Veil Of Shadows

Chapter 13

Shadowsight stood at the side of the SkyClan medicine cats’ den, watching his mother, Dovewing, bending over his motionless body. “Please wake up . . . please,” she whispered, gently stroking his fur with one forepaw.

Shadowsight could hardly bear to see Dovewing’s grief and anxiety. He longed to feel his mother’s comforting touch; he wanted to wake up, if only for her sake, but he wasn’t ready to rejoin his body just yet. I’ll come back soon, Dovewing, he thought, but only after I figure out who attacked me. He knew that finding the culprit was the only way to protect himself and his Clan, and to do that, he’d have to stay a spirit a little longer.

Meanwhile his father, Tigerstar, was pacing back and forth across the den, his amber eyes smoldering and his pelt alive with anger. “I know Bramblestar is behind this!” he snarled. “He didn’t like the way Shadowsight was contradicting him, so he did his best to shut him up.”

Fidgetflake shook his head. “We have no proof that Bramblestar is behind the attack,” he pointed out.

Tigerstar whipped around to face him, fixing him with a glare. “But you know it was a cat, right?” he challenged the medicine cat.

“Yes . . . I know that much,” Fidgetflake admitted. “The size and depth of his wounds show that a cat attacked him—one who knew how to inflict serious harm.”

“Then that settles it,” Tigerstar snapped.

Dovewing looked up from her place beside Shadowsight’s body. “Things aren’t always what they seem,” she told her mate. “Remember when we suspected some other Clan of poisoning our fresh-kill pile, but it turned out to be Juniperclaw? We can’t go accusing a cat—especially a Clan leader—of something so serious, without proof.”

Tigerstar lashed his tail. “Look at the way Bramblestar has been acting!” he exclaimed. “How much more proof do you need? Besides, how are we supposed to get real proof? You were going to spy on ThunderClan when you were pretending to atone, but it turned out to be much harder than we expected.” He began his impatient pacing again. “Bramblestar, or whoever he really is,” he continued, “is so demented that I fear for the life of any cat who is caught spying.”

Dovewing nodded agreement. “I’m not sure how we can get proof,” she mewed, “but the truth always has a way of coming out.”

“Fine,” Tigerstar snorted. “But meanwhile, if Bramblestar so much as raises a paw against my kin again, he will die. I’ll take care of him myself.”

Shadowsight could understand his father’s frustration. But for once, he could do something about it. As a spirit, he could visit ThunderClan and eavesdrop, just as he was doing now, and as he had done before his body was brought back to SkyClan.

Shadowsight padded out of the medicine cats’ den and across the camp, heading in the direction of ThunderClan territory. As soon as he began to imagine what he would discover in their camp, he found himself there, balancing on a narrow ledge halfway up the side of the stone hollow.

Another benefit of being a ghost, he thought with satisfaction.

Gazing out across the camp, Shadowsight spotted a couple of apprentices hauling a mass of soiled bedding toward the thorn tunnel. They passed Leafshade at the head of a hunting patrol on its way in, each cat laden with prey, which they dropped onto the fresh-kill pile. Daisy was sunning herself at the entrance to the nursery, while Alderheart appeared from his den with a bunch of leaves in his jaws and headed toward the elders.

It all looks so peaceful, Shadowsight thought. But there was a tension in the air that wasn’t usual for any Clan, and he knew exactly which cat was to blame. Bramblestar . . . I need to find out what he’s doing.

As Shadowsight watched, Stormcloud emerged from the elders’ den, swiftly glanced from side to side, then bounded over to the fresh-kill pile. He picked up a vole and headed back the way he had come. But before he had taken more than a couple of paw steps, Bramblestar slipped out from behind the warriors’ den and stood blocking his path.

“Have I chosen the prey I want to eat yet?” he demanded.

Stormcloud’s eyes widened in alarm and he dropped the vole at his paws. “No,” he replied, “but Brackenfur said he was hungry, and I just thought I would bring him—”

“You know the rules,” Bramblestar interrupted. “The leader eats first, no exceptions!”

Stormcloud cast a glance full of regret toward the elders’ den, then reluctantly picked up the vole and carried it back to the fresh-kill pile. “Sorry,” he muttered as he dropped it; Shadowsight thought he didn’t sound sorry at all.

“If you like prey so much,” Bramblestar continued, narrowing his eyes, “you can go out into the forest and sleep with it tonight. Don’t come back until you’re ready to uphold the code like a real warrior should.”

Stormcloud stared at the Clan leader for a moment and then whipped around, heading for the thorn tunnel with his head and his tail held high. Bramblestar followed him with a baleful gaze until he disappeared.

For the first time Shadowsight noticed that a small tortoiseshell she-cat—obviously an apprentice—had been close enough to see what had just happened, and had begun to back away, her nervous gaze fixed on her Clan leader. But she was not quick or quiet enough to escape.

“You!” Bramblestar snarled, turning and looming over the apprentice. “Go and fetch some mouse bile, and pick the ticks off the elders. All of them.”

“But I didn’t steal prey!” the apprentice protested.

“Maybe not.” Bramblestar’s growl came from deep within his chest. “But you stood by and let it happen. Go!”

The apprentice scurried off. Watching her and the other cats out in the stone hollow, Shadowsight realized how miserable they seemed. Every cat had a wary look—the same one they had when they expected a fox to leap out at them from a patch of shadow. No cat wanted to draw Bramblestar’s attention as he stalked past on his way back to his den.

My father was right, Shadowsight thought. This is the cat who attacked me. I just need to hear him say it.

He began to look for a way down from his ledge, but the rock wall below seemed sheer. His paw slipped as he tried to force it into a crack, and he bit back a yowl of terror as he imagined plummeting to the floor of the camp. Instead he found himself standing a tail-length from the rock, his paws firmly planted on the air.

Wow! he thought. I didn’t expect that!

Shadowsight let himself drop as gently as a falling leaf and began to follow Bramblestar, realizing it was no effort at all to keep quiet. He was not even sure that his paws were touching the ground; certainly he couldn’t feel any sharp edges as he climbed the tumbled rocks to the Highledge.

“Ungrateful cats!” Bramblestar was grumbling as he entered his den. Shadowsight slipped in behind him. “They need discipline. They need to be taught not to steal, not to question their leader, not to trespass . . .” He glanced back over his shoulder. “Wouldn’t you agree, Shadowsight?”

Shadowsight’s jaw dropped, and he stood gaping, utterly astonished. The false Bramblestar was staring straight at him. Panic surged through him, and it took all his courage not to flee back to his body in the SkyClan camp.

The ThunderClan leader bared his teeth in a grin. “That’s right . . . I can see you,” he meowed. “I knew you were trespassing in our territory the minute you appeared in the camp.”

Shadowsight struggled to find words. “But how?” he asked eventually.

Bramblestar shrugged. “Maybe it’s because I’ve been to StarClan and come back more powerful than you can imagine. Maybe it’s because I have a connection to those I’ve killed.”

Shadowsight let out a gasp. He’s confessed! He’s the one who attacked me!

“Or maybe,” Bramblestar continued, his face still set in the same chilling grin, “it’s because spirits can always recognize other spirits.”

As Shadowsight stared at him with a mixture of fear and disbelief, he thought he saw the edges of Bramblestar’s body begin to blur, as though mist were seeping out of his pelt. A heartbeat later another cat slid out like smoke from a burning fire and stood in front of Shadowsight, while the body he had left slumped to the floor of the den.

A glow pulsed around the cat’s pelt; Shadowsight found it hard to make out the color of his fur. But his eyes were dark blue, so different from Bramblestar’s warm amber ones. His gaze was fixed on Shadowsight with a menacing gleam.

Shadowsight felt horror turn his blood to ice and freeze his paws to the ground. I don’t know who this cat is, but I know it isn’t Bramblestar.

“What have you done to Bramblestar?” he asked, his voice shaking in spite of all his efforts to keep it steady.

The glowing presence glanced over at Bramblestar’s limp form, which lay stretched out as if he were sleeping. “All I did was take advantage of an opportunity,” he meowed in a voice that Shadowsight felt was strangely familiar. “You would think Bramblestar would be grateful. I’m living his life so much better than he ever could.” He flicked his tail dismissively. “But all he could do was moan about wanting his body back.”

Shadowsight could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Do you mean you’ve seen Bramblestar?” he asked. “Have you spoken to him?”

The impostor let out a contemptuous huff. “I don’t want to give myself away by letting the Clan cats know I can speak to the dead,” he replied. “So I just ignore Bramblestar and all his bitter muttering.” He paused, then added, “Well, I used to. Before Bramblestar . . .”

His words gave way to a drawn-out mrrow of laughter. Shadowsight thought he had never heard anything so evil; all the fur on his back stood on end at the sound.

“What did you do to him?” he demanded. “Where is Bramblestar?”

A moment before, Shadowsight had thought the stranger’s laugh was frightening, but now he found that the grim, determined look in his cold blue eyes was so much worse. He forced himself not to back away as the impostor slowly drew closer, stretching one long paw out in front of him.

“You shouldn’t ask what became of Bramblestar,” he responded in a husky voice. “Not unless you want the same thing to happen to you. That cat won’t ruin my plans again . . . and neither will you.”

Shadowsight couldn’t tear his gaze away from that blue, malignant stare. He summoned all his courage, desperate not to let the stranger, whoever he might be, intimidate him. “You can’t just take over his life,” he insisted. “There’s only one Bramblestar!”

The spirit cat nodded slowly. “You’re right,” he mewed. “And it’s me. If Bramblestar wants his body back, he’ll have to fight me for it.”

The stranger let out a loud hiss, raising himself onto his hind paws. Shadowsight braced himself, expecting that the false Bramblestar would pounce on him. Instead he dropped back to the ground, arched his glowing back, and gave his pelt a shake. His breathing slowed, and a heartbeat later he spoke again.

“I knew you weren’t faithful enough as a medicine cat to pass on the codebreaker vision properly. You are a codebreaker, just like the rest!”

With a shock as if he had just plunged into an icy pool, Shadowsight realized where he had heard this cat’s voice before. The memory overwhelmed him. “It was you!” he yowled. “You’re the voice I heard at the Moonpool, telling me about the codebreakers! It was never StarClan that spoke to me—it was you. And you’ve been possessing Bramblestar ever since the night he died on that hill.”

The strange cat nodded, looking almost pleased to have his clever deception recognized.

“You stole Bramblestar’s body,” Shadowsight accused him. “You deceived me and tried to kill me. Is there no end to your evil?”

For response, the stranger merely licked one forepaw and drew it over his ear.

“How did you do all this?” Shadowsight continued. “If you’re a spirit—like me—and you know the Clans . . . then you should be in StarClan. Or the Dark Forest.”

Light glinted from the impostor’s bared teeth. “There are ways to move between those worlds, if one is clever enough,” he replied.

With a fresh flood of horror, Shadowsight understood that without knowing it, he had been this cat’s accomplice. If he hadn’t followed the orders he had believed came from StarClan, Bramblestar might have survived instead of being left to die on the snow-swept hill. He shuddered, overwhelmed by racking guilt. I was right to doubt my visions. They were all a lie.

Summoning every scrap of his courage, Shadowsight took a pace forward to confront the impostor. “What’s happened to the real Bramblestar’s spirit?” he demanded. “Have you destroyed it altogether?”

The glowing cat let out a mrrow of amusement. He’s enjoying this, thought Shadowsight. But as he waited for the impostor’s response, he felt a tug in his gut, stronger and more insistent than before, pulling him back to SkyClan.

My body . . . How long have I been gone? He realized that he had no idea, except that it was too long. He wanted to finish this encounter with the false Bramblestar, but if he didn’t leave right away, he might be lost forever.

“This isn’t over,” he told the intruder, then raced out of the den into the night, focusing all his thoughts on the body he had abandoned.

A heartbeat later, Shadowsight found himself back in the SkyClan medicine cats’ den, where his mother was curled up asleep beside his unconscious form.

Spiresight stood beside them, shaking his head as he saw Shadowsight. “You’re cutting it close,” he mewed. “Where have you been? Who were you with?”

Shadowsight realized that he had no idea how to answer that question.