Veil Of Shadows

Relief flooded through Shadowsight. It seemed that everything was working out at last. But then his gaze rested on the medicine cats’ den, and he couldn’t help wondering.

Is it really over?

He felt his paws carrying him back to the den, as if something was drawing him there. Stepping in, he padded up to the sleeping Bramblestar and looked down at him. He almost felt the evil wafting off the impostor, filling the den like a damp wind.

While Shadowsight was standing over him, Bramblestar’s eyes suddenly snapped open, narrowing as his gaze fell on the medicine cat.

He recognizes me. . . .

The impostor opened his jaws and spoke, but not in the voice of Bramblestar, the one Shadowsight had always heard at Gatherings. Instead it was the voice he remembered from his visions.

“I won’t be thwarted,” he told Shadowsight. “You saved my life, and because of that, you have ensured my success. Because once I’m back to full health, I’ll be able to bend any cat to my will. . . . Just ask that skinny black cat with the yellow eyes.”

For a moment Shadowsight wasn’t sure what the impostor meant. Surely it can’t be . . . Then, with a gasp of amazement, he realized that Bramblestar must be talking about Spiresight, though he had no idea how the two spirits could have met.

Before Shadowsight could question Bramblestar, the impostor went limp again and his eyes closed.

Shadowsight still had no idea who the spirit inside Bramblestar might be, but he knew one thing. The Clans’ troubles aren’t over yet.

Chapter 23

Rootspring poked his head into the medicine cats’ den to see his father, Tree, flexing his injured leg. “It feels fine,” Tree told Frecklewish.

The medicine cat sniffed at the poultice she had placed on Tree’s wound; Rootspring caught the clean tang of horsetail.

“It seems to be healing well,” she meowed. “But I would stay off it for a day or two. Come back and see me if it starts swelling or feeling hot.”

“Yes, I think I’ll give tonight’s Gathering a miss,” Tree responded. With a wry look at Rootspring, he added, “You can’t imagine how upset I am about that.”

Rootspring stifled a snort of amusement. “I’ll stay behind and keep you company, if you like,” he offered.

“No, you must go,” Tree insisted. “Like it or not, you have an important part to play in the Clans right now. You need to be there.”

Rootspring twitched his whiskers doubtfully. Being important is overrated, if you ask me. But he had to admit that his father was right.

“Okay,” he sighed.

He headed out into the clearing, and Tree limped after him. “Good luck,” he mewed to his son.

“Thanks, I’ll need it. Just make sure you get a good night’s sleep.”

“Your mother will see to that.” Tree whisked his tail in farewell and padded off to the warriors’ den.

The sun had set, and Leafstar was already waiting beside the fern tunnel along with the cats she had chosen to go to the Gathering. “There you are, Rootspring!” she exclaimed as he joined his Clanmates. “We’ve been waiting for you. We can’t go without you; I have a feeling we’re going to need you tonight.”

Just what Tree said, Rootspring thought, his paws tingling with apprehension. Am I ever going to get to be just a normal warrior?

When Rootspring padded up the shore of the Gathering island and pushed his way through the bushes into the clearing, most of the other Clan cats were already there. They seemed shaken by what had happened, glancing nervously from side to side. He wouldn’t blame them for half expecting another fight to break out, yet they were mingling with one another instead of bunching up into groups divided by Clan.

Rootspring had hardly had time to take that in when he noticed something else: Around the edges of the clearing lurked the spirits of the cats who had died in the battle. A shiver ran through Rootspring from paws to tail-tip.

They should have gone to StarClan—but they’re still here.

Rootspring had always been told that when a warrior died, his spirit would join StarClan and be at peace, but these were crouching with every muscle tensed, their fur bristling and their eyes wide and scared as they looked around the clearing. Some of them were gazing forlornly at their living Clanmates, who couldn’t see them.

Slipping cautiously along the line of the bushes, Rootspring looked for the real Bramblestar’s ghost, but there was no sign of him, not even when Rootspring had covered the entire clearing twice to be sure he hadn’t missed the ghost leader.

After the battle on the previous day, Rootspring had managed to speak briefly with Shadowsight.

“I found Bramblestar’s spirit trapped in a hollow tree in the Dark Forest,” the young medicine cat had explained. “Once he was free, he should have been able to return.”