Veil Of Shadows

Chapter 17

Rootspring crouched beside the stream in the exiles’ camp on ShadowClan territory. Thick clouds covered the sky, hiding the moon and stars, and scarcely a glint of light touched the dark water beside him. He could hear the quiet gurgle of the current and the soft paw steps of cats as they brushed through the grass and ferns to gather for the meeting. Rootspring caught glimpses of their shining eyes as they settled down, and he picked up the mingled scents of all the Clans, but as yet there was no sign of Tigerstar.

A familiar voice spoke behind him. “Greetings, Rootspring.”

The young tom swung around to see Squirrelflight, with Spotfur at her shoulder, and a pace farther back another cat whose pale pelt glimmered in the uncertain light.

“Greetings, Squirrelflight, Spotfur.” Rootspring peered harder at the third cat. “And—great StarClan, is that Berrynose?”

The cream-colored tom ducked his head awkwardly. “Greetings,” he muttered.

Before Rootspring could get over his surprise, another cat strode up: Tigerstar, who halted face-to-face with Berrynose. Anger and mistrust were rolling off him like the scent of fox.

“What do you want here?” he demanded. “Aren’t you Bramblestar’s deputy?”

“Not anymore,” Squirrelflight explained, resting a calming tail-tip on Tigerstar’s shoulder. “Crowfeather found him wandering in the forest earlier today. It seems Bramblestar exiled him for not being quick enough in his defense when the young warriors attacked.”

“Not being quick enough!” Tigerstar repeated with a lash of his tail. “We’ve just finished burying Conefoot. It seems like Bramblestar’s defenders were quite effective.”

“You don’t have to convince me,” Squirrelflight responded calmly. “But clearly Bramblestar sees it differently. He’s made Bristlefrost deputy.”

Rootspring couldn’t suppress a gasp of shock.

“Bristlefrost!” Tigerstar’s voice was raised in a yowl. “That very young cat who’s been coming to the rebel meetings? I didn’t think she’d even had an apprentice.”

“She hasn’t,” Squirrelflight told him. “She’s a good cat, but yes, she’s very young.”

“She shouldn’t be deputy,” Berrynose hissed, clearly furious at being supplanted. “It’s against the code!”

“True,” Squirrelflight agreed. “It’s just another sign that Bramblestar is losing touch with reality.”

“Bristlefrost warned Bramblestar of the attack,” Spotfur added, “and she brought him help. It would seem that she’s a traitor.”

Rootspring felt as though a badger had clawed his chest open and ripped out his heart. Bristlefrost couldn’t be a traitor, could she? But he couldn’t explain why she would warn Bramblestar, when she knew what he was—and what he wasn’t.

More cats were gathering to listen, and their shocked, fearful comments rose up around Rootspring. Squirrelflight’s voice cut through all of them.

“Bristlefrost isn’t a traitor,” she meowed. “I asked her to protect Bramblestar’s body, in case the real Bramblestar needs it someday.”

Rootspring caught her gaze falling on him, and he looked down at his own paws, embarrassed at the relief he must be showing. Bristlefrost is a good warrior. She would do her best to obey an order from her former deputy.

Spotfur’s response was a contemptuous grunt. “You can’t know why she did it. Would Bristlefrost value Bramblestar’s life over Stemleaf’s, and the other rebels’? I doubt it, not if she’s loyal to us. And don’t forget, if Bristlefrost is loyal to Bramblestar, she knows all our secrets. We have to assume from now on that Bramblestar knows we’re working against him. That’s our only safe option, to make sure we’re not . . . surprised, by anything he does now.”

Rootspring stared at the ThunderClan cat, not wanting to believe her words, but finding it hard to dismiss them. Bristlefrost wouldn’t! Would she? he asked himself again.

“What do you think about all this?” Tigerstar asked, turning to Berrynose. “Can you tell us anything about Bramblestar that would help defeat him?”

Berrynose’s eyes widened in consternation. “No—I—” he stammered. “I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding. Bramblestar is a good cat. I would never—”

“So we can’t count on your support in the battle,” Tigerstar sneered.

Berrynose glanced from Tigerstar to Squirrelflight and back again. “I don’t know,” he mewed despairingly. “I don’t know what I believe. But I can’t imagine fighting with you against Bramblestar. He’s my leader, for StarClan’s sake!”

“Get out, then!” Tigerstar snarled. “I won’t shelter cats loyal to Bramblestar on my territory.”

Berrynose stared at him, stunned; before he could move to obey the order, Squirrelflight stretched out a warning paw to Tigerstar.

“Don’t be shortsighted,” she advised him. “If we let Berrynose go, he could run right back to Bramblestar and tell him everything. Let me keep him here in the exiles’ camp as a prisoner, until he decides where his loyalties lie.” She looked at Berrynose. “You’re right that a good warrior supports his leader. But that isn’t Bramblestar. If we tell you more, maybe we can convince you of the truth.”

Tigerstar grunted, clearly unimpressed with the idea, then gave a reluctant nod.

“Thank StarClan you’ve made a decision,” Spotfur snapped, her voice full of bitterness. “Like Berrynose is the most important cat in the forest! He’s not. In case you’ve forgotten, we lost strong allies in that fight; Stemleaf, Conefoot, and Dappletuft are all dead.”

At her words, the cats around them stirred, and began to repeat the names of the fallen in soft and loving voices. “Stemleaf . . . Conefoot . . . Dappletuft . . .” Rootspring and the others stood with bowed heads until the voices died away.

“We will never forget them,” Tigerstar meowed at last. “But they acted expressly against orders. We’d all agreed not to kill Bramblestar yet.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Spotfur demanded angrily. “Bramblestar—or whatever cat is living inside him—is turning the Clans against one another at this very moment. How far will you let him go?”

“Spotfur . . .” Squirrelflight touched her nose gently to the younger she-cat’s ear, but Spotfur shook her off with a jerk of her head.

“I’m sick of all the arguing!” she snarled. “I don’t want Stemleaf to have died for nothing!”

Pain clawed at Rootspring’s heart at the raw grief in Spotfur’s voice, but he realized that the loss of her mate hadn’t overwhelmed her. She was as strong as ever, and determined to seek vengeance.

“Some cat is going to pay for what has happened,” she vowed. “And I want that cat to be whoever is inside Bramblestar.”

At that moment, Rootspring caught a glimmer in the corner of his eye and turned his head to see Stemleaf’s ghost staring at Spotfur, his gaze full of love and sadness. He stood close to her for a heartbeat, then turned away and was lost among the ferns.

“You’re right, Spotfur,” Tigerstar mewed. “And now we have proof that the cat who now leads ThunderClan is not the real Bramblestar.”

Rootspring listened with renewed apprehension as Tigerstar told the rest of the cats about how Shadowsight had visited Bramblestar as a spirit and had seen another spirit cat emerge from within the Clan leader. By the time Tigerstar had finished, a horrified silence had fallen over the rebel group.

Lionblaze was the first cat to break it. “That’s what I’ve feared all along,” he stated. “But now that we’re sure it’s true—how does that help us decide what to do about it?”

“We have to defeat whoever is inside Bramblestar’s body,” Squirrelflight responded.

Lionblaze twitched his ears. “But how?”

“That depends on who the cat is,” Squirrelflight told him. “Who—or what—has stolen Bramblestar’s life?”

“You would be best placed to know,” Tigerstar pointed out. “He’s your mate; you know the real Bramblestar better than any cat.”

Squirrelflight blinked thoughtfully; a few moments passed before she spoke again. “Whoever is inside him now is lazy,” she replied at last. “He wants the glory of leading the Clan, but he doesn’t want to do the work. And he clearly wants to disrupt the peace between the five Clans.”

“Tigerstar?” Lionblaze asked, then shot a guilty look at the ShadowClan leader. “I mean the first Tigerstar,” he added hastily. Tigerstar gave him an awkward nod.

“Tigerstar was many things,” Crowfeather meowed, “but not lazy. Besides, the cats who were defeated in the battle with the Dark Forest are gone for good—those of us who fought saw them destroyed.”

“I believe that’s true,” Squirrelflight agreed. “When Leafpool and I spent time in StarClan, we were told that the Dark Forest was nearly empty.”

“Then what about Darktail?” Mothwing asked. “He certainly wanted to disrupt the peace when he was alive. Disrupting the peace was what he was good at!”

A shudder passed through Squirrelflight from ears to tail-tip, every hair on her pelt rising. “The time I spent with the false Bramblestar didn’t fit with what I remember of Darktail,” she responded. “Darktail was hungry for power—but he seemed to have strict control of his Kin, too. Half the time, this Bramblestar was almost indifferent to the rest of ThunderClan.”

Rootspring was becoming more despondent with every word spoken by the senior warriors. His hopes had been so high when he joined the rebel group, but now everything was going wrong. Tigerstar seemed angry . . . and cats were dying! And even worse—no, not exactly worse, Rootspring had to admit—it was possible that Bristlefrost was a traitor, in league with whatever ghostly presence was inside Bramblestar.

How could this be?

Glancing around at the trees, Rootspring spotted a ghost emerging from the darkness again. Once more it was Stemleaf; Rootspring nodded at him, and Stemleaf nodded in response before passing close to Spotfur, brushing against her side.

And I’m seeing ghosts again, Rootspring thought, but not the one I really want to see. Bramblestar’s spirit was still missing.

Tree, who was standing beside Rootspring, touched his nose to his son’s shoulder, then angled his ears toward Stemleaf as the dead ThunderClan tom melted back into the shadows.

So he can see him, too.

Meanwhile, the meeting had broken down into an argument.

“Be quiet and listen!” Squirrelflight’s challenging yowl cut through the commotion. “Every cat needs to admit that we have a problem worse than all the others: If Bristlefrost has betrayed us, we have been exposed. I still believe that she was only doing what I asked of her, but we can’t take that chance.”

“You’re right.” Lionblaze straightened, gazing around with the commanding air of a leader. “We have to put aside our disagreements and come together now, if we’re to have any hope of survival.”

“Then how long are we going to let this go on?” Tigerstar asked. “I’ve heard rumors that Bramblestar is sending his so-called deputy from Clan to Clan now, demanding that they exile any cats involved in the attack.”

Breezepelt nodded. “Harestar has listened, and he wants to encourage other leaders to do the same. He truly believes this will bring StarClan back, and bring prey back to the moor.”

“Bramblestar has already exiled all the codebreakers in ThunderClan, not to mention any cat who’s annoyed him,” Spotfur added. “He’s thrown out both his medicine cats. Are we going to let this false Bramblestar remake all the Clans? Who knows what he wants?”

“To figure that out,” Squirrelflight responded, “we have to find out who he is. And to do that, we need a cat close to him on our side.”

“Bristlefrost?” Tigerstar suggested.

Spotfur shook her head. “Bristlefrost can’t be trusted now.”

No! Rootspring thought, anguished. If Bristlefrost could betray us, then I never really understood her. The thought made his heart ache.

“But I think Flipclaw is getting fed up with being stuck as a medicine cat,” Spotfur continued. “He might be prepared to pass on information.”

“Speaking of Flipclaw,” Puddleshine meowed, “we’ll all need to discuss Shadowsight’s return at the next half-moon meeting. I’m sure the others won’t be happy about Alderheart’s exile, or the way that Flipclaw was forced to take his place with scarcely any training. Of everything the false Bramblestar has done to break the warrior code, this might be the worst! The life of the whole Clan is in danger with an untrained medicine cat working alone.”

“That’s all well and good,” Lionblaze commented, “but the last I heard, Kestrelflight and Willowshine still hadn’t even shared the information about Bramblestar’s ghost with their leaders.”

Several voices spoke up from the WindClan and RiverClan cats. “That’s true.”

“If the leaders knew that,” Crowfeather added, “not to mention the new information about what Shadowsight saw, surely they would back any effort to get rid of this impostor.”

“That’s far from certain,” Tigerstar argued. “Mistystar and Harestar have hung their hopes for reconnecting with StarClan on Bramblestar and his so-called leadership. This news might not be enough to change their minds.”

“But we have to try,” Frecklewish insisted.

Tigerstar took control again, gathering the cats around them with a commanding glance. “Then we will wait and see what the medicine cats decide,” he announced. “If Mistystar and Harestar can be convinced that Bramblestar is not a true leader, that will make it much easier to get rid of him.”

Murmurs of agreement rose from the assembled cats, though Rootspring thought that some of them sounded reluctant. But after the death of the rebels who had attacked the false Bramblestar, he guessed that no cat wanted to risk another disaster.

Following Tree and Frecklewish back to the SkyClan camp, Rootspring wondered what the future held for all the Clans. But he couldn’t help his thoughts flying especially to ThunderClan. The idea that Bristlefrost might be a traitor to the rebels had struck him as hard as if a falling tree had slammed down on his body and crushed out his life.

I know I was stupid to like her the way I did. But was I completely wrong about her?