Veil Of Shadows

The other medicine cats murmured agreement, settling down again beside the Moonpool. Rootpaw could see their growing tension in their twitching whiskers and the impatient flicking of their tails. He felt even more strongly that he didn’t belong here.

As the moments dragged by, an aching hollow of anxiety opened up inside Rootpaw. Puddleshine, too, was still looking confused, as if he couldn’t imagine what was keeping Shadowsight.

Rootpaw’s worry mounted until he couldn’t bear it any longer. Shadowsight was the cat who had first spread the news that StarClan was angry with the codebreakers, but he’d since changed his mind and begun doubting his own vision. He has enemies now, throughout the Clans. . . . “Something bad must have happened!” he burst out. “We should go and look for Shadowsight.”

All the medicine cats turned to look at him with identical blank expressions on their faces. He was afraid that none of them would listen to an ordinary apprentice, but Frecklewish rose to her paws at once.

“Rootpaw is right,” she meowed. “Shadowsight wouldn’t keep us waiting like this if he had any choice.”

“He’d better not,” Jayfeather responded, a sarcastic edge to his voice. “If I find he’s run off to chase moths, I’ll claw his ears off!”

Puddleshine gave the blind cat a hard glare. “If Shadowsight has deliberately wasted our time, I’ll be the one to deal with him,” he snapped.

But Rootpaw could see from Puddleshine’s hunched shoulders and the droop of his tail that he was genuinely worried. He was the first cat to bound up the path and thrust his way through the bushes, while the rest of the medicine cats streamed after him. Rootpaw and Tree brought up the rear.

“So much for calling up Bramblestar’s spirit,” Tree murmured with an anxious twitch of his ears.

“This is more important,” Rootpaw insisted. He felt cold to the tips of his claws. Could an animal have attacked Shadowsight? Or worse—could another cat have attacked him? He shivered at the thought of a Clan cat attacking ShadowClan’s medicine cat. Would any cat really do that? It’s against the warrior code! “I’m sure something bad has happened to Shadowsight. We have to find him!”

The group of cats climbed down the rocky slope and hurried across the moor, following the WindClan border stream until they reached ThunderClan territory. Maybe we’ll meet him on his way to the Moonpool, Rootpaw thought hopefully. But there was no sign of Shadowsight by the time Puddleshine led them to the place where he had left the lakeshore and headed into the forest in search of the injured cat.

“This shouldn’t be difficult,” Mothwing mewed to Puddleshine. “Your scent is quite strong still, and so is Shadowsight’s. We only have to follow it.”

But not many fox-lengths into the forest, the scent trail led into a patch that smelled so strongly of catmint that the cats’ scent was swamped by it.

“Weird . . .” Puddleshine shook his head in bewilderment. “This is where we heard the cat yowling. I remember, because I thought mint didn’t grow in this part of the forest.”

“That’s because it doesn’t. This isn’t a catmint patch. Someone brought catmint plants here,” Alderheart pointed out, giving them a good sniff. “And the stems of the grass below are crushed.”

Rootpaw frowned, trying to work it out. “Maybe some cat—or even a fox—took prey here?”

“Or someone brought the catmint here to roll in it . . . and disguise his or her scent,” Alderheart suggested, looking serious.

“I’ve found your scent, Puddleshine,” Jayfeather reported from the far side of the catmint patch. “But not Shadowsight’s. It’s like he walked in here and never walked out again.”

“But why?” Rootpaw protested. “Why would Shadowsight try to disguise his scent?”

“Shadowsight! Shadowsight!” Puddleshine’s yowl shattered the silence of the forest, but there was no response.

“He can’t be close by, if he didn’t hear that,” Mothwing pointed out. “We should split up and look for him.”

Frecklewish nodded agreement. “We can organize another meeting at the Moonpool once he’s found,” she mewed.

But before any cat could move, Tree stepped into the middle of the group. “Wait,” he ordered; Rootpaw blinked in astonishment at the authority in his father’s voice. “Whatever happened to Shadowsight might be connected to what Rootpaw has to show us,” Tree went on. “You all promised to listen—will you keep your word?”

“We can’t trek all the way back to the Moonpool now,” Willowshine protested.

“We don’t have to,” Tree told her, twitching his whiskers. “Rootpaw can show you right here.”

With a wave of his tail he beckoned Rootpaw, who stepped forward. The medicine cats gathered in a ragged circle around him. He dug his claws nervously into the earth, sure that every cat must be able to hear the pounding of his heart.