Chapter 20

Salene spent a few joyful hours with Pride, in their room, before someone came looking for her. Ryan had managed to get across the message that she had recovered part of her memory and was alone with Pride, so no-one had even considered bothering them for quite a while. When Cloe knocked on the doorframe She was sitting on the edge of the bed, with Pride beside her, going through photos from their time together. Hand in hand, Salene and Pride followed Cloe up to the café. Ryan and Helena were sitting hand in hand in a corner. Salene smiled when she saw them and Ryan smiled back gratefully. There were a number of other people gathered in the room: Amber and Sasha, with Baby Bray; Trudy and an unhappy Brady; a young man who looked painfully shy, but smiled brightly when Cloe walked over to him; a young woman with short, white hair and a silver line running, vertically, through her right eye; a slightly older man with black, spiky hair that had bright blue tips to match his shirt and a Chinese symbol on his right cheek; and lastly Lex, standing at the head of the table like an army general.

"Salene," Lex began, smiling, "Come and sit down. There's a lot we need to fill you in on."

Salene eyed Lex suspiciously, but sat down all the same.

"Wh-what's going on?" Pride asked, putting a protective hand on Salene's shoulder.

"I-it's all right Pride. I'm sure this isn't anything to do with me," Salene said, placing her hand on top of Pride's before turning back to Lex, "Is Jack all right?"

"Tai San's with him just now," Lex replied, "He's sleeping soundly. The nightmares seem to have stopped, at least."

"Is that good or bad?" Salene asked, causing a few murmurs and frowns around the table.

"Jack should be fine... Well, physically fine, anyway," Lex answered, looking slightly confused.

"And has Jetta come back yet?"

"We still haven't found her" Trudy cut in, shaking her head wearily.

"Wait, how do you know about Jetta, Sal?" Amber asked, suddenly, "Do you remember her?"

"No, I just overheard people... talking," Sal replied, shaking her head and then looking up to Lex as she said the last word.

Lex frowned.

"Cat, can she hear us?" he asked his sister, mentally.

"Who's Cat?" Salene asked.

Lex jumped. His eyes widened.

"That would be yes then!" came the reply.

As Lex realised that he had been too long in answering, Trudy decided to answer for him.

"She's a girl Lex and Tai San brought back with them some time ago. She looked after you when you... when you were ill."

"I was ill?"

"Yes," Trudy said slowly, "You were very ill for a while."

"And that's how I lost my memory?"

"Yes."

Salene noted the hesitation in Trudy's voice.

"What? What aren't you telling me?"

"A lot," Amber cut in, "but you have to remember it for yourself Sal, that's why."

Salene shifted her gaze from Trudy to Amber and then to Lex, then nodded and looked down. A moment or two later, she looked up at Lex again.

"So why are we here?"

"First of all," Lex began, straightening and drawing his brows together, "Josh has come here with both good news and bad news. The good news is that Paul and Zed are back with more players for the hospital. One of them is Patsy. She's still out of it and she will be for some time, but Patch says he's hopeful that she'll make a full recovery."

"And the bad news?" Pride asked, still standing with his hand on Salene's shoulder.

"Well, there's more good news first," Lex began, "We have three new additions to the tribe."

"At least that would explain why I don't recognise some people here!" Salene laughed.

"Oh, no, Sal, sorry, I'll introduce you later. I meant really new additions. Last night, although some of you have already heard this, Aeryn had a little boy: Micah."

There was a chorus of aws and cheers.

"And this morning, Ebony gave birth to twin girls."

There were still some aws, but Salene, Trudy and Amber looked from one another then back to Lex with worried faces.

"Which brings me on to the bad news," Lex said, quietly, the room returning to a hush as everyone noted the look on his face, "I'm afraid there were some complications when Ebony went into labour and she had to have an operation: a caesarian. She survived the operation and was moved to a side ward close to her daughters but later suffered a massive haemorrhage. She lost a lot of blood before anyone was able to do anything. I'm afraid she didn't survive."

There was a chorus of tearful and shocked gasps. Ebony had never been the best loved member of the Mall Rats, but she was a strong woman. No-one could understand how someone so strong, someone who had always been such a fighter, could have slipped away so easily. But that was Ebony: at war with the world. She had fought to bring her daughters into the world and she had won; but in return, nature had claimed another life: her own.

Lex looked down. He was thinking of Siva. He could stand here and tell everyone in his tribe about Ebony but the one person he wanted to be there for when they found out was Siva. He didn't know where she was or if she was even alive: there was no way he knew of to get a message back to her that her sister, her little sister, whom she had only just got to know again, was dead. He sighed and shook his head, then turned and left the room.

Gradually, the café cleared of people until only Pride and Salene were left. Salene was holding Pride's hand as he sat in the seat previously occupied by Trudy and her daughter.

"Are you okay?" Pride asked, gently, brushing her scarlet hair away from her face as he spoke.

"Yeah," Salene looked up and smiled the smile she used when she was trying to convince herself as much as anyone else, but her eyes gave her away.

Pride smiled and kissed her forehead.

"You know, if there's one thing that life in the Eco tribe taught me, it's that death is nothing to be feared. It's just another part of living. The last part, yes, but a part of it all the same. We should be happy that Ebony had the chance to pass on the gift of life to two new beings."

Salene noticed his voice crack at certain points.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"You say all that, trying to make me feel better, but it sounds like you were trying to... well... convince yourself too. Why?"

"Well..." Pride's brow furrowed as he tried to think up a good answer, "I knew Ebony too."

"But you guys hated each other!"

"True," Pride shrugged.

"So what made you say it like that?"

"I guess I was just thinking of how close I came to losing you," Pride replied; it wasn't the entire truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie either.

Salene smiled and looked down. After a few moments of silence, she got up.

"I have to find Lex. I want a word with him about something."

"Okay," Pride acquiesced, standing up, "I'll help you find him."

"No, it's okay," she answered hurriedly, "I'll be fine. Besides, you need to go tidy your room if you want me sharing it tonight!"

She kissed him on the cheek then hurried out of the room and along a corridor to Lex's room. He wasn't there. She tried Tai San's room next, but he wasn't there either. At last she remembered that he had said Tai San was watched over Jack and headed to Jack's room. She found them both there, conversing quietly while Jack lay sleeping.

"Lex?" Salene said, half whispering for fear of disturbing Jack.

"Sal!" Lex said, standing up and turning round quickly.

"Come in Salene," Tai San whispered, offering Salene a seat beside them, "Lex was telling me about the meeting. I know you must have a lot of questions."

Salene frowned.

"There's a lot to explain, Sal," Lex added, pulling the chair back a bit for her to sit down.

Salene sat down quietly, folded her hands in her lap, stared at them for a while, trying to formulate her questions in her mind, then looked up to Lex.

"I heard you talking to someone," she began, "Someone called Cat. I'm sure I heard you, but... there was no-one there, apart from me, and yet I heard her reply to you!"

"You're not going mad," Lex said quickly, "You did hear me talking to Cat."

"But she wasn't there! And you called her 'sis'!"

"I know. She is my sister. I didn't know I had one until a while after we found her, but she is my sister. She didn't recognise me either."

"But she wasn't there!" Salene's voice grew more agitated.

"That's the more difficult bit to explain."

"I remember hearing the two of you talking about how magic can only trick the mind not the heart. Are you going to tell me that's what all this is? Magic?"

"Something like that, yes," Lex shrugged: Salene seemed to have worked out all of this for herself, all he had to do were put her right on the bits she got wrong.

"And you and your newfound sister are what? Witches?"

"Technically, I'm a warlock or a wizard or something I believe."

"And you know all about this?" Salene turned to Tai San.

"I do," Tai San replied, calmly, "and yes, I have some abilities of my own, but nothing like the power which runs in Lex's family."

"Like what?" Salene sat back a little.

"My premonitions for one thing. I always knew when I had a premonition that that was what it was and that it was real, as with Eagle Mountain, but I never knew more than that. I only had premonitions occasionally and when I was either asleep or meditating. With Cat's help, I am learning how to hone my skills so that I can control them."

Salene nodded. Tai San's premonitions were at least a starting point. She was used to them. They used to freak her out, at first. Especially when Tai San announced that the antidote was at Eagle Mountain while Jack came up with the exact same answer. The thought brought Jack back to her mind. She glanced across at him, sleeping peacefully in the bed.

"Will he be okay?" she asked, without moving her gaze from the sleeping Jack.

"Physically, yes," Lex replied.

"But what about not physically?" Salene met Lex's gaze, "You're worried. I heard you telling Cat about what happened in the café. What does it mean? What's going on? I know you know why he was having those dreams!"

Lex sighed and looked away. Tai San put a hand on his arm and murmured something Salene couldn't make out. Lex nodded and turned back to Salene.

"Sal, listen to me. What I am going to tell you isn't general knowledge: Tai San, myself, Cat and possibly Aeryn are the only people that know about this. Sometimes, if you're lucky enough, you meet someone who is your soulmate. Now you might think you know what that word means, but you're wrong: there's a heck of a lot that you don't know about it. When I talk about soulmates, I mean literally: two people meet and their souls are joined, inseparable. There's a link that forms almost immediately, sometimes it's already there, and when one of those two people are in trouble, the other one knows it. It doesn't always show. You don't always know about it, but it is there. Maybe just as a niggling doubt that everything is fine and if you were to rush home now you would only get told off for being silly and worrying too much. Sometimes, however, when it's needed, it shows. It can show itself so much that the other person actually feels their soulmate's pain: they can become as one person. It can happen at any time, whether they are awake or asleep. Sometimes others can see it, like with Jack, and other times they can't."

"So this Jetta is Jack's soulmate?"

"So it seems."

"Funny, I always thought it would be Ellie!"

"If it had been, she wouldn't have cheated on him. Not the way she did. Maybe she might have when he was gone and she didn't know if she would ever see him again, but not after he came back. No way."

"And so this Jetta's in trouble?"

"She's disappeared. No-one knows exactly when or how. She works up at the hospital, but she's been doing double shifts and Patch told her to take some time off. No-one seems to know where she's been going during that time."

"What about Jack?"

"He's been busy working on an important project for us."

"Does he know what's going on?"

"No," Lex's negative was simply and straightforward.

"What sort of trouble is she in? I heard you say something about a spell."

"We think, from what Jack has told us, that she was taken by a coven: three witches, joined together to make them stronger. We hoped to find her before they had time to cast the spell, but we think now that we're too late for that."

"So, what? Is Jetta dead?"

"Not exactly. Cat thinks they were doing a control spell so they at least want her alive for something, possibly, probably, to infiltrate us and spy for them. When they cast the spell, they stopped, perhaps completely severed, Jack and Jetta's connection. We don't know how that will affect either one of them. It won't kill them. It won't do them any physical harm. It might play havoc, however, with who they are: without the link to each other, it'll be like a part of them is missing."

Salene bit her lip, then asked:

"So why could I hear you then? I presume I was the only one in the café who could."

"You, Brady and Baby Bray, which is why the kids have taken a sudden dislike to me and Cat. They hear me because they listen with their hearts, not their minds. They are too young for their minds to butt in and say "that's not possible". I'm not too sure about you, but I'd guess it must be something similar: without your memory, you are relying on your heart to tell you what is true and what isn't and so you hear us. The talent may go when your memory comes back or, as you now know something of what's really going on, it might not. You may even have some ability yourself if it stays. Everyone does, they just don't believe it is there. Things like that disappear if you don't believe in them."

She nodded and stood up.

"I'd better go find Pride: he'll be worried."

"Remember, you can't even tell him."

"I won't," Salene turned to go, then paused, "One more thing. When you were talking about soulmates and the link they form, what did you mean when you said "if it wasn't there already"?"

"Ah," Lex replied, frowning, "perhaps we'd better discuss that one when you've got more time to spare. Much more time!"