Veil Of Shadows

“If Rootpaw hadn’t found him when he did,” Frecklewish added, giving the SkyClan apprentice an approving nod, “Shadowsight would probably be dead by now.”

Tree rose to his paws and took a pace forward to stand beside his son. “And now SkyClan is uncertain what to do about Bramblestar,” he meowed.

“What do you mean by that?” Bristlefrost asked.

“At best, Bramblestar lied about Shadowsight just running off,” the yellow tom told her. “Not that any cat believed him, anyway. At worst, he had something to do with the attack.” He paused, letting his gaze travel around the group of cats. “Until Rootpaw found Shadowsight, Leafstar resisted doing anything to support the rebels. But now . . . she’s seriously thinking about it.”

Bristlefrost shuddered. Despite the blood she’d seen coating Bramblestar’s chest that night, she wanted to reject with every hair on her pelt the idea that Bramblestar—or whoever he really was—could do something so wicked. Attacking Sparkpelt was bad enough, but it was far worse for any cat to attack a medicine cat. And why would he want to? But I have to admit it’s probably true.

For a few moments the assembled cats broke up into little groups, anxiously discussing what they had just heard.

“Bramblestar would never attack another Clan cat!”

“No—but the thing inside him obviously would.”

Then Crowfeather’s voice rose above the rest. “Things have gone too far,” he stated, his dark gray fur bristling. “I don’t like it, but it’s clear what we need to do: kill Bramblestar.”

Protests arose from the cats around him, mingled with murmurs of agreement.

“I never thought it would come to this,” one of the RiverClan cats mewed sadly. “Every cat admired Bramblestar so much.”

“But whatever is inside him isn’t Bramblestar,” Breezepelt argued. “And it looks like there’s only one way to get rid of him.”

A jolt passed through Bristlefrost’s chest. She felt like she had been racing through the forest and the ground had suddenly given way beneath her paws.

“There must be another way!” she objected. “We want the Clans back the way we were, but we’re not cold-blooded murderers. If we do that, are we any better than he is?”

“But he obviously tried to kill Shadowsight!” Kitescratch argued, giving Bristlefrost a hostile glare. “We need to kill him before he can hurt any other cat. And if you want to prove you’re really with us now, you’ll go along with it.”

For a few heartbeats Bristlefrost didn’t know how to reply. She glanced around at the gathered cats and saw vague uncertainty in their eyes. It was unnerving how easily the notion that she was working for the impostor could take hold, but she doubted any of them still truly believed that. She knew that Kitescratch had only brought it up as a way to quiet her protests. But he didn’t need to. She couldn’t deny that there was a lot of sense in what Crowfeather and Kitescratch said, and she could see that many cats agreed with them. Even Stemleaf and Spotfur were nodding assent, although they both looked unsure.

In the end it was Squirrelflight who broke the silence. “You’re all forgetting something,” she meowed loudly. “We haven’t been in touch with StarClan in moons. The truth is, not even the medicine cats know what would happen if any leader were to die now.”

Rootpaw blinked in shock as he shifted his gaze to Jayfeather. “Is that true?”

The medicine cat shook his head. “There’s no way to know. But I suspect that with StarClan gone, they might not go on to their next life.”

Squirrelflight was staring at the blind medicine cat, her green gaze filled with horror at the thought of losing her mate. “This means we have to wait,” she pleaded. “At least until we find out for sure what happened to Shadowsight. Surely we can delay until he regains consciousness and we can find out what he knows. There are too many unanswered questions for us to act now.”

“You’re right, Squirrelflight,” Stemleaf mewed, though Bristlefrost thought he sounded reluctant to admit it. “We should wait until Shadowsight wakes up before we do anything.”

But in spite of his words, Bristlefrost could tell from Stemleaf’s hesitant voice and his unwillingness to meet Squirrelflight’s gaze that he didn’t really want to do that at all.

She could hear more arguing among the younger ShadowClan warriors.

“I’d kill him now! I’d rip his throat out!”

“For StarClan’s sake, haven’t you listened to a word Squirrelflight said?”

It was clear that the assembly was splitting between cats who were willing to wait, and those who wanted to kill Bramblestar—right now.

Bristlefrost wasn’t sure what she wanted. She knew how dangerous the false Bramblestar was, and how much safer every cat would be if he was gone for good.