Эрин Хантер - Veil Of Shadows

Slowly and carefully Dewspring stood up, managing not to dislodge Shadowsight. “Okay, let’s go,” he mewed. “Walk beside me and keep him steady.”

Transporting Shadowsight was easy until they came to the fallen boulders. Dewspring looked up, blinking. “Oh, StarClan . . . ,” he murmured, then added to Rootpaw, “Keep a grip on him so we don’t drop him. We don’t want to hurt him worse.”

He began to clamber up the rocks, trying to keep his back as level as he could. Rootpaw snagged Shadowsight’s fur in the claws of one forepaw, ready to support him if he started to slip. In one steep place Dewspring almost lost his balance, and the three cats tottered together at the edge of the rock. Rootpaw had a horrific picture of them falling and bouncing down the slope until they reached the stream again.

With poor Shadowsight squashed underneath us . . .

Then Dewspring heaved himself up, Rootpaw settled Shadowsight securely on his back again, and the climb continued.

The path made by the fallen boulders ended about a fox-length from the top of the ravine. A sheer stretch of rock separated them from level ground. “Now what?” Rootpaw asked gloomily.

“Can you leap up there?” Dewspring asked.

“I’m a SkyClan cat,” Rootpaw responded. “Of course I can leap!”

“Then do it.”

Rootpaw crouched down, gathering himself and bunching his muscles for the leap. Then he drove himself upward; his claws scrabbled in the loose soil at the top of the ravine, and he managed to heave himself over the edge.

“What now?” he asked, gazing down at Dewspring.

Dewspring stretched upward so that he was holding Shadowsight as close to Rootpaw as he could. “Reach down and grab him by the scruff,” he directed. “Don’t try to pull him up, just hold him. I’ll be with you in a heartbeat.”

Rootpaw wasn’t sure that would work, but he didn’t try to argue. Leaning down, he craned his neck until he could fasten his teeth in Shadowsight’s scruff. “Got him,” he grunted.

Dewspring slipped out from underneath Shadowsight. Even though Shadowsight was so small and frail, when Rootpaw took his weight he thought it would tip him over the edge and back down into the ravine. He dug all his claws into the loose earth and focused on holding on.

Then Dewspring was beside him, leaning over to get his own grip on the injured cat. “Pull!” he mewed around his mouthful of fur.

Together Rootpaw and his mentor edged backward, drawing Shadowsight with them until his limp body lay safely at the top of the ravine. Anxiously Rootpaw checked him over. “He’s still breathing, thank StarClan!”

“Great!” Dewspring huffed out a long breath. “Give me a moment to rest, and we’ll head back.”

And this would be just the right time for a ThunderClan patrol to appear, Rootpaw thought, warily scanning the surrounding trees. Then he realized that any ThunderClan cats would be so shocked to see Shadowsight that they might not think to ask what two SkyClan cats were doing trespassing on their territory.

But no patrol appeared. Dewspring took Shadowsight on his back again; after their struggle in the ravine, the journey home seemed to take no time at all.

As soon as they emerged into their camp, they were spotted by Plumwillow, who was on guard. She sprang to her paws, her eyes wide with shock. “Who’s that on your back?” she asked.

“It’s Shadowsight, that missing ShadowClan cat,” Dewspring explained. “We need to get him to the medicine cats.”

But as he and Rootpaw headed to find Frecklewish, more of the SkyClan cats ran across from the fresh-kill pile or emerged from their dens, gathering around and asking what had happened.

“Let us through!” Rootpaw yowled, but no cat was paying attention to him.

At last, to his relief, he spotted Fidgetflake shouldering his way through the crowd. “Shift your paws!” the medicine cat hissed at the crowd of warriors. “We have an injured cat here.” Beckoning Rootpaw and Dewspring with his tail, he added, “Bring him to our den right away.”

Violetshine bounded over to join them as Fidgetflake led the way back to his den. She padded alongside Dewspring on the opposite side from Rootpaw, helping to support Shadowsight’s limp body.

“Rootpaw, are you okay?” she asked. “I was so worried when you missed your assessment. I thought something must have happened to you. And you’re covered in blood!”

Rootpaw glanced down at himself, to where Shadowsight’s blood was smeared over his pelt. “It’s not mine,” he reassured his mother. “I’m not hurt.”

Inside the medicine cats’ den, Fidgetflake clawed together a nest of moss and fern. Dewspring gently lowered Shadowsight into it, letting out a huff of satisfaction and flexing his shoulders as he was relieved of the young cat’s weight.

“Some cat should go right away to fetch Tigerstar and Dovewing,” Fidgetflake meowed. “They’ll want to be with their son . . . whatever happens.”

Rootpaw felt his belly heaving at the ominous suggestion in the medicine cat’s words. Shadowsight can’t die! Not after we went to all that trouble to find him. “I’ll go,” he offered immediately.

“You’re still an apprentice,” Dewspring pointed out. “You can’t go wandering into another Clan’s territory by yourself.”

But that’s just what I did! Rootpaw thought, though he had the sense to keep his jaws shut.

“I’ll go with him,” Violetshine mewed. “Shadowsight should be with his kin.”

As Rootpaw left the medicine cats’ den, with his mother padding beside him, Leafstar came bounding across the camp from beside the fresh-kill pile.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Hurriedly Rootpaw told her how he and Dewspring had brought Shadowsight back from where he lay in the ravine on ThunderClan territory. “He didn’t run away,” he finished. “Some cat tried to kill him.” Daringly he added, “ Now do you think challenging Bramblestar is worth the risk?”

Leafstar’s eyes widened; clearly she was too stunned to ask Rootpaw what he had been doing on ThunderClan territory, or to object to an apprentice telling her what to do. She stood staring after Rootpaw and Violetshine as the two cats headed out of the camp.

Chapter 12

Bristlefrost stood in the entrance to the Clan leader’s den on the Highledge, gazing down at the listless figure of the false Bramblestar where he lay in his nest. The sun was well above the trees at the top of the stone hollow, and yet the impostor had barely moved since dawn.

“Maybe you should get up now,” Bristlefrost suggested. “There’s a hunting patrol waiting for your orders, and a few warriors want to speak to you about border marking. And—”

Bramblestar gazed at her with confusion in his face. “What are you meowing about?” he grumbled. Then he lifted a weary paw and waved her away. “Let Berrynose deal with them,” he murmured. “I don’t care about any of it. How can I? Squirrelflight is dead, and it’s my fault. If I hadn’t exiled her . . .”

A tiny spark of hope woke inside Bristlefrost, and she wondered if the intruder might possibly change his mind. “If you’re having second thoughts about the exiles,” she began tentatively, “it’s probably not too late to find the others.”

Bramblestar just moaned and looked away, closing his eyes as his whiskers drooped in pain. Bristlefrost wasn’t even sure that he had heard her. Then with a pitiful whine he buried his face in the bracken fronds of his nest.

He looked so miserable that Bristlefrost couldn’t suppress a pang of sympathy. For a moment she was tempted to tell him the truth, that Squirrelflight wasn’t dead at all; she just didn’t want to be found. But that would undo all our hard work. It would put Squirrelflight and the rest of the exiles in danger, she reflected. And me, too, because it would prove that I lied to him. She thrust the temptation away and remained silent.