Эрин Хантер - Veil Of Shadows

“Yes, and if there are, exile them!” Plumwillow’s mate, Sandynose, asserted.

“Fox dung to that!” Macgyver snarled. “Exile our Clanmates on the say-so of another Clan leader? Maybe ThunderClan is just trying to make trouble in the other Clans. Every cat knows how they like to interfere.”

“Yes, we never had trouble reaching our ancestors in StarClan when we still lived in the gorge,” Sparrowpelt agreed.

Leafstar blinked, still thoughtful, not giving away anything of what she felt. After a moment she turned to Hawkwing. “What do you think?” she asked him.

The dark gray tom dipped his head. “I think that causing trouble isn’t like ThunderClan,” he meowed. “Sometimes they like to have a paw in every cat’s business, but as far as I know they’ve never been destructive . I’d like to find out what Bramblestar hopes to achieve.”

Rootpaw’s belly tightened. Should he tell them what he knew? To his surprise, before he could speak, he saw Frecklewish rise to her paws and pad forward to stand beside Leafstar.

“There’s something I should have told you before,” she confessed, “but I was afraid of what it might mean for all the Clans.” She paused, looking around at the gathered cats with trepidation. “The truth is . . . Bramblestar is not the Bramblestar we all know. I saw the real Bramblestar on the night Shadowsight disappeared. He was a ghost, wandering far away from his body.”

Admiration tingled through Rootpaw as he listened to the medicine cat. Frecklewish was taking a brave step, telling the whole Clan even though the other medicine cats had been unwilling to tell even their leaders. But I can’t blame her. . . . She’s doing what’s best for our Clan.

As Frecklewish finished speaking, the Clan remained in a stunned silence for several heartbeats, cats blinking in confusion and trying to make sense of what they had just heard.

“Have you got bees in your brain?” Sparrowpelt growled at last. “Whoever heard of a cat’s spirit wandering out of his body?”

As if the senior warrior had given a signal, the Clan erupted into yowls of protest, disbelief, and fear. Leafstar let the noise continue for a few heartbeats, then raised her tail for silence. “Enough!” she meowed sternly.

“How could this be?” she wondered when the Clan was quiet enough for her to make herself heard. She directed her amber gaze toward Tree. “Did you have something to do with this?” she asked.

Rootpaw was aware of Frecklewish’s gaze on him. She expected him to speak up, he realized. For a moment he hesitated, still reluctant to admit in front of every cat that he was as weird as his father.

Before he could, Tree stood up with a brief nod toward Leafstar. “I’ve seen Bramblestar’s ghost, too,” he meowed.

That isn’t a lie, Rootpaw thought. Tree saw Bramblestar at the medicine-cat meeting. But it wasn’t the whole story, not by a fox-length.

“Oh, so he’s another of your ghosts, Tree,” Sagenose mewed with a long, elaborate yawn. “Thought so.”

The mockery in Sagenose’s words gave Rootpaw the courage he needed. He was ashamed and grateful that Tree had tried to shield him from the Clan’s scrutiny, but he knew he couldn’t sit still and let his father take all the criticism. He sprang to his paws.

“Actually, I was the one who saw the ghost first,” he announced. “I’ve been seeing it for moons now, ever since Bramblestar died in the cold and Shadowsight tried to bring him back.”

“Yeah, sure, and hedgehogs fly,” Harrybrook sneered.

A few of the others murmured agreement with the gray tom. Rootpaw tried to read Leafstar’s expression, but she was giving nothing away. He closed his eyes, concentrating hard to focus on Bramblestar and call out to his spirit, hoping that he might be able to appear again.

That might be the only way to prove what Frecklewish and I are saying.

But no ghost responded to Rootpaw’s call. He could feel that Bramblestar was far away from the SkyClan camp. Rootpaw could only hope that the ThunderClan leader was still out there somewhere.

“Why would Bramblestar appear to you?” Macgyver asked. He wasn’t mocking Rootpaw like Harrybrook, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he didn’t believe a word Rootpaw had said. “If he had to come to a cat with the Sisters’ blood, why not Tree?”

“I don’t know!” Rootpaw retorted. He faced Macgyver, his pelt bristling with indignation. “But I’m telling the truth. I saw him!”

“So did I,” Frecklewish asserted, while Fidgetflake nodded agreement.

“And me. Seeing ghosts is very different from the visions of the medicine cats,” Fidgetflake went on, with a hard look at the cats who had voiced their disbelief. “But that doesn’t seem to make it any less real.”

The SkyClan cats were muttering together, exchanging uneasy glances as if none of them knew what to make of Rootpaw’s story. Rootpaw stood listening, his belly roiling with tension as he wondered what their verdict would be, and what Leafstar would decide. He gave a start of surprise as he felt a tail rest on his shoulder, and turned his head to see his mentor, Dewspring, standing by his side.

“There’s one thing that occurs to me,” Dewspring began, raising his voice to be heard over the chattering. “Bramblestar has always been an honorable cat in the past. Does any cat feel that this recent behavior is like him?”

Warm with gratitude, Rootpaw realized that his mentor must believe him, and the rest of his Clanmates were listening, thinking over what he had just said.

Maybe now Dewspring will understand why my mind hasn’t been totally on my training. . . .

Eventually Leafstar waved her tail to quiet the Clan once more. “I don’t know what to make of any of this,” she admitted. “I trust my medicine cats, and I know that Tree and Rootpaw are loyal Clan members. I want to believe them, but I don’t want to believe that some mysterious spirit cat is driving ThunderClan to exile its warriors.” She paused for a moment to give her chest fur a thoughtful lick. “The stakes of being wrong are so high,” she continued. “SkyClan is still the new Clan around the lake; if we accuse Bramblestar of being an impostor, we could start a war.”

“Maybe we should do just that!” Sandynose put in. Plumwillow gave him an irritated nudge.

Leafstar gave Sandynose a chilly nod, as if she had heard his suggestion but didn’t think much of it. “SkyClan lived alone for a very long time,” she went on. “We haven’t faced as many battles as the cats who have been living by the lake for all these moons—and in their old forest for seasons before that. In battle many cats die—not just the bad ones. I believe that Tree and Rootpaw are trying to help, but I haven’t seen enough yet to risk cats’ lives.”

The hope that Rootpaw had begun to feel faded abruptly at his leader’s decision. But it’s true, what she says, he admitted to himself. It must be really tough for a leader to lead her cats to their death.

“Then what are we going to do?” Sparrowpelt asked.

“No matter what, there is one thing SkyClan will always do,” Leafstar replied. “We will protect one another.”

The decisiveness in Leafstar’s voice made Rootpaw think that the meeting must be over, until Violetshine rose to her paws. “Of course you are right,” she began, dipping her head toward Leafstar. “But if Bramblestar is violent toward other cats, especially those in his own Clan—cats he is supposed to care for—then he must be stopped.” Her voice shook a little as she added, “I learned about that from Darktail.”

Rootpaw stared at his mother. She must feel very strongly to mention Darktail. Normally she never talks about that part of her life.