Salene's Secrets (38 page)

“Salene, may I ask you a question?” Kar asked.

“Of course,” she replied, relaxing back on her blanket.

“How is it that you cut that wood so easily with a knife?  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  It was a knife, wasn’t it?”

“My knives are
Kunian
steel.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“You have an entire set of
Kunian
steel throwing knives?”  She nodded.  “May I see one?” 

“Sure,” she replied, removing the knife she’d used on the wood from her vest and handing it to him.  Without thinking about it she removed a pair of
sai
from loops on her belt and began spinning them in her hands, a newly acquired habit that immediately began to lessen her sudden tension.

“This is beautiful,” Kar said as he examined the knife closely in the light of the fire.  “I’ve heard of them, of course, but I’ve never seen one before.  Where did you get them?”

“They were a gift from Aunt Ash.”

“When did she give you these?”

She glanced up at him, then away just as quickly without noticing that every eye was on the
sai
spinning in her hands so fast they were both blurs.  “The day before I left Jasan.”

“The
sai
, too?”

“Yes.” 

“I don’t understand.”

She glanced at him again, then away.  “What is it you don’t understand?”

“I don’t understand why she would give you weapons at all, let alone weapons such as these,” he said.  “They’re among the rarest and most coveted edged weapons available in the Thousand Worlds.  You certainly deserve the best, and I know how good you are at hitting whatever you aim at, but I’ve never even seen you armed before today, so it confuses me.”

She stopped spinning the
sai
and began rolling one back and forth across the back of her hand while she thought about her answer.  “There was an incident when I needed a weapon and didn’t have one,” she said haltingly.  “I didn’t want it to happen again, so I asked Aunt Ash to help me and she did.  I trained with her for a couple of weeks, right up to the day before I left Jasan for Garza.  That was also the day she gave me the knives.  She told me that the council discovered that
Kunian
steel was the only blade they could find that would cut Doftle flesh with ease.”

“We are grateful to Aunt Ash for her generosity,” Talus said.  She glanced at him, her tension increasing when she saw the frown on his face.  She knew that look.  He was having a serious debate with himself about something. 

“I still don’t understand,” Jon said.  “Did Aunt Ash give you these because she expected you to be fighting Doftles?”

“She gave them to me because she wanted me to have weapons that would be effective against whatever I might be faced with.” 

“The Doftle are small, Salene,” Talus said, his voice heavy with reluctance.  “But don’t let that fool you.  They’re very dangerous.  You need to stay as far from them as you can get no matter how many of those knives you have strapped on your body.” 

Salene stilled, so surprised that her mouth actually fell open while her
sai
fell to the floor.  Then her anger kicked in.  She glanced at the children, then picked up the
sai
while mentally rewording what she’d been about to say.  “Do you think that the three of you are the only ones who experienced the Doftle’s particular brand of
hospitality
?” she asked, her voice low, her words clipped. 

“Of course not,” Talus said, surprised by her barely restrained anger.  “We know they had Rayne for an entire year, and we know how lucky we are that the Bearen-Hirus rescued us as quickly as they did.  They risked their lives and we thanked them for it.  Why are you so angry?”

“Lucky?” she asked softly.  “Do you think it was
luck
that the Bearen-Hirus were able to track you in a yacht hidden by Blind Sight half way across the galaxy?  I suppose you think they just
accidentally
stumbled across you while strolling through a Doftle space station on a whim as well.”

“I’m ashamed to admit that we don’t know how they found us,” Talus replied slowly, her sarcasm shocking him.  She was far angrier than he’d thought.  In fact, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her so angry, despite the fact that she was obviously trying to hide her feelings from the children.  But he still didn’t know why.  “We didn’t ask, and we should have.  Is this why you’re upset with us?”

“I’m upset because your condescending manner insults me,” she said, her voice still deceptively soft.  “And because Rayne and I risked our lives too, but I don’t remember you thanking either of us.”

“You were there?” Jon asked in surprise.

Salene’s flashing gold eyes swung to Jon.  “Who else do you know who could’ve felt you clearly enough to find you on a Doftle space station that was ten times the size of the
Ugaztun
?”

“When you say you risked your lives, what does that mean, exactly?” Talus asked. 

“You know all of this,” she replied impatiently as she slid the
sai
back into her belt with a snap.  “I told you myself, on the
Armadura
.”

“We don’t remember,” Talus said.  “We don’t remember the
Razor
being destroyed, or why you weren’t killed when we know you were on it.  We don’t remember how you got that scar on your face, and we don’t remember you telling us that you and Rayne were involved in our rescue.”  His eyes widened.  “Were you abducted too, Salene?”

She stared at him, then Jon, and finally Kar, and knew they were telling her nothing but the truth.  Her anger drained out of her as quickly as it had risen, leaving her feeling weak and tired.  “Yes, I was,” she said on a sigh.  Their faces paled to a pasty white in the light of the fire.  “How can you not know this?”

“Our first clear memories are of the Controllers saying unforgivable things to you.  We remember something about an argument earlier that same day with you, Rayne and the Bearen-Hirus, but most of that is jumbled and unclear.  It took us days just to remember who it was we argued with, but we never did remember what the argument was about.

“We also have some confused memories of acting erratically while we were in the infirmary.  We thought it was a side-effect of the radiation because we couldn’t control ourselves or our behavior.  We realize now that it was the Controllers slowly taking over, of course, but we didn’t know that at the time.  Why our memories are clear only after they had full control is a mystery we have yet to solve.”

Salene rubbed her face with both hands, then dropped them into her lap.  “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Talus said.  “You have no way of knowing what we do or don’t remember.”

Salene nodded.  “What do you want to know?”

“We want to know everything that happened to you, and to us,” he said.  “If you would, please begin with how you and Rayne risked your lives on our behalf.”

“We went onto the space station with the Bearen-Hirus.  I was the only one who could find you, so I had to be there, though I would have insisted on going anyway.  Once we found you, the Bearen-Hirus took you from the tanks and speed traveled you back to the
Armadura
.  Landor wanted to take Rayne, me and Jinjie back to the
Armadura
first, but I insisted they take you three and come back for us.  It was a decision that nearly cost Rayne her life.”  Salene reached for her pack again and opened it, unable to continue looking at the growing horror in their eyes while she spoke. 

“Tell us the rest, please.”  Salene didn’t want to tell him the rest.  She wanted to have not opened her mouth to begin with.

“Please, Salene,” Kar urged in a low voice.  “We
need
to know this.”

She took a breath and lowered her head, wishing her hair was loose so they couldn’t see her while she continued to search through her pack.  She told them what had happened onboard the space station while she, Jinjie, and Rayne waited for the Bearen-Hirus, using the contents of her pack to give her something to look at other than their faces.  When she was finished speaking a long heavy silence filled the cave.  Jon was the first to break it.

“That explains the Doftle arm Uncle Olaf mentioned in his message to us,” he said.  “I confess, that was troubling me.”

“It also explains why you went to Aunt Ash to brush up on your weapons skills,” Kar added.

“I didn’t just brush up on my weapons skills,” she said evenly, though she didn’t look up.  They wanted to know everything, and she didn’t want to do this again.  It was best to get it all out there now.  “I asked her to teach me to fight, and she did.”

“Do you mean hand to hand fighting?” Kar asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

“I was caught unarmed and unprepared, and I swore I would not allow that to happen to me a second time,” she said.  “I cannot do
tiketa
, so she taught me a few other things instead.”  She found the second pair of kevlex wrist guards that Aisling had given her and removed them from her pack along with two of the tank tops, one blue and one pink since Mali seemed to like that color.  “Jinjie, can you shrink these to fit Mali and Tab?”

“Yes, do be easy,” he said.

“Great, and can you make yourself a garment out of this?” she asked, holding one of the wrist guards up.  “Something that covers your abdomen at least.”

“You do be saying this protective?”

“Yes, it’s called
kevlex
.  It’s soft, stretchy, and lightweight, but stronger than any armor you’ll ever find.  You can shoot it, stab it even punch or kick an area covered with it and the wearer will not be seriously harmed.  You may get bruised if the impact is powerful enough, but no more than that.  It’s woven into shape rather than sewn, and the more snugly it fits, the better it works.”

Jinjie studied one of the tanks she’d set out for the children, then waved his hands over the wrist band.  A moment later he held a tiny copy.  “Excellent,” she said.  “You should wear that.  It’ll help keep you safe.  I want the children to wear tanks under their clothes, too.” 

“You’re always taking care of those around you,” Jon said in a low voice. 

“I just do what I feel needs to be done,” she said quietly as she closed her pack.

“I wasn’t complaining, Salene.”

“I know, Jon, I’m sorry.  I guess I’m just tired.”  She checked the food, then sat back and tried to think of something else to do.

“The tank gel that you collected got overlooked when the
Armadura
reached Jasan,” Talus said.  She glanced at him but he was staring into the fire as he spoke.  “Apparently you told Aunt Ash about it, and she refused to accept that it was lost, insisting that the ship be searched repeatedly until it was eventually found.  Without that gel, we would not be here.  We owe our freedom from the Controllers to you, Salene.”

“I don’t understand,” Salene said.  “What does the tank gel have to do with anything?”

“You don’t know?”

“I was waiting for Aunt Ash to send me the results of the testing on it when the
Ember
got into trouble.  I sent Tani a message asking her to force you to shift hoping that my guess was right, but I had no proof.”

“I see,” Talus said.  “Well, the tank gel was the carrier for the Controller nano-bots.”

Salene’s eyes widened in shock.  “I had a feeling that it had something to do with it, but not that.”

“Me do be not understand,” Jinjie said.  “What do be mean,
carrier
?”

“The Controllers that we’re familiar with are made up of nano-bots that are injected directly into the victim’s brain, and they don’t work on Clan Jasani,” Jon explained.  “The new nano-bots obviously do work on Clan Jasani, and they were introduced to our bodies through the hibernation gel.  They’re also different from those the Council is familiar with.  They’re still testing them so that’s all the answers we have.”

“If you hadn’t collected that tank gel, Salene, no one would have ever known we had Controllers,” Talus said.  “We owe our freedom to you.”

“You owe me nothing,” she said.  “Besides, I thought we agreed to move on?”

“We did,” Talus said.  “But that was before we knew that you and your sister, two of only three Jasani Princesses to be born in three thousand years, risked your lives to save us.  Or that you were abducted by the Doftle, too.”

“Please, Talus,” she said softly.  “Let it go.  I’m sorry I got angry with you.  I shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t apologize, Salene, please.”

“If you’ll let it go, I won’t apologize any more.”

He looked into her eyes for a long moment, but couldn’t bring himself to do as she asked.  “I’m sorry, Salene, but there are a couple of things we must know.  After that, we’ll try to do as you ask.  I promise.”

“What things?” she asked warily.

“First of all, how did the Doftle get you?  We wove a strong protective shield around you.  I remember that much.”