of anguish, he crouched down at the very edge of the gully.

Why did my instincts send me here, if I couldn’t stop this? he asked himself in a storm of guilt and grief. My friend is dead, and there’s nothing I can do!

Chapter 1

Rootpaw shuffled his paws nervously, darting glances at the medicine cats around him. Just being at the Moonpool spooked him: the spiral path stippled with the paw steps of cats so ancient that even their memory was lost; the continual gushing of the water that cascaded into the pool; the Moonpool itself, awash with reflected moonlight and starshine.

We don’t belong here, he thought, his gaze catching briefly on his father, Tree, who was sitting beside him. This place is only for medicine cats. He remembered the last time he had been allowed to visit the Moonpool, when the medicine cats had tried to break the ice in the hope of helping StarClan reach them. That didn’t feel right either, and it didn’t help us reconnect with StarClan.

Even the medicine cats were looking anxious, Rootpaw realized. The medicine cats from all the Clans were here, except for ShadowClan. While they waited for Puddleshine and Shadowsight to join them, the half-moon rose higher in the sky, and Rootpaw’s pelt tingled with mounting tension.

I just want to get on with it.

He and Tree had traveled to the Moonpool in the hope that they could make Bramblestar’s wandering spirit appear to the medicine cats at their usual half-moon meeting. If they could, then every medicine cat would know that the cat inside Bramblestar was not the real leader of ThunderClan. And that would mean ThunderClan shouldn’t follow his orders.

But it’s a big if, Rootpaw thought gloomily. He knew that some of the medicine cats weren’t happy allowing Tree to approach so close to the Moonpool. They couldn’t accept the strange talents he had inherited from his kin in the Sisters, or his disregard for the warrior code. But for once Rootpaw was comforted by his father’s presence. He hated to admit it, but the situation they were in now was bigger than the code.

“What’s keeping the ShadowClan cats?” Kestrelflight muttered, rising to his paws and pacing from the water’s edge to the bottom of the path and back again. “We’re wasting moonlight,” he added with a glance at the sky.

“They’ll be here in a minute,” said Tree. “We thought we heard a cat wailing in pain on the way here.”

“Who was it?” Alderheart asked anxiously.

Tree shrugged. “We never found any cat. We kept on looking for a while, but then Puddleshine figured that the injured cat must have been able to get back to the ThunderClan camp. Shadowsight had stayed behind to gather cobwebs, so Puddleshine went back for him while we came here.”

“I hope they haven’t run into trouble,” Alderheart responded. “We can’t start without them.”

Jayfeather let out a snort, the tip of his tail twitching irritably to and fro.

Before any other cat could speak, a rustling sound came from the bushes at the top of the hollow and Puddleshine appeared, pushing his way through the thorny branches and running lightly down the spiral path to join his fellow medicine cats.

“Sorry I’m late,” he panted. “I—”

“Where’s Shadowsight?” Rootpaw interrupted. He had felt relieved at the arrival of the ShadowClan medicine cat, until he realized that Puddleshine was alone.

Puddleshine gave him a blank look, then glanced around in confusion. “Isn’t he here?” he asked. “I thought he must have gotten ahead of me.”

“He’s not here,” Mothwing meowed.

Puddleshine hesitated, blinking worriedly. “I looked for him, but when I couldn’t find him, I thought he’d just decided to go on ahead.” The fur on his neck and shoulders began to bristle. “Where can he have gone?” he asked.

“You must have missed each other,” Mothwing meowed briskly. “We’ll give him a little longer.”