She hadn’t expected an answer, but Thornclaw looked up from where he was giving himself a quick grooming. “Like any cat would attack us in this weather,” he mewed sourly.
Bracing herself, Bristlefrost headed out into the wind and rain. Her pelt was soaked in the first few heartbeats as she splashed her way to where Stormcloud was gathering the rest of the patrol together.
The night before, still and beautiful in the moonlight, seemed so far away that Bristlefrost almost wondered whether she had dreamed the encounter with Bramblestar.
While she slogged around the border with Stormcloud, Molewhisker, and Poppyfrost, Bristlefrost’s brief conversation with Bramblestar repeated itself in her mind. She couldn’t forget the sight of his chest fur clotted with blood. By the time she returned to camp, drenched and shivering, she knew she had to tell some cat what she had seen.
As Bristlefrost emerged from the thorn tunnel, she spotted a hunting patrol just ahead of her, carrying their prey to the fresh-kill pile. Stemleaf and Spotfur were among them. Forcing her aching legs into a run, Bristlefrost crossed the camp and caught up to them, skidding to a stop and almost losing her balance on the muddy ground as they dropped a vole and two mice onto the pile.
“I have to speak to you,” she murmured. “It’s urgent.”
Stemleaf turned to her, his eyes wide and questioning, but several cats were crowding around the pile, and he said nothing, only drawing her and Spotfur away from the others. They found a quiet spot beside the wall of the camp, beneath a jutting stone that gave them some shelter from the wind and rain. Spotfur glanced around warily, checking that no cat could overhear them.
“Tell us,” Stemleaf mewed.
“Last night I went out to make dirt . . . ,” Bristlefrost began, and went on to describe her weird encounter with Bramblestar and Berrynose, the overwhelming scent of catmint, and the blood clumping Bramblestar’s chest fur. “I don’t want to accuse a leader of something so serious,” she added, “but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What do you think—am I making something out of nothing?”
Stemleaf blinked thoughtfully. “Maybe you are,” he responded, “but given what we know about Bramblestar, it doesn’t seem likely. I think he’s up to something.”
“We’ll have to watch him even more closely,” Spotfur put in.
“Yes,” Stemleaf agreed. “But we know he sent dogs after Sparkpelt because she’d disobeyed him. And now he’s coming back to camp covered with blood. What will we do if Bramblestar is up to something terrible?”
“I don’t know,” Bristlefrost admitted.
Neither of the others could suggest a plan, either. Still tense with anxiety, Bristlefrost returned with Spotfur and Stemleaf to the fresh-kill pile to choose some prey. They were sharing a squirrel when Bramblestar emerged from his den and stood on the Highledge, his amber gaze raking across the camp.
“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting,” he yowled.
The Clan began to assemble, those who had been sheltering in their dens hunching their shoulders against the driving rain as they ventured into the open. Bristlefrost made herself take a place at the front of the crowd, though she dreaded hearing what Bramblestar might be planning next.
“I have an important announcement to make,” Bramblestar announced when the Clan had gathered. “Last night, Jayfeather and Alderheart returned from the medicine-cat meeting at the Moonpool. They brought the news that Shadowsight, the young ShadowClan cat whose visions have helped us face up to our codebreaking ways, has gone missing.”
Bristlefrost’s heart lurched at the news. Her forepaws kneaded the muddy ground as she remembered her meeting with Bramblestar the night before, and the blood clotting on his chest. She remembered too that Rootpaw and Tree had been planning to tell the medicine cats the truth about Bramblestar’s spirit.
“I believe Shadowsight has fled from the Clans,” Bramblestar continued, his voice cold and severe. “I believe he couldn’t cope with knowing that his mother, Dovewing, shared the blame for driving StarClan away, and that all codebreakers must be punished. Shadowsight was weak.”
Bristlefrost stared at her leader in shock.