Veil Of Shadows

“I don’t know,” Tigerstar growled in response. “What concerns me is the thing inside him. That has to be stopped, once and for all, before it destroys the Clans. We must attack. We have no other choice.”

“I understand, Tigerstar,” Squirrelflight mewed. “But please—could you just capture Bramblestar, and not kill him? As a prisoner, he couldn’t do any more damage, but it would give us a chance to find the real Bramblestar and reunite him with his body.” As she finished speaking, Squirrelflight’s figure seemed to sag and she let out a long sigh.

It pained Shadowsight to see the brave and determined she-cat so discouraged. He realized that she, too, was beginning to lose hope that the real Bramblestar would ever come back. It made his own hope start to wither like a seedling under the fierce sun of greenleaf.

“Maybe we could take him prisoner,” Lionblaze agreed. “But are we right to attack at all? Can we be sure that we’re strong enough to defeat the impostor?”

“We’re strong enough,” Crowfeather growled, narrowing his eyes at his son. “Just let me get my claws in him!”

“But if we fail,” Lionblaze argued, “then our entire rebel group will be wiped out. There would be nothing to stop the false Bramblestar controlling all the Clans.”

Instantly cats began to raise their voices in support of one warrior or the other, and for a moment Shadowsight was afraid that the meeting would break up into groups of squabbling cats. Then Tigerstar let out a loud caterwaul.

“Silence!” he ordered. “The time has come to attack! Getting rid of that mangy interloper is worth the risk. We can never be sure we’re strong enough, but this is the right thing to do, even if we may not win! We are warriors! Are we afraid of a cat who doesn’t even have his own body?”

Yowls of “No! No!” came from the ShadowClan cats around him. The cats from other Clans seemed surprised by Tigerstar’s fervent speech, but inspired enough to join in. Even Shadowsight was impressed, though he still felt uneasy about the attack.

Will it feed the flames of my vision, dividing the Clans? he wondered. Or will it stop them?

“We are agreed, then?” Tigerstar continued in a quieter voice, once the clamor had died down. “We will attack in two sunrises. And,” he added, with a glance at Squirrelflight, “if possible we will take Bramblestar prisoner.”

Squirrelflight nodded. “In two sunrises,” she repeated, though Shadowsight could see the fear and misgivings in her eyes.

Fire blazed up around Shadowsight, though he couldn’t feel any heat from the flames. He knew that he was lying curled up in his nest in the medicine cats’ den, but he also seemed to be hovering over the lake with the Clans’ territories spread out beneath him.

Just as in his first vision of fire, the flames were encroaching on the Clans, slowly devouring them. Shadowsight could hear the despairing wails and shrieks of agony of cats trapped in the blaze. The water level fell in the lake, as if some gigantic mouth were sucking it down, and a cloud of steam billowed up, obliterating Shadowsight’s vision.

“Help! Help!”

Shadowsight stiffened as he heard the voice, weak and faint as if it had reached him from an immense distance. Somehow he knew it was coming from the Moonpool.

It’s . . . it’s Bramblestar!

At that moment Shadowsight startled awake in his own nest. Puddleshine was asleep at the far side of the den, letting out gentle little snores. Everything seemed peaceful, but Shadowsight knew that he had been given a task.

I have to find the real Bramblestar. But how do you find a ghost?

He closed his eyes and concentrated. Bramblestar’s voice had come from the Moonpool. What did that mean? Was Bramblestar there? What did it mean, to be at the Moonpool as a ghost? Wherever Bramblestar was, he needed help.

A heartbeat later, Shadowsight knew what he had to do.

Shadowsight searched among Puddleshine’s herb stores until he found what he needed. For a moment he hesitated, thinking of Tigerstar and Dovewing, and what they would say if they knew what he meant to do. Then he looked at Puddleshine, so close to him, and he remembered his other Clanmates, and the cats of the other Clans, all of them in desperate need. With his resolve strengthened, he chewed and swallowed.

Shadowsight was shocked by how fast the berry worked. Almost at once he felt waves of heat sweeping through him. His throat tightened and he choked, struggling to breathe. Darkness swirled around him, and he felt himself falling.

Shadowsight opened his eyes to find himself in the forest; a pale glow surrounded him, like a bubble of mist. There was no sound or scent of any other cats, and nothing to tell him exactly where he was.